Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development on Tuesday said, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC’s) have an important role to play in advancing local development through its coordination and monitoring activities.

He said both the constitution and Act 462 confers this role on them, but due to some limitations they have not been able to perform to the expectation of many.

Mr Oppong-Fosu ws addressing Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Heads of Department and Staff of the Central Regional Coordinating Council at Cape Coast.

"In view of this, the Ministry of Local Government has initiated a lot of programmes to support the RCC’s to strengthen them."

He said the first support from the Ministry was the District Development Fund facility, which procured vehicles for all the RCC’s, and also, the Ministry has secured support from the European Union to assist them with a fund of 1 Million Euros for the next three years.

"RCC’s have also been supported under the Local Government Capacity Support Programme to enhance their operations.”

Mr Oppong-Fosu said Ghana’s decentralization and local governance programme is aimed at providing a democratic and accountable governance through the participation of non-state actors in decision making processes at the local level.

He said these will promote social and economic development by providing service to communities in a sustainable manner.

He said Government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development undertook a review of the decentralization policy, leading to the development of the National Decentralization Framework and the National Decentralization Action Plan aimed at a systematic roll out of the implementation of activities to promote participatory decision making and effective delivery at the local level.

Mr Oppong-Fosu noted that the lack of understanding and appreciation of the nature and benefits of decentralization reforms has led to the slow implementation process and the low level of engagement.

Mr Samuel Sarpong, Central Regional Minister said the security situation in the area remains calm due to the regular interaction between key stakeholders.

He said the region has its fair share of nefarious activities such as illegal mining, but assured that the Regional Security Council has put in place measures to deal with the situation which was yielding positive results.

Mr Sarpong noted that motor traffic accidents is another area of security concern, and that, his Ministry was complementing the efforts of the National Road Safety Committee to bring the situation under control.

“The MMDAs in the region are also assisting by making it a policy to incorporate road safety education in their plans.

He said the 20 MMDA’s in the region have the full complement of their Chief Executives and Presiding Members, who are working assiduously to bring accelerated development to their people.

Mr Sarpong said the RCC has been monitoring, coordinating, harmonizing and evaluating the performance of the MMDAs.

He said based on the RCC monitoring team report, the 20 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region, last week met with consultants supervising various projects in the region to fashion out measures that will ensure value for money of all the projects and the avoidance of delays in the execution of projects.

GNA