Jirapa Assembly records low revenue target

Mr. Bede Ziedeng, out-going Upper West Regional Minister, has expressed dissatisfaction at the abysmal performance of the Jirapa District Assembly in revenue mobilization.

The Assembly projected GH¢91,950 for this year, but had been able to collect only 24,115 Ghana Cedis, as from January to June this year, representing a poor performance of 26.23 per cent.

Mr Ziedeng who was addressing members of the Assembly during its first ordinary meeting in Jirapa on Thursday, described the performance as far below expectation, and urged the Assembly to double its efforts to improve its revenue mobilization.

He encouraged the Assembly to endeavour to generate its own funds to support projects, rather than to depend on the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and the District Development Fund (DDF), as had been the practice of most Assemblies in recent times.

“Your local revenue should actually be your main source of funding projects and programmes in the district, with other external sources serving only as a supplement, and not the vice versa,” he explained.

Mr Ziedeng also reminded the Assembly of its role to promote local economic development, urging it to sensitize its electorate to patronize made-in-Ghana goods and services in the district to help build a strong and a resilient economy base for effective revenue mobilization.

He said the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) through the support of GIZ, a German Development Cooperation, had recruited a local economic development expert to provide knowledge in local economic development, and called on all assemblies in the region to invite her to assist in their local economic development programmes.

The out-going Regional Minister announced that under the Government of Ghana-World Bank Project, the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (G-SOP) had made available GH¢2,037,113.22 to the Jirapa District for 2015 and 2016. He said the fund was expected to be used for activities, including climate change, rehabilitation of small dams and dug-outs, as well as the rehabilitation of rural feeder roads, to facilitate the movement of goods and services.

Mr Ziedeng said an amount of GH¢590,304 had been approved for routine maintenance of 302.4 kilometres of feeder roads in the district, and appealed to beneficiary communities to co-operate with the contractors when they move to site. Dr. Musheibu Mohammed Alfa, Deputy Regional Minister, expressed concern about the activities of illegal small-scale miners, saying it has gained national concern to the extent that the President formed an Inter-Ministerial Committee to deal with the menace.

“The consequences of illegal small-scale mining are devastating. We are a deprived region and we have enough problems already, and we should not invite any more problems to ourselves,” he stated.

Madam Vivien-Nelly Kunko, Jirapa District Chief Executive (DCE), announced that the district had received equipment from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to implement the street-naming and property addressing system, and called for maximum co-operation of land and property owners to make the exercise a success.

She said the performance of candidates in the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in the district had dropped from 52.32 percent in 2012 to 31.0 percent in 2013. Madam Kunko, therefore, called on all stakeholders in Education in the district to put all hands on deck to reverse the worrisome trend.