Government to reform business
registration practices in district assemblies
Ho, Dec. 26, Ghanadot/GNA-The process of registration of
business with the various local governing bodies is to be
made uniform, fluid and transparent to raise compliance
levels in the various districts.
The issuance of building permits is also to be rationalized
and standardized.
Mr Chris Joseph Azumah, Focal Person on the Private Sector
Development Strategy at the Ministry of Local Government
Rural Development and Environment (MLGRD&E) said this in Ho
when opening a five-day workshop for 50 District Assemblies
Staff drawn from the Municipal and district assemblies in
the Volta Region.
District Coordinating Directors, Finance, Budget and
Development Officers, Engineers and private sector workers
are attending the workshop.
Mr. Azumah said a series of workshops organised throughout
the country were expected to raise commitment of staff and
streamline registration processes in accordance with the
structural and operational overhaul of the public sector to
improve efficiency.
He said currently the processes were varied, fees different
and commitment of schedule officers poor dispelling clients
who would want to register their businesses or get building
permits.
Mr Simon Bokor, a Resource Person, from the Institute of
Local Government Studies (ILGS) said the programmed reform
would stop the haphazard registration processes resulting in
the nauseating notices of "Stop Work, Produce Permit and
Pull It Down," being imprinted on uncompleted and sometimes
finished buildings throughout the country.
He said many people in private business refrain from
registering their businesses because of the bureaucracy
associated with the process.
Mr. Bokor said the reform process was also seeking to change
the apathetic attitudes of workers.
He said similar efforts to improve processes at the Courts;
Ports, Licensing Office and the Registrar General's
Department had reduced waiting time considerably.
Mr Bokor said suggestions from the various regional
workshops would be collated, assessed, and then validated
for a decision by stakeholders meeting to arrive at measures
to improve the situation.
He observed that numerous and tedious processes it bred
corruption.
GNA
|