New Assemblies in dire need of funds

Awutu-Bereku, Sept. 7, GNA - Mr Adams Nuhu, Awutu Senya District Chief Executive, has appealed to government to provide financial aid to the newly created district assemblies to enable to them to function efficiently.

He said because the new assemblies took off without any seed money it has made their progress very difficult. Speaking to the GNA in an interview over the week end, Mr. Nuhu said because of financial stress, landlords have given the Assembly an ejection notice rendering the assembly squatters, who would only be allowed to stay on provided it pays 40,000 Ghana cedis. He said the situation had been compounded by market women's refusal to go to the new market to sell, therefore reducing the Assembly's income generation to about GH¢65,225.

"One solution is to recruit urban guards to assist collect revenue from other sources, including building permit fees which many house owners do not have," he said.

An initial enumeration conducted at Ofanko area alone revealed that about 60,000 buildings are not covered with permits, Mr Nuhu added. He said plans were afoot to mechanize revenue collection and that, hopefully, it would do away with impediments to maximise revenue.