Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

Appendix to Annex 3: 4
The overall structure is as follows:
STRUCTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN GHANA, FROM 1988 (Haynes, 1991, 292)
Supreme Body (initially, PNDC)
Regional Coordinating Councils (ten)
District Assemblies (110, each c. 110,000 people
Local/ Town councils (c. 2,400, each c. 5,000 people)
Unit Committees (c. 24,000 , 500 members).
Each District Assembly was headed by a District Secretary (later named District Chief
Executive), to be appointed by the President. From 1992, a requirement of approval of any
Presidential nominee by two thirds of the Assembly was also introduced. By the same token, a
two thirds majority would be needed for a vote of no confidence. The DCE is assisted by a career
civil servant, the District Administrative Officer (later, District Coordinating Director. However,
the day to day administration of the district was - and still remains - in the hands of an elected
Executive Committee, comprising not more than one-third of the total elected Assembly, which
are responsible for its executive and coordinating functions. (Crook and Manor, 1998, 234)
Thus ‘accountable’ to the Assembly, the DCE is responsible for the supervision of the executive
departments of the district, as well as the executive committee and various subcommittees.
Assembly meetings are, however, presided over by an elected Presiding Member.
The District Assembly was primarily conceived as a district planning authority (Botchie, 2000,
25), to be responsible for:
! comprehensive economic, social and spatial development plans;
! integrating sector plans;
! mobilising the resources of the district and protecting its environment;
! promoting social development and productive activities;
! provision of municipal works and services and developing basic infrastructure.