Presiding Member calls for peaceful polls in December

Koforidua, Feb. 16, GNA - The Presiding Member of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly (NJMA), Mrs Beatrice Boateng, has called on members of the assembly to pray, guide and educate the electorate to maintain the prevailing peace in the country.

"The peace and stability we are experiencing now was achieved at a very high cost and therefore everyone, irrespective of his or her political divide, must endeavour to play his or her part well to sustain it."

Mrs Boateng, who said this at the first ordinary meeting of the Second session of the assembly at Koforidua on Monday, said since expectations of Ghanaians would be high on the impending elections, there was the need to demonstrate a high level of maturity and love for the peace of the country, taking a cue from other surrounding African States.

She commended the members for their active participation in the assembly's activities during the past year and asked them to exhibit greater enthusiasm in constantly meeting their electorate to discuss topical issues, government policies, and development projects.

In his sessional address, Nana Adjei Boateng, the Municipal Chief Executive, said out of a total of 3.69 billion cedis targeted as local revenue for last year, only 2.99 billion cedis, representing 81 percent was collected.

He attributed "this not too impressive performance" in revenue collection to inefficiency of some revenue collectors and weak supervision.

To ensure that revenue targets are met, Nana Adjei Boateng said a number of measures had been taken.

Nana Adjei Boateng said the measures include rationalization of job assignment and setting targets for revenue collectors, reducing to the barest minimum, discretional powers allowed collectors as well as strengthening supervision.

He said the Assembly received a total of 4.4 billion cedis as grants during the year under review as against the projected total of 7.9 billion cedis, thus showing a shortfall of 3.5 billion cedis.

He said billions of cedis had been spent on projects in the educational, health, sanitation, roads and energy sectors, funded from the Common Fund, HIPC, GETFUND and by the European Union.

He said a total of 200 million cedis had been disbursed to eight groups under the support for productive groups, while between May 2002 and December 2003, a total of more than 1.244 billion cedis had been transferred to the Agricultural bank.

He said between June 2002 and December 2003, a total of 1,676 billion cedis was disbursed as loans, out of which a total of over 563,621 million cedis was recovered, representing 45.3 percent. According to him, measures had been put in place for the establishment of a Municipal-wide Mutual Health Insurance Scheme and appealed to the assembly members to be actively involved and support the effort to ensure its success.

Nana Adjei Boateng observed that 2004 being an election year is critical not only to the ruling Government and political parties, but also to district assemblies since as the basic units of governance and administration, "it is through us that policies, programmes and projects are executed making the impact of the central government felt."

He reminded them that as major stakeholders in governance and administration, they have the constitutional duty to ensure that electioneering campaigns and elections are conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner in the true spirit of democracy.