Office accommodation is a major challenge – Ablekuma North MCE
A major challenge confronting the Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly is lack of adequate office accommodation compounded with posting of additional staff to complement the existing staff of the assembly.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Kofi Ofori made this known during his address at the 2019 First Ordinary Meeting of the assembly at The Lord is There Prayer Ministry Auditorium at Darkuman-Kokompe in Accra.
Mr Ofori said, a setback in the assembly’s quest to acquire a permanent and befitting office space was because of a recent court case Sha-Bak Company Ltd, a private developer issued against them.
However, the MCE stressed that the assembly would not relent in its efforts to retrieve and protect public property for the good of the assembly.
Mr. Ofori said despite the challenges, management is currently working on a temporary structure at Dansoman Junction to be used as offices and was hopeful that when completed, congestion at the current office of the assembly would greatly be reduced.
He said procurement processes to equip departments and units with additional equipment like laptop and desktop computers and accessories to facilitate service delivery was almost complete and in the course of the year, a pickup vehicle and a motor bike to augment the assembly’s fleet of vehicles would be procured.
On financial performance of the assembly, the MCE said premium was placed on revenue generation by outsourcing all revenue collection to private contractors and despite the privatization, the assembly had put in place a monitoring team to supervise and evaluate monthly performance of the contractors.
He said, the privatization had provided employment for over 40 people which would not have been possible if the assembly was collecting.
As at March 31, 2019 Mr. Ofori said the assembly collected a total of GH₵672,850.35 as against a target of GHC1,301,619.01 set for the first quarter of the year, representing 51.69 per cent.
The amount he said, also represented 12.9 per cent of GH₵5,206,476.05 projected for 2019.
Last year he said, the assembly was able to collect 30.6 per cent of its total projections, out of which the assembly spent a total of GH₵ 537,343.99
Mr. Ofori said the assembly would do its best to support President Nana Akuffo-Addo’s vision of making education free and accessible to all and was therefore constructing a Kindergarten block and putting up a fence wall around the Salleria School compound to prevent encroachment.
The construction of a two-storey 12-unit classroom block for the Kwashieman Cluster of Schools, he said, was about to commence, while a six-unit classroom block at Odorkor Maclean Cluster of Schools being funded under the GETFUND was also about to start.
Conceding that the road network in the municipality was nothing to write home about, Mr. Ofori said eight kilometres of selected roads were awarded on contract by the government and beginning from Darkuman, the sealing work will affect ancillary roads at Kwashieman, Odorkor and Awoshie.
Additional 2.5kilomrtres of road works Mr. Ofori said, had begun at Otaten and Sakaman while the Odorkor-Gloryland-Kaneshie underground drain desilting project was completed allowing residents along the stretch to heave a sigh of relief.
Source: GNA