Assembly Owes ?2.34 Billion

The Adansi West District Assembly is indebted to the tune of over two billion cedis.

The total debt rose from 1,660,700,000 cedis to 2,340,803,543 cedis as at June 30, 2001 following a report on the Obuasi Horsey Park Market Project presented to the assembly by its finance and administration sub-committee.

The report said the assembly had to settle outstanding claims totalling 130,103,543 cedis to MBC Limited and African Roots, both contractors on the project.

Also, the project engineer has indicated that MBC has done work to the value of 550 million cedis for which certificates were being processed, the report said.

Apart from the outstanding debt, work on the project yet to be completed include paving of the ground, the provision of potable water, gates, security lights, transformer and passenger lounges estimated at 1.75 billion cedis.

Mr. Joseph K. Boampong, District Chief Executive expressed concern about the precarious state of the assembly's finances and said non-performing revenue collectors would be redeployed whilst the others would be retrained to upgrade their skills in revenue mobilisation.

"Happily, a budget line of 50 million cedis has been provided for capacity development in the 2001 budget estimates. I therefore urge the administration to ensure the speedy implementation of this training programme".

Mr. Boampong announced that the assembly has so far received about 1.2 billion cedis out of 2.1 billion cedis of its share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund for 2000.

"We want to depart from the past where we were spending up-front. We are henceforth going to spend only when we have money," he stressed.

He said out of the 21 projects prioritised under the EU micro projects programme submitted to the Micro Projects Management Unit (MPMU), 12 have been approved and ready for execution at the cost of 893.7 million cedis.