Revive revenue collection system- Adjiri Blankson

Accra, April 30, GNA- Mr Stanley Nii Agyiri Blankson, Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Friday said there was the need to revive the revenue collection system in the city.

He said the payment of property rate, market and land tolls needed to be revised to help make the Metropolitan Assembly stand on its own, instead of depending always on the government.

Mr Blankson said this when he visited the Waste Management Department (WMD) of the AMA as part of his familiarization tour of departments working under the Assembly.

Speaking to workers of the WMD, he said the laws of AMA were outmoded and there was the need to do something about them Mr Blankson blamed the revenue collectors for not doing their work well, saying, "most of the monies collected by these people go down the drain".

He said because of the drain, the AMA was not able to pay the garbage collectors well, thus, leaving the city filthy all the time. He regretted that taxes supposed to go into the coffers of the AMA were directed somewhere else.

He said managing the city had not been easy with the AMA, since one arm of the Assembly had not helped in revenue collection and generation. "AMA has become a fat milking cow and I am coming to correct the situation to enable all staff working under the AMA, to get job satisfaction with their work, since I believe in creating wealth and sharing it equally," he said.

Mr Ben Laryea, Director of the WMD, noted that one of the major problems facing the department was that of inadequate funding, making it difficult to maintain equipment used for waste collection as required.