Central govt can't pay assembly members' benefits - Baah-Wiredu

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, has rejected calls for the central government to take over the payment of End-of-Service-Benefits (ESB) of assembly members.

He said the present system was not only a constitutional provision, but also that any review would defeat the purpose of the decentralisation policy.

Reacting to such a call by the Presiding Member of the Akuapem South District Assembly, Nana Akua Okyerewa in an interview with the GNA at Tease, in the Afram Plains during a tour of the area, Mr Baah Wiredu emphasised that the payment of the benefits from the coffers of the assemblies would spur them on to be more resourceful and innovative in the identification, mobilisation and protection of locally generated revenue.

He rejected the notion that the Akuapem South District was among those "less endowed to bear such huge financial burden," saying the district had abundant rocks for quarrying, among other commercial ventures it could undertake alone or in partnership with investors.

Mr Baah Wiredu who was visiting the 85th district assembly since his assumption of office, debunked the labelling of any district as "deprived or not well-endowed," saying, what was required of the assemblies was to take a "thorough assessment of the economic potentials, bold enterprising decisions and plugging the wastes and leakages in their revenue sources."

He warned that until the wastes and leakages were plugged, a few individuals would continue to siphon the incomes from the revenue sources into their pockets to the detriment of the assemblies as evidenced by revelations of various special Task Forces.

Mr Baah Wiredu announced measures to provide the assemblies with seed money and introduce them to well-managed commercial ventures and said the government was holding discussions with three financial institutions, the Ecobank, Merchant Bank and Data Bank, to set up the Municipal Bond for joint-partnerships in investments.

The controversy over the delay in the payment of ESB to assembly members increase with the coming of the end of their four-year tenure in May, next year.