The Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo has advised chiefs in the region who are fond of pocketing monies meant for development projects from companies operating in their respective jurisdiction to desist from that act.
The Minister indicated that it would be prudent for the chiefs to use such monies to undertake projects that would benefit the larger population rather than satisfying their own parochial interests.
He asserted ‘sometimes chiefs will push the youth to demonstrate against companies in their areas to demand monies due the communities, but at the end of the day you’ll realize that such chiefs have gotten themselves involved because they want to pocket the money’.
The Regional Minister continued ‘if companies have also put monies into chief’s pockets we need to remove them for development projects’.
The Western Regional Minister stated this at the commissioning and handing over of a six-unit teachers’ quarters built by West Rock Quarries Limited, manufacturers of quarry aggregates and concrete products, for Anto community in the Shama district of the region.
The regional minister commended the chief of Anto, Nana Kwamena Wieno for giving out the parcel of land for the construction of the teachers’ quarters and appealed to other chiefs in the region to emulate what Nana Anto has done.
The Chief Executive Officer of the quarry company, Sam Kwofie explained that the decision to put up the edifice to accommodate teachers in the community was part of the company’s social responsibilities.
He indicated that it was also to ensure that teachers posted to the Anto-Aboso Junior High School (JHS) had enough accommodation in the town to make them give off their best.
Each of the six rooms is furnished with bed, writing desk and chair.
Currently the Anto-Aboso JHS has two streams of classes but most of the teachers are not staying in the town due to accommodation difficulties.
He was happy that a pupil from the Anto-Aboso JHS and an indigene of Anto won the Presidential Special Award in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as the best female candidate from the Western Region in the 2011/2012 academic year.
‘The provision of the accommodation facility is a big testimony to the fact that Westrock Quarries is ready to give back and share with the community any resources generated from the community through our operations’, the CEO added.
The chief of Anto and Acting Omanhene of Shama, Nana Kwamena Wieno, commended the company for the project stressing that teachers are very essential to development.
He appealed to Westrock Quarries to help support brilliant but needy school children in the area.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
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