Kumasi, July 18 GNA 96 The Government has allocated 1.5 billion cedis for the construction of an office complex for the National House of Chefs (NHC) at Asenua in the Kwabre District of Ashanti, Odenehu Gyapong Ababio II; President of the House, said on Tuesday. He said the Project had been awarded on contract and would soon start, adding that it was among the plans of the House to construct five bungalows at the site for each Region.

Odenehu Gyapong announced this at the first meeting of the House in Kumasi with Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture. He congratulated President John Agyekum Kufuor for creating the Ministry and appointing Mr Boafo as the First Minister and expressed the hope that the Minister would use his rich experience to enable the chieftaincy institution to make progress.

Odenehu Gyapong said for the several years that there had not been a Minister in charge of Chieftaincy, effective and efficient administration of the institution that would have enabled members to play their roles as partners in development was lacking.

He mentioned some of the immediate problems facing the institution as vehicles for the House and the Regional Houses of Chiefs, the passage of the new Chieftaincy Bill and the spate of chieftaincy disputes. Mr Boafo said the Government did not only believe in chieftaincy but also upheld all that the institution of chieftaincy stood for. He said though he could not promise the House of a solution to the problems of the institution, he would put the requisite strategies in place to ensure that the institution functioned better than before. Mr Boafo called on the members to maintain and keep proper accounts of all royalties that accrued from the stool lands in their respective traditional areas.

He also urged the Chiefs as community leaders to actualise the principles of good governance and accountability to enhance rapid development in their areas of jurisdiction.

Mr Boafo called on traditional authorities to endeavour to exercise restraint when chieftaincy disputes arose, saying 93think of the wider interest of the communities and do not give in to the machinations of some chieftaincy contractors, whose livelihood depend on continued chieftaincy disputes=94.

The House in a press release called on the Ga Traditional Council to evolve strategies to amicably end their chieftaincy dispute that had erupted in the Area.