A new performance monitoring framework is to be adopted soon for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs). The Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE) is to adopt a Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, who announced the measure said the framework would provide an important opportunity for the ministry to work with community groups and other stakeholders in to build consensus on indicators of performance of local government authorities. Mr. Asamoah-Boateng disclosed this when he addressed Assembly members and heads of departments of the Sekyere West District Assembly at Ashanti-Mampong as part of a two-week working visit to the Ashanti Region. The visit, which would take him to eight districts, is to enable him to interact with Assembly members, heads of departments, local communities, opinion leaders, inspect development projects as well as explain government policies and programmes. “We would adopt measures to assess the performance of local government authorities, using benchmarks such local revenue mobilization, sanitation, budgeting, and community service delivery, and at the end of the year come out with a league table to rank the performance of MMDAs”, the Minister said. He indicated that those MMDAs that were living up to expectation would be rewarded through various incentive packages, while non-performing chief executives and administrative staff would be dealt with appropriately. Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, therefore, urged the MMDAs to find innovative ways of raising local revenue to complement the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and other funds from central government and donors, pointing out they could achieve this through consensus building with property owners and business enterprises. In a welcoming address, the Presiding Member (PM) of the Sekyere West District Assembly, Mr. Rockson R. Agyekum said there was a cordial working relation between the Assembly on one hand the District Chief Executive, the Members of Parliament (MPs) for Mampong and Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo on the other. He thanked the Minister for the visit and urged him to impress upon the cabinet to consider improving upon the ex-gratia awards of Assembly members to motivate them to work harder. The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Haruna Oppong Boateng said despite the not so impressive local revenue mobilization, the Assembly was doing well in the provision of infrastructure and social services in deprived communities. He appealed to the sector minister for financial and logistic assistance to enable the Assembly deal with the problem of waste disposal. The Minister later addressed a durbar of the chiefs and people of the Mampong Traditional Area and inspected some development projects, including the new Mampong Market and a 695-million cedi classroom block for Mampong Islamic Primary School. Source: GNA