Tepa (Ash), Feb. 22, GNA - The Ahafo-Ano North District Assembly is to spend 5.185 billion cedis from its share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund to undertake development projects in the various sectors this year.

These would include education, health, water and sanitation, rural electrification and good governance. Nana Eric Agyemang-Prempeh, the District Chief Executive, who announced this, said the Assembly had also targeted to collect 88.1 million cedis from its internally generated funds to be used for its day-to-day administration and the payment of salaries of casual workers. Addressing the first meeting of the Assembly at Tepa on Tuesday, the DCE said out of its projected revenue of 795 million cedis last year, the Assembly collected 570.8 million cedis, which represented 71.8 per cent.

Nana Agyemang-Prempeh attributed the shortfall to a number of factors, which included inadequate source of revenue base, ineffectiveness of revenue collectors at their stations thereby rendering them ineffective and the lack of effective supervision. The DCE noted that the introduction of the capitation grant had resulted in a dramatic increase in enrolment in the basic schools in the District.

He said the school-feeding programme would further attract parents to sent their children to school and it showed government's determination to improve education in the country. The DCE commended the chiefs and people for the peace and stability in the area, particularly the cordial relationship existing between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the two main parties in the district and said it was commendable. 22 Feb. 06