20,000 Street lights for Greater Accra ready — Regional Minister

The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (GARCC) has procured 20,000 street lights to be distributed and installed in the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra Region. 

This is to improve the lighting system and security in the region.

Currently, the council is collating a list of all the electoral areas within the region to help draw an itinerary with contractors to fix the lights.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, announced this yesterday at the annual GARCC meeting held in fulfilment of Section 191(I) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936).

He said the two metropolises in the region, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, would each receive 600 street lights, while the various municipalities get 400 each.

In addition, Mr Quartey said district assemblies would also receive 300 street lights each.

GARCC meeting

The meeting brought together all the metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) in the region and their presiding members to discuss development and challenges confronting their respective areas.

The common issues that came up at the meeting included sanitation, flooding, congestion, deplorable roads, and chieftaincy.

The MMDCEs also updated the minister on some of the ongoing projects in their respective assemblies and the levels of completion so far. 

Complaints

Mr Quartey said his office was inundated with petitions and complaints from individuals, groups and institutions on issues which should have been resolved at the assembly level.

Those petitions and complaints, he said, sometimes came with the protest that the MMDAs had failed to address them.

He urged the MMDCEs to understand that the Local Government Service was client-focused and, therefore, prompt and efficient service delivery and resolution of complaints and challenges should be their priority.

“Building trust and confidence of the citizenry in local governance will ensure the wilful payment of their rates and fees.

We must, therefore commit to service delivery and have effective feedback mechanisms,” the regional minister said.

Sanitation

He further noted that sanitation and waste management remained a challenge in the region, in spite of the RCC’s strategic intervention with the “Let’s make Greater Accra Work” agenda and the Operation Clean Your Frontage (OCYF) campaign.

“I must admit the MMDAs have initially discharged the call to environmental cleanliness and undertaken education and sensitisation programmes on proper waste disposal and management but the zeal and commitment in recent times leave much to be desired,” Mr Quartey said.

He directed the MMDAs to prioritise waste management and environmental sanitation and make conscious efforts to integrate the informal waste collectors by registering them and regulating their activities.

“I am aware the registration is already ongoing in some of the MMDAs; let us, therefore, scale it up to bring total sanity in solid waste collection, disposal and management,” he added.

IGF

He further stressed that the role of Internally Generated Funds (IGF) could not be over-emphasised, especially in the Greater Accra Region, which is highly urbanised.

He said the Ministry of Finance Budget Guidelines directed the MMDAs to commit and use at least 20 per cent of the IGF for capital projects.

“But I want to challenge MMDCEs and presiding members here to commit and invest a minimum of 30 per cent of their total IGF in capital projects for the direct benefit of the citizenry,” he said.