The Tano South District Assembly has held its third ordinary
meeting of the second session at Bechem the District Capital.
The meeting which attracted fifty one (51) out of the member
assembly saw on its agenda the election of a presiding member which was very
paramount as according to an Assembly
member in the person of Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi who moved a motion in this respect
calling on the entire membership to consider the election of the presiding
member as the first on the agenda so that the elected presiding member could
preside over the meeting or the meeting be postponed.
This motion which was seconded was carried out and the staff
of the electoral commission were called in to conduct the elections which saw
the outgoing presiding member in the person of Hon. Anthony Opoku as the sole
candidate for the position.The election saw Hon. Opoku polling fifty (50) votes out of
the total fifty one (51) votes cast.
In an acceptance speech the Newly elected presiding member
Hon. Opoku expressed his profound gratitude and appreciation to members for the
confidence they have reposed on him by re – electing him through popular
acclamation to lead the August house as the presiding member for the second
term. He stated that he enjoyed working with them during his first term and was
his expectation that they would grant him the necessary attention and co –
operation in order to deliver to the people as expected of them. He told
members that his success in theirs as his failure would also be their failure
for which reason they need to guide against any act that would bring disgrace
to the Assembly.
Hon. Opoku took members through Act 462 part l section 8(1) and sub section (2) which
dealt with cassation of office as a member of District Assembly and also
informed the house that a motor bike belonging to Hon. Bright Samuel Amankwaa
has been stolen from his house in Derma and called on all gathered to look out for the missing motor bike and on
behalf of the entire house expressed their sympathy to the honorable member.
In concluding his address, Hon. Opoku thanked Hon. Members,
Heads of Departments and other bodies that had contributed in diverse ways to
make his first term in office as the presiding member a success and hoped they
would continue to cooperate and support the house so that they can provide
effective and productive leadership. He requested that they support him in his
second term in office.
In his address to the house the District Chief Executive
Hon. Bukari Zakari Anaba welcomed honorable Assembly members and all gathered
into the year 2013 and back to the house for the 3rd ordinary
meeting of the second session of the house. He said they have gathered as the
Assembly and the main development agent of Government at the local level to
evaluate their performance over the past months. He said he was particularly
impressed about the smart turn out of Hon. Members,Heads of Department, Nananom
and indeed of gathered.
Hon. Anaba said the meeting was in fulfillment of the
standing orders which required that the Assembly meets from time to time to
deliberate on issues affecting the
district and suggest solutions to them. Hon Anaba acknowledged the presence of
a representative of the Omanhene of the Bechem Traditional Area and Hon. Dr. Hanna Louisa Bissiw the new member of
Parliament for the Tano South Constituency and Deputy Minister of Food and
Agriculture who he said will henceforth participate in the Assembly’s meetings
as an Ex – officio member and congratulated her though she was not personally
present due to equally important National assignment on her election as MP and
also her appointment as Minister of staff.
On revenue generation Hon. Anaba reminded members that, we
all know money is the live wire of any District Assembly as the ability of any
Assembly as the ability of any Assembly to embark of development projects
depends on the availability of revenue and in the light of this this it behoves
on the Assembly to strategize and use every available and acceptable means to
mobilize enough revenue especially internally generated funds for the
development of the district.
Hon. Anaba said whilst talking about the need to raise more
revenue for the District he wished to state that the Assembly’s performance was
nothing good to write home about which he said was seriously affecting the
performance.
Hon. Anaba said out of the total budget of GHȼ
449,945.00 for the year 2012 an amount of 163, GHȼ 336.91 was collected which represented 36,31% of the
total budget and said as at the end of March 2013 and amount of GHȼ
30,922.89 out of the budget figure of GHȼ474,509.00 representing 6.52 % of the
total budget for the year 2013 had been realized, a situation which needs much
attention because less than half of the estimated 25% for the first quarter was
achieved. He said in an effort to address this unfortunate trend management has
rolled out various strategies to take the issue of low revenue generation in
the District.
The Hon. District Chief Executive briefed the house on the
status of development projects, current projects, on ongoing and completed,
Education, Security, and gave out recommendations of the executive committee.
Hon. Anaba concluded his address by expressing his gratitude
to Hon. Assembly members, MP, Heads of Departments and Nananom for their
continued support for the development of District and again warmly welcomed all
and wished them a fruitful deliberations in advancing the Better Ghana Agenda and
finally s introduced the new District Coordinating Director in the person of
Mr. Stephen Kofi Agyei his three deputies and all the newly posted staff to the
District Assembly to the house
