AMA to spread the tax net

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) would bring more people into the tax net after undertaking digital mapping of all houses in the Metropolis, Mr Solomon Ofei Darko, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said on Wednesday. He said the programme was in line with the AMA's decision to improve revenue collection through property identification and re-valuation.

Addressing the second ordinary meeting of the fourth session of the assembly, the Chief Executive said AMA had received various proposals for digital mapping of Accra from relevant companies and were being evaluated for submission to the tender board for consideration as soon as possible.

The meeting, the last of the Assembly was to in accordance with Article 246 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, which states that the assembly must be dissolved after its four-year life span. It is also to pave way for the new district assembly elections to be held on 30 July.

On the AMA's properties, Mr Darko observed that the Assembly had lost about 50 per cent of its properties to encroachers because of poor documentation, adding that a committee charged with the identification and documentation of all landed properties had submitted a preliminary report to it.

He said the committee recommended among other things that the Metro Town and Country Planning Department should assist the Sub-Metros to produce immediately; site plans on all public user sites and demarcate boundaries covering their properties.

While action is being taken to document all identified lands, such sites should be protected by erection of keep-off signboards to keep off future encroachers, he said. On floods in Accra, the CEO noted that though there had been heavy rains that lasted long hours, their effect on life and property had been minimal because of some precautionary measures that were taken.

"Last year, culverts and bridges on the Spintex road and the Secaps hotel, near Legon were totally washed off, but this year the situation was different. No bridges were washed off in these areas. It would interest you to note that, last year flooding was heavy at the Odaw, Onyasi, Mateheko, Chemu and Osu areas whereas this year it was less severe in these areas", he said.

The AMA Boss, however, said that floods couldn't be eliminated in some low-lying areas in the city. Mr Darko announced that AMA's Technical Team was embarking on public education to help sensitise the people to observe simple practices of not throwing refuse into gutters and drains adding that the programme of de-silting drains was still on course and that AMA would needs more than 3.5 billion cedis to complete the programme this year.

AMA had also intensified its programme to remove unauthorised and temporary structures especially on waterways and flood prone areas to help mitigate the effect of floods. To help solve the environmental problem in the city, he said the Assembly would soon introduce Environmental Health Officers (Saman Saman or Tancas) to arrest the appalling sanitation situations in Accra.

He added that his outfit in collaboration with the Ghana Private Road Transportation Union (GPRTU) and other transport unions had launched the use of bins by passengers in their vehicles. It is an offence for a driver to fail to provide litterbins in his vehicles. Offenders stand the risk of being fined 200,000 or in default of payment to a term of imprisonment not exceeding six month or both according to AMA byelaws. The use of advertising bins is being encouraged to enhance the programme.

Already, Vekta Limited, an advertising company would be providing 500 litterbins to be installed at vantage points in the city free of charge. On the relocation of squatters around the Korle Lagoon Ecological Project (KLERP) site popularly known as Sodom and Gomorrah, the AMA CEO informed the assembly that this was to enable the work to be completed on schedule.

Meanwhile, the squatters have filed a writ at an Accra High Court seeking an injunction to restrain AMA from carrying out its intended plan to evict them from the area. Ruling for on the case was yet to be given. Mr Darko said the taskforce formed to monitor the imposition of the ban on drumming and noisemaking in the metropolis h did a satisfactory work. Churches co-perated very well and no serious breaches were recorded.