The Ga West Municipal Assembly has held a meeting at the Assembly Hall to discuss the performance and management of the District Development Database Platform (DDDP), with emphasis on identifying existing gaps and improving reporting standards across departments.

Addressing staff at the opening of the meeting, the Municipal Coordinating Director, Louisa Benon, explained that the purpose of the gathering was to assess challenges affecting the platform and deliberate on measures being introduced to address them. She subsequently invited the Municipal Planning Officer, Cynthia Bonsah, to brief participants on the assessment conducted by the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) a day earlier.

Speaking on the outcome of the assessment, Mrs. Cynthia Bonsah noted that although the Assembly had performed commendably on the platform, much work remained to be done. She stressed that the DDDP is an important platform that must be properly managed and sustained to support the Assembly’s development planning and reporting processes.

According to her, the RCC advised that photographs attached to meetings and activities uploaded onto the platform should clearly tell a story and reflect the objectives of the programmes and activities undertaken. She further observed that while some departments failed to provide adequate information, others had not submitted the required documents at all. She therefore urged all departments to submit their reports promptly and improve the quality of information provided.

She also disclosed that the RCC recommended changes to some of the Assembly’s working procedures to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the use of the platform.

As part of the meeting, Mr. Justice Kumi, delivered a presentation on the procedures for uploading invitation letters, attendance sheets, and reports for both departmental and general meetings onto the DDDP. He additionally introduced a document application designed to enable departments to prepare and upload reports directly onto the system.

In her concluding remarks, Cynthia Bonsah explained that the information required on the platform was not different from the routine duties already performed by departments. She encouraged staff not to perceive the DDDP as something beyond their capabilities, but rather to remain diligent and accurate in preparing reports.

She emphasised that effective management of the platform requires dedication and appealed to all departments to submit their reports early to reduce workload and improve efficiency. She further added that documents submitted to the platform could either be in physical form or as scanned copies.

Source: Gifty Owusu Kattah, ISD-GWMA