Motorbikes for Keta Assembly Members

Keta, May 23, GNA - Seventy Yuvan motorbikes acquired at a total cost of Ghc 83,265.00 by the Keta Municipal Assembly from its common fund, have been presented to the members of the Assembly at Keta. The bikes acquired at a unit cost of Ghc 1,189.50, was under an agreement between the Assembly and members to pay for them partly with the ex-gratia earned at the end of their term and from own resources.

Mr Sylvester Tornyeava, Keta Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) presented the bikes on Thursday at Keta to begin a two-day meeting of the Assembly. He said the Assembly agreed to purchase the bikes because of difficulty Assembly members faced with transportation in discharging their duties. Mr Tornyeava bemoaned the poor mobilization of Internally Generated Funds (IGF) particularly in the Zonal Councils, and urged beneficiaries of the bikes to use them to facilitate the collection of revenue. He told the Assembly that out of the projected Ghc 203,437.00 revenue for 2009, only Ghc 135,414.00 or 66.57 percent was realized, while only 24.65 percent of the Ghc 254, 302.00 for this year, had been collected by

April. Mr Tornyeava announced that about 40 development projects in the areas of education, health, water, and road infrastructure were at various levels of completion. He said a five-year development plan for the area would be presented to the Assembly in September this year, targeting fast growth in education, roads, water, salt production, tourism and agriculture, particularly in vegetable and fish farming.

Dr Benjamin Glover, Member of the Council of State asked the Assembly to form sub-committees on salt mining, tourism and fish farming, which he said were the main potentials of the area. He asked the Assembly to find market for salt in Nigeria, by liaising with the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce.