Low revenue hampers development in Sekyere West

Mampong (Ash), Aug 30, GNA - The internally generated revenue base of the Sekyere West District Assembly is so low that it hardly meets its recurrent expenditure, Mr Haruna Oppong-Boateng, the District Chief Executive has said.

According to him, while the assembly was able to mobilize 1.3 billion cedis as local revenue in 2004, the figure fell to 1.1 billion cedis in 2005.

Correspondingly, the assembly's share of the common fund, which is tied to the level of internally generated funds, fell from 5.1 billion cedis in 2004 to 4.6 billion cedis in 2005. Mr Oppong-Boateng therefore appealed to the people of the area to honour their tax obligations promptly so as to enable the assembly to raise enough funds for development.

These were contained in a speech delivered by the DCE at a forum organised at Asante-Mampong on Tuesday during which citizens of the district were educated on the activities of the assembly. The forum, dubbed, "District Assembly Open Day," was organised by the Government Accountability Improves Trust (GAIT II), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the Assembly, District Education Directorate and the Sekyere West Civic Union.

Speaking on the theme of the forum, "Promoting Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance in the District", Mr Oppong-Boateng said despite the low revenue base, the assembly had made modest achievements in many areas of developments. He said within the past four years, a number of educational and health facilities were constructed while others had been rehabilitated and that new markets had been constructed at Mampong, Nsuta, Kofiase, Kwamang and Birem.

He indicated that in an attempt to address the problem of poverty in the district, 90 million cedis had been disbursed to small groups to undertake income-generating activities.

In addition, 40 million cedis has been released to support Untrained Teacher Training Diploma in Basic Education (UTTDBE) programme while 50 million cedis was used to support the district Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) programme held in Kumasi recently.

Mr Oppong-Boateng urged the chiefs and the people in the area to address isolated chieftaincy and land litigations that are hindering the development of the district.

Mr Peter Abum Sarkodie, Member of Parliament (MP) for Mampong, explained the work of parliament to the people.