Ranking Member on the Local Government Committee, Nii Lante Vanderpuye is blaming the government over the huge number of applicants vying for the position of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodoo said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been in the practice of handing positions to persons deemed to be party faithful contributing to the surge in numbers.

"This time the numbers are just alarming because we have just demined the position such a way that it has become a position of patronage. Everybody at all thinks that because his worked for the party he deserves to be the MMDCE.

"We are not putting emphasis on qualification and competence, we are putting emphasis on reward. So the position has become a reward mechanism for people who were disappointed in the parliamentary primaries or who wanted to hold executive positions and didn’t get," he said.

According to him, unqualified MMDCEs affect the operation within an assembly for which reason no stone must be left unturned in the selection of officials for the said role adding that a qualified applicant "will help boost his or her confidence as well as build confidence in the people he is working with."

Speaking to JoyNews' Kwesi Parker-Wilson, Mr Vanderpuye cited a District Chief Executive (DCE) who struggled to deliver on his mandate due to his lack of proficiency in the English language. 

“In one of our rounds we met a DCE who had difficulty in appreciating just the small note we gave him because this is somebody who never thought of becoming a DCE, he is only a DCE because the father died during the campaign and because of the way the father died they thought that they must compensate the family.

“He has no clue, he has no competence, and this is just somebody who finished secondary school. You could see that the person is so empty but he is a DCE,” he added.

The MP has, therefore, advised the government to employ applicants who hold a minimum of a master's degree for the MMDCE position.

"I think going forward we must critically look at qualification because the amount of resources that goes to the MMDCEs and then looking at our new decentralized system, the professionals who are going to work under the assemblies, ie the engineers, the argic-officers, health officers educational officers etc.

"You need someone with at least a minimum requirement or qualification, thus a Master’s degree, because that person should exhume some confidence in the people he is working with, for them to trust the competence and the capabilities of the person," he stated.