Establishment of the District Assembly

The Upper West Akim District Assembly (U.W.A.D.A) was established as a District Assembly by Legislative Instrument 2126 in 2012 under the decentralization system to take control of the day-to-day running of the district. The District Assembly has been empowered by law to perform executive, deliberative, and legislative functions for the development of the district.

Political Structure of the District Assembly

The General Assembly is the main body in the Assembly responsible for formulating laws and policies in the district.  The Membership of the General Assembly stands at forty (40) which is made up of only four (4) females and thirty-six (36) males. This is made up of the District Chief Executive who is appointed by the President, Twenty-five (26) elected Assembly Members, Twelve (12) Government appointees and a Member of Parliament.

The Assembly members are elected every four years through the Universal Adult Suffrage. These members are expected to keep close contact with their electoral areas, consult their people on issues discussed at the Assembly and collate their views and opinions and present to the Assembly. However, inadequate funds make it difficult for most of the Assembly members to carry out these responsibilities. As a result, there is no effective grass root participation in local governance in the district. This has resulted in poor community acceptance and ownership of the governance system.

The Assembly members elect one representative among them to serve as the Presiding Member (PM) who presides over the General Assembly meetings. The Presiding Member is elected once every two years and is eligible to stand for re-election for a second term.  

Sub-District Structures

The District Assembly has twenty six (26) electoral areas with two (2) area councils. These are::

1. Adeiso Area Council (consisting of twelve (12) electoral areas)
2. Mepom Area Council (consisting of fourteen (14) electoral areas

The Councils have administrative officers assigned by the Management of the Assembly to serve as secretaries. The Councils are responsible for collecting ceded revenues, implementing bye – laws and performing oversight responsibility over community-initiated projects, among others. The operations of the Councils are however hampered because of lack of office accommodation, logistics, funds, administrative staff and lack of remuneration for members which has resulted into lack of commitment on the part of the Council members, and hence making grassroots participation in local governance a major challenge.

 Administrative and Management structure of the Assembly

Administratively, the Chief Executive is also responsible for the day-to-day performance of the Executive functions of the Assembly. He supervises the various departments in the Assembly and is the chief representative of the Central Government in the District.

The next in rank after the Chief Executive is the District Co-ordinating Director (DCD), who is a civil Servant and the Secretary to the General Assembly. The Co-ordinating Director performs administrative functions in the Assembly and reports directly to the Chief executive. The various departmental heads and agencies also report to the Co-ordinating Director.

The Executive Committee

In the Assembly, policy decisions are decided by the General Assembly and then implemented by the Executive Committee. The Committee exercise executive and co-ordinating function of the Assembly and it is chaired by the District Chief executive. The Executive Committee co-ordinates plans and programmes of the sub-Committees and submits them as comprehensive plans of action to the General Assembly. The Committee is in charge of implementing resolutions of the Assembly and oversees the administration of the Assembly in collaboration with the office of the Chief Executive, among others.

Sub-Committees of the District Assembly

The District has seven (7) sub-committees in place. These are:

• Development Planning Sub-Committee
• Social Services Sub-Committee
• Works Sub-Committee
• Finance & Administration Sub-Committee
• Justice and Security Sub-Committee
• Agriculture Sub-Committee
• Environmental Sub-Committee

The Sub-Committees are responsible for collating and deliberating on issues relevant to the Assembly in its deliberative, executive and legislative function. They submit their recommendations to the Executive Committee for consideration, which are later ratified or adopted by the General Assembly.

Other Statutory Committees of the District Assembly

The Assembly also has other committees which performs functions relevant for the day-to-day administration of the Assembly. These committees are:

• Entity Tender Committee (ETC)
• Spatial Planning Committee (SPC)
• District AIDS Committee (DAC)
• District Security Council (DiSeC)
• Public Relations and Complaints Committee (PRCC)
• District Planning Coordinating Unit (DPCU)
• District Audit Committee (DAC)
• District Education Oversight Committee (DEOC)
• Public Relations and Complaints Committee (PRCC)

Decentralized Department of the District Assembly

The District Assembly currently has twelve (12) established departments. These are:

• Central Administration Department

• Department of Education
• Department of Health
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Physical Planning
• Department of Social Welfare and Community Development
• Department of District Works
• Department of Disaster Prevention and Management
• Department of Finance
• Department of Human Resource Management
• Department of Statistics
• Department of Births and Deaths

The following departments have not yet been established yet due to administrative and bureaucratic bottlenecks:

• Trade and Industry Department
• Natural resources, wildlife conservation, game and forestry department

Other Departments and Agencies of the District Assembly

• Information Service Department
• Electoral Commission
• National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE)
• National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA)
• Youth Employment Agency
• Nation Builders Corps (NaBCO)
• Bureau National Investigation (BNI)
• Ghana Police Service (GPS)

Security

The security of the District is under the auspices of the District Security Council (DiSEC) which is chaired by the District Chief Executive. The Council meets quarterly and during emergencies to deliberate on issues related to public safety. The membership of the DiSEC  include the DCE, District Police Commander, Bureau of National Investigation Officer (BNI), Ghana Immigration Service  Officer, Ghana National Fire Service Officer,  District Coordinator-NADMO and Chairman of Justice and Security Sub-Committee.

Security services or agencies in the district are the Police, Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and NADMO. The Police enforce law and order in the district. The security situation in the district has always been generally peaceful and calm. Reported security problems at the Police Station are often in connection with issues relating to theft, assault, domestic violence, offensive conduct (threats of death). The major security problem that the district has quite often been grappling with is the activities of sand winners, where people’s farms get destroyed with little or no compensation to the victims, non-reclamation of sand-winning site, and the unknown agenda of a foreigner (Known as Rastaman) who is acquiring/purchasing huge parcels of land all over the district and which is of course making farmers lose their farmlands and also displacing of families.

NADMO on the other hand helps identify disaster prone areas in the district, form and train DVGs, sensitize or create awareness on bush fire and also educate the public on fire, its effects and how to prevent its occurrence.

The problems associated with the security agencies in the district are however inadequate police stations/posts, lack of barracks or accommodation for police officers, lack of public confidence in the police in the district and inadequate/lack of logistics.

There is no Fire Service station or Immigration Service established in the district. The District always depends on West Akim and Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipal Assemblies for such services.

The District does not have any district or local court. Criminal, civil and juvenile cases are mostly referred to courts in other nearby districts. This actually makes access to justice in the district very difficult and also makes the work of other law enforcement agencies cumbersome. There is the need to get all these services established a district.

LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The information provided in the 2010 PHC report shows that there were 36,736 persons (15 years and older) in the district that are employed and out of which 18,045 are males and 18,691 are females. The report also revealed that as many as 34,923 representing 95.1 percent are employed in the private informal sector. This means that only 4.9 per cent of persons’ age 15 years and older in the district are employed in the private formal sector.

The private informal sector has therefore the largest employment. There are 18,138 (97%) of women employed in this sector as against 16,785 (93%) males. This means that there are more females employed in the private informal sector than males. Most of these informal sector businesses are micro, small and medium scale enterprises who are engaged in agri-businesses, retail services and manufacturing.

The challenges associated with these businesses include lack/inadequate of credit facilities/start-up capital, informal nature of businesses, inadequate technological and managerial skills, lack/inadequate basic machinery/tools to enhance productivity, poor business development services in the areas of marketing of products, lack of irrigation facilities, lack of storage facilities, poor states of roads  and transportation systems. The District Assembly does not also have adequate and reliable data on these businesses because most of them do not apply for business operating permit and other licenses.

To make the private sector an engine of growth for the district, the DA would have to gear its energy towards removing all the bottlenecks local business face by way of formulating and implementing effective and efficient policies and programmes/projects that promotes local economic development.