The Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly is set to exceed its internal revenue target of GH¢600,200.00 the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Kwaku Oppong-Kyekyeku Kaakyire, has announced.
As of the end of October – with two months left to end the year, it has collected more than GH¢584,000.00 representing about 97.3 percent of what it budgeted for.
He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that this would be the first time it would have achieved 100 per cent collection of its revenue target.
This has come on the back of effective measures put in place to block leakages and also pragmatic strategies to ensure compliance.
Reporters of the nation’s wire service had visited the area under STAR-Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government’s resources are helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly the rural population.
The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability, and good local governance.
Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku said they would continue to find new ways of doing things to strengthen the revenue collection performance to speed up the progress of the area – in terms of the provision of schools, health, water and sanitation facilities among other social services.
The assembly’s ability to support the development of the various communities is dependent on the strength of its finances and it is for this reason that no effort would be spared to bring in more money, he said.
He expressed discomfort with the situation where, substantial proportion of their revenue was spent on rent and said everything was being done to change that.
The assembly, he said, had been struggling with office space and residential accommodation because they received no seed money to construct some basic infrastructure at the birth of the assembly in year 2008.
The result is that the assembly has been operating from rented premises with its decentralized departments scattered in communities that are far apart.
Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku said this would soon be over as construction works on the assembly’s administration block neared completion.
