Stop inciting public against paying revenue

The Gomoa Central District Chief Executive, Mr Benjamin Kojo Otoo, has advised assembly members of the newly created Gomoa East District Assembly to desist from inciting the public against paying local revenue to the assembly.

According to him, such a situation will derail efforts of the assembly towards generating enough revenue locally to support its development agenda for the ultimate benefit of the ordinary people.

He has, therefore, charged them to rather rally behind the assembly to collect a chunk of its revenue to fund its development projects in order to fast-track the growth and development of the new district.

PM election

Mr Kojo Otoo gave the advice during a meeting to elect the first presiding member (PM) to steer the affairs of the new district assembly which was among the 38 newly created districts across the country.

The election of a new PM had become necessary so as to ensure smooth administration of the assembly until a substantive district chief executive was appointed by the President to head the assembly.

The Assembly Member for Gomoa Dampase, Mr Nicholas Otchie, and Assembly Member for Gomoa Ojobi, Mr Joseph Ato Quartey, contested in the election. After the first round of voting, Mr Otchie had 10 votes while Mr Ato Quartey secured six votes with two votes rejected.

In the second round of voting, Mr Otchie had 12 votes and Mr Quartey had four votes. Per the membership of the assembly, for one to be elected as a PM, the person must secure 14 of the total valid votes cast.

The assembly is yet to fix a date for the next round of voting.

Instance

Citing an instance at the new market at Nyanyano Kakraba, he said some assembly members in the area had incited the market women against the assembly; they have vehemently refused to pay their daily market tolls to the assembly.

“Due to this, the assembly has not been able to collect tolls from the traders for the past four months,” he added.

He noted that it was totally unacceptable for the assembly members who were part of the assembly to turn and stab the assembly in the back by encouraging the traders not to pay revenue to the assembly, stressing that “the assembly needed such internally generated funds (IGF) for development purposes”.

He stated further that per the new District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) guidelines, only 20 per cent out of the quarterly fund released could be used to fund projects and that the assembly increased its revenue locally to supplement that of the DACF.

“The IGF is key to the progress of all MMDAs and all hands must be on deck towards increasing such funds to assemblies to execute projects,” he told the assembly members.

He further admonished them to offer the needed support to the yet-to-be-appointed DCE for the district so that with a sense of togetherness, they could work effectively and efficiently to address the challenges confronting the district.

Illegal sand winners

For his part, the PM for the Gomoa Central District, Mr Kweku Nyarko Koomson, urged the new assembly to check the activities of illegal sand winners in the area since their activities would have negative repercussions on agriculture in the district.