Finance Minister not happy with Revenue mobilisation by assemblies

Sunyani (B/A) Feb. 16 GNA - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo has expressed concern about the poor mobilisation of revenue by some district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies and charged their Chief Executives to help improve the situation to enable the Government's decentralization and poverty alleviation policies to succeed.

Mr Osafo-Maafo was addressing participants at the launch of the Local Governance-Poverty Reduction Support Programme of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and German Technical Cooperation in Sunyani on Monday.

The Finance Minister, who is in Sunyani to attend New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Strategic Review Seminar, urged the administrators of the district assemblies to step up mobilization of revenue in their areas. Decentralization must go with financial viability, he said, and expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of competent budget officers in some districts to manage financial allotments by the Central Government. Mr Osafo-Maafo said it was time every district got a budget officer to properly monitor the management of financial resources. The Finance Minister said his Ministry paid 20 billion cedis to support the sanitation programme of Accra and Kumasi in terms of refuse collection in view of the poor revenue mobilization by the two assemblies.

He expressed regret about the failure of most landowners to pay their property rates and asked such landowners to change for the better "since Ghana cannot move ahead without the contribution of the citizenry".

District and Municipal Chief Executives, Presiding members, Regional and District Coordinating Directors from Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions, the Federal Republic of Germany Ambassador in Ghana, Mr Peter Linder, GTZ/KWF and other stakeholders attended the forum.

Nana Kwame Korang V1, Omanhene of Odomase Number Two, near Sunyani and Vice-President of Brong-Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, presided.