PAHS 304 Local

Government
Administration

Dr. Daniel Appiah

Email: dappiah@ug.edu.gh
UGBS Graduate School Building, Room 1W10
Mobile Tel: 0540628767
1
 Session 3 Objectives

❖ Students to understand the following issues:

i. The process of national state formation

ii. Organizational structure of local government

iii. Legal framework of local government

iv. Functions of the local government structures

2
 Emergence and Decline of Bureaucratic Quality in
Ghana: What Can We Learn from the Past?

Slide 3
Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS V-DEM Data:
 The Slave Trade and Wars in the Gold Coast
• 1482: The Portuguese sent the first shipment of gold and slaves from
the Elmina castle in the Gold Coast to Portugal.
• 1500 onwards: Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, France, Britain, and
Germany competed for a share of the profit from the slave trade.
• 1792: Denmark abolished the slave trade but lacked sufficient power
on the Gold Coast to stop it.
• 1700 onwards: The number of slaves exported annually from the Gold
Coast ports is estimated as 35,000 (Ward, 1967).
• 1807: Slave trade was officially abolished by Britain. 192 British ships
employed in the slave trade in the year 1770.
• Africans supplied the slaves: The supply of slaves to the ships was
entirely in African hands. All native states were constantly engaging in
war to procure and sell their prisoners of war to European merchants.
Slide 4
Colonial State Formation in the Gold Coast, 1821-1957:
Failure and Success of Absolute Colonial Domination

▪ 7 May 1821: Britain officially

took colonial administration.
▪ 1824: Asante Confederacy
defeats the British-led army
and Governor Sir Charles
McCarthy killed in the war.
▪ 1826-43: Britain withdrew
▪ 1826: A British led army of colonial rule from the Gold
British soldiers and anti-Asante Coast and returned in 1843.
Native states defeated the
Asante Confederacy. ▪ British-Asante fatal Wars:
1874, 1896, and 1901
Slide 5
The Famous Bond of 1844: Re-Affirmation
of the 1831 MaClean Peace Treaty

Slide 6
Post-6th March 1844 Bonds: Re-Affirmation of
the 1831 MaClean Peace Treaty

Slide 7
 Colonial State Building in the Era of Global
Democracy: What was the Way Forward?
❖Monarchical Representative Democracy versus
Republican Representative Democracy

➢ I916: Governor Hugh Clifford warned the educated natives

should stop the “loose talk” and put forward a practical
proposal “which would be applicable to local conditions.”
Slide 8
 Colonial State Building in the Era of Global
Democracy: What was the Way Forward?
➢ Governor Gordon Guggisburg: “If the people of the Gold
Coast are ever to stand by themselves, it must be by the
gradual development of their own institutions and
customs…to preserve their nationality, their racial
characteristics, their institutions and customs, and yet at the
same time to retain their position as a free people in the world”
(Legislative Council Debates, 22 Feb. 1926)
➢ Nana Sir Ofori Atta I: “If the Gold Coast is to remain under the
present system of monarchical democracy and not come under
republican democracy, then I should submit that the principle of
the new Constitution is a perfect one. It gives the people of this
country a chance to develop through their own system of rule.”
(Legislative Council Debates, 18 March, 1926)
Slide 9
 Local Government (Native Authorities) Revenue &
Expenditure in the Gold Coast: 1945-1948

1946 – 1951 Parliament

1945 1946 1947 1948
Composition of Parliament No. Territories
LG REVENUE IN BRITISH POUNDS
Municipal Chief Executives 5
Colony 293,194 373,974 460,902 625,324
Asante Confederacy Council 4
Ashanti 167,035 264,500 343,489 468,673
Joint Provincial Council of Chiefs 9
Northern 132,727 133,737 266,535 302,929
Governor Appointees 14
Total 592,956 772,211 1,070,926 1,396,926
Total 32
LG EXPENDITURE IN BRITISH POUNDS
Colony 287,829 366,375 465,301 569,713
Ashanti 137,576 235,476 307,774 387,413
Northern 114,950 136,856 185,484 254,327
Total 540,355 738,707 958,559 1,211,453
Road to Decay: Elevation of “popular election of the
common man” over Bureaucratic Competence
❖ “The world...is asking whether the people of the Gold Coast
have the capacity and the determination to shoulder their
new responsibilities and undertake their complex task of
building up and carrying on a good government under a new
constitution.” (Governor Arden-Clarke, 19 January, 1950)

Multi-Party
Democracy

Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS

 Ghana: National Governance and Economic
Development in Historical Perspective

Composition of Parliament
Local Representatives British Representatives GDP Per
Date
Directly Elected Official & Unofficial Capita
Chiefs
Politicians Representatives $
1951 13 5 14 $1,808
1954* 37 38 9 $2,099
1955 0 104 0 $1,913
1957 0 104 0 $1,978
1966 0 198 0 $2,158
1992 0 200 0 $1,772
2000 0 200 0 $2,100

Source of Data for RGDP: Madison Project Database, 2020

 Types of Multi-Party Government and Tenure of
Office in Ghana from 1957 to Present

Constitution Type of Tenure of Tenure of

Government President Parliament
1957 Westminster 5 years 5 years
1960 Presidential 5 years 5 years
1969 Westminster 5 years 5 years
1979 Presidential 4 years 5 years
1992 Presidential 4 years 4 years
Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS
 Legal Framework of Local Government under
Ghana’s Fourth Republic: 1992-Present
• Article 241 (3) states
that “Subject to this
Constitution, a District
Assembly shall be the
highest political
authority in the district,
and shall have
deliberative, legislative
and executive powers.”

DR THERESA OBUOBISA-DARKO Slide 14

 Legal Framework of Local Government under
Ghana’s Fourth Republic: 1992-Present

➢ The 1992 Constitution, Article 240-241, provides the legal

framework for a decentralized system of local government.

➢ The 1992 Constitution states that Ghana shall have a system of

local government and administration which shall, as far as
practicable, be decentralized.

➢ In 2016, the Local Governance Act, Act 936, was passed to

consolidate in a single document all the existing legal enactments
concerning local government administration in Ghana.

Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS

 Organizational Structure of the Local Government
System in Ghana
Regional Coordinating
Councils (RCCs)

Metropolitan Municipal
Assembly District Assembly
Assembly

Sub-
Metropolitan

Urban/Town/
Town Councils Zonal Council
Area Council

Unit Committee
Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS
 Organizational Structure of the Local
Government system in Ghana
❑ The organizational structure of local government administration under
Ghana’s fourth republic is made up of the following:
▪ A four-tier Metropolitan Assembly
▪ A three-tier Municipal Assembly
▪ A three-tier District Assembly.
❑ Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) have been created in the
sixteen (16) Regions of Ghana to supervise the performance of the
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
❑ At the National level, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural
Development (MLGRD) is the supervising Ministry. And the Local
Government Service Secretariat (LGSS) recruits and posts
administrative staff to the District Assemblies. The District Assemblies
Common Fund disburses money to the District Assemblies.
Slide 17
 Composition of the District Assembly
❑ The District Assembly consists of the District Chief Executive, 70% of
Assembly Members elected through universal adult suffrage in the
District, and 30% Assembly Members appointed by the President.

➢ According to the Constitution, the government shall appoint 30% of

the Assembly members in consultation with traditional authorities
and other groups within the District.
❑ The District Chief Executive (DCE)

➢ Under article 243(1) of the constitution, the DCE is nominated by

the President and approved by two thirds of the members of the
Assembly present in voting. This has created a lot of controversy.

Dr. Daniel Appiah, UGBS

 Summary: The Local Government System

❑ According to the 1992 Constitution, the District Assembly shall

be the highest political authority in the district, and shall have
deliberative, legislative and executive powers.

➢ Some questions arising:

• Are the District Assemblies functioning as “the highest political

authority in the district” as envisioned by the 1992 Constitution?

• How effective are the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District

Assemblies in exercising legislative, deliberative, and executive
functions in the context of Article 241(3) of the Constitution?

Slide 19