MMDCEs Urged to Monitor Special Development Initiatives

By Faustina Kwabea Osei

Kumasi — Metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) in the Ashanti Region have been urged to monitor government projects under the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives which are at various levels of completion, in order to ensure quality work execution.

The call followed reports that metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) have not been meeting district implementation teams frequently to oversee the projects and programmes and as such, not much was done with the identification of viable activities, especially with Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) and One District One Factory (1D1F).

At the first Regional Co-ordinating Council meeting of the year held here on Thursday, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah tasked the MMDCEs and the monitoring teams of the various assemblies to regularly monitor these projects as he had observed they had little or no knowledge of the progress of the projects.

Touching on revenue generation, Mr Mensah urged the assemblies to intensify their tax education to the public as most of the assemblies' performance in revenue generation for the first quarter of 2019 was low.

He indicated that, in order to improve on revenue generation and enhance realistic budget preparation, the assemblies should provide database for all revenue items, businesses and properties.

Mr Mensah added that the assemblies needed to strengthen the internal control mechanisms for effective revenue mobilisation, urging them to avoid spending above budget allocations and also ensuring prompt submission of financial statement.

He urged Asokwa, Obuasi, Old Tafo and Suame municipalities which have been selected for the five-year Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme worth 110 million dollars, to be mindful of their performance that would be dependent on their retention in the programme as the project is expected to improve on urban management and basic urban services.

On sanitation, Mr Mensah called for the support of the assemblies to the Clean and Green Ashanti campaign that is expected to place sustainable measures to turn cities and towns into clean green environment.

Touching on security, Mr Mensah commended the security agencies for ensuring peace in the region amidst the security threats like the abduction of the two Canadian and an Indian national, assuring the public that the security agencies were on high alerts to lessen security threats in the region.

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