Ho, April 23, GNA - The Ho Municipal Assembly has, within the first 16 months in office of the government, undertaken 35 projects and among them are 26 jobs awarded on contract by the previous government under the Urban Poverty Reduction (UPRP) and European Union (EU) projects. Mr Isaac Kodobisah, the Municipal Chief Executive, said this during Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister's interaction with Assembly Staff, assembly members and chiefs, heads of departments on Tuesday as part of his outreach to the districts.

Mr Kodobisah said 15 other projects, mainly in the area of water and sanitation had also been "planned for execution this year". They include the construction of a 4-seater dry toilet for Ho Polytechnic Primary, rehabilitation of Abutia- Kpota mechanized borehole, construction of a mechanized borehole at Abutia-Kloe, Nyive, Takla-Gbogame and Abutia-Teti.

Regarding roads Mr Kodobisah said widespread grading works had taken place in Ho under the auspices of the Department of Urban Roads involving about 15 road arteries, while another 13 link roads were billed for upgrading soon.

He said seven other road works including upgrading of the Ho-Nyive, pothole patching on the Ho-Asikuma and Ho-Denu roads were also continuing. Mr Kodobisah said nine feeder roads including Ho Polytechnic- Dzakpo, Abutia Norvisi-Osiabura, Kpedze-Ashanti Kpeota, Lovudu-Honuta and Tokokoe-Avee-Shia roads had been packaged for either reshaping or surfacing. He said 32 kilometres of streets had been lighted in the first phase of the street lighting project.

Mr Kodobisah said the Assembly had applied to the Ministry of Energy for additional accessories to cover 50 kilometres more streetlights in the Ho Municipal area.

Mr Kodobisah said the Assembly had paid 285,837.04 Ghana cedis out of 500,000.00 debts the Assembly owed when the government took over. He took a swipe at those who were criticizing him for his too frequent trips abroad, saying it was necessary as Chairman of the Association of Local Governments and that fallouts would soon show in the development for the area.

Mr Amonowode expressed his aversion for underhand dealings in the award of contracts and said jobs would be taken from non-performing contractors and re-awarded. 23 April 10