Participants express disappointment at late start of programme

Invited guests, traditional rulers and assembly members who turned up to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the newly elected assembly members of the Dormaa Central Municipal Assembly held yesterday expressed deep disappointment at the late start of the programme.

The programme, which was billed to commence at exactly 10:00 hours, started four hours behind schedule at about 1330 hours due to the late arrival of Mr. Justice Samuel Adjei, the Deputy Brong–Ahafo Regional Minister.

Not even the periodic excuses from the Master of Ceremony, assuring of the Deputy Minister’s coming appeased the participants, some of whom left their seats to loiter around for a while as boredom and stress begun setting in.

When the Deputy Brong–Ahafo Regional Minister finally arrived, he was within a short period taken away from the ceremony grounds to the Municipal Chief Executive’s residency, where he had a tete- a-tete with the newly elected assembly members.

Addressing the gathering later, Mr. Justice Samule Adjei, reminded the assemblymen of their duties to work for the public good and not to seek their personal interest in the democratic process.

He noted that they were to work together with the MCE and the Presiding Member to achieve a common objective, and cautioned the MCEs, MCD and the PM not to see themselves as more important whiles performing their responsibilities.

The Deputy Regional Minister assured the assembly of government’s continuous support, adding that, they were to compliment this effort by increasing revenue generation for the assembly and stop the over-reliance on the District Assembly’s Common Fund (DACF).

Mr. Samuel Adjei advised the Town and Country Planning Department and the Lands Commission to ensure that plots were utilized according to their designated use to avoid slum development as experienced in other parts of the country.

Mr. Gordon Asubonteng, the Dormaa Municipal Chief Executive, said as the representative of the President, he would open his arms to all for advice and suggestions in order to better the lots of the people they served.

In addressing the problem of apathy on the sanitation programme, he appealed to the assembly members to make it a crusade to ensure that every household participates in the communal labour.

The MCE implored the members to come up with innovative ideas and strategies to help improve the assembly’s revenue situation.

He advised them to exercise maximum restraint in the face of challenges, and unite the people as their success would be judged by how well they are able to unite the people.

Mr Paul Ankomah, who presided, noted that, there was the urgent need to ensure that unit committees and other structures in the assembly worked effectively to reduce the workload on the assembly members.

He appealed to the newly elected members to eschew laziness in their duties, and not to allow themselves to be governed and led by financial considerations as they serve the assembly.

The 40 assembly members, comprising 30 elected members and 10 government appointees were later sworn into office by Mr. Osei Kofi Amoako, a Dormaa Circuit Court Judge.