Garu (U/E) Jan. 29, GNA - An average monthly revenue of A250.2 million was collected by the Garu-Tempane District Assembly (GTDA) from October to December, last year, almost twice the amount compared to the =A226.2 million received from January to September within the same year. Mr. Emmanuel Sin-nyet Asigri, Chief Executive of GTDA, who disclosed this at the People's Assembly at Garu, said the assembly engaged the services of a revenue consulting firm to assist in plugging the loopholes in the existing revenue collection systems. He said this was necessitated by the low revenue generation of the assembly in spite of the numerous economic activities in the area. Mr. Asigri said the low revenue collection denied the district to mobilize the much needed resources to implement programmes and projects on its own, making the district to depend largely on government for funding.

He added that with the increase in its revenue efforts the district was poised to carry out most of its policies and projects that would improve the living conditions of the people. The DCE appealed to the inhabitants to discharge their obligations to the district so as to move the district forward as well as to benefit from its numerous programmes and projects. He said the government has spent several billions of cedis in constructing and rehabilitating facilities in the education, health, agriculture and water and sanitation sectors of the district since its creation two years ago.

Mr. Asigri added that the district had also spent over A2450 million in sponsorship packages on its human resource development drive to attract and retain qualified personnel into the district. He said all these initiatives, which required huge resources, was needed to improve the lives of the people and called on them to honour their tax obligations for service delivery to be effective to them. The Regional Minister, Mr. Boniface Gambilla, called on the people to reset their mindsets and assess the numerous projects springing up in the district since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over the governance of the country.

He said by this, the people would appreciate the efforts of the government in giving them the best that would improve their living conditions as compared to any other district in the country. He said the current deplorable condition of the area was inherited by the NPP administration and pleaded with the people to allow enough time for the NPP to rectify the situation.

Mrs. Agnes Chigabatia, leader of a four-member delegation of the President, which included the deputy ministers of Upper West Region, Trade, Industry & PSI and Fisheries, Mr George Benson, Mr. Kwadwo Affram Asiedu and Mr. Daniel Dugan, appealed to women to participate in the decision-making process of the district.

She called on the women to take advantage of the micro-finance credit facilities to go into businesses and expand existing ones to be self-reliant in order to reduce their over dependence on their partners. Issues such as the tarring of the roads to link other districts, education on accessing micro finance facility, the district's own health insurance, the politicization of the youth employment programme and sanitation bye-laws, were raised at the forum.