Ga South strengthens prosecution office
The Ga South Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region is strengthening its Prosecution Section to sanction sanitation and tax offenders within the municipality.
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The Prosecution Section will also prosecute defaulters in the payment of basic and property rates.
This was announced by the Ga South Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Jerry Akwei Thompson, at the first ordinary session of the assembly held at Weija on Wednesday.
Honour tax obligations
Mr Thompson cautioned residents, including assembly members, to honour their tax obligations to avoid prosecution and embarrassment.
He explained that the basic rate, the review of which is over due, was 20 pesewas but residents, including assembly members, had defaulted in its payment, which is affecting the revenue mobilisation of the municipality.
Basic rates
He, therefore, urged assembly members to pay their basic rates to prove that they were good citizens.
That, he said, would also encourage the community to pay their basic and property rates.
He noted that the number of assembly members who had honoured their basic rate obligations was not up to five out of the more than 30 member-house.
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Revenue collection task force
He, however, cautioned the assembly members not to constitute themselves into a one-man revenue collection task force by going round collecting revenue and pocketing the proceeds.
He reminded them that they were only members of the Ga South Municipal Assembly and should operate within the by-laws of the municipal assembly and not above the laws.
Mr Thompson added that if they failed to operate within the by-laws of the assembly and fell foul of the law, the assembly would not protect them from prosecution.
Set targets
He said the Ga South Municipality budgeted to collect GH¢2,267,436 but succeeded in collecting GH¢1,872.153 in 2015, representing 82.27 of the target set.
The MCE said the picture was not completely different in 2014 when the municipality targeted GH¢3,159.380 and succeeded in collecting GH¢768.881, representing 81.92 per cent of set target.
Mr Thompson said for January to March this year, the municipality had already collected GH¢309.004 and from all indications, there would an improvement over the previous years because of the innovation put in place to empower the prosecution section to haul offenders of the by-laws before courts for non payment of levies to provide goods and services.
He noted that when the trend continued, the municipality would be able to increase its revenue and also deliver services to the people of the municipality.
Tax obligations
The MCE, therefore, called on assembly members to give their support by educating their communities to honour their tax obligations to the assembly.
He said a review of the internal control mechanism put in place, in addition to prosecution of tax offenders, showed that if the assembly monitored the system with eagle eyes, the revenue situation would improve drastically.
Mr Thompson noted that the records indicated that the municipality had considerably improved on revenue generation and also controlled expenditure.