Ghana Districts: A repository of all Local Assemblies in Ghana

ECONOMICS

November 07, 2017 Binduri District fails to meet revenue target

The Binduri District Assembly in the Upper East Region has failed to meet its revenue target of GH¢ 7,304,526.57 and instead generated only 20.3 percent of it, GH¢ 1, 489,583.07.

Date Created : 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Jerry Azanduna

This was due to a lack of resourceful domestic sources of income and poor revenue collection strategies.

Mr. Ayinga Abagre Yakubu, the Binduri District Chief Executive (DCE), said this at the second ordinary meeting of the second session of the Assembly, which was aimed at finding pragmatic ways of strengthening the revenue mobilization system and to deliberate on other development issues including security, education, and health among other things in the District.

Mr. Yakubu said the internally generated funds were not sufficient to meet the development needs of the people and that forced the Assembly to rely on central government and developmental partners to acquire educational infrastructure, provide portable drinking water and put up more health facilities.

He urged the people in the District to pay tax as that was the only way the Assembly could mobilize financial resources to provide for the needs of the area.

He said the Assembly had taken stringent measures to enforce fiscal policies that would implement various revenue enhancement measures to plug leakages in the collection system and thereby ensure optimum revenue mobilization without burdening the taxpayer.

He pointed out that security was paramount to the development of the area and assured security personnel in the area of the support of the Assembly.

Mr. Yakubu charged the Inspectorate Unit of the Ghana Education Service in the District and stakeholders to continue the monitoring and supervision of schools and interact with authorities and pupils to know their problems and recommend measures for redress to improve the quality of education in the area.

The DCE assured the Assembly's development partners such as the United Nation Initiative for Child Education Fund (UNICEF) of the continuous pursuance for water and sanitation programmes for the people in the area and called on the Assembly members to mobilize and encourage community members to be receptive to the new approach of having household toilets to prevent open defecation.

Mr. Simon Aruk Azembe, the incumbent Presiding Member of the Assembly, called for unity among members and said that would bind them together to find the common grounds for the development of the area.

Mr. Azembe reminded the members to put the interest of their electoral areas first and strengthen their local councils, so as to be able to bring onboard ways of addressing challenges that fell within their jurisdictions.

The Assembly failed on two rounds to re-elect a presiding member, Mr. Simon Aruk Azembe polled 9 votes out of 18 representing 50 percent, while Mr. Samuel Assam Passim, his contestant, polled 7 out of 18 representing 39 percent of the total vote cast at the first round, and two spoiled votes were recorded.

Mr. Azembe again polled 8 out of 18 representing 44 percent and Mr. Passim polled 7 out of 18 representing 39 percent, thus the two were unable to get the two-thirds mandate of the Assembly at the second round, three spoiled votes were recorded.

The election has been postponed.