The Mpohor District of the Western Region with Ignatius Assah Mensah as the District Chief Executive has been declared as the best in the 2023 District Level Performance Assessment and Ranking.
A report by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), indicates that the Mpohor District had an overall score of 82.6 per cent. The top five ranked MMDCEs were Mpohor District, Dormaa West District, Cape Coast Metropolitan, Akyemansa District, and Kwahu East.
A Local Government Index (LOGIN) was designed to provide a comprehensive and holistic assessment of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) from the perspectives of residents who interact with them. This was conducted by the ILGS in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD) and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS) with financial support from the State Secretariat of the Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland.
The LOGIN used residents’ scorecards to rank the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on seven local governance performance areas and forty-seven indicators.
The seven LOGIN areas were Quality of administrative services, Quality of leadership exhibited by the District Chief Executive (DCE), Quality of representation by Assembly Members and Quality of professionalism exhibited by the staff of the District Assembly.
The rest included the Quality of social services provision, the Quality of opportunities provided by the Local Government (LG) for residents to participate in their local governance and decision-making as well as Quality of opportunities provided by the LG for Local Economic Development.
According to the report, the overall performance also shows that nine other districts out of the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, scored 71 per cent and above which indicates excellent. Also, fifty-three districts scored between 61 to 70 percent whereas 109 districts scored between 51 to 60 percent.
The report said the New Public Management (NPM) principles have compelled public sector organizations to manage government businesses differently from the way they have administered them in the past.
“The principles offer directions on reforms that will make the provision of public services more responsive, effective, efficient, equitable and accountable. Nevertheless, because there is no nationwide assessment mechanism that takes into consideration the perspectives of residents, an impression is created that their voices are not considered, hence the need to use the residents” the report pointed out.
In an interview with some residents of Mpohor, they praised the DCE Ignatius Assah Mensah for this milestone and for bringing the name of the district higher in the country. They celebrated the leadership qualities of the DCE for making the Mpohor Assembly an example worthy of emulation by other assemblies nationwide.