• Administrative and Institutional Arrangements for Local Governance and Management of Resources

• The Structure of the District Assembly

The various legal frameworks for Local development in Ghana include, the Civil Service Law, 1993 (PNDC Law 327), the National Development Planning (System) Law, 1994 (Acts 480) and the Local Government Law, 1993 (Act 462).  All of these legal enactments place the District Assembly in the center to reinforce the government’s decentralization process and participatory development.

Thus the assembly, by law is the highest administrative and political body in the district.  It is composed of 45 members of which two-thirds are elected while the remaining is appointed.  The one Member of Parliament is ex-officio member.

The government, with two-thirds approval of members of the Assembly at a sitting appoints the District Chief Executive as the political and administrative head of the District Assembly.

The Ellembelle District has an executive committee made up of …Members.  They formulate and execute policies of the Assembly.  The District Chief Executive represents the Central Government and chairs the committee.  It operates through the following sub-committees of the Assembly.

1) Finance and Administration Sub-Committee

2) Social Service Sub-Committee

3) Development Planning Sub-Committee

4) Works Sub-Committee

5) Justice and Security Sub-Committee

6) Health and Sanitation Sub-Committee

The sub-committees principally deliberate on specific issues and recommends to the Executive Committee, which in turn presents them to the Assembly for ratification and adoption.

The executive committee co-ordinates plans and programmes of sub-committees and oversees the smooth operation of the administration.  It also has the power to recommend the appointment or replacement of officials in the District.  The District Assembly as authority is responsible for the overall development of the District.  There is a District Planning Coordinating Unit, which provides Advisory services to the Executive Committee in its planning functions.

Area Councils and Unit Committees are pivotal in local level development as they ferry the Assembly and local community and act as the supreme points of development at the local levels.  There are 10 area councils and one urban council.

The District Chief Executive heads the office of the District Assembly.  There are 11 Decentralized Departments under the Office of the Assembly.  The activities of these Departments are coordinated by the District Co-ordinating Director.