Vice President of Policy think tank, IMANI Africa has lamented that the fast paced economic activities of government has made it the fastest growing sector in the country.
He noted that this negative consequence was as a result of the proliferation of new districts and constituencies in Ghana.
“… The first and extremely important negative consequence of some of these things is the bloating in the size of government. The size of government itself is a problem and then there is the cost of that government...”
“…the fastest growing industry in Ghana today is government, it is the space that is increasing fastest, it is the space that is making people more money, they’re buying everything more than everybody. Airline tickets in Ghana are sponsored more by government and government officials than any other body or sector…” he added
Mr. Kofi Bentil was speaking at the launch of a joint report by IMANI Africa and Odekro on the “Proliferation of New Districts and Constituencies in Ghana: The mismatch between policy objectives, outcomes and impacts”
His outfit sought to assess the actual impact of the creation of new districts, since 2004, on development outcomes, and the effectiveness of Parliamentary representation in the 30 constituencies created in the same year as well as provide evidence to support or reject government’s hypothesis.
He argued that the creation of additional districts, constituencies and regions would only result in government procuring more amenities and providing incentives at the expense of the tax payer’s money which will result in the depletion of the country’s already scarce resources.
After the research conclusions which were drawn include;
•The “marriage” between the creation of districts and the creation of constituencies, to some extent, accounts for the proliferation of constituencies in the country.
•Most of the experts and stakeholders interviewed called for the capping of both the number of districts and constituencies, while others also advocated for the creation of a separate independent entity that would be in charge of creation of districts and constituencies.
• Some MMDAs created in the past, failed to meet the statutory population requirement yet they were commissioned and granted the legal backing to operate.
•The lack of transparency in the creation of districts have sometimes led to pocket of grievances, inter-community conflicts among others. Reasons accounting for such incidences have included, the citing of the district capital, the naming of the district, etc
The research therefore recommended that;
•Make the process for district creation and demarcation as transparent as possible with reports on the creation exercise published on Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (in the case of districts) and that of the Electoral Commission (for constituencies).
•The EC should not be forced to create new constituencies in the event that districts are politically created (when it does not meet the stipulated criteria) to warrant a new constituency.
•Districts that have grown beyond their required threshold must be elevated to municipality and metropolitan status instead of splitting them.
•The day-to-day operations of MPs are not closely linked to that of the districts. Hence MPS should be granted membership of more than one district assemblies.
•Discontinue the MPs Common Fund
