11-10-2011
Narration: Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies across the country have been tasked to team up with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to support and wipe out all ghost names from government’s pay roll. This has become necessary at the time government is making giant strives in ensuring that all public sector workers are migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure which is set to enhance the salary conditions of workers. A Principal Planning Officer at the Ministry of Finance, Joseph Antwi, made the call at the opening of the Regional 2012 Composite budget hearing of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly at Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional Capital. Isaac Asare was there for Radio Ghana
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The event which is being carried out in all the 170 districts nationwide brought together chiefs, assembly members, municipal and district finance officers and decentralized heads among other key stakeholders. Mr. Antwi said the issue of ghost names has been one of the major administrative challenges confronting of the MOF, stressing that the various assemblies have the oversight responsibility of ensuring that names of retirees and the dead are identified and deleted from their data in order to enable government save more money to improve the working conditions of its workers. The assemblies, he suggested, should work assiduously by compiling reliable data on every government employee in the assembly and also posses’ requisite data on each workers. He moreover charged the various assemblies to closely monitor the activities of its workers so that in case of any eventuality they will be the first to know. On revenue mobilization, Mr. Antwi advised the various assemblies to intensify and device new revenue strategies to improve their internal revenue base as this will enable assembly embark on more developmental projects for their respective districts. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo acknowledged the importance of the budget hearing which he said will offer the people at the grassroot the opportunity to contribute to the financial administration of the assembly. To him, it is also a unique opportunity for the district assemblies to identify their loopholes and restrategize to meet their financial expectations. Mr. Woyongo entreated the assemblies to show keen interest in the composite budgetary exercise and replicate it to their various districts. The exercise, he added forms part of the country’s financial decentralization process and marks the beginning of ensuring transparency in our budget allocation and the use of the resources that are given to the district assemblies. He therefore hoped that the assemblies would be well resourced to implement and drive it in their districts to improve their financial status. The Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Edward Ayagle, took participants through the 2012 composite budget for the municipality touching on key economic areas. He said though the assembly in 2009/2010 recorded an appreciable growth in it’s internally revenue mobilization; statistics for the year 2011 was not encouraging. Out of expected budget estimate of GH¢615,780, only GH¢176,824 was realized at the end of June. The situation he said has affected the budget outlook for 2012 and called on the revenue mobilization team to work collaboratively to resuscitate the financial status of the assembly especially in the area of property rate collection. According to him the assembly will educate small scale businesses on the need to fulfill their tax obligations and also revaluate all rateable properties in the municipalities. Mr. Ayagle said the assembly through its budget for 2012 will embark on a number of developmental projects that cut across all sectors of the economy and mentioned education and health as their major priority concern.
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