DCE urges Assembly Members to chart a common path to raise revenue

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asene Manso Akroso, Mr Alex Incoom has charged Assembly members of the Assembly to pull resources together and chart a common course to raised revenue to meet the Assembly’s spending.

He said the Assembly members must not sit down for the old order to hold sway when it was clear that times had changed that Assemblies could no longer rely on the central government alone for funding.

The DCE made the call at the 1st ordinary meeting of the 2nd session of the Asene Manso Akroso District Assembly at Akyem Manso in the Eastern region. Suggesting ways of improving the Internally Generated Fund (IGF), Mr Incoom said one of them was to broaden the tax net to include the many informal sectors that had been left free over the years.

The Assembly’s by-laws on prosecuting tax defaulters should also be activated to serve as a deterrent to those who would conceive the idea to invade tax. Mr Incoom said, when the Assembly improved its IGF, it would enable them speed up their development projects.

He appealed to the Assembly members to assist the revenue collectors in discharging their duties in order to generate more funds to execute development projects in the area.

He noted that the Assembly cannot sit aloof and put enormous pressure on government’s budget so they must also help themselves as an Assembly by mobilizing more resources internally to complement what would come from the District Assemblies Common Fund.

Among some of the administrative measures that Mr Incoom said are yet to be implemented to expand the revenue base are; the development of a comprehensive database, mounting of revenue barriers at some strategic points, developing of performance and monitoring mechanism, revaluation of property among others.

He was happy to announce that the District has been selected among other few ones to benefit from GIZ, a donor support programme which has been commissioned to implement the Good Financial Governance and the Support for Decentralization reforms programmes.

Touching on health, the DCE indicated that plans are far advanced to upgrade the Manso CHPS Compound and the Akroso Health Centre to a modern District Hospital and Polyclinic respectively.

He said the Asuboa, Batabi and Moffram communities would also benefit from the construction of CHPS Compounds soon.

On road construction, Mr. Incoom said the Assembly has benefitted from a number of road construction works across the District under different funding sources.

He disclosed some ongoing road construction works as the grading of the Manso – Odumase road, face lifting of the Asene town roads and the award of the 16km bitumen surfacing of the Manso and Akroso town roads.