LEDZOKUKU-KROWOR ASSEMBLY TO BUILD OFFICE BLOCK PAGE 18, NOV 26, 2010)

THE Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly has the cut sod for the construction of a three-storey permanent office block to house the assembly.
The two-phase project is estimated to cost GH¢4.5 million and the first phase is expected to be completed within 18months.
The project is being financed from the assembly’s internally generated funds (IGF) with additional funding from its share of the district assembly’s common fund.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Daniel Amartey-Mensah, said the assembly currently operated in rented premises and paid a monthly rent of GH¢9, 000, an amount he said could be used for various social interventions for residents in the municipality.
He said the unavailability of office accommodation had led to the assembly’s decentralised offices operating at different locations within the municipality.
That, he said, was impacting negatively on delivery due to mounting huge fiscal load on the assembly owing to increase demand for rent payments by owners of the structures they occupied.
Mr Mensah explained that the LEKMA in its quest to integrate development in the municipality was committed to phasing out the shift system of education which was a common feature in the municipality.
He noted that LEKMA had been allocated GH¢1.3 million by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development following an impressive performance in the ministry’s 2009 assessment of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDCs), thus placing the assembly second to Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) nationwide.
The money he said was being used judiciously for the provision of manpower training, procurement of furniture for deprived schools in the community, an ambulance for the Teshie General Hospital, construction of school blocks amongst others.
The Deputy Local Government Minister, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, said his outfit after conducting an institutional audit of the sixty new MMDCEs that were created in 2008 was putting out a cabinet memorandum to seek funding for their support.