ASSEMBLIES IN BA OWE GH¢12,463,974.31 (PAGE 15)

ALMOST all the 22 Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Brong Ahafo Region are indebted to the tune of GH¢12,463,974.31.
Topmost on the list is the Asunafo South District Assembly which owes GH¢1,469,693.29, followed by Sene-GH¢1,265,898.17,’ Pru-GH¢1,175,920.02; Wenchi-GH¢1,155,462.74; Asunafo North-GH¢855,404.08; Jaman North-GH¢779,058.81; Tain-GH¢696,049.85; Jaman South-GH¢687,807; Nkoranza North-GH¢612,630.31 and Sunyani West-Gh¢533.676.93.
The rest are Dormaa Municipal-GH¢499.908.39; Asutifi-GH¢480,961.61; Atebubu-Amantin—GH¢444,083.80; Sunyani Municipal-GH¢441,465.32; Techiman Municipal-GH¢381,026.59; Tano South-GH¢344,993.12; Kintampo Municipal-GH¢325,530.04; Tano North-GH¢233,306.37; Berekum Municipal-GH¢51,467 and Dormaa East District-GH¢29,630.87.
The Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, who made this known at the first ordinary meeting of the Sene District Assembly at Kwame Danso, said the debt stock of the assemblies kept on changing almost every day because records were not properly maintained.
He, however, commended the Kintampo South District and Nkoranza South Municipal assemblies for not incurring any debt and gave the assurance that almost all the projects it had awarded on contract were paid for before the new administration came into office.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo expressed grave concerns about the situation, adding that most of the assemblies might not be able to redeem the debts in the first four-year term of office of the new administration.
He explained that the debts came about as a result of the numerous projects awarded by the MDAs in the region, some of which had begun while others, which had been paid for were yet to take off.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo, therefore, urged the assemblies to critically examine all the projects that had been awarded on contract and complete those that impacted on the living conditions of the people before they initiated new ones.
The regional minister also commended the assembly members for the way they conducted themselves when it came to the confirmation of their District Chief Executive (DCE).
He, therefore, urged them to continue in that manner to speed up the development of the district.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo implored the DCE to ensure that all the electoral areas in the district had their fair share of development projects to enable the assembly members to seek for re-election.
He also gave the assurance that the government would construct the Kwame Danso-Atebubu road by the close of next year.
The Sene DCE, Mr Dominic Napare, reiterated his commitment to execute pragmatic policies and programmes that would lead to a remarkable improvement in the living conditions of the people.
He said he would collaborate with the Regional Co-ordinating Council to improve upon the general livelihood of the people in the district with emphasis on tarring the Atebubu-Kojokrom trunk road and opening of the district through the construction of more feeder roads, expansion of infrastructure in education, health and agriculture.
Mr Napare said for the purpose of running a transparent administration, he would institute a programme dubbed: “I Care for you”, an annual forum that would involve assembly members, heads of department, chiefs and opinion leaders, among others.
He said during the programme, budget estimates, projects and programmes of the assembly would be outlined to the people for them to make their inputs while the others would be an end-of-year performance review meeting where the preformance of the assembly would be appraised.