Kwahu West: Assembly members start ‘no confidence’ vote against MCE

Some 14 Assembly Members of the Kwahu West Municipal appended their signatures to initiate a vote of No Confidence proceeding against the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Yaw Owusu Addo.

In the signed letter addressed to the Presiding Member (PM) of the Assembly, and sighted by Ghanaweb, the 14 Assembly members stated that they had resolved to initiate the process based on the reason that the MCE had without the consent of the General Assembly, cancelled a resolution by the G. A. to take GHC1.00 levy from drivers to generate revenue for the Assembly.

The letter reminded the PM that according to the provisions in Part III, paragraph 16 (a), (b) and (c) of the Model Standing Orders for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, “you are respectively requested to facilitate arrangements for the proceedings within seven (7) days upon receipt of this evidence of resolution.”

When McAnthony Dagyenga contacted the leader of the 14 Assembly members, the Assembly Member for Domeabra Electoral Area, Mr. Asamoah Addo, said, “We have been educated on the various Standing Orders in the Assemble meetings.

“There is a major standing order that the MCE has flouted. That is why we have decided that since the MCE has broken the standing order, then we will come together and pass a vote of no confidence on him. It is not an outright dismissal but it is just a decision that we are going to take to ascertain whether we will allow the MCE to stay or to continue working,” he told GhanaWeb.

The Domeabra Assembly member believed that the 14 formed more than one-third of the total of 40 Assembly members in the Kwahu West Municipal Assembly and that they constitute a required number that can initiate a Vote of No Confidence against the MCE.

Mr. Addo explained that the previous Assembly passed a policy that drivers would be charged to pay GHC1.00 as tolls to boost the Internally Generated Funds of the Assembly and it started being implemented even in the face of stiff opposition.

He said “upon implementation, I remember even party officers impressed upon the MCE to withdraw that policy. But he did not because he knew it was a declaration by the Assembly.

“So if now there has come a time and you think there is the need to stop taking the GHC1.00, the best is to bring the matter before the Assembly for discussion and consideration. But just one day, he went on a radio station and unilaterally announced that the GHC1.00 toll had been withdrawn without consulting the Assembly. That is where the whole problem started,” he explained.

When asked whether he had a personal beef with the MCE, Mr. Addo clarified that “We are cousins. I do not have any personal issues against him at all. I stayed with his brother in Germany when I was doing my Masters. And he has been my personal lawyer before. I don’t have any issues against him. It is a question of the law and we are all testing the law so that governance will be done orderly.

“If the Assembly is a strong institution, anybody who comes to work at the Assembly will work within the framework of the Assembly. That is all that we want to achieve. I beg you, it is not any personal matter,” he said.