Government is transferring more than 30,000 civil servants to the Local Government Service to strengthen the service's human resource and technical capacities.

This is to ensure the effective and transparent management of resources that are being transferred to District Assemblies (DAs), Hon. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment said on Monday.

According to the Minister, it is possible to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if the assemblies are able to manage and control their local economies through public/private partnerships.

"An important vehicle by which we hope to achieve local economic development is through the Local Government Service which would facilitate effective performance of the District Assemblies," hence, the transfer of the civil servants, he pointed out.

The occasion was the opening of the Ghana Dissemination Seminar under Phase II of the Good Practice Scheme (GPS) of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) in Accra. The seminar drew participants from local governments in Cameroon, Ghana, India, South Africa and United Kingdom.

The GPS was set up in recognition of the specific and common challenges that face local governments in delivering quality services to the community. It also takes into account varying skills and good practices which have been developed across the Commonwealth and the potential for that to be used in a positive way to help build capacity across the Commonwealth.

Ghana has over the past four years been implementing the GPS. Three DAs; Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA) and Wasa Amenfi West District Assembly are the beneficiary and participating districts in the scheme.

They partnered with Greenwich, Plymouth and Surat municipalities in UK and India respectively on bilateral projects relating to tourism development and revenue generation.

The seminar therefore afforded the partnerships the opportunity to review the projects which have been completed and share experiences from this phase with a view to ensuring that the next phase responds effectively to the needs of local government in Ghana.

At the association-to-association level, the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) became a partner of the Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA).

Mr. Adjei-Darko observed that the GPS will promote local economic development and assist Ghana to meet the MDGs.

Hon. Mawutor Goh, President of NALAG commended the Board of CLGF for including Ghana in the scheme.

He, however, appealed to the scheme managers to "seriously consider the provision of basic office infrastructure such as computers and fax machines" in order to strengthen the respective participants.

"Another issue that is worth considering is to streamline reporting mechanisms and role of national associations such as NALAG in the Municipal partnerships," he advocated.

In an interview, a participant, Hon Samuel Alberto Tekyi whose district, Wasa Amenfi District Assembly is engaged in a tripartite partnership with Fulham, UK and Surat, India said the partnership has helped his district to set up a database for revenue collection.

Besides, he said, the assembly through the partnership has trained revenue collectors. Thus, the two factors should enhance revenue collection, thereby improving the district's overall internally generated funds.

Looking beyond the GPS, Hon Tekyi mentioned that Wasa Amenfi is looking forward to a permanent partnership with Surat Municipal Corporation, India after Phase III of the GPS.