SET UP METRO COUNCILS — Dr PREMPEH (Page 30)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

A FORMER presiding member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Dr Edward Prempeh, has called for the establishment of sub-metro councils in the four sub-metropolitan areas of Kumasi.
He told the Daily Graphic that the establishment of the councils was a statutory requirement and expressed concern that no meaningful effort had been made by the KMA to put them in place.
He said even though the offices of the sub-metros were working, their work could not be complete without the councils.
Kumasi has four sub-metro areas — Bantama, Asokwa, Subin and Manhyia. The councils, when established, would make bye-laws and undertake decisions that would complement the efforts of the KMA to move the development agenda of the entire metropolis forward.
Membership of the councils would include assembly members within the sub-metro and government appointees and others.
Dr Prempeh, who is a private medical practitioner, said the KMA and the entire Kumasi metropolis would stand to benefit when the councils started working.
“The KMA, therefore, should do everything to facilitate the effective operation of the sub-metro councils in Kumasi,” he said.
Dr Prempeh said the sub-metros were an important part of the decentralisation programme and must be supported to deliver.
“Decentralisation is an important programme but it looks like some people are not prepared to allow it to work for obvious reasons,” the former presiding member stressed.
He said before he left office as presiding member about four years ago, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment had initiated moves to establish the councils but the “lackadaisical attitude by the KMA” stalled the process.
The former presiding member further said he also wrote a letter to the ministry and the then regional minister, Mr S.K. Boafo, about the need to establish the councils but nothing positive came out of it.
Dr Prempeh stressed that Kumasi had grown to the extent that it needed about 10 sub-metros for effective administration.
“And if we do not have the money to do this, we must strengthen what we already have to get the process going,” Dr Prempeh said.
He stated that revenue mobilisation was crucial to the effective functioning of the KMA, and the strengthening of the sub-metros was crucial in that effect.