SAEMA spends 4.8 billion cedis on waste management alone

Sekondi, Dec. 22, GNA - The Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan District Assembly (SAEMA) raked-in 20.7 billion cedis in revenue this year, but spent a total of 4.8 billion cedis of the amount on waste management alone.

Mr Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, the Metropolitan Chief Executive MCE), who announced this at the first meeting of the third session of the Assembly at Sekondi on Tuesday said the Assembly spent 1.4 billion cedis of its internally generated revenue and a total of 3.4 billion cedis from both the Common and HIPC funds on its Waste Management Department. He said the problems facing the Department included critical ones such as old and weak equipment and machinery, the lack of scientific and modern final disposal sites, heavy cost of repairs and high cost of hiring equipment and machinery.

Mr Nkrumah said measures must be taken to secure reliable equipment and machinery to ensure smooth management of waste in the metropolis.. He said the annual estimate for internally generated revenue for 2004 was 11.3 billion cedis but total collection as at October 31, amounted to 6.6 billion cedis.

The MCE said the bulk of the Assembly's internally generated revenue came from property rates estimated at 5.2 billion cedis for 2004, representing 45.6 percent of the total annual projection. He said by October 31, the Assembly was able to collect 2.7 billion cedis out of the 5.2 billion cedis estimated.

Mr Nkrumah said the Assembly awarded 34 projects on contract during the year at a cost of more than 7.4 billion cedis. He said the projects included public places of convenience, doctors' bungalows, refuse stands, Metropolitan Health Administration Block and an accident and emergency unit.

Mr Nkrumah said the bulk of the Assembly's earnings went into waste management.