The third General Assembly meeting of the third (3rd) Ordinary meeting of the third (3rd) Session of this Assembly has been held at Bechem, the Municipal capital.
Hon. Presiding Member (Middle), MCD (left) and MCE (Right)
The meeting which was held at St. Joseph Collage of Education Conference Hall saw dignitaries like Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi, the MCE for Tano South, Hon. Asare Antwi, Presiding Member for Tano South Municipal Assembly, Mr. Augustine Peprah, Municipal Coordinating Director, the Security Agencies, Assembly Members, Heads of Departments and Nananom.
In an opening address, Hon. Asare Antwi, the Presiding Member of the Assembly welcomed all members to the meeting and said it was heartwarming to address yet another Ordinary meeting of the Tano South Municipal Assembly, which happened to be the last meeting for the year 2022 in pursuance of section 28 (1) and (2) of the Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936.
The presiding member, Hon. Asare Antwi, giving his welcome address
He used the occasion to offer his profound gratitude and appreciation to all Hon. Members and stakeholders who have given their selfless and invariable assistance to realize the goals of the Tano South Assembly for the year.
Hon. Asare Antwi said, as part of our core mandate to timely meet to discuss matters relating to the development in the Municipality and entreated Hon. Members to actively participate in the deliberation for the development of Tano-South Municipality.
Hon. Antwi said, with regards to Public Relations and complaint Committee (PRCC), the committee received three cases of which two were resolved amicably and the other one was referred to court since the parties involved were not ready to cooperate with the committee and urge Hon. Members to continue to inform their community members about the functionality of the committee so that they can report their grievances.
In conclusion he welcomed all of them and urge that they take active part in the discussion of this august House.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Tano South, Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi in his address, used the opportunity to extend a warm Christmas wishes from H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana to all participants and said he considered it a great honour and privilege to address the third (3rd) Ordinary meeting of the third (3rd) Session of this Assembly. Coincidentally, this happened to be the final meeting of the Assembly for the year 2022, and most grateful that the Almighty God has seen them through this journey.
MCE Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi addressing the house
Hon. Takyi said this Municipality, just like many other Districts in the Country is confronted with a myriad of challenges, including economic, social, and infrastructure gaps. This undoubtedly was what motivated our electorates to elect them over others to lead at this time because they believe in our competence, dedication and ability in addressing issues affecting the Electoral Areas to mitigate the challenges.
Despite the challenges along the way, he firmly believe that their shared sense of purpose, commitment, and devotion to duty have propelled them to achieve some amount of successes over the years, but more still needs to be done to bring the challenges to the appreciable level.
He said, in order to give full meaning to our stewardship as leaders of the Municipality, it was his sincere hope and expectation that all of them would continue to work tirelessly, devoid of acrimony, personal and partisan considerations and focus on the bigger picture which would eventually culminate in the further advancement of all facets of the Municipality.
The country’s economy is in turbulence times created mainly by external factors thus; COVID-19 Pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war. This development has resulted in escalated fuel prices and hikes in cost of living around the globe, as well as unimaginable inflationary rates for even the most developed economies.
This development therefore calls into sharp focus, the need for them as leaders in our various communities to play our respective roles to encourage the electorates to develop taste for locally produced products to mitigate the difficulty on them.
He said, “My passionate and humble appeal to all players in the economy within the Municipality is that, this is not the time to take advantage of the current phenomenon to make super normal profits to further aggravate the already precarious situation. We are in this together, and I respectfully implore all to join hands and be each other’s keeper and we shall surely once again overcome this too”.
On security, Hon. Takyi said the Municipality remains relatively calm and peaceful and can be linked to the support and co-operation from each one of us here and most especially, the Municipal Security Council (MUSEC), Traditional rulers, religious bodies etc.
The Municipality can best be described as very peaceful owing to the collective effort of all stakeholders and he was grateful to all for their effort in achieving this feat and notwithstanding the current peace being enjoyed. There are pockets of issues that have the potential to disturb this peaceful atmosphere. The Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) and Management of the Assembly continue to monitor the situation, and are also engaged in behind the scenes discussions with the parties and continue to implore them to use lawful means in seeking redress in these matters to ensure sustenance of peace in the Municipality.
However, he appealed to all to promptly report matters that have the potential to disrupt the peace of the Municipality to the Security Heads for prompt action.
Talking on Finance, Hon. Takyi said, financial resource is very crucial for the successful execution of projects and programmes. Any organization that has the vision to respond timely to the developmental needs of its people must prioritize revenue mobilization. One major stream of revenue the Assembly has control over is the Internally Generated Fund (IGF). This is why they continue to appeal to all to support the drive to improve IGF, especially at this time that the major source of funding to the Assemblies’, which is the District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) has proven to be unreliable. The persistent call on the need to improve IGF performance appears to be yielding some results, though it is still below the potential of the Assembly.
One worrying thing is the indifference attitude on the part of some of our Zonal Councils. These Zonal Councils are adamant in supporting the collection of revenue items that have been ceded to them by the Assembly. It is unbelievable, to observe that tipper trucks from near and beyond enter into Electoral Areas to win sand and leave without the Zonal Councils ensuring the right fees due the Assembly are paid.
It must be understood that, the role to collect revenue for the Assembly is not the sole responsibility of the Management of the Assembly, but the Zonal Councils also have a major role to play. Is it not strange, that even stray animals will be disturbing people in some Electoral Areas and the Zonal Councils will look on, in spite of numerous complaints from the public, and it has to take Management of the Assembly to mobilize people to move round these Zonal Councils to arrest these stray animals?
Let us all understand that revenue mobilization is not a peripheral function of the Zonal Councils, it is core and we must do all it takes to help in revenue mobilization and ensure control of stray animals to avert disputes among the electorates.
Hon. Presiding Member, at this juncture permit me to highlight on the revenue performance of the Assembly as at the end of September, 2022 and mention that, the Assembly has signed a contract with Ghana Revenue Authority on Friday, 11 November, 2022 in Kumasi to cede the collection of Property Rates to the Authority with a 70:30 ratio. This is aimed at improving the finances of the Assembly to under its planned programmes and projects.
On education he said, the Directorate of Education continues to monitor and supervise learning process throughout the Municipality with new initiative to achieve effective teaching and learning. The directorate also held management meetings with heads of Basic schools with regards to the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
He again said, the Assembly during the period under review supplied 110 furniture to five (5) basic schools and want to assure them that the Assembly and the Directorate would continue to collaborate to support education in the Municipality in every possible means and announce that the manufacturing of 1,000 mono desk for selected basic schools in the Municipality is ongoing and would soon be completed and delivered for distribution to these schools.
He continued that the Education Directorate also within the period carried out general inspection and monitoring of Basic schools throughout the Municipality. With regards to the BECE, one Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety Four (1,794) candidates sat for the examination, comprising 949 boys and 845 girls respectively and state that there was no reported examination malpractices during the BECE examination.
Hon. Takyi said, the Assembly continues to give the needed support to our health facilities. Mindful of the important role played by the Bechem Government hospital as a referral health facility in spite of the many challenges, the Assembly recently distributed fourteen (14) street bulbs to the Management of the hospital to improve visibility at night to enhance security within and around the premises.
He further said, it would be recalled that at the last meeting it was resolved for the Assembly to renovate the operating theatre of the Bechem Government Hospital. However, upon the assessment carried out by the Works Department of the Assembly, they were advised to rather construct a new operating theatre for the facility instead of renovating an already weaker structure which may cost more and may not last.
In view of the specialized nature of such health facilities, the Executive Committee at its last meeting requested the Municipal Director of Head to liaise with the Management of the hospital and Ghana Health Service to determine the prototype drawings of an operating theatre for a facility like Bechem Government Hospital and submit same to enable the Assembly to take the next decision on the matter.
He continue by saying, the issue of Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), farmers in this Municipality continue to benefit from this initiative by the Government through the distribution of subsidized improved seeds to farmers. The Department of Agriculture had distributed fertilizers to farmers in the Municipality as part of the PFJ programme, thus to enhance the use of Agriculture input and improve yields.
In ensuring the success of the PFJ Programme this year, the Department of Agriculture extended extension services to 3,376 farmers in all the three operational Zones (Bechem, Techimantia and Derma) in the Municipality, through either home or farm visits. Farmers visited were given close monitoring to see how they were performing in both previous and present technologies they have received. These technologies included, use of improved seeds, correct nursery practices, correct planting rate and spacing, correct use of agro chemicals, market linkages, post-harvest handling of produce etc.
The annual event which is always organized to acknowledge the contributions of our farmers’ to national development is national farmers’ day. He informed the house that this year’s celebration is has settled on Derma Nkwakyire for this year’s event. The celebration would take place on Friday, 2nd December, 2022 and seized the opportunity to invite all Hon. Members in and around Techimantia, Derma and Ankaase Zones in particular, to make time to attend this important celebration to make it a memorable one.
He further said, the Assembly continues to implement projects that would help to ease the developmental challenges of our people. In line with this vision, the following projects are being undertaken and are at various stages of completion. As reported in his last address, the Department of Urban Roads has officially handed over the second phase of the Bechem Town roads, totaling 5.6km to New Horizon Coopers Construction Company for construction within a contract duration of 24 calendar Months.
However, the contractor is yet to move to site, all effort to get the contractor to move to site to commence work is being made by himself and the Hon. Member of Parliament. He is hopeful the contractor may move to site to start work before our next meeting. The renovation of the Assembly building is ongoing and it is moving at a satisfactory pace. I am highly optimistic that if the speed currently being exerted by the contractor continuous, we may hold our next Assembly meeting at the expanded Assembly hall within the Assembly block.
He said, he is excited to report that the Assembly has taken delivery of one Thousand (1,000) streetlights from the Ministries of Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development and Energy respectively. The aim for the supply of these streetlights is to improve visibility at night to enhance security in order to protect lives and property. Preparations are underway to replace all the malfunctioning bulbs in all the major streets in the Municipality before Christmas.
I would like to use this avenue to once again appeal all Hon. Members who are yet to submit bulbs required for major streets in their Electoral Areas to do to ensure smooth exercise.
In conclusion he said, he would like at this point to express his satisfaction to the respective roles played by Hon. Member of Parliament, Hon. Assembly Members, Nananom, Coordinating Director, Heads of Departments and Institutions in bringing us this far.