Assembly members want substantial ex-gratia allowance

Kade(E/R), Mar. 27, GNA-Members of the Kwaebibirim District Assembly have appealed to government to offer substantial ex-gratia to members whose term of office ends by the middle of this year to compensate for the sacrifice they had made towards the development of their districts. They argue that, the perception that the numbers of assembly members throughout the country is very huge that the total amount required to settle them if given any substantial amount could throw the national economy out of gear" was fallacious.

According to the assembly members, even if each of them was paid 1,000 Ghana Cedis as an ex-gratia allowance for their four years, the total amount involved would not come close to the total volume of ex-gratia and other facilities extended to the 230 Parliamentarians at the end of their term of office let alone adding that of the Executive and their supporting staff. This came to light when the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and Mr. Ahmed Baba-Jamal Deputy Eastern Regional Minister visited the Assembly at Kade.

The Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr. George Aboagye expressed his appreciation to the members of the assembly for their contribution towards the development of the district during the last four years. He said, though the payment of the ex-gratia allowance to the members of the assembly is expected to be paid from the internally generated funds of the assembly, government could support the assemblies to pay substantial amount of money to the assembly members to encourage others to offer their time and resources for the development of the districts. Mr Afriyie-Ankrah appealed to traditional authorities to use peaceful and amicable means of settling disputes among themselves and stop the use of violence.

He warned that, the government would deal with anybody who threatens the security of the country according to the laws of the state irrespective of ones political affiliation and where he or she comes from. Mr. Afriyie -Ankrah said the District Assembly Common Fund alone could not provide all the needs of the assemblies and urged the assembly to move from manual to electronic collection of revenue to enhance their revenue base.

He urged the assembly to establish joint ventures and attract other investors to their districts to help create employment and wealth in their area.

Mr. Baba-Jamal, urged the assembly to enforce its bye laws on the removal of all unauthorized structures from the centre of the town and adhere to the development plan of the town else it may be too late to clean up the town in future. The Kwaebibirim District Chief Executive, Mr. George Agyemang Duah, said the greatest challenge facing the district is chieftaincy disputes and appealed to the traditional authorities to help solve the conflicts to enhance the peace and development of the district. 28 March 10