The Second
Ordinary meeting of the third Session of the Tano South Municipal Assembly has
been held at Bechem, the Municipal capital.
The meeting which was held at the Tano
South Municipal Assembly’s Conference Hall saw dignitaries like Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere, the
Member of Parliament for Tano South Constituency and Deputy Minister of Ahafo
Region, Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi, the MCE for Tano South, Hon John Dadzie,
the presiding member for the assembly, assembly Members, Heads of the
Department, and Nana Ampong Kromantang
II, the Krontihene of Techimantia.
Some
of the Dignitaries and Assembly Members
In an opening address, Hon. John Dadzie
the Presiding Member of the Tano South Municipal Assembly welcomed all and
sundry to the Second ordinary meeting which happens to be the last meeting of
this Assembly.
Hon. Dadzie thanked Hon. Benjamin Yeboah
Sekyere, the MP for Tano South Constituency, Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi, the
MCE for Tano South, Nananom, Heads of Department and staff of the Assembly including the Security agencies for
their support and cooperation during their tenure as Assembly Members. He thanked the government for the distribution of motorbikes to
Assembly Members to enhance
their work as assembly members and urged hon. Members to take good care of the motorbikes
and also adhere to safe riding in order to achieve their goals of which
they were distributed to use.
Hon.
John Dadzie the Presiding Member addressing the house
He said the Assembly is scheduled to be
dissolved on 7th October 2019, however the
Electoral commission has
set 17th December 2019 for the election of new
Assembly Members as well as a
referendum on Article 55(3) of the 1992 constitution to pave way for
election of Metropolitan/ Municipal/ District Chief Executives on partisan
line, he called the blessing of God for the assembly members who wish to seek
for re-election and wished them a fruitful conduct of the elections. He used
the meeting to call on Assembly members to educate the citizenry to participate
in the election when the time comes to deepen our democracy and effective local
governance.
In his short but impressive speech, Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere,
the MP for Tano South Constituency and Deputy Minister of Ahafo Region
expressed his profound gratitude and commended the Assembly Members for making time out of their busy
schedule to attend this important meeting and informed them not to engage in meaningless politics to
bring disunity among them.
Hon. Sekyere commended all outgoing
Assembly for their support in the creation of Ahafo Region to champion the development projects the residents had cried for
many years. On national distribution of
government resources, he said government would construct Ahafo Regional
Education office and
bungalows for the staff of the education directorate especially the
municipality directorate at Bechem to
boost an infrastructural development in the Municipality.
Hon. Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere, the MP for Tano South
Constituency and Deputy Minister of Ahafo Region addressing
hon. Members
Hon. Sekyere said peace is relevant when
it comes to development, and however informed residents in the
Municipality to avoid intermittent attacks on Police personnel. This he said
would go a long way to make the municipality effectively fight against criminal
activities.
On the national league table for assessing the
performance of the MMDAs, he said last year the Tano South Municipal Assembly recorded
appreciable marks and eventually placed the Assembly at the better position on
the league table and thanked the assembly members for supporting the management of the Assembly to execute some of the projects
to improve the living standards of the people.
Hon. sekyere said measures are put in
place to reduce an open defecation, the government through the Tano South Municipal Assembly has started
One – House, One –Toilet project to ensure proper sanitary condition is
prevailed in the Municipality.
In his address the MCE for Tano South
Municipal Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi said it is heartwarming to address another
ordinary meeting for the Tano South Assembly which happens to be the last and
final General Meeting of the Assembly
and thanked them for their individual contributions as honourable members representing their various areas
and their selfless services they have collectively
and individually rendered to the assembly.
MCE
for Tano South Municipal Hon. Collins Offinam Takyi speaking to the house
Hon. Takyi said, it is instructive to
note that the current session of the Assembly was sworn into office on Monday,
October 5, 2015 for a four year term and therefore come 12 midnight of
Saturday, October 5, 2019 the tenure of office of the Honourable House together with all Town and Area Councils as well
as Unit Committees stand dissolved as directed by the authorities of Ministry
of Local Government and Rural
Development.
On referendum, Hon. Takyi said, fresh
elections would be conducted throughout the country to select new Assembly and
Unit Committee Members to form the next Assemblies on the 17 December 2019
and stressed that, a referendum would be conducted to amend Article
55(3) of the 1992 Constitution to allow
the election of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief
Executives (MMDECs) with
political party participation in the local and District level
elections under the theme “Amending
Article 55(3) to improve citizens
participation in democracy”
He said, for the amendment to take place, at least 40% of the
qualified voters must turn out to vote and
75% should be in favour of the bill and used the occasion to inform all
legible voters to participate in the elections.
He therefore mention three main sources of funding
to the assembly and these are the quarterly releases from the District Assembly Common Fund
(DACF) Secretariat, expected Annual Releases of funding from District Development Facility (DDF)
and funds that we generate internally (IGF). And said the main challenge in its
attempt to implement its planned programme and projects is
constrained funding.
He continued that, the Assembly in collaboration
with the Ghana First Company Limited commenced the construction of Public
toilet across the Municipality and Seventeen (17) toilet are at various stages
of completion. Though the
construction of this toilet has stalled owing to the delay in the release of
funds to contractors for work done the company and the contractors have
resolved their differences and as a result they will retune to site once
they receive their payments. In line with the sanitation projects and programme in the Municipality.
A
number of toilets and water projects are being selected and undertaken in some
selected communities through the instrumentality of Hon. Benjamin
Yeboah Sekyere Member of Parliament/ Deputy Minister of Ahafo Region.
He announce to the house that Tano South
Municipal Assembly has been selected to be part of the Ghana Productive
Safety Net Project (GPSNP) and the objective of this project is to support the government to
strengthen safety systems that improve productivity of the poor.
He said, what was expecting of them as an Assembly was to prepare and submit
work plan through the Regional Coordinating Council, Goaso and a team from
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has come to verify some of
the communities for the smooth take off of the project and it is going to add
up to the numerous interventions by government to improve
the financial and economic condition of the extremely poor households.
