Upper Manya Krobo Assembly at the mercy of contractors

Asesewa, Sept. 7, GNA - A contractor, ASK Enterprise, has instituted a legal action against the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly for its failure to pay for sand and stone for projects executed in 2006.

Mr Joseph Tetteh Angmor, the District Chief Executive (DCE) who disclosed this at the second ordinary meeting of the first session of the assembly at Asesewa on Monday, said the assembly lost the case in court and was asked to pay the principal amount and interest totalling GHC 55,165.00.

He said looking at their inflows, the assembly offered to pay the contractor in instalment of GHC 15,000.00 every quarter, from its share of the Common Fund since there are equally pressing needs of the district, including payments to other debtors. Mr Angmor said when the assembly was organising itself for the payment of the first instalment, the lawyer for the contractor went to court again to demand that the assembly paid all the judgement debt at a go, instead of the quarterly instalment.

He said another contractor, TB Moore, who constructed a six-unit classroom block at Prekumase a few years ago, but was also not paid by the mother district, then Manya Krobo district, have also given a strong notice of dragging the assembly to court.

The DCE observed that the trend was likely to continue and the likelihood of the assembly paying interest on the principal amounts is quite scary and demanding.

He said as a result of the developments the assembly have began to pay some of the contractors it owed immediately the first quarter allocation of its Common Fund was received.

"We shall continue to pay these debts as and when we receive our Common Fund allocation until we complete all payments, keeping at the back of our minds that we also have to undertake development projects with this same Fund," the DCE said.

On the assembly's financial performance, Mr Angmor announced that budgeted revenue at the beginning of the year from the Common Fund, Internally Generated funds and other sources was GHC 2,107,246.80. "Of this, the estimated receipt for Common Fund was GHC 1,363,946.80, out of which an amount of GHC 150.140.56 representing 11 percent was actually received".

He said for Internally Generated revenue, a total of GHC 206,000.00 was estimated for collection, out of which an amount of GHC 44,964.67 representing 22 percent was collected within the period. Mr Angmor said that picture did not in any way reflect the huge economic potentials in the district.

He observed that apart from the fact that some of the revenue collectors were not sincere and devoted to work, their number was far less than the total coverage area and therefore they were unable to collect most of the revenue items. 07 Sept 09