[ 2016-05-03 ]

Unscrupulous revenue mobilization officers hindering progress – Budget officer
The Social Public Expenditure and Financial
Accountability (SPEFA) members have been urged to
assist the Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Assemblies (MMDAs) to halt the diversion of the
assembly revenue by unscrupulous revenue
mobilization officers.

The SPEFA members who have been constituted in 46
assemblies and trained by the Local Government
Capacity Support Project of the Ministry of Local
Government and Rural Development with support from
the World Bank and the SNV; a Netherlands
Development Organisation.

Mr Mustapha B Adam, the Bolgatanga Municipal
Budget Officer, who made the call, alleged that
there were some unscrupulous revenue mobilization
officers of the assemblies who cheat by either
issuing duplicate receipts or dividing one receipt
between two traders.

Other challenges confronting the assemblies, he
said, were the refusal of some people to pay
property rates and some beer bar operators to pay
their taxes, resulting in the generation of low
revenues.

He said the low generation of internal revenue had
negative consequences on the development of the
assemblies as that determined the amount of money
to be received from the District Assembly Common
Fund.

Mr Adam urged the SPEFA members and all Ghanaians
especially traders to complement the efforts of
the assemblies by ensuring that they report any of
such suspected revenue mobilization officers to
them.

Mr Milton Aberinga, the Programmes Manager of the
Development Research Centre (DRAC), a
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), said SPEFA
was very grateful to the Bolgatanga Municipal
Assembly and the urban roads for working to
improve upon some of the roads in the
Municipality.

Mr Senyo Tsikata, Project Assistant of SNV-Ghana,
said effective development could only thrive well
from the bottom up approach and entreated SPEFA
members to play their roles by participating
actively in the assembly.

Source - GNA

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