Dr. Esther Ofei Aboagye advocates for clear roles of RCCs for local government development

Director of the Institute of Local Governance, Dr. Esther Offei Aboagye has touted a clearly defined role for Regional Coordinating Councils as a major drive for development in the local government.

She expressed her views while speaking during the third day of deliberations held by the Constitution Review Committee with thematic area, Decentralization and Local Government and Chieftaincy in Accra. She described the Regional Coordination Council as a highly important Council which has been underutilized on account of the proper allocated roles. “…as a nation we are still ambivalent about what we want RCCs to do.”

“RCCs are required to provide oversight, technical backstopping, monitoring and evaluation even resolution of conflict. L.I 2232 when they talk about inter-district and joint development areas, RCCs are still not indicated.” she explained while speaking on the absence of RCCs role in the constitution.

This gap has led to a number of discrepancies which include the irregular wielding of power way beyond jurisdictions of units and divisions of Ghana’s local governments and also absence of direct budgetary resources to fund RCC operations, which in hand stifle collective efforts and the required synergy for development

The local governance expert called for necessary reforms and amendment of the constitution through deliberations with stakeholders to ensure the development needed in Ghana’s local government. “There may be a modicum of some representation but we need to emphasize the coordinating role of the regional level if we want to really empower our local authorities and devolve authority totally.”