Best district for awards

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu has announced a decision by his ministry to institute best district award packages to motivate the assemblies to improve their performances.

The criteria for the selection of the award winners would be the effectiveness of the town/area councils and unit committees, efficient management of sanitation and improvement in revenue generation.

He was addressing the Mfantseman District Assembly at Saltpond on Wednesday.

The Minister urged the assemblies to put in place measures to check malpractices in revenue collection especially in the markets.

He cited Mame Krobo in Afram Plains North and Techiman markets where revenue had increased considerably due to good supervision and monitoring, and reminded the assemblies that the more revenue they generate locally, the more share they would got from the district assemblies' common fund.

Mr Baah-Wiredu asked Ghanaians not to misconstrue the measures the government was taking to retrieve state funds, which had been misappropriated. He said the government was only setting parameters to discourage people from misusing state money.

The Presiding Member, Mr John Kingsley Arhin said a 20 member revenue task force set up by the assembly collected 5,580,200 cedis at Mankessim market in 10 days as against 10,684,300 collected for last December by 33 permanent employees of the assembly and commission collectors.

Mr Kofi Wilson the District Chief Executive said the assembly as at November 2001 collected 253.5 million cedis as against the estimated revenue of 314.2 million cedis. The assembly has so far disbursed 421 million cedis to applicants for the poverty alleviation fund.

He expressed concern about the decline in the communal spirit in the communities, resulting in the assembly paying for unskilled labour, sand and gravel for the completion of the European Union (EU) and USAID sponsored projects.