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Yendi Assembly Holds First ordinary meeting

The Yendi Municipal Assembly has held its first ordinary meeting at Yendi in the Northern Region.

Date Created : 8/7/2009 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

Matters discussed included the ratification of the 2009 Supplementary Budget, confirmation of previous minutes, ratification of contracts, reports from electoral areas, election of sub-committee chairpersons, discussion of sessional keynote address, among others.

In his address, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Walvis Mahama Hudu, expressed appreciation to President J.E.A. Mills for appointing him as Chief Executive of the Municipality, and to members of the Assembly for giving him an overwhelming endorsement during his confirmation.

Mr. Hudu said the purpose of the meeting was for the Assembly members to discuss and approve its budgets for the year 2009, to enable official business and development to move on.

According to the MCE, the Assembly has been allocated 1,566,265.88 Ghana Cedis as its share of the Common Fund for 2009.

He said according to the Common Fund guidelines, the National Youth Employment Programme is to benefit 35 per cent, capacity building, one per cent, District Response to HIV/AIDS 0.5 per cent, malaria 0.5 per cent, people with disability two per cent, and some percentage set aside for contingency.

Touching on Internally Generated Funds, Mr. Walvis stated that as at June 30, 2009, a revenue of 39,448.08 Ghana Cedis had been collected out of a projected 73,680.00 Ghana Cedis for the year, representing 53.5 per cent.

He said much more needed to be done if the Assembly was to reduce its over reliance on external sources for development projects.

Mr. Walvis said under the District Wide Assistant Project for 2008, an amount of 190,000 Ghana Cedis was transferred to support the Assembly.

He indicated that the amount was used for the construction of teachers' quarters at Adibo, construction of a three-unit classroom block at Kpachini, and the construction of another three-unit classroom block at Ngani.

He said with the Community Initiative for Food Security, an amount of 175,000 Ghana Cedis from CIDA was transferred to the assembly as support to farmers to enhance food production.

He said in addition, the assembly received a support of 100,000 Ghana Cedis for the construction of a 16-kilometre feeder road from Adibo to Kpalgagbini under the CIFS facility.

Mr. Hudu expressed concern about how some of the youth who are employed under the National Youth Employment programme in the municipality idle about without really doing what they have been engaged to do.

He noted, however, that the National Secretariat of the NYEP had recently embarked on a nation-wide head count of all staff at post to bring sanity into the programme and ensure value for money.

He said at the end of the exercise the programme would be over hauled and expanded to ensure that those who are engaged really work for the remuneration.

Mr Hudu reminded the Assembly members that the Programme was meant to engage the youth temporarily to enable them to better their grades and look for admission into other institutions.

He said the Yendi Municipality was benefiting from Integrated the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (IWASH) project sponsored jointly by UNICEF and the European Union for the eradication of guinea worm in Ghana, and to reduce child mortality and morbidity through improved sanitation coverage and hygiene practice between 2007 and 2011.

He said the Yendi Mutual Health Insurance Scheme had as at June 30 this year, registered 252,977 members since its inception.

He said under the European Union Micro Project, the assembly received budgetary support of 24,000.00 Ghana Cedis for 2009, which had been used for constructing a bee-keeping facility at Ghambaya, as well as the construction of a soap making facility for Christian Mothers Association in the Yendi Catholic Diocese.

On peace and security, the MCE noted that the mention of Yendi had become synonymous with conflict in the country. \"Development thrives well in areas where there is peace and harmony, so we must bury our differences in order to accelerate the developmental agenda of the Municipality\", he added.

In a welcome address, the Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr. Hussein Iddrisu, thanked the assembly members for electing him into office. He and gave the assurance that he would work hard to justify the confidence reposed in him.

Mr Iddrisu called for unity in the House, and appealed to Assembly members to put in their best to restore Yendi's former position as the most prominent among the districts in the Eastern Corridor of the region.

He appealed to the assembly members to work in collaboration with their respective Members of Parliament since they all have the common agenda of bringing development to their people.