Managers of CBRDP asked to make access to the facility less clumsy

Saltpond (C/R), March 23, GNA - The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Mfantseman, Mr. Robert Quainoo-Arthur, has appealed to the management of Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) to make access of funds under the facility less cumbersome.

The excessive documentation under the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP), which the CBRDP replaced, should be streamlined, the DCE said while opening a workshop on the CBRDP at Saltpond.

The workshop was organised for chiefs, heads of departments, Non-Governmental Organisations and senior officials of the Mfantseman, Gomoa and the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam district assemblies. Mr. Quainoo-Arthur said because of demands of excessive documents, the 60 million dollars provided under the VIP for poverty reduction projects were not fully utilised.

"We should be able to utilise all the 72 million dollars which has been made available nationwide under the CBRDP," the DCE said. Mr. Ben Asomaning, Co-ordinating Director at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC), said unlike the VIP, which was placed under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the CBRDP was under the RCC. He urged district assemblies to inaugurate their District Planning Committee Units (DPCUs) before the end of this month to enable the programme to take off in time.

He said the success or failure of the project depended on DPCUs and admonished the assemblies to give them the needed support. Mr. Asomaning advised DPCUs to involve the communities in planning and selection of projects to make them regard the projects as their own, and not something imposed on them.