Keep Accra city clean - Henry Quartey to MMDAs

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has entreated metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to work to ensure that all public places were kept clean at all times, particularly during the Christmas season.

He explained that Accra, being the national capital, will be the centre of attraction for the season, and must therefore be clean.

“Sanitation and waste management in the various MMDAs continue to be a challenge despite the Regional Coordinating Council’s strategic intervention with the “Let’s make Greater Accra Work” agenda and the Operation Clean your frontage (OCYF) campaign.

“As we approach the Christmas festivities, I entreat all MMDAs to ensure that all public places are kept clean,” he said.

Sanitation

Mr Quartey was speaking during the second meeting of the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council (GARCC) in Accra yesterday.

The meeting was in fulfillment of Section 191(I) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), mandating the GARCC to meet with MMDCEs, Presiding Members and Assembly members to present what has been done in the region and discuss issues pertaining to the region.

Mr Quartey admitted that although there had been some slight improvement on sanitation in the city, more work needed to be put in to make the city clean.

In view of security, Mr Quartey said the security situation in the region had been relatively calm throughout the year, commending the hard work and diligence of the members of the security and intelligence agencies in the region.

He said the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), for its part, had met and intervened in situations to ensure the peace of the region was protected.

Monitoring

The regional minister stated that three MMDAs could not meet compliance indicators of a quarterly monitoring activity conducted by RCC through the Regional Planning Coordinating Unit (RPCU) resulting in them losing out on investment grant.

The indicators were preparedness towards the District Performance Assessment Tool (DPAT) and an evaluation on the Revenue Improvement Action Plan (RIAP).

He urged MMDCEs to take keen interest in such exercises moving forward.

For agriculture, he urged them to support the phase II of the Planting for Food and Jobs, while making the effort to get necessary information about the programmes from various district agriculture directors. 

“As announced by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, in the Budget presentation in Parliament, property rate collection has reverted to our assemblies.

“As such, we must put in efforts and right strategies and comply with the interim measures being instituted by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development,” he added.

Mr Quartey thanked staff of RCC for their continuous support in the day-to-day administration of the office.

He also congratulated assembly members and presiding members who emerged victorious in the just ended district assembly elections.

He urged assembly members and MMDCEs to work together to deepen participatory democracy at the local level. 
 

MMDCEs

In response to the regional minister’s advise on sanitation, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly; Samuel Nii Adjei Tawiah, MCE of Okai Koi North; Boye Laryea, and Presiding Member of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA); Alfred Adjei, pledged to keep their municipality clean.

They each said they had deployed the sanitation task force, while working with some waste management companies, to ensure that their municipalities were clean and safe to commute and do business in.