Cape Coast (Central Region) 31 March '99

Property owners in the Cape Coast Municipality owe the Cape Coast Municipal assembly more than 30 million cedis in rates as at the end of last year. The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ms Naomi Bonney, who announced this at the second ordinary meeting of the assembly, described the situation as "a set-back to the assembly's developmental efforts. "It is sad that people who refuse to honour their civic obligations are expecting a lot from the assembly", she said. She indicated the intentions of the assembly to prosecute defaulters to enable the assembly to recover the amount involved for its development projects. The MCE said the assembly exceeded its revenue target for last year when it collected 246,256 million cedis as against the 237,421 million cedis it targeted. Ms Bonney said although the amount shows an improvement over the previous year's, the bulk of the money came from market fees, lorry park rates and licenses, while other sources such as property, basic rates and fees paid by business concerns, were "rather low". The MCE said to help reverse this situation of low revenue collection, the assembly has revised rates and fees upwards and embarked on close supervision of its revenue collectors to ensure that revenue collected are paid to chest promptly. The assembly has earmarked 10 million cedis as scholarship grants for needy JSS students who excel at the Basic Education Certificate Examination. This year, it would undertake the development of a site for a light industrial area at Mempeasem and construct classroom blocks and additional offices and an assembly hall, she said.