Deputy Minister Chastises MDCEs for Late, Poor Attendance of Programmes

By Samuel Akapule

Bolgatanga — The Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Collins Ntim, has chastised Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) in the Upper East Region for attending a programme late at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).

The deputy minister who is also the Member of Parliament for Offinso North, blamed the MDCEs at the launch of a new project in the Upper East Region dubbed, 'the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP)'on Friday.

The programme which was expected to commence at 9am, finally started at almost 11am with only four MDCEs out of the 11 beneficiary districts of the project present.

Mr Ntim noted that most of the government's programmes and policies which seemed not to be doing well could be attributed to bad leadership and lack of commitment on the part of some leaders and warned the political heads to sit up.

He stated it was very surprising about the late arrival of the MDCEs at the launching of a laudable project like the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) meant to help create jobs and alleviate poverty in deprived communities in the region.

He pointed out that the implementation of the GPSNP was in consistence with government's commitment to strengthening social protection systems as well as unearthing the productive potentials of the poor.

He explained that the GPSNP was a successor of the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP), and mentioned that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection with support from the World Bank initiated the project in 2018.

The deputy minister stated that apart from about 25,000 individuals nationwide expected to benefit through productive inclusion programme 3,000 households would also benefit from the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) where they would do public works such as roads, dam maintenances and climate activities for cash transfer payments.

He mentioned that 11 out of the 15 municipal and district assemblies (MDAs) in the Upper East Region are due to benefit from it and named them as Bongo, Nabdam, Talensi, Bawku, Pusiga, Garu, Tempane, Binduri, Builsa North and Builsa South and Bawku West.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Paulina Patience Abayage, thanked the government for the intervention and called on the communities to take advantage of the programme to improve upon their livelihhoods.

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