No cash for Eastern Region, many institutions crippling

Many public institutions in the Eastern Region are likely to perform below their expected capacity for the first half of the year due to lack of funds and other resources needed for their effective work.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Koforidua on Friday revealed that apart from the Wild Life Division of the Forestry Commission, all the institutions surveyed had not received any subvention between January and June this year.

As the nation begins the second half of the year, only the Regional Office of the Population Council and the Information Service Department claim they have received their first subvention for the year and with this they are still yet to gain access to it.

The survey revealed that some of the departments have grounded their official vehicles either because the office has no funds to maintain them or are in default in the payment of fuel credited from their suppliers.

In most of the institutions, Heads of Department and the staff have to contribute money to buy stationery for the running of their offices and this is besides funding their electricity consumption as all offices at the Eastern Regional Coordination Council use prepaid electricity meters.

Agricultural Extension Agents in the New Juaben Municipal Area have not been able to meet the farmers regularly as they would have wished to do because either they have not been provided with fuel for their motor bikes or have not received any reimbursement for the cost of their traveling to the farms for the past six months.

Among the institutions that were captured in the survey include, the Department of Women and Children, the National Population Council, the Information Services Department, Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency, The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, the Department of Cooperatives, Department of Labour and the Lands Valuation Board.

Others are the New Juaben Municipal Office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Regional Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, Department of Births and Deaths, Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, National Service Scheme Secretariat, National Youth Authority, Statistical Service and the Department of Factory Inspectorate.