Opinions of Monday, 31 March 2014

Columnist: Maxwell Okamafo Addo

2nd lady Inaugurates New Office complex

for La Dade -Kotopon Municipal Assembly

The Second Lady, Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur,has called on workers of the La Dade -kotopon Municipal assembly to have a maintenance culture on properties and infrastructure that belongs to them and see it as theirs, so as to protect the facility for the benefit of future generations.

She made this statement when she commissioned the new office complex for the La Dade- Kotopon Municipal Assembly for selected decentralized departments at the PWD yard on Monday 31st march in Accra. Mrs. Amissah-Arthur lauded the Municipal assembly for the success and work done to get to this stage by putting up such a structure for its workers and called on the assembly to put up a roster for maintenance so as to review quarterly their facilities and not wait for structures to run down before they attend to it because it would cost them. Adding that, getting to this stage has not been easy task especially the number of resources that had been put in by the assembly into making their dream come true. She said the world was developing at a faster rate so the assembly must brace up new initiatives and must adopt attitudinal change by taking their work serious by being punctual at work and also make good use of their time because time is of essence to national development.

The second lady, therefore, appealed to the assembly to also adopt new methods and timelines that would be faster than normal so that issues associated with permits would be resolved faster .In order to forestall the problems of people starting their building before acquiring permits, something that when done can brand the assembly as one of the best in the country.

She also advised the workers of the assembly to work in peace and harmony for national development and stop the petty quarrels amongst themselves, a situation where one feels that the other has gone wrong you can criticize constructively in order to work resolve the bottlenecks associated with their work The municipal chief executive Hon Rita Odoley Sowah on her part stated that the cost involved in structure amounts to Ghc 183, 753, 99.

She further stated that the La Dade -Kotopon Municipal Assembly used to be a sub Metro under (AMA) which was elevated to Municipal level in June 2012 .partially completed four rooms and a twenty -five seater conference hall were handed over to them but due to hard work they have renovated to carry eleven more rooms which currently houses the central administration , works and finance departments of the he assembly. Adding that she was grateful to the Ministry of Water Resources,Works and Housing who came to their aid and gave them the new site they are inaugurating, which is currently housing the Municipal Education Directorate, Municipal Agric ,Municipal Urban Roads, Physical planning and the staff of PWD.

The Municipal Chief executive appealed to the Lands Commission and the La Traditional Authority for the release of some parcel of lands to be used for infrastructural development within the municipality since the Chief Executive and her staffs are all in rented houses.