Monday, April 25, 2011
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been tasked to periodically review medium term development plans, to enable the assemblies to ascertain the impact of their strategies on the lives of the people.
Mr. Eric Akobeng, Agona West District budget analyst, advised the MMDAs to ensure that the appraisals are based on impact and not investments made in projects.
The budget analyst, who was facilitating a workshop for management staff of the assembly and heads of department in the district, at Agona Nsaba, said re-examination will enable the MMDAs to identify projects or policies, which were not in the interest of the people, and to avoid duplication of development initiatives.
Mr. Akobeng said because MMDAs do not review their plans, most of them undertake projects, which often become white elephants and have no bearing on the lives of the people.
He therefore called on MMDAs to initiate only projects that would benefit the people to give meaning to the Government’s “Better Ghana†agenda.
He commended the District Development Facility secretariat for making capacity building a component of the Functional Organisation Assessment Tool (FOAT), adding that some poverty reduction programmes had not made any meaningful impact on the lives of the people because of poor planning, monitoring and evaluation.
The District budget analyst said assessment of FLOAT should centre on human resource management, planning, and financial management and must also include auditing, physical capacity, environmental sanitation management, procurement transparency, openness and accountability.
Mr. Francis Ayensu, the District Planning Officer, said the workshop had helped participants to fashion out a common monitoring and evaluation model, and an action plan format, to be used by all departments in preparing reports for the district.
Source: GNA