New UE Regional Minister calls for support.

Story & Pix : Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga ALHAJI Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, the Upper East Regional Minister has implored heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to give his administration the needed support in his bid to contribute to the development of the region. "Yes, you have a responsibility towards your sector ministries but so long as you are located in the region, you have a duty to help the Regional Coordinating Council to achieve its mandate of coordinating, monitoring and evaluating government programmes and policies in order to to fulfil the government's policies to bring about the desired change in the region," he said. Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru said this when he interacted with heads of various departments and agencies as well as managers of banks in Bolgatanga, his first since he assumed office as the Regional Minister. He said as part of his administration’s determined effort to provide leadership and facilitate development, he will rely on teamwork and cooperation from all sector heads and therefore called on them to offer the needed support for him to achieve set targets He also stressed the need for effective time management and advised against the abuse of time. "We all have the same working hours, be it in Accra or in Bolgatanga. if you as a leader have the tendency of turning up late for meetings, your subordinates will not take you serious and ultimately, that affects outputs," he said. He said under the present arrangement of the presidency, he is expected to sign a performance contract with specific targets after which each minister will be assessed to justify whether they deserve to stay in office or be given the sack, adding that as Regional Minister, he would be responsible for managing the the region effective. "Please, don't help be to sack myself. if you are prepared to work along, let's do so to achieve our targets. If you not prepared to work along, let me also know so we an chat the way forward. The Regional Minister also spoke against the misuse of government vehicles. "The economy is bleeding and we must find a way of containing cost. Fuel and maintenance of vehicles costs us a lot. Official vehicles are meant for official assignments while private assignments demands the use of private vehicles.The practice where officers use government vehicles for activities such as funerals etc at the weekend must not continue," he said. "All I pray and wish for is support, so that we can move the development of this region in particular and Ghana in general country further before the end of this administration,” Alhaji Mohammed-Limuna said. Contributing to the discussion, the Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams asked the new regional minister to focus attention on issues of sanitation since the present situation is not acceptable to which the Regional Minister obliged and pledged to liaise with all agencies to help tackle the issue since sanitation is intrinsically linked to poverty reduction. -end-