Jirapa (UW), Aug.17, GNA - Mr Charles Gyang, Presiding Member of the Jirapa/Lambussie District Assembly on Wednesday advised officials responsible for the disbursement of micro-credit facilities under the youth employment scheme to ensure unhindered recovery of the monies. He expressed regret that out of 800 million cedis disbursed in the district under the Poverty Alleviation Fund between 1999 and 2004, more than 600 million cedis was still outstanding.

"To me this is the result of how the monies were dished out to people by the stroke of the pen by a few individuals in the Assembly," Mr Gyang observed, adding that although he personally provided names of defaulters to some assembly members to retrieve the outstanding amount, not much had been recovered.

Mr Gyang was addressing the last session of the fourth Assembly at Jirapa just before its dissolution ahead of the district level elections slated for September 12, this year.

He noted with satisfaction that unlike previously, there had been an improvement in the cooperation between the current District Chief Executive (DCE) on one hand and the two Members of Parliament and commended the current DCE for bringing that into play. Mr George Hikah Benson, Upper West Regional Deputy Minister advised candidates in the district level elections not to compromise the non-partisan status of the Assemblies for the sake of winning votes. "We must not allow the election to be an NDC/NPP contest, the non-partisan nature of the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections should be allowed to stay because the nation stands to gain by the current arrangement".

He asked Assembly members who would not be coming back to still find ways and means of contributing toward enriching deliberations at the Assembly.

Mr Justin Dakorah, the District Chief Executive, said the Assembly collected 358.8 million cedis as internally generated revenue in the first half of this year, up from 95.8 million cedis for the same period last year.

It also received 1.5 billion cedis from central government as its share of the common fund for the first quarter of 2006. On the National Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Dakorah said, total registered subscribers in the district currently stood at 27,686 representing 28 per cent of the district's population.