Madam Janet Tulasi Mensah, the Ga East Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), on Thursday, called for the active involvement of all persons living in communities under her jurisdiction, in discussions relating to the development of the Municipality.

She said their constant engagement with the Municipal Assembly, would bring forth important ideas, decisions, and pinpoint the actual needs of their communities to be addressed.

Madam Mensah, made the call in her address at the Ga East Municipal Assembly Town-Hall Meeting in Accra, to share with the people its achievements, challenges in 2020, and also discuss its plan and budget for the year 2021.

She commended the people for the high patronage of the meeting, saying it was an indication of the rising awareness of the public of their responsibility towards partnering with the Assembly to ensure the development of their communities, which was very commendable.

She said the developments being expected in the Municipality would only be achieved through unity in purpose, and advised the people to remain united and not to entertain any form of violence from any person or group. She appealed to the people to vote for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to ensure the continuation of the good work that has been started in the Municipality.

The MCE, said despite the fact that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, distorted several of the Assembly’s planned programmes for 2020, some people benefited from the social support provided by the government to the needy during the lockdown era and beyond, to mitigate the hardships brought about by the pandemic.

Again, the COVID-19 Relief Fund was established to provide some form of support to Small and Medium Scales businesses and indicated that other projects were also completed by the Assembly, while others were still on-going.

Madam Mensah said within the year under review, the Assembly completed 15 of its 18 educational projects, with the remaining three still ongoing, constructed seven culverts and five bridges, completed four out of its six health projects, while ensuring constant engagements with Resident Associations to know their needs.

Participants at the Meeting included Assembly Members from Agbogba, Taifa, Dome West, Abokobi, Kwabenya, Unit Committee Members, Government Appointees to the Assembly, Leaders from the various markets in the Municipality with some of their members, and Resident Associations.

Mr Baah Tenkorang, the Municipal Planning Officer, made a presentation on some of the achievements of the Assembly in 2020, which included the creation of a new market, purchase, and installation of hand washing facilities at markets and lorry parks, and the purchasing of Personal Protective Equipment as well as the construction of fence walls to secure the Dome Municipal Assembly’s cluster of schools, and mapping of all the Assembly’s properties to prevent encroachment.

Mr Tenkorang said other planned activities for 2021 included the construction of a Community-Based Planning and Services (CHPS) compound, a Maternity Block at Haatso, fencing all its public schools to prevent encroachment on its land and strengthening the sanitation and other by-laws, construction of a waste segregation plant at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, and desilting of drains in the communities to present flooding.

He said the Assembly was procuring two motorbikes to help its sanitation inspectors to go on regular monitoring, and also spoke about the installation of a 400-signage to ensure proper street naming while undertaking tree planting projects to ensure the greening of the Municipality.

Ms Georgina Wongkyezeng, the Budget Analyst for the Ga East Municipal Assembly, however, said the Assembly was able to realise only 4.95 million out of its projected GHC 6.76 million Internally Generated Fund (IGF), for 2020, and received GHC 5.64 out of the 9.97 million expected from Government.

She said out of the total amount received for 2020, GHc 4.40 million went into the payment of salaries while GHc 3.34 and GHc 2.42 were used for goods and services as well as Assets respectively.

She said for the 2021 projections, the Assembly was expected to generate an IGF of GHc 8.25 million to be topped up with GHc 10.09 million from the Government, out of which it would spend GHc 5.8 and Ghc 6.68 million respectively on salaries and its Assets.