Ho, April 2, GNA – Frail and tired looking Mr Isaac Kodobisah last Friday struggled to present an account of his four-year stewardship as Ho Municipal Chief Executive.
Mr Kodobisah entered office in 2009 looking young, energetic and full of vim but he now looks a pale shadow of himself.
He dragged himself along as he entered the chamber of the Assembly trying hard to suppress some pain within him.
‘I respectfully seek the permission of the honourable House to sit down while I read this voluminous report,’ he said as he was unable to stand as he used to.
‘Honourable Presiding Member, my address this morning will try to cover the four-year tenure of my office, having been appointed by the late President John Evans Atta Mills and endorsed by the Assembly in 2009,’ he said.
‘This may be my last address to this august House for this first term of my appointment,’ Mr Kodobisah said.
His traditional anecdotes and bright faced demeanour deserted him as he, with great effort, read the 29-page report to the 39 out of the 45 member Assembly which elected Mr Yao Semodey 44 years, as its new Presiding Member.
The report showed sound health for internally generated revenue of the Assembly, from between 70.13 percent and 116.46 percent of what were projected from 2009 to 2013.
In 2009 the Assembly was able to rake in 479,273.10 Ghana cedis (70.13) percent of its estimated revenue of 683,414.00 Ghana cedis.
The year 2010 brought in 650,279.24 Ghana cedis (97.40) percent as against the estimated 667,614.00 Ghana cedis.
A total of 676,494.83 Ghana cedis (90.55 percent) were collected instead of 747,100.00 Ghana cedis and in 2012 the Assembly exceeded its estimated internal revenue of 868,806.00 Ghana Cedis having collected 1,011,810.75 Ghana cedis representing 116.46 percent.
The Assembly’s District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) receipt of 1,681,975.53 Ghana cedis for the four years however ‘has not been very good’ the report said.
The report showed that ‘more than 400 projects have been successfully executed in the Municipality, including the Ho West District Assembly, during the past four years.’
The projects spanned several sectors.
The focus for 2013 is in respect of ‘dualization’ of Market Road (from Accra through Akrofu, the University by-pass at Sokode-Etoe, intersection improvement from the EP Mission-barracks and Trafalgar-White House road, line marking and sign improvement.
The report said the Ho Municipality now has 42 kilometres of streetlights. The problem however was that ‘some unscrupulous people tamper with the system to cause black-out for mischievous reasons.’
The report also outlined a number of projects under various programmes such as District (Municipal) Development Fund, District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), Urban Poverty Reduction Project (UPRP), Water and Sanitation, School Feeding Programme, Free School Uniform and Youth Employment.
Others are Municipal Disability Fund, Sister City partnership, improvement of lepers’ village, lower structures of the Assembly, strategic project, Senior High School improvement projects, Schools under trees programme, distribution of school desks and opening up of roads in the municipality to cope with its growth and expansion.
GNA