Garages seize West Akim Municipal vehicles for non-payment of debt

Asamankese (E/R), April 29, GNA - Three garages at Asamankese seized four vehicles of the West Akim Municipal Assembly for failing to pay a total of GH¢ 24,000 it owed them for unpaid workmanship and credited spare parts.

The Assembly, later, paid part of the debt and negotiated terms of payment before the vehicles were released to the assembly.

This was disclosed by the West Akim Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Seth Otchere at a staff durbar at Asamankese on Wednesday to explain the financial position of the Assembly.

He explained that, the Assembly could not regularly pay for the various allowances of staff and assembly members because of the heavy debt it inherited from the previous administration under the New Patriotic Party government.

Mr Otchere said the previous assembly did not only left debt but also committed the Common Fund of the Assembly as a mortgage to various loans that it took from the National Investment Bank including GH¢ 160,000 from the Koforidua branch of the bank and GH¢ 150,000 from the Accra branch.

The Municipal Chief executive said apart from those loans, the Assembly was also indebted to many suppliers including even small scale businesses.

He said currently the Assembly was servicing all those bank loans and does not want to incur any additional debt, hence when any vehicle of the Assembly broke down it had to mobilize funds to pay for the repairs hence the vehicles took some time to come back on the road.

Mr Otchere, therefore, appealed to the heads of department and the staff of the Assembly to bear with its administration as it struggled hard to put things right and assured them of better times ahead.

He explained that despite the financial problems confronting the Assembly, it had managed to complete some old projects and started some new ones with GH¢ 420,228 which was paid to the Assembly through the District Development Facility.

Mr Otchere said the funds were meant for development projects and could not be used for any recurrent expenditure and the Assembly could be sanctioned if it acted contrary to the policy.

Mr Samuel Danso of the Environmental Health Department appealed to the Assembly to pay the accumulated allowances of the sanitary labourers so that that they would work at the weekends.

The Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr Alex Obeng Djabang assured workers of the Assembly that when the financial position improved, he would ensure that all staff receive their allowances due them.

GNA