Keta (V/R), March 15, GNA - A 74-member Keta Municipal Assembly was inaugurated on Tuesday, with a call on members not to use their positions to gain contracts or undue favours.

Mr Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, who made the call in a speech delivered on behalf of the President, said soliciting favours from the assembly would undermine members' authority to demand accountability from management. "Members should have due regard to national interest and the interest of the people in the district. This presupposes that members should relegate their personal parochial interest to the background," he said.

The newly elected and appointed members of the Assembly will spearhead the socio-economic development of the area for the next four years.

Mr Bagbin said in the quest to deepen decentralisation, the NDC government had undertaken several interventions to give meaning to the decentralized system.

These include formulation of a revised decentralization policy and the production of a National Decentralization Action Plan, implementation of the new sanitation policy and the formulation of the draft urban development policy, among others.

Besides, the government has also reduced the number of the unit committees to about 5,000, for effective functioning, implementation of street naming and house numbering exercise, implementation of a new sanitation policy, to make governance meaningful to the people. Mr Bagbin asked the new Assembly Members to evolve new strategies, in collaboration with management, to generate adequate revenue to complement the efforts of Central Government. He advised them to manage the funds provided by the Central Government as well as internally generated funds prudently. Mr Bagbin asked members to serve their people and country at the local level and allow the people to participate in the decision-making process of the governance of the country.

Mr Sylvester Tornyeavah, Keta Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said he would operate an open administration, to ensure total development of the municipality and called on members to see themselves as agents of change in fulfilling the task. He called for work to be expedited on the establishment of the Keta Basin Development Authority, to create jobs for the youth in the Keta-Avu Lagoon area. 15 March 11