Assembly reels under huge rent bills

The Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly, reeling under huge rent bills, has stepped up its efforts at completing an administration block, started six years ago, to give it respite.

Created in year 2008, it has been struggling with both office space and residential accommodation.

Mr Kwaku Oppong-Kyekyeku Kaakyire, the District Chief Executive (DCE), said the Assembly had been operating from rented premises and this is a drain of the Assembly’s resources.

He said this was something that must end and would have to end quickly when he inspected construction works on the three-storey structure at Kodie.

He told the contractors, Vision and Ventures Construction, to speed up work on the project, which is being financed from its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

The assembly presently operates from parts of a filling station with its decentralized departments scattered in communities far apart from each other.

Reporters of the nation’s wire service had visited the area under STAR-Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects.

It is an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly the rural population.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.

Mr Oppong-Kyekyeku said the assembly was anxious to move into the structure before the end of the year.

He expressed joy at the completion of an office complex for the District Education Directorate through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It comes with 14 offices, a conference hall and washrooms.