Agona East Assembly advises media to be meticulous

Agona Nsaba, (C/R), Oct 13, GNA - Media houses have been urged to thoroughly investigate issues and reports made to them before publishing them to avoid libellous suits and exposing the ignorance of reporters. Some workers of the Agona East District Assembly gave the advice in reaction to a media publication that the Assembly had failed to executive the rehabilitation of Agona Duakwa Market even though it had been captured in the 2009 and 2010 budgets of the assembly.

Mr Desmond Akoto, Budget Analyst of the Assembly, said: "No government or assembly, be it a metropolitan, municipal or district can implement all the projects it has captured in its budget for the year." He said if Agona East Assembly was unable to execute a project it had captured, it was no news to be trumpeted, adding that, the publication had rather exposed the ignorance of the editorial team. Mr Akoto explained that MMDAs relied mainly on their share of the District Assembly Common Fund to implement development programmes and sometimes their expectations are not met.

He explained that when this happens some of the projects captured cannot not be executed for lack of funds and they have to be rolled over to the next annual estimates (budget) with the expectation that funds would be sourced for their execution.

Mr Francis Ayensu, District Planning Officer, said as a new district, they attach importance to market projects to make them sources of generating income for the assembly.

Mr Ayensu explained that the debts of the assemblies are deducted directly from the Common Fund and the rest of the money become inadequate for any meaningful development.

He said the assemblies were grateful to the Local Government and Rural Development for introducing the District Development Facility (DDF) which they could access by passing the Functional Organisation Assessment Tool (FOAT).

Mr Ayensu said due to the hard work by the staff of the Assembly, it qualified to access the DDF and over GH¢400,000 had been allocated to the district for executing its development projects.

He said the Assembly had decided to use the DDF to rehabilitate the market in question and others which it could not implement. Mr John Oremus Arko, District Chief Executive, assured the people of the district that his administration would do everything possible to enhance the welfare of the people. He assured them of the judicious use of resources for the common good.