Open Letter to Nii Adjiri Blankson- AME Chief Executive

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Sir,

Recently I could see the glee in your eyes when you announced the allocation to your outfit of 22 billion Cedis of government money to facilitate the house numbering and street naming exercise. I Would like to say well done for being able to secure funding for this important exercise which we all know has been long overdue. I know that for you the most important bit of this exercise will be the opportunity it will provide for AMA to be able to revalue residential properties for the purposes of levying property rates and taxes to increase your revenue base. This is all well and good and wish you all the best in achieving this objective. However I wish to also remind you that whilst implementing this programme do not repeat the mistake that almost all government organisations make when implementing their programmes and policies by putting the ?horse before the cart?. i.e. just determined to raise more and more money without doing absolutely anything about accountability or corrupt staff .

One of the major problems your organisation and almost all the district and metropolitan assemblies face is the wanton dissipation of public funds for private gain which has been going on for years and your inability to prevent the stealing of such funds which should be going towards delivering decent basic services to city dwellers since you took over. It's no secret that a lot of your staff are lazy, incompetent and corrupt, and the evidence is all around you to see, but since you took over you have not done anything about it. I am sure you will dispute this , but if you have, would you please let us know how many of your staff have been disciplined for past and ongoing corrupt and fraudulent activities on your watch.

Yes by all means go after those who are not paying their fair share but please remember that you have not for example taken credible action or put into place proper procedures to stop the corrupt practices at the AMA or plugged the holes which are draining away the billions of the funds already raised through property rates, which are now seeping into the private pockets of your staff members, who collude with outside contractors or fraudulently defraud the organisation.

My personal experience and that of my friends and family convinces me that there are numerous examples of AMA officials both at the senior and junior level going round contacting Landlords and asking them to cut private deals with them regarding property rates which eventually go into their private pockets and not accounted for. As usual no proper records or receipts are provided when these transactions take place. Some collect the monies under the pretext of paying it into the organisations coffers but they don?t, and some of us who wish to make complaints because we have been approached one way or the other to partake in such activities are frustrated because either there are no proper complaints procedures or credible oversight procedures in place to facilitate any effective complaints action.

There is a clear need to improve the procedures and quality, honesty and competence of your staff if your new adventure should make an impact on our city, so whilst thinking of this new exercise, would you also bare in mind that it is now also time for you to raise performance standards and determine whether the management system in place, your staff and operatives are organised and managed in such a way to allow the most efficient and cost effective delivery of your objectives which surely should be decent and prompt environmental and sanitation services.

I am sure you are also aware that the current valuation methodology in place used by your organisation to value properties is inadequate and mediocre and not up to the job in terms of the indices and indicators that go into the determination of property values. Whilst some of the managers of the current system who only think about personal gain rather than public good, and have no interest in doing the right thing are overwhelming the system, they will do all they can to create difficulties and corrupt the system. which will give rise to disputes with property owners. In your exercise would you please make sure of the overriding need for simplicity, that property owners have a better idea of the indices that go into assessments of their properties, plus effective incentives to ensure that there is not undue delay and bureaucracy on behalf of your people . Furthermore if you accept that disputes about real values or overvaluation or undervaluation is possible, you must also ensure that as you review your methodologies and fine tune your policies for this exercise, remember it is also important to set up credible local and independent valuation tribunals for home owners to seek redress and to adjudicate in case such disputes arise.

Yes I admit not all property owners are paying their fair share of local taxes, and it is necessary that charges are levied on all properties to enable your outfit to provide all the services we require in the city but some of us have been paying rates for some time, yet we do not benefit from any street cleansing or refuse collection and disposal services, or neither do we see any improvement in the environmental amenity of our various communities. Please note that for those of us already paying who do not see any benefits in our communities, once our properties are re-valued, and we are again asked to pay increased property rates, we would expert not only you, but all other chief executives of Metropolitan Assemblies and District Chief Executives intending on similar exercises , to exhibit the same zeal, enthusiasm and determination to make sure that the monies realised are properly recorded and accounted for. I hope that you will put into place measures to ensure that rates and monies collected in one community are not used to benefit another community . For example rates and monies collected in North East Accra are not going to benefit say Roman Ridge or Ring Way Residential Area because all the big men live there, to the disadvantage of the residents of North East Accra..

At the same time please ensure to put into place proper management and oversight procedures to ensure funds are not allowed to seep into the pockets of corrupt officials at the AMA as is currently happening in a lot of cases. The rates must be used to provide services that all the communities of the city needs, like for example, refuse collection, oooh and provision of proper drains and desilting, oooh and creation and maintenance of open spaces, public art, parks and gardens, ooh and decent markets and tarred lorry parks, ooh and street lighting, ooh and provision of community centres, eehhh mm ooh and recreational facilities like, children?s play areas ? Wish you all the best.