Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly fails to meet revenue target
The Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly in the Upper East Region has failed to meet its internally generated revenue target of GHC 898,244, after managing only GHC 272,194, by the end of September this year.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr William Aduum, who revealed this at the Assembly’s Town Hall Meeting said the abysmal performance of the assembly was due to nonpayment of taxes by individuals and businesses, adding that such persons and businesses would be apprehended.
According to him, the revenue leakages including; outstanding external revenue sources all contributed to rob the assembly of the revenue to execute its planned projects.
“The shortfall in the expected funds over the years has resulted in huge debts that the Assembly owe contractors in lieu of projects that were executed earlier”.
The Town Hall Meeting is a platform for management and duty bearers of the assembly to explain to the public, projects, programmes and policies of government being implemented. Citizens also take advantage of the forum to demand for accountability from government officials of the assembly.
The MCE expressed worry over the trend of illegal gold mining at Naaga, a community in the municipality, and called on security officials to step up their patrols to fight the menace.
On sanitation, Mr Aduum said 90 per cent of persons in the municipality did not own household toilets and therefore resorted to open defecation.
“This means that nine out of every 10 persons here defecate in the open. There is therefore the urgent need for the construction of household toilets by every landlord and strict maintenance regime to be put in place so as to reverse this trend”.
Alhaji Inusah Bukari, the Municipal Coordinating Director of the assembly, urged citizens to hold members of the assembly accountable by demanding for information from the client services unit of the assembly.
Responding to a concern on the payment of the allocation of funds to persons with disability, he said all monies due to persons with disability were made known to its committee members.
Mr Rockson Bukari, the Upper East Regional Minister, called on members of the assembly to work towards the development of the assembly and the region. “Let’s work hard to ensure that the assembly grows from strength to strength”, he urged them.
Source: GNA