Minister bemoans poor revenue record of district

Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, has expressed displeasure at the poor performance of the Chereponi District Assembly in generating revenue internally saying “If this trend continues implementation of projects and programmes would suffer a great deal in the district.”

He said this when he addressed  the second meeting of the third session of the Assembly held at Chereponi on Wednesday and attended by assembly members, heads of department and some staff members of the district.

As of September 2013, the Assembly generated GHc21, 097 as internal revenue representing 23.6 per cent of the budgeted amount of GHc89, 225.

Alhaji Fuseini directed the Assembly to continue the operationalization of Town and Area councils, sale stickers for motorbikes and bicycles and collect property and cattle rates.

He called for public sensitization on the need to pay taxes and rates as well as ensure that the revenue mobilization monitoring chart already put in place became functional to assess the performance of the revenue collectors and the area councils.

Alhaji Fuseini also stressed the need for training of all Finance and Administration Sub-committee members, staff of Town and Area Council, revenue collectors and other key stakeholders to build their capacity in revenue mobilization.

Alhaji Fuseini spoke about the Rural Enterprise Programme in the district saying it had been resourced to facilitate its operations, which included client based training in groundnut processing and guinea fowl rearing.

He Said it was important for assembly members to put the interest of the assembly above personal and political interest to ensure the development of the district.

Mr Amevor Tse Kodzo, Presiding Member of the Chereponi District Assembly, reminded assembly members that the political season was over and appealed to them to let the interest of the district guide them in the performance of their duties.

Mr Isaaka Braimah Basintale, District Coordinating Director , spoke about the  inadequate resources to develop the district and called for all hands to be on deck to plug loopholes in revenue generation.

Source: GNA