TANO SOUTH DISTRICT ASSEMBLY HOLDS THIRD ORDINARY MEETING OF THE FOURTH SESSION

The third ordinary meeting of the fourth session of the Tano South District Assembly which is the last meeting for the years 2014 has been held at Bechem the District Capital.

  

Dignitaries and a section of Assembly Members at the meeting

The Presiding Member of the Assembly Hon. Anthony Opoku in a welcome address expressed his greatest pleasure to welcome members to this very important meeting.  He recalled that nearly four years ago, on the 15^th March, 2011 they were sworn into office as a house to foster the growth and development of the district and todays meeting which is the last to their tenure in office and the renewal of the mandates in the subsequent months of those who would seek re-election from their constituents.

                            

Hon. Anthony Opoku addressing the gathering

Hon. Opoku said despite the few setbacks and anxious moments in their quest to develop, they have collectively discharged their duties through the help of Almighty God with the support and participation of all of them and indeed they all deserve to be commended.  He said the year 2014 had been a blessing to the Tano South District since no much major unpleasant incidents was experienced and again the district was placed first (1^st ) in the league of the 216 Metropolitan,  Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’S) conducted by the centre for Democratic Development and the International Children Emergency Fund (UNICE) with the District also hosting the 2014 Brong Ahafor Regional Farmers’ Day Celebration and also a son of the District receiving the National Best Farmer Award.

Hon. Opoku said all these successes have been as a result of the able leadership of their District Chief Executive, Hon. Bukari Zakari Anaba coupled with their collective support to him.

Touching on the 2015 General Assembly Elections, Hon. Opoku said, the District Electoral Commission has opened the filing of Nomination for the up-coming District Assembly Election and urged all Hon. Assembly Members who wish to seek re-election to pick their nomination forms in time so that they can process to meet the deadline for submission and appealed to all those who would seek re-election to conduct their campaigns in an atmosphere of decorum and civility.

Hon. Opoku informed the house that a number of cases were brought before the public relations and complaint committee of the Assembly and was glad to inform Hon. Members that the committee was able to live up to expectation by finding amicable solutions to all the cases brought to the committee.

Hon. Opoku informed the house that it was sad to note that during their tenure they lost a colleague, Hon. Dapaah Amoako an Assembly Members for the Ohianimguase/Mansopa Electoral Area who has since been buried. He said, in discharging their duties they might have wronged each other as human beings and called on them to let us forgive each other for even the tongue and the teeth that are found together do not quarrel but settle issues amicably.

 Hon. Opoku said the Assembly has come far in terms of development even though a lot still needs to be done, our achievement as an Assembly would not have been possible without the support of all and wished to use this opportunity to thank all Heads of Departments, Staff of the Assembly, Nananom, Hon. Assembly Members, District Chief Executive as well as the Hon. Member of Parliament for their collaborative hard work and hoped that the next General Assembly to be elected would improve upon what they have done and wished all and sundry merry charismas.

Addressing the session, the Tano South District Chief Executive Hon. Bukari Zakari Anaba welcomed all to the meeting which he said, but for circumstances beyond the control of management should have been held some time back and said he was highly privileged to address yet another session of the august house.

Hon. Anaba said he was encouraged with the massive turn out not withstanding the series of postponements and short notice of invitation and said we are here today as mouthpiece and development agents of our people to dispassionately deliberate on the possible ways to bringing development, better living conditions and above all sense of belonging to our electorates and used the opportunity to congratulate all Hon. Assembly Members for their successful completion of a four (4) year mandate.

                             

The Tano South DCE reading his sessional address

Hon. Anaba on Revenue Mobilization said, it was very important for him at this stage to present an overview of the Assembly in terms of revenue performance.  He said the Assembly has rolled up a lot of strategies with the help of Honorable Members to improve Revenue mobilization since revenue is very critical for the advancement of every organizatin and said when these strategies are aggressively pursued, the Assembly would see a major improvement in revenue.

Hon. Anaba informed the house that (GH¢ 67,528.30) had been achieved out of the quarterly budget of (GH¢60,077.25) representing an increase of 12.40% of the quarterly budget which he said was very significant but  noted that with the measures in place, there would be more improvement in future.

Hon. Anaba informed the house that, the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th quarters of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) are yet to be received but the 1^st quarter has been received and disbursed to the Assembly’s Creditors in respect of projects and programmes and said an amount of GH¢158,894.00 in respect of the Ghana School Feeding Programme as at September, 2014 have been disbursed to caterers for 77 days of feeding 3,716 school children in 12 schools district wide.

Touching on security,Hon.  Anaba said, except for a disturbing case involving four (4) siblings who were mysteriously found dead in an unused deep freezer in their compound whose bodies have since been buried and investigations still on-going to ascertain the actual cause of death, the district has remained relatively calm.

Hon. Anaba said the Assembly has embarked on the reshaping of roads in the district not only to make the roads accessible but also to ensure improved security situation in the communities.

 The National Sanitation Day, Hon. Anaba  said was instituted to deal with the embarrassingly poor sanitation in the country and was to be held simultaneously nationwide from 6:00 am – 9:00 every first  Saturday of the month, however communities could organize the Sanitation Day either before or after the first Saturday of the month depending on the circumstances at the time of the exercise and was happy to inform the house that the Tano South District organized a Sanitation Day for the month on Saturday, 13^th December, 2014 which was  well attended by most stakeholders and commended all. He used the opportunity to appeal to all and sundry especially Nananom and Hon. Assembly Members to play a lead role to ensure the sanitation day is always observed to improve sanitation in the district.

The District Chief Executive informed the house that the 1^st phase of the street Naming and Property Addressing System was completed and commissioned on Friday, 26^th September, 2014 and the District has since become one of the Districts that were able to meet the 18 months deadline given by the President.

 Hon. Anaaba said he was sad the District was hit with 37 cholera cases out of which 2 deaths were recorded.  He however said the District Epidemic Management Committee, the District Assembly and the District Health Directorate have worked relentlessly to bring the situation under control and pleaded with Honorable Members to use all available means possible to educate their electorates to keep their surroundings clean and maintain good personal hygiene.

 Hon. Anaba said, Education is one of the foundational stones of our socio-economic transformation as a country and whilst providing infrastructure to most of our school we need to embark on a massive campaign to check on the continuous falling performance of our children especially at the basic level.

Hon. Anaba said in the last Basic School Certificate Examination conducted in the district, it was realized that twenty five (25) girls who took part in the exams were pregnant and said this and many other problems affect the education of the youth hence the need to finding ways to curb the problem.

He inform the house  that the District Assembly is currently implementing Adolescents Reproductive Health Programme (ARHP)  sponsored by Future Group a non-governmental organization based   in the UK which is aimed at ensuring that adolescents are properly sensitized on the negative implications of pre-marital sex and encourage them to concentrate on education since that is the only way they can be assured of a better future and also informed the house that the community senior high school which is being constricted at Derma by Messrs SGL Investment Ltd has seen the first floor casted and the second floor progressing steadily.

Hon. Anaba  used the occasion to thank all those who in one way or the other helped or whose participation made the celebration of the Regional Farmers’ Day  hosted by the Tano South District at Derma successful and also informed the house that as part of measures to ensure safe drinking water and improvement of sanitation in the district, a number of water projects were started by the Hon. Member of Parliament ,Friends of the Earth and International Development Association (IDA) and are at various levels of completion.

Hon. Anaba said the Tano South District has been added to the Districts which are to benefit from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programe  (LEAP) which is a cash transfer programmed aimed at assisting the poorest households such as orphans, elderly and severely disabled people to improve their basic needs and said a 12 member District Implementation Committee has been formed awaiting guidelines to  commence work on the programme.

Hon. Anaba informed the house that the Tano South District came first in the centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana and the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) instituted  216 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies league and was happy to inform them that the Tano South District was adjudged the best in term of development projects and well being of the people which meant the good work of all the  stakeholders  have been recognized even beyond the boundries of the district. This he said  has placed a responsibility on all of us to now work even harder to maintain our position.

Hon. Anaba appealed to Honorable Members to discuss the recommendations of the Executive Committee Meeting dispassionately and approve for the sake of the development of the District and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the hard working Hon. Assembly Members, Hon. Member of Parliament, Heads of Departments and Nananom for their continuous support for the Development of the District and wished Honorable Members who would  want to seek re-election the very best of luck and hoped to meet them here again after the District Assembly Elections scheduled for Tuesday, 13^th March, 2015.

The Presiding Member of the Assembly Hon. Anthony Opoku congratulated the Honorable District Chief Executive for his sessional Address and called the house to order for the business of the day which included the discussion and approval of fee Fixing Resolution for 2015 and the discussion and approval of 2015 composite Budget Estimates to begin.

                                  

Nana Ampong Kromantang the Krontihene of Techimantia seated left

Present at the meeting was Nana Ampong Kromantang the Krontihene of Techimantia, the District Co-ordinating Director Mr. Hayford Kyereh and his Deputies, Heads of Department, Assembly Members and a section of the General Public.