Administrative Structures

The Municipal  Assembly is the highest administrative and planning, authority in the municipality. The legislature of the Municipal Assembly is composed of 78 members: one -third of which are government appointees. The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) chairs the executive Committee.  The Central Administration assists in the general administration of the Assembly and it is headed by the  Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD). A number of eslablislied sub-committees function as the operating arms of the executive Committee and assist in the implementation of specilie activities of the Assembly. The sub- committees include

• Justice and Security
• Finance and Administration
• Social Services
• Works
• Development Planning
  

There are nine (9) other sub-structures. Urban /Town /Area Councils that support the Municipal assembly at the various local levels. The unit committees are yet to be put in place after the local level elections. The Table below presents the various Urban /Town/Area Councils and their respective centres. According to the survey, the Councils complain of the concentration of development projects at the urban areas to the neglect of the rural areas. The other observation was that the .Assembly sub-structures are not functioning due to these reasons:

• Inability to pay council staff
• Inability to pay councillors
• Lack of funds to run the council offices
• Improper office accommodation and furniture

 Decentralized Departments

The Assembly has all the decentralized departments in place. A major observation, though not peculiar to the district is that the merger of some of the 22 departments has not been effective. Some of these departments continue to pay allegiance to their mother department. Some of the reasons have been that the financial decentralization has not been effected. The departments complain about inadequate staffing, lack of vehicles, inadequate funding, and poor state of office equipment.

The Municipal Assembly collaborates with other development partners towards the development of the district.   Its development partners include:

The Ghana-German Technical Co-operation (GTZ)

Under this program, the GTZ/Asscmbly/ Communities provide funds for the expansion of the existing water systems for Dzodze, Pcnyi and Ehi.

The European Union Micro Projects Program

The Program in collaboration with the Municipal Assembly and communities provides basic infrastructure like Schools, Clinics, Toilets etc. for necdy communities. Under the 5th Micro Program, several school blocks, clinics, toilets and market sheds have been constructed. In addition, the 6th Micro Projects Program is about to take off. This will continue with the provision of social infrastructure for beneficiary communities.

Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP)

This is another poverty reduction intervention aimed at assisting the Municipal Assembly and Area Councils Volta Region Community Water and Sanitation Program (VRCWSP), Water and Sanitation facilities e.g. toilets are provided under the program for rural communities.