The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Offinso South, Mr Baffour Kese-Amankwa, has underscored the need for district assemblies to raise enough internally generated funds (IGF) to carry out their development projects.

He explained that the government sometimes delayed in releasing certain funds to the assemblies due to demands from other institutions.

“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has not yet released the third and fourth quarter  allocations of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for 2013 and that of the first quarter of 2014.  The assembly has, therefore, relied mostly on its IGF,” Mr Kese-Amankwa said.

He therefore bemoaned the performance of the assembly in IGF for this year.

As of February 2014, the assembly had collected GH¢49, 558.18 representing 14.9 per cent of its estimated IGF of GH¢333, 000  to run the assembly.

He said in spite of that, the assembly had also put measures in place to improve revenue collection in the municipality to support development.

  Mr Kese-Amankwa, who was speaking at the general meeting of the assembly at Offinso in the Ashanti Region, said the assembly was undertaking a number of projects and mentioned some as a drain at Amoadan, street lights at Asamankam-Dupaul,  refuse containers, two hand-fitted boreholes at Gambia and Odeso and  a mechanised one at Saaboa.

Other projects of the assembly, he mentioned, included an abattoir with biogas digester at Tutuase, a new fire station at Aboasu, the extension to the court building at Denten, the relocation of Abofour Market, and electricity to newly developed areas.

He added that the assembly had begun refuse evacuation exercise in some areas of the municipality after approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

Mr Kese-Amankwa said there was the need for the private sector in the implementation of projects by the district assemblies and urged assembly members to give it a thought as they would be the ones to approve such a deal.

He urged the assembly members to work in peace and unity and demonstrate to the world that with the implementation of the Offinso Municipal Public-Private Partnership Agenda (OMPPPA), the municipality would be transformed.

On security, he said that except for some armed robbery cases that had bedeviled the municipality, the security situation in the municipality continued to remain relatively calm. He said the Municipal Security Committee (MUSEC) was monitoring the security situation in the area and  proper mechanisms were being put in place to curb the situation.

the Presiding Member (PM) of the Offinso South Municipal Assembly, Mr Prempeh Pambour Karikari, asked members of the assembly to put modalities and strategies in place to increase its revenue.

The presiding member called on assembly members to refrain from being partisan in the discharge of their duties and move in unity with the MCE to develop the municipality.

The PM called on management of the assembly to, as a matter of urgency, work towards the provision of ex gratia for assembly members.

Daily Graphic