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Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and their respective Coordinating Directors in the Northern region, have been urged to marshal all competencies and skills to come out with innovative plans to ensure that they initiate and complete development projects in their areas.

They were told to rise above all challenges and raise the necessary resources to meet planned programmes and objectives that would meet the needs of citizens under their jurisdictions.

Mr Salifu Saeed, the Northern Regional Minister, said this at a workshop on improving performance of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the region on key performance tools, in Tamale.

The two-day workshop, organised by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) in collaboration with the Local Government Service (LGS), was to school MMDCEs and their CDs on mechanisms and ways to improve on their performance geared towards working to achieve desired results in the various MMDAs.

Mr Saeed said “Let us be reminded that we have signed a social contract with the people we are serving in our various Assemblies and this demands that we perform well by working with the limited resources at our disposal to improve on their lives”.

“Performance management in public services is not just appraisal but a conscious planning, implementation, review, monitoring and evaluation of performance of staff of MMDAs to inform rewards and punishment”, he noted.

He, however, observed that the accompanying resources to facilitate some works sometimes did not match planned activities, saying “There is also the challenge of resource mobilization which sometimes makes achieving some universal results in certain areas difficult”.

Touching on some performance improvement tools, the Regional Minister encouraged MMDCEs and CDs to develop positive attitudes towards their work, urging them to ensure execution of all projects in their areas on schedule.

He advised them to strictly adhere to laid down procedures in financial, contract and procurement managements to enhance accountability and transparency in their operations.