More than half of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the country are operating without authority.

This was disclosed through a research conducted by the legal research portal, DennisLaw. The study reveals that out of the 261 MMDAs in the country, as many as 155 are operating without by-laws.

Therefore only 41 percent of MMDAs are operating with gazetted by-laws.

Also, 53 District Assemblies operate with gazetted by-laws and 91 District Assemblies operate without by-laws.

This means these assemblies have no legal backing to penalize wrong acts or ensure that the right things are done in their districts.

Speaking on the Legal show, THE LAW, Sunday, Legal Practitioner, Kweku Attakora Dwomoh explained that the situation renders the actions of some MMDAs illegal.

“Today, most of them are just barking. If they see that you know your right, there is nothing that can be done to you. So quite clearly, most of the actions that are being taken by the MMDAs are illegal and invalid in law. So if they come demanding for a fee or they come demanding for a fine or a rate to be paid and there is no law to that effect, it means they have no authority,” he said.

Speaking on the implications, Managing Partner at LawPlus, Dennis Adjei Dwomoh is worried that lack of legal departments in MMDAs is detrimental to their functions.

“If you look at the Ghana Bar portal that we have studied, based on the statistics, majority of MMDAs do not have a legal department. They do not have in-house lawyers so sometimes they want to rely on Attorney-General’s office.

“It is actually risky on the part of any Chief Executive Officer not to have a lawyer who guides him through the processes, because the issues relating to procurement, the issues relating to public funding are all legal issues which actually increases your criminal risk,” he explained.