‘Show interest in use of MPs’ Common Fund’
The Municipal Chief Executive of Ga East, Mr John Quao Sackey, has impressed on residents of the assembly to willingly pay their taxes to help the assembly generate enough revenue to undertake more development activities.
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He said currently more than 50 per cent of property owners in the municipality were not paying their property rates, thereby denying the assembly the needed resource for development.
Speaking at a meeting of the assembly with the people at the Haatso Pentecost Church in Accra, Mr Sackey reminded the people that paying taxes was a civic responsibility.
The MCE used the platform to account for his stewardship and to obtain feed back from the residents regarding issues affecting them.
How the assembly’s revenue was expended in the previous year, projects being undertaken in 2015, as well as projections for 2016, were also made known to the constituents
MPs Common Fund
Mr Sackey explained that what had become known as the MP’s share of the Common Fund was part of the District Assemblies Common Fund, for which reason the constituents needed “to show interest in what the MP used his share of the fund for.
Assembly’s budget
The Municipal Budget Officer, Torgbui Tali III, who presented the budget, said last year, even though the assembly planned to raise GH¢3.25 million, it was able to raise only GH¢2.84 million.
He said the provisional 2016 budget had made provisions for logistics to enable the assembly to step up its revenue mobilisation drive.
On property rate, he said currently more than 50 per cent of property owners did not pay property rate, disclosing that within four days when the assembly embarked on checks, it was able to identify 500 properties that had never been billed.
He, however, conceded that the property owners could not be solely blamed for what was happening because the assembly had never contacted them for that purpose.
