Sissala West District Assembly cancels night allowances for officers

The Sissala West District Assembly has cancelled the payment of night allowances to its officers including the District Chief Executive when they work out of the district but are within the region.

The assembly adopted the measure to help control its finances, Mr. Robert Baka Wavei, Sissala West District Chief Executive announced at Gwollu.

He said the assembly had been able to generate 96,123.65 Ghana Cedis as at July, this year, as against 9,360.00 Ghana Cedis within the same period last year.

He however said the refusal of some elected assembly members to provide relevant data to enable the assembly’s secretariat to plan for effective revenue mobilisation was disturbing.

Mr. Wavei was addressing members of the assembly, heads of decentralised departments and civil society organisations during the maiden visit of the Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Issahaque Salia, to the district.

He expressed regret that the assembly did not benefit from the first supply of Toyota Hillux pickups which were distributed to districts created in 2004.

Mr. Wavei said the three pickups vehicles at the disposal of the assembly were aged and appealed to the government to provide the assembly with new vehicles to help improve its revenue mobilisation efforts.

In the area of physical development, he said a chunk of the assembly’s share of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and other finances had been spent to complete projects that were started since 2005 to provide decent accommodation for public workers.

Mr. Wavei bemoaned the deplorable nature of roads in the district and called on the government to rehabilitate them to ensure constant interaction between the district the rest of the region.

The District Chief Executive reminded Alhaji Salia of a police shooting incident in Gwollu on August 11 last year and said though a committee of enquiry was set up to investigate the case, no report had been received yet.

“That was quite disturbing since it has the potential of creating a conflict between the police and the local people at Gwollu, the district capital”, he said.

Mr. Wavei expressed regret on the smuggling of fertilizer products from the district to neighbouring Burkina Faso and commended the District Security Committee for minimising the crime.

At Tumu, Madam Alijata Sulemana, Sissala East District Chief Executive also told Alhaji Salia at a similar meeting that the district assembly had taken delivery of 2,000 sets of school uniform for distribution to basic school children.

She said local tailors who had been contracted to sew them were working hard to get them ready for distribution before schools re-open in September.

Madam Sulemana announced that the assembly had been allocated 112,389 exercise books which were yet to be received for supply to basic school children.

Source: GNA