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Wa-West Assembly gets tough on technocrats

Some technocrats working in the Wa-West District Assembly whose mandate is to provide appropriate technical advice and services to fast track the development of the area, have rather been accused of thwarting the Assembly's development efforts.

Date Created : 5/27/2013 12:00:00 AM : Story Author :

A number of the technocrats have been blamed for not providing the needed technical services and advice for the execution of development projects, while others are also alleged to be denying the Assembly members correct information about their operations.

These issues came up for discussion at the Assembly's first ordinary meeting at Wechuau on Tuesday, which also coincided with the swearing in of the Presiding Member.

The Assembly members said many of the technocrats were also guilty of leaving the offices unattended whenever the District Chief Executive (DCE) traveled out of Wechuau, thereby misusing government vehicles for their private activities to the detriment of providing services for the people.

When the DCE travels out of town, you will not get anybody in office. Many of them are also avoiding assembly meetings to brief members on their operations, the members said.

Members therefore took a unanimous decision that all vehicles belonging to government departments in the district be parked at the close of work at the Assembly's premises.

The directive, according to them was to complement government’s instructions that vehicles belonging to the state be parked at the close of work to avoid misuse and abuse by government officials.

The action would also help to curtail the rampant traveling by government officials out of Wechuau to enable them to provide the needed services to the people to enhance their living standards.

The Assembly members noted that they were expecting the technocrats to collaborate with them to help in the development of their communities, but expressed regret that the technocrats were rather failing them by delaying the execution of projects, and also by not explaining to the people the causes of delay in the implementation of those projects.

For instance some teachers’ quarters which were expected to be completed within 100 days' period were still uncompleted several months after they had begun, a situation they said was affecting teaching and learning in some of the communities where teachers did not have accommodation.

The house was not happy that some contractors implementing projects in the district had abandoned a number of them and warned that henceforth, such contractors be blacklisted an should not be awarded contracts in the district.

The members expressed worry that some 350 tables and 250 chairs procured by the Assembly for schools in the district were left in the bush and an unspecified number of them got burnt before the Assembly released the remaining furniture to the Ghana Education Service for distribution to schools.

As a result, some of the schools which were earmarked for the supply of furniture could not get, thereby denying students of those schools their share of the furniture.

It also came to light that the disbursement of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme was shrouded with uncertainties.

Registers and other documents pertaining to the list of beneficiaries and how the funds were disbursed could not be traced.

The Social Welfare Officer responsible for the disbursement of the funds had gone on transfer and had not properly handed over the documents to the officer who had taken over from him.

The members, therefore, asked the DCE to bring the outgone officer to appear before the house to brief them on how the funds were disbursed, and also to properly hand over the remaining documents to his successor.

GNA