Muncipal Assembly

The Agona West  Municipal  Assembly has a membership of 72 persons.  This includes the Chief Executive and two members of parliament for Agona East and West respectively. The Assembly is the highest political and administrative authority in the district and its meetings are steered by a Presiding Member who is the local equivalent of the Speaker of the House.  One  person represents each electoral area of the  district in the Assembly. Additionally, the  government of the. day also appoints 1/3 of the total number of elected representatives to bring expertise and socio-cultural balance into the House.  

The Municipal Chief Executive is the appointed representative of the President and is responsible for the day to day administration of the district.The Assembly is assisted in the performance of it’s functions by the Executive Committee and its/subsidiary committees. The Executive Committee is chaired by the  Chief Executive and consists of not more than 1/3. Of the total membership of the Assembly.

The Sub-committees of the Assembly are:

Finance and Administration

Justice and Security

Social Services

Economic Development

Technical Infrastructure

Education

Public Relations & Complaints

The Coordinating Director is the Secretary to the Assembly and head of the Administration (Coordinating Directorate).

The Assembly has eleven departments namely:

Central Administration

Finance

Education, Youth and Sports

Health

Agriculture

Social Welfare and Community Development

Disaster Prevention

Physical Planning

Natural Resources Conservation

Works    

Trade and Industry

Revenue sources available to the district are enshrined in Act 462 and articles 245 and 252 of the Ghanaian constitution. These laws empower the Assembly to generate revenue from traditional sources (Locally generated) and Central Government Transfers. The major items of revenue from the traditional sources include fees and licfences,miscellaneous sources and market tolls.

Another potential source of high revenue earnings is the property rate. This however requires substantial initial capital outlays: to gather accurate data and enforce payment. Nonetheless, the most important single source of revenue still remains transfers from Central government. Under this program, the government transfers money to District Assemblies through the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and Ceded Revenue arrangements. Disbursements from the DACF in particular are meant essentially for infrastructural development.  

This has led to a situation where the collapsing infrastructure of the educational, health etc sectors are given a new lease of life through new  constructions, rehabilitation, renovations etc. Since the inception of the concept, the Agona West Assembly has received ¢3, 065, 568 . 00 which was expended principally on the above mentioned sectors.

One of the major thematic areas in the Ghana poverty reduction strategies is good governance. To ensure that this is translated to the people a strong Assembly has been set up where representatives of the people take part in taking decisions that affect them. There are 73 Assembly members. There are 49 elected to represent the electoral areas and 21 appointees. The rest are the 2 MPs and the MCE.

To ensure that participation gets better down to the people there are sub-district structures in the form of Town/Area Councils and Unit Committees. Elections have been held and officers appointed to ensure that the system becomes operational. In all there are 11 Town/Area Councils (Table 22) and 177 Unit Committees. We have stated inaugurating them for effective work. The major obstacle is that the Assembly has not got enough funds to recruit the primary staff to man the council offices.

Decentralized Departments

Agona West Assembly has its fair share of Decentralized Departments and staff poised for Implementations of its development lift off. The Departments and their staff strength are:

Ghana Education Service -

District Agricultural Development Unit (DADU) -

District Health Management Team (DHMT) -

Information Services Department-

Department of Social Welfare -

Department of Community Development -

Town and Country Planning Department -

Public Works department -

Statistical Service -

Births and Death Registry -

Controller and Accountant Generals Department -

Fire Service Department