Minister cautions assembly members against conflict of interest

March 15, 2011
Nsuta (Ash), March 15, GNA - Dr Hannah Bissiw, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, has advised assembly members not to seek favours from chief executives of the assemblies, which could undermine their authority to demand accountability.

Dr Bissiw gave the advice on Tuesday when she inaugurated Sekyere Central District Assembly on behalf of the President at Nsuta in the Ashanti Region.

She warned assembly members not to use their positions to gain contracts or undue favours from their assemblies as it constituted serious offence of conflict of interest liable to sanction.

She advised the members to relegate their personal and parochial interest to the background and have due regard to the national interest and that of the people they represent.

Mr Ebenezer Akuoko Frimpong, District Chief Executive (DCE) said the development of the district does not rely solely on the provision of infrastructural development but the prevalence of peace, unity and understanding.

Nana Adu Agyei Bonsafo III, Nsutamanhene who chaired the function appealed to the government to provide the new district with administrative block and pipe borne water.

Mr Ebenezer Afoakwa Sekyere, former Headmaster of Prempeh College, was elected Presiding Member after defeating Mr Charles Aduse Poku, Ashanti Regional Manager of Salvation Army Educational Unit with 32 votes to 7.

Mr Kofi Nyamtey Akuffo, Nsuta Circuit Court Judge swore in the 41 assembly members made up of 27 elected members, the DCE, Member of Parliament of area and 12 appointees.

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Yendi Municipal inaugurates assembly
Yendi (NR), March 15, GNA - The Yendi Municipal Assembly has been inaugurated at Yendi, in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region.

Mr Alhassan Adam was elected as the Presiding Member of the Assembly.

He polled 50 votes, representing 71 percent, to beat his contestant Mr Zakaria Abukari, who polled 20 votes, representing 28.5 percent.

Out of the 71 members of the Assembly, 70 were present and voted.

English, Dagbani and Likpakpale were approved to be used in the Assembly.

The election was conducted by the Municipal Electoral Officer, Mr John Mensah, who asked the people in the area to always ensure that elections are held peacefully, as was witnessed during the assembly elections.

In his acceptance speech, the elected Presiding member, Mr Adam, called on the Assembly members to cooperate with him for the development of the area.

He said it is only through unity that the Yendi Municipal Assembly can be developed.

He appealed to the old Assembly members, who have been re-elected to share their knowledge and experience with the new member.

The Member of Council of State, Nana Asiamah Poku Afrifa II, who inaugurated and swore in the Assembly members, on behalf of the President, said Yendi has been an old administrative town since the colonial days and therefore there was the need to protect the image of the area.

Nana Asiamah II reminded the Assembly members that their election and appointment as Assembly members is a mark of confidence the people have in them and that they are expected to live up to expectation.

He advised them to have the National interest as their priority , as well as the interest of the people in the District.

He urged them to attend meetings of the Municipal Assembly and meetings of the sub-committee regularly.

Nana Asiamah II said this presupposes that members should relegate their personnel parochial interest to the background.

He advised them to come out with new strategies, in collaboration with management, to generate adequate revenue to compliment the efforts of the central government, instead of depending on the District Assemblies Common Fund.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Issah Zakaria said the Assembly members are assuming office at a time when the public expects much from the Municipal Assembly, in dealing with the myriad of development challenges that confront them as a people.

Mr Zakaria said the Assembly needs the unfettered support and cooperation of all and sundry if they are to accelerate the pace of development in the Municipality.

According to the Municipal Chief Executive, after years of divisiveness and acrimony amongst their people, "it is now time to build bridges and extend the hand of friendship and brotherliness to everybody who matter in the Municipality" so that they can take advantage of the opportunities that the President's Better Ghana Agenda offers, to improve their lot.

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46-member Wa Municipal Assembly inaugurated
Wa, March 15, GNA - Naa Ansoleh Ganaa, the second, Paramount Chief of the Jirapa Traditional Area, in the Upper West region, and a member of the Council of State, on Tuesday, inaugurated the 46-member Wa Municipal Assembly, at Wa.

The inaugural speech, read on behalf of the Head of State, called for cooperation between Assembly members, the Municipal Chief Executive and management of the Assembly, to enable it to meet its development agenda, since the success of the Assembly depended largely on unity among its stakeholders.

He lamented that most of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies were not doing enough to generate revenue internally to support their budgets and rather relied largely on the Common Fund

He urged the Assemblies not to seek favours from their Chief Executives, as that would compromise objectivity and undermine development while the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives must also be vigilant and accountable to individual Assembly members.

Mr Duogo Yakubu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, said the present composition of 46 members in the Assembly, as against 27 in the immediate past, demonstrated Government's commitment to deepening the roots of decentralization, as many more electoral areas had been created.

This, he noted, had also given fair and legitimate right for many people to represent their people in the Assemblies and expressed the hope that "this crop of highly qualified, technical and professional men and women would surmount the challenges of the job".

He called on the Assembly members to cultivate a good working relationship with the secretariat, on the basis of mutual trust, confidence and information sharing, to enable them to collectively tackle issues that had the potential to undermine development in the Municipality.

Mr Justice Edmund K. B. Apenkwah, the Wa Supervising High Court Judge administered the oaths to the Assembly members.

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Assembly members urged to eschew partisan politics

Juaso (Ash), March 15, GNA - The Asante-Akim South District Assembly has been inaugurated at Juaso, with a call on members to eschew partisan politics and pursue a common agenda, to ensure the accelerated development of the district.

They must relegate parochial interest to the background and work assiduously to justify the confidence reposed in them by their people.

Mr Ludwig Hlodze, Personal Assistant to the President, reminded them of the herculean task placed on their shoulders and said it required commitment.

He admonished them not to use their position to seek favours from the District Chief Executive (DCE), since it could disable them from demanding accountability from the management.

Mr Hlodze, who is also the National Youth Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), noted that the success of the assembly would largely depend on the level of cooperation between the members and the DCE, as well as, other stakeholders in the district.

He urged a cordial relationship between various stakeholders, adding that, it was also important to regularly engage the people in the discharge of their duties.

The DCE, Mr Degraft Forkuo, suggested that the district should be split, to allow for effective administration.

Mr Nicholas Kweku Aboagye, a retired educationist, was later elected as the Presiding Member of the assembly.

He polled 45 votes to beat Charles Nana Yaw Osei, who secured 20 votes.

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Okumawuo re-elects PM of Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Assembly

Bibiani (Ash), March 15, GNA - Mr Oppong Gyampong Okumawuo, a Government Appointee, has been re-elected Presiding Member of the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District Assembly after three rounds of voting.

His challenger, Prince Evans Escobar, after the third round, withdrew from the contest.

The first two rounds of balloting had produced no winner, since none of the two got the mandatory two-thirds majority votes.

Dr Kwame Ampofo, a former Minister, earlier performed the inaugural ceremony of the 54-member assembly.

He advised the members to work hard and come out with innovative ways to strengthen the assembly's revenue generation performance.

He said they need to increase internally generated funds to complement the District Assembly's Common Fund and other allocations from the Central Government.

Dr Ampofo also called on them to ensure closer co-operation and work as a work, without which, he said, would be difficult for the assembly to achieve any significant success.

He urged them to tackle head-on, the sanitation problems in the area.

GNA