Yilo Krobo District Assembly to meet revenue target

Somanya, July 21, GNA - Out of the targeted amount of GHC 297,961.01 for its Internally Generated Revenue for the year, the Yilo Krobo District Assembly collected GHC 151,195.90 as at June, Mr Andrews Sodah, the District Chief Executive, had said. Addressing the seventh ordinary meeting of the Fourth Session of the assembly at Somanya on Tuesday, Mr Sodah said the figure represented 51 percent of the target.

The assembly also received GHC 908,610.34 as grants, the amount representing 52 percent of the total grants of GHC 1,743,706.44 expected for the year.

Mr Sodah said the assembly had put in place measures aimed at cutting down monthly expenditures on office protocol including supply of minerals.

The weekly expenditure on newspapers had been reduced from GHC 52.40 to GHC 20.30 and the Executive Committee of the assembly has agreed that only lunch should be provided for General Assembly meetings. "To reduce expenditure on fuel, management has streamlined fuel allocation for the assembly's vehicles".

He said "We are also ensuring that the vehicles are parked at the assembly's premises after close of work to check their movements. Additional measures would be instituted to further reduce expenditures to enable the assembly make some savings to support its development programmes."

Mr Sodah said payment of rents on markets sites was burdensome to the assembly and suggested the outright purchase of those sites in order to reduce cost and better manage the markets. He said in line with that the assembly had initiated steps to purchase the Agogo market site.

On the assembly's mango farm, Mr Sodah said the high cost of maintenance had been a major challenge and that it had not received the best in terms of maintenance, which had resulted in low yield and therefore low income

He suggested the assembly partner with investors, preferably viable mango growers to better manage the farm to realize optimal benefits. On public toilets, he said the assembly was not happy with the failure of managers of the toilets to pay levies to it while at the same time they did little in terms of proper maintenance of those places. Mr Sodah said if those managers fail to pay as expected, the assembly would not hesitate to take those facilities back. On the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) project, he said 200 farmers who were trained last year had received some support from the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA). The support is in the form of Wellington boots, fertilizers, seed maize and chemicals.

He appealed to the beneficiary farmers to make good use of the inputs to ensure increased yield from their farming activities. Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the Eastern Regional Minister, appealed to the assembly to put agriculture on their priority list since a greater number of the people in the area are farmers.