Lower Manya Krobo Assembly holds meeting

The Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly held its second ordinary meeting of the fourth session of the sixth assembly at Odumase Krobo with a call on the members to be committed to the work of the assembly for its development.

As part of proceedings, the Presiding Member (PM) of the assembly, Mr Benjamin Awulley Mensah, was officially sworn in by the Odumase- Krobo Circuit Court Judge, Mr Frank Yao Gbeddy.

The assembly discussed many issues, including 2018 fee fixing, annual action plan and composite budget, internally generated funds (IGF), municipal medium-term development plan for 2018 - 2021, social protection programmes, education, Tema - Akosombo Railway Project and recommendations from executive committee of the assembly on some issues.

MCE’s address

Addressing the assembly, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Simon Kweku Tetteh, announced that the municipality had generally remained calm and peaceful due to the vigilance of the security services.

He said the Municipal Security (MUSEC), however, received series of petitions from a number of youth groups related to electricity, which culminated in a peaceful march on Thursday, October 12, 2017 by the Krobo Youth. He assured the assembly that a lot had been done to solve the problem of irregularities in the electricity billing system, which was of late a problem in the Krobo area.

He added that a nine-member team of investigators from Accra were in the municipality meeting various stakeholders aimed at bringing lasting solution to the impasse and, therefore, appealed to the members of the assembly to educate their electorates who still had problems with their billing to contact the customer service unit in the ECG district office for correction.

‘‘I wish to appeal to the members of the house to educate their electorates to allow ECG workers into their homes to carry out reading of the meters to enable them to submit the corrected bills which have been the bone of contention in the area for some time now,’’ the MCE stressed.

The MCE announced the transfer of the Municipal Coordinating Director of the assembly, Mr Eric Hini, and the Akuse District Police Commander, ASP Francis Ackah, who have been replaced with Mrs Jemima Apedo-Kallikrates and Supt. Winfred Asare Nyarko, respectively.

Finance

Mr Tetteh announced that the assembly collected GH¢433,281.60 from January to September 2017 as against the projected figure of GH¢816,630.00, which represented 53.05 per cent of the targeted figure for the period under consideration. He added that the performance was below expectation there was, therefore, the need for the assembly to put in strategies to ensure that at least 90 percent of the target was achieved.

He said the assembly had also had two tranches of the district assembly common fund (DACF) for 2017, which was going into the payment of contractors to enable them to go back to site to work ongoing projects in the municipality.

Fall army worm

He announced that 163 farmers had their farms affected by the fall army worms, which affected a total of 282.70 hectares of farm lands in the minor season. He said government responded swiftly by supplying 128 litres of Eforia 45ZC and 38 litres of KD215EC chemicals, which were used to combat the worms and the farms were out of danger.

Feeder roads

The MCE said government has awarded contract for the reshaping of Manya Ayermesu- Gortsunya feeder road and others covering a distance of 24.60km all to be completed within three months. He also mentioned Abanse-Stadium road, Agbom Boafo Loop, Kpanyas and Madaam Junction-Yohe roads were also seriously under consideration for reshaping.

The presiding member, in his closing remarks, urged the assembly members to unite and support management of the assembly to move its developmental agenda forward.