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The Chronicle has gathered that contract appointments within the formal sector have been cancelled by the government of Ghana. Dr. Callistus Mahama, Head of local Government Services, who announced this, explained that the move is to ensure that any employee in the formal sector who attains the age 60 will go on compulsory retirement. �Government has cancelled contract appointment within the formal sector and will not entertain over-aged employees�, he stressed Dr. Mahama announced this during an interaction with management and staff of some District and Municipal Assemblies in Brong-Ahafo region at separate meetings, which included Sunyani Municipal, Asutifi North and Asutifi South District Assemblies. On his two-day familiarization visit to selected Municipal and District Assemblies in the region, the Head of Local Government Services and his entourage also visited Wenchi and Techiman Municipal Assemblies, as well as the newly created Banda District Assembly to acquaint themselves with their operations. Dr. Mahama explained that the government was poised to ensure that the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are well equipped with the needed human resource base in all departments and agencies. According to him, the Local Government Services had established Human Resource Department and other units at the various assemblies so that local communities would directly contribute and benefit from development projects. Dr. Mahama emphasized that the essence of the creation of MMDAs was to give local people the opportunity to contribute to community development and that explained why the government had decided to decentralize and integrate many departments into the District Assembly. Some of these departments, he mentioned, were the Health, Education, Births and Deaths, Library Board, as well as Youth and Sports, Dr. Mahama explained that the Local Government Services had rolled out series of training programmes and refresher courses to adequately prepare and equipped staff of the assemblies. He said according to the LI 1961, Municipal and District Assemblies should be made up of 13 and 11 Departments respectively to make the decentralization concept meaningful to the local people. Mr. Gado Musah, Asutifi South District Coordinating Director said as a newly created district, it was faced with challenges ranging from accommodation and human resource and infrastructure development. He said as the assembly worked to provide the social needs of the local people, it was also expected that its share of the District Assembly Common Fund was always released in time.