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Assessing the quality of
accountability in Ghana’s district assemblies, 1993 - 2008
Emmanuel Debrah
Department
of Political Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra.
E-mail:
ekdebrah@ug.edu.gh,
edebrah2001@yahoo.co.uk.
Tel.: (233)
0208132486,
(233) 021-502388.
Accepted
2 June, 2009 |
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The article delineates the forms and mechanisms of
accountability in Ghana’s District Assemblies (DAs) and
probes their efficacy in the current decentralization
policy. It provides empirical data on how accountability
relationships have improved or not improved local democracy
in Ghana. The DAs were created to be pillars of grassroots
governance. The devolution of power to the DAs aimed at
enhancing a system of local public monitoring and checks on
their elected representatives. This was justified that local
representatives would be more accessible to the local
populace and could be held at close range for their policies
and actions than distant national political leaders. The
paper notes that the challenges of local accountability are
many but they stem from the tendency of the central
government to recentralize power by placing grassroots
leaders under its influence. The practice of appointing the
DCE and thirty percent members of the DAs, and the upward
reporting mechanism reflect a growing culture of central
controls in order to side step the autonomy of the DAs. The
most apposite remedy for overcoming weak grassroots
accountability lies in reform measures that allow the direct
election of all officials of the DAs by the local populace.
Key
words:
District assemblies, accountability, elected
representatives, local electorate, democracy,
decentralization. |
