Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, Eastern Regional Minister, on Wednesday criticised revenue collectors of district assemblies in the region for receiving wages regularly but not working hard to generate enough revenue for development.

He said the situation was due to the over-reliance of the assemblies on the District Assembly Common Fund, which had negatively affected revenue mobilization.

Dr Osafo-Mensah made these observations in a speech read on his behalf at the inauguration of the Eastern Region Presiding Members' Association at Koforidua.

He called on the Presiding Members to put in place adequate measures to facilitate revenue generation to enable the assemblies to undertake more development projects to improve the people's standards of living.

Dr Osafo-Mensah also appealed to the Presiding Members to ensure that monthly audit reports and trail balances were made available to enable the assemblies to effectively check corruption and misapplication of funds.

He asked district assemblies in the region to choose economic activities in which they had comparative cost advantage for the implementation of the Special Presidential Initiatives to create employment for the youth thereby preventing them from drifting to the urban centres for jobs.

Dr Osafo-Mensah called for the privatisation of waste collection in the districts and said people would be ready to pay for such services if they were convinced that the monies would be spent on the improvement of their lives.

He said: " We should contribute to our development because the days when we had everything free of charge must be considered to be over."

Nana Kwesi Adjei Boateng, the New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, urged the Presiding Members to come out with strategies for poverty alleviation in their respective areas in conformity with government development policies.

The 15-member association had Ms. Beatrice B. Boateng, Presiding Member of New Juaben Municipal Assembly as chairman, Mr. Yaw Amoako-Atta, Presiding Member of East Akim District as Vice-chairman and Mr. Tete Quao, Presiding Member of Yilo-Krobo District Assembly as Secretary.