Forum on 2007 budget held in Takoradi

Takoradi, Dec 6, GNA - Mr Anthony Evans Amoah, the Western Regional Minister, on Monday advised frontline staff of the district assemblies and the decentralized departments to familiarize themselves with areas of the 2007 budget that concern their assemblies.

This will enable the assemblies to access resources provided for in the budget at the appropriate time.

He gave the advice at a one-day meeting on the 2007 budget organized by the Regional Coordinating Council at Takoradi.

District Chief executives, District Coordinating directors and budget officers from all the 13 districts in the region and heads of decentralized departments attended the meeting.

Mr Amoah said, "It is not uncommon for huge resources voted in the National Budget to go waste because certain people in the policy implementation continuum have failed to initiate steps to have such resources leveraged by the appropriate sectors".

He said the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning had indicated that disciplinary measures would be meted out to officers who do not perform in the implementation of the 2007 budget.

He said the 2007 budget has allocated trillions of cedis for innovative programmes such as the District Industries Programme, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme, Promotion of Home Ownership Programme, among others, which would be implemented during the year, some on pilot basis.

He said the Inland Rice Development Project, being implemented in eight districts in the region, extended credit to 905 farmers in 2006 and provided technical support in the area of land and water management techniques in the project districts.

In 2007, 500 hectares of valley bottom sites would be developed and cropped for the production of 4,500 tons of rice under the Inland Valley Rice Development Project.

A total of 2,400 farmers from 160 farmers groups would be mobilized for training in technology dissemination in Nurica Rice cultivation. He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture would continue to pilot pro-poor interventions in 20 districts in the country.

Mr Amoah said the government would tar some roads in remote cocoa growing areas where solar lighting systems would be provided. The government, through the Ghana COCOBOD, has earmarked 50 million dollars for the programme.

Mr Amoah said the COCOBOD has voted five billion cedis as seed money for the farmers housing scheme in the region and one billion of the fund has been released for the commencement of the pilot phase of the project.

He said the Department of Rural Housing has started the construction of 10 houses in Enchi in the Aowin-Suaman District, Afransie in Amenfi East District and Yamatwa in the Bia District. 06 Dec 06