Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal is blaming the developmental challenges in the districts and municipalities on administrative lapses due the “inefficiency of the personnel” working at the various districts and municipal assemblies. He was speaking at the launch of a Report on a research carried out by SEND-GHANA titled ‘Managing Public Finance for Effective Local Development: The District Assembly’s Common Fund in Perspective’. Baba Jamal said the lapses in the MMDAs are not due to corruption but the inefficiency of the personnel, which is dragging the country’s development backwards. “Government has put systems in place to make the MMDAs function effectively but the personnel working in it lack the capacity to work efficiently and that is the problem,” he said. He said government has therefore earmarked millions of Ghana cedis for in-service training and capacity building to bring the personnel up to speed on how to work efficiently and effectively. The Deputy Minister also said the Ministry has been making the effort to post young unemployed graduates to the various MMDAs but they (the young graduates) usually refuse such postings and that is part of the reasons for the low quality staff at the MMDAs. He is therefore appealing to young graduates to accept postings to the MMDAs so they could contribute to the development of the country.