BE VIGILANT AT BORDERS (PAGE 31)

Personnel of security agencies stationed at the various border posts and frontiers of the country in the Brong Ahafo Region, have been urged by the Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, to be vigilant in order to halt the smuggling of cocoa and petroleum products to neighbouring La Cote d’Ivoire.
He noted that if such unpatriotic activities were not halted immediately, it would deny the state the needed revenue to pursue its socio-economic development agenda.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo said this when he addressed the first ordinary assembly meeting of the Jaman South District Assembly at Drobo, the district capital.
He called on the people living along the country’s frontiers to also assist the security agencies by providing them with useful information that would lead to the arrest of these ‘economy saboteurs’ who were bent on derailing the Government’s development agenda.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo noted that the district was endowed with a lot of resources and if well harnessed, they would put the district on the same level with others whose development efforts had helped raise the living standards of the people.
He called on the assembly-members to forge ahead in unity by burying their political differences and working hard towards bringing a remarkable improvement in the living conditions of the people.
The Jaman South District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Julius Atta Bediako, in his sessional address, said the assembly had about 47 uncompleted projects and the stages of completion of some of these projects fell below the contract sums left for the contractors to complete the works.
He disclosed that the total debt of the assembly stood at about GH¢688,000.00, which represented outstanding payment certificate and cost of ongoing projects.
Touching on the budget allocation, Mr Atta Bediako said the assembly had budgeted for GH¢1,336,984.05 for the year, out of which GH¢89,395.51 was to be used in servicing outstanding debts, while GH¢259,163.51 would be used to push the ongoing projects towards completion and GH¢415,152.35 would be used to initiate new projects.
The Member of Parliament (MP) Jaman South Constituency Mr Mama Afful, for his part, explained some of the Government’s policies to the assembly members and urged them to bury their political affiliations so as to work as a team to ensure the total development of the district.
He said he had used his share of the MP’s Common Fund of GH¢5000.00 to support needy students in the Constituency.
The Presiding Member of the assembly, Mr Gabriel Kofi Kyereme, bemoaned low internal revenue generation in the assembly and entreated all assembly members to assist in the revenue generation to tackle the development needs of the district.