THE OFFICE of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has accepted a proposal by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to impose a levy on dumping of refuse by individuals in the metropolis.
This came to light on Thursday when the Council, led by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, met stakeholders to assess their performances, achievements and failures and map out strategies for the year 2008.
The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Hon. Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, presenting his report, stated that his outfit had not been kind to 18 waste contractors working for the assembly in terms of regularity of payment for their services due to lack of funds.
He said the assembly used the major part of its funds to clear waste to make sure that the city was clean, noting that in spite of all the efforts, the city was not as clean as expected.
“As for this year, anyone going to dump refuse would have to pay something small for easy clearing of the waste by these contractors.”
He revealed that the assembly had acquired a new site near Oblogo, called Sabaa where all waste would be dumped, since the refuse site at Oblogo would soon be full.
He noted further that the African Development Bank (Af DB) will this year help the assembly with an amount of $64 million to build the Aplaku and Legon treatment plants, pledging his outfit's readiness to accomplish about 70 percent of the work through communal labour so as to save some money for development projects.
Municipal and District Chief Executives, Chief Directors, and other functionaries of the coordinating council also presented their reports and budgets for this year.
In a speech, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Hon Sheik I.C. Quaye explained that the meeting was in accordance with the mission of the regional coordinating council to provide effective and efficient administration and technical services through harmonizing, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating their plans and programmes for the district assemblies, in order to develop the region.
He reminded the district assemblies of the mission to seek to improve upon the living standards for the people by providing effective and efficient services for the total development of their areas.
Subsequently, he said the focus of the regional coordinating council as well as the district assemblies was to improve the quality of life of the people through the provision of infrastructure and environmental sanitation.
“To achieve our mission and vision, we need to improve upon our revenue generation, plug the loopholes in our expenditure and make prudent use of resources available to us.”
Sheik I.C. Quaye said citizens would be willing to pay their taxes, rates, tolls, and licenses to the district assemblies when the assembly authorities work to assure the people that they could improve their living standards.
He urged the district assemblies and other stakeholders to be proactive in order to improve on ways of ensuring that the regional coordinating council achieves its mission.By Linda Tenyah
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