NCDS RESEARCH TEAM CONCLUDES STUDY FIVE-DAY TOUR FOR OTI REGION

During the engagement, the management of the ORCC indicated that the issues of inadequate staff in the region is a challenge adding that some of the staff were been posted as punishment which is hindering service delivery.

They explained that healthcare is a serious concern hence the region has not enough health facilities, Poor transport and bad transportation network hence staff within the region are compelled to move from one place to another to get access to transportation to their destination, according to the management.

For sanitation and waste management, the heads of departments recommended that the contract between the MMDAs and the Zoomlion, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of companies be reviewed to allow the assemblies to manage its waste.

According to them, prior to the contract with ZoomLion, MMDAS were employing laborer’s to ensure sanitation in their catchment areas. They bemoaned the prevalence of typhoid in the region due to the consumption of contaminated water and environmental pollution in the region.

He explained that although the targets and development goals are set up by the central government to the local assemblies with different characteristics, the Jasikan Municipality has been a to implement a smart governance system for a sustainable development in the area.

The management bemoaned political interference for underpinning development for their lack of tolerance to work with some civil servants but rather prefer to gag or transfer them to where their services are not needed.

He continued that untimely release of district assembly common fund to champion development is also another challenge that affect Municipality from achieving its goals. Team leader of the group, Commodore Ben Abdul mentioned that the team was conducting a research study as part of academic work and the motive was not to interrogate or audit the activities of the assembly.

The team is made up of the Commandant of the college, supporting staff and the participants referred to as students, he said.

According to him, the college was established somewhere 2024 with the aim to train or provide strategic leadership training for the participants. He continued that first batch of the college had graduated and the participants are not only for the military but also sister security agencies across the country and Africa and the World at large.

He indicated that the idea of the research was to engage the stakeholders contributing to sustainable development and the role they play in ensuring smooth growth in SMART governance. He admonished the staff of the Jasikan Municipal Assembly not to hesitate to share with the team their experience and expertise to the participants in their cause of eliciting information on how smart governance is been implemented in the municipality.

The group leader alluded that the programme is deared to the heart of government hence will provide a policy framework to government with the recommendations on how to implement smart governance to ensure sustainable development.

The college, according to the team is seated at the strategic place and does not liaise with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) directly but the ministry it falls under, adding that their recommendations will be presented to the supervisory ministry to tackle the issues of power outages in the region.

The research team commended the management of the ORCC for their steadfast and the resource persons designated to provide data for their  research project.

Present at the engagement were various heads of departments of the Oti Regional Coordinating Council,  staff and participants of the National College of Defence Studies.