Assembly to computerise revenue collection

The Birim Central Municipal Assembly has put in place mechanisms to help computerize revenue collection in order to halt leakages in revenue mobilisation.

“The collection of Internally Generated Fund (IGF) is bedeviled with a lot of leakages and the solution to this issue is the automation of revenue collection,” Mr Kwabena Nkansah Asare, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) said at the Third Session of the Birim Central Assembly at Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.

Mr Asare, a retired revenue official, who was nominated by the President and obtained 100 per cent confirmation by the 58-member assembly, made his debut on Tuesday. He replaced Madam Ophelia Koomson who just ended her term of office.

Mr Asare said the assembly needed to generate enough revenue so as to undertake social amenities and cater for its administrative expenditure.

“It is, therefore, incumbent on us to institute measures to improve the collection of IGF for implementation of programmes of the assembly,” he said.

He said by a dint of hard work the assembly qualified for the 2013 FOAT Assessment and that funds to be received would be used for several development projects to help enhance the people’s standard of living.

He announced that the World Bank had approved a grant under the Urban Development Grant (UDG) for the construction of a three-unit theatre with ancillary facilities at the Oda Government Hospital and to complete a two-unit lecture hall at the Akim Oda Community Nursing Training School.

Mr Asare disclosed that under the UDG, the assembly was seeking approval from the World Bank to enable it to construct a hostel facility for renting to help boost revenue generation.

He told the heads of department that he would ensure that some abandoned projects were completed, especially the two-storey office accommodation for staff of the assembly and the official residence for the MCE.

He said the bridge at the Jubilee Hospital had become a death trap and would not wait for disaster to strike before putting it in shape, adding that he would consult the municipal engineers of the Ghana Highways Authority and the Public Works Department, among others, for work to commence soon.

Mr Asare noted with a sense of pride, the development projects and programmes which had sprang up in the municipality and said; “I perceive this as a personal challenge on me to do much more than I have come to meet”.

He called on the staff of the assembly, assembly members and heads of department to rally behind him to achieve his dream of improving the living conditions of the people.