- As It Holds Second Town Hall Meeting for 2023

 

The Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA), as part of its mandatory task, presented the planned activities and the budget for the year 2024 to stakeholders on Thursday, 8th August 2023 at the Dome Mt. Zion Methodist Church.

 

The Town Hall Meetings serve as a platform for the Assembly to render accounts for the stewardship of the resources entrusted into its care by the people and foster transparent and participatory governance at the local level which are enshrined in the Service Delivery Standards of the Local Government Service (LGS).

 

At the beginning of each year, the Assembly organizes a Town Hall Meeting to inform the people about the performance in the past year and the way forward in the current year which is followed by Thursday's.

 

Addressing the gathering, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA), Hon. Elizabeth Kaakie Mann, underscored the significance of the Town Hall Meeting and indicated that the Assembly was duty-bound to bring accountable, participatory, and transparent governance to the doorstep of the people.

 

She noted that under Section 40 of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936), the Assembly is mandated to "facilitate the deepening of democracy and increased citizen-participation in governance at the grassroots".

 

The Hon. MCE acknowledged the numerous developmental challenges affecting the communities such as roads, sanitation, flooding, drainage, revenue, among others, and indicated that the Assembly, under her administration, has put in place measures to mitigate the challenges.

 

On roads and drains, she mentioned the resealing of Abokobi Town roads, Taifa-Bankyease-Main Station, Obohene area inner roads, Taifa-Burkina-Bankyease inner roads, construction of a bridge to link Ga East and Ga North Municipalities at the Kristo Down, Taifa, ongoing road works at Pure Water, and completed drainage construction along the Abokobi-Sesemi road through the Assembly’s office, as some of the actions already undertaken.

 

Hon. Kaakie Mann also said, "we have carried out numerous reshaping works including the Abokobi-Teiman, Agbogba Cosway-Narhman road, sections of ECOMOG road, Pure Water- Ashongman Estate Road and Agbogba Akatsi Abor road with Abokobi-Boi road soon to be worked on.

 

The Hon. MCE assured that steps are being taken to address the perennial flooding situation in some parts of the Municipality through the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project.

 

She stated that a Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Hon. Martin Adjei Korsah, has, in this direction, commended the Assembly for the good dredging exercise done in some parts of the Municipality.

 

On sanitation, Hon. Kaakie Mann reminded the stakeholders about the Operation Clean Your Frontage (OCYF) which she said is still in in force and entreated them to ensure their surroundings are clean to avoid prosecution and contracting communicable diseases such as cholera.

 

She also spoke about revenue mobilization, particular, property rate, saying that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is now responsible for the collection of property rate because of the lack of capacity by the Assembly to collect more.

 

She informed the participants about the registration and payment platform for the Property Rate as www.myassembly.gov.gh and encouraged them to visit the site to register and self-assess and generate their bills.

 

The business of the day was the presentation on the 2024 planned activities and budget which were done by the Municipal Planning Officer (MPO), Mr. Daniel Baah Tenkorang, and Municipal Budget Officer (MBO), Benedicta Obeng Nyarko.

 

Total projected revenue for the year 2024 is 26.54 million Cedis with IGF component projected at 10.86 Million Cedis and the rest from Central Government and Donor support including the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) from which the Assembly will undertake various activities such as physical projects, goods and services.

 

The Municipal Health Environmental Officer (MEHO), Charles Ampomah Asabre, educated the stakeholders on Cholera, its causes, prevention, and treatment.

 

He emphasized the fact that the disease is causing more harm than good in our lives and community and advised the residents to keep their surroundings clean and practice good personal hygiene to prevent this deadly illness.

 

There were other presentations from Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the Culture and Tourism Unit of the Assembly by Nii Ardy Ankrah.

 

The Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD), Nii-Amarh Ashitey, giving the closing remarks, expressed profound gratitude, on behalf of the Assembly, to stakeholders for making time out of their busy schedules to attend the meeting.

 

He said, "the Assembly cannot do all the work alone but with you. I urged you to support the Assembly as you always do to ensure we move the Municipality forward in the manner we all desire".