KMA piles up Gh¢100 million debt
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is saddled with a debt stock of more than GH¢100 million.
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Besides GH¢119.21 million debt it accumulated several years back, its judgement debt portfolio also increased from GH¢6.44 million to GH¢50.6 million between October and December last year alone.
Just last week, Meskworld Company Limited, one of its contractors, through their solicitors, served a demand notice on the KMA and threatened to sue if the assembly failed to pay the GH¢3.17 million owed it since 2008.
A visibly distraught Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the assembly, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, made the revelation in Kumasi yesterday at the second ordinary meeting of the second session of the seventh KMA.
He told members of the assembly that the KMA was currently standing on the edge of a cliff and needed a strategy to manage its debt stock and prevent the assembly from falling into an abyss of insolvency.
Measures
Mr Antwi added that the assembly would seek legal opinion, including the option of an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), to deal with all outstanding court cases.
“The assembly will also be guided by the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (PFMA, Act 921), which seeks to regulate the financial management of the public sector within a macroeconomic and fiscal framework,” he stated.
Mr Antwi said the assembly would also set up a project monitoring and control mechanism to ensure that its business was operated with a high sense of prudence, discipline and responsibility.
Records
Mr Antwi said his recent engagements with some of the contractors, as well as site visits, had given a clearer indication that some of the service providers had not been living up to expectation.
In view of that, he said the “KMA shall review all existing contracts, including those in force.”
The KMA boss said in order to succeed in the coming months, the assembly needed to forge partnerships with the central government, the Kumasi Traditional Council, the private sector, civil society organisations and all well-meaning individuals who had the growth and development of the metropolis at heart.
Kumasi City Hall
As part of his initiatives, Mr Antwi said he would discuss the construction of an office complex to house all its scattered units under one roof.