This section discusses roles of the District Assembly,Decentralized Departments,Area Councils, Unit Committees, Civil Societies, NGO’s, donor communities,Traditional authorities and other stakeholders in the development process. It also discusses the District Assembly’s Finances. District Assemblies have been assigned functions that adequately empower them to provide de-concentrated and devolved local public services and to be responsible for the overall development of the districts and Gomoa East District Assembly is not an exception.

Function and structure

By law, the Gomoa East District Assembly established by the Legislative Instrument 1883 in 2007, constitutes the highest political and administrative authority in the district (Local Government Act. 1993, Act. 462) with the mandate to initiate and co-ordinate all development efforts and to implement government policies aimed at sustainable development at all levels. This is amply captured in the Gomoa East District Assembly’s Mission Statement.It is a thirty member Assembly with seven (7) Area Councils and (number ?) Unit Committees. These sub-structures even though constituted remain largely non-functional due to inadequate resource for its operations

Composition

The Central Administration of the office of the District Assembly is broadly made up of three units. These are;

•The General Administration

•Accounts Unit (Finance)

•Planning and Budgeting Co-ordinating Unit.

To facilitate the process of local governance, the Local Government Act. (Act 462) made provision for the establishment of Eleven (11) Decentralized Departments and other administrative sub-structures as Urban/Town/Area Councils and Unit committees.

General Assembly

The Gomoa East District Assembly has seven (7) Area Councils twenty-one (21) electoral areas and Unit Committees. Out of thirty (30) Assembly persons, twenty-one (21) are elected and nine (9) are appointed. There is also the Member of Parliament. The Assembly is empowered to exercise deliberative, legislative and executive functions in the district. The Presiding Member who is elected from among the Assembly Members chairs the Assembly meetings as well as the Complaints sub - committee.

The District Planning Coordinating Unit (DPCU) however, advises and provides a secretariat for the District as a planning authority in its planning, programming, monitoring, evaluating and coordinating functions. The Executive Committee however, co-ordinate plans and programs of the sub-committees and submit these as comprehensive plans of action to the district assembly. The Executive Committee which excludes the Presiding Member (PM) is chaired by the District Chief Executive (DCE).This body performs the executive and administrative functions of the District Assembly. The executive committee is made up of the chairpersons of the various sub committees of the assembly. The sub- committees include:

•Finance and Administration

•Justice and Security

•Social Services

•Works

•Development Planning

Apart from these five statutory committees, the district has other three sub-committees namely:

•Production and Gainful Employment (SPGE)

•Agriculture

•Education

Decentralized Departments

The central administration provides secretarial and advisory services to the Assembly in its planning, programming and budgeting functions is headed by the District Co-ordinating Director. The District Co-ordinating Director also has an oversight responsibility on the other decentralized departments. As said earlier, section 38 and the first schedule of Act 462 enjoins each district to have the following eleven (11) decentralized departments. The table below shows those departments that exist and their state in the District. Table in pdf file below shows that the district lacks most of the complementary departments which are needed to enable the assembly function effectively and efficiently.

Centralized Departments

Apart from the decentralized departments, the district also has the following:

•Centre for National Culture

•NCCE

•Non Formal Education

Due to logistical and administrative constraints some of the agencies still operate in the district through the former district office at Apam.