Abstract:
The creation of the 1988 governance structures for grass root participation has become a very vital developmental issue in many developing countries in Africa and other parts of the world. Local government reforms undertaken in Ghana since 1988 have sought to transfer resources and power from the central government to sub-structures and institutions with the aim of enhancing participatory local development. It was also intended to promote responsive governance and democracy and also improve the standard and quality of life of rural people through institutional reforms, management and good delivery of public goods and services. This has been the focus of the twenty three (23) years of Ghana’s implementation of the decentralization program.
Description:
The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana in its Chapter twenty calls for the establishment of a Local Government and Administration system which shall, as far as practical be a decentralized one. It went on to state in Article 241 clause (1) that, for the purpose of decentralization to be achieved, Ghana shall be deemed to be divided into Districts, with a District Assembly serving as the highest political authority of the District. It is for this purpose that the Local Government Act 1993 (Act 462) which was later amended and passed in 2003 and now known as The Local Government Service Act 2003 Act (656) came into being, spelling out the composition of the district assembly, their functions and their mode of operations.
