Friday, December 4, 2009

ASSEMBLY TO BUILD MODERN TOILETS (PAGE 29, DEC 4)

THE Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TAMA) is collaborating with the Rural Integrated Development Agency (RIDA) to put up modern water closet toilet facilities in some suburbs of the metropolis.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday, made this known during an interaction with media practitioners in Tamale.
According to him, RIDA was in constant touch with assembly members for information on the proposed land for the project in the beneficiary communities.
He, therefore, urged the members to act promptly to enable RIDA to execute the projects.
Alhaji Haruna acknowledged the challenges being faced by the metropolis, although it won the cleanest city in the country award some few years ago.
He intimated that sanitation management had become one of the single biggest challenges facing Tamale.
The MCE equally expressed concern over the inability of the TAMA to operationalise the sub-metropolitan assemblies and that said had affected its smooth operation.
He noted that the Legislative Instrument that established the metropolis made it mandatory for the assembly to have sub-metros whose structures had been in existence but “their operationalisation has been our biggest challenge”.
“I am happy to inform you that the operationalisation of the sub-metros will become a reality at the beginning of next year as the Public Works Department (PWD) has been tasked to come up with estimates for work to begin soon,” he stated.
Touching on revenue mobilisation, the MCE said the assembly had initiated pragmatic and innovative measures that enabled it to increase its internally generated revenue.
He stated, for instance, that the budgeted revenue target for this year was GH¢864,772, adding, “As I speak now the assembly has already realised GH¢570,470, representing 64.97 per cent.”
He, however, explained that that was in sharp contrast to revenue generated in 2006 and 2007 when the assembly only managed GH¢364,054 and GH¢249,394, respectively.
“This remarkable achievement is, however, not without some shortcomings and challenges. Management’s attention has been drawn to a couple of issues which need to be addressed because they are negatively affecting our ability to generate more revenue than we are currently doing,” he pointed out.
Alhaji Haruna mentioned the non-availability of reliable data on all ratable items in the metropolis, improper accounting for revenue collected by private task forces, blatant refusal by some rate payers to honour their tax obligations and leaks in the entire collection machinery as some of the challenges identified.
He intimated that the Finance and Administration Sub-committee had suggested the review of the private collection agreements to curtail the persistent revenue leaks, the need for proper supervision and controls, as well as the conduct of revaluation exercises on all landed property in the metropolis.

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