KNM Assembly has not received common fund for 2021 - MCE

The Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly of the Upper East Region has not received its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) from the central government from January to September 2021.

“The Assembly has not received anything as DACF from January 1 to September 27, 2021,” Mr. Williams Aduum, the Outgoing Municipal Chief Executive for the area made this disclosure at Navrongo during the first ordinary meeting of the year of the Assembly.

The low mobilization of the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) was making it difficult for the Assembly to finance its development projects and programs for the improvement of the livelihoods of the people in the area, he said
The Assembly had projected to mobilize an amount of GHc439,765.80 through its IGF collections by the end of 2021, however, it had only been able to realize

GHc236,824.50 as at the end of the third quarter, representing 53.85 percent.
“We are at the end of the third quarter which under normal circumstances, we should have mobilized at least 75 percent of the projected revenue but we are still at 53.85 percent, meaning we are likely to miss our target for the year,” he added.

The Outgoing MCE explained that the unwillingness of people to pay fees, rent, rates, and fines, inaccurate data to properly project and identify property owners, non-functioning of sub-structures, and inadequate revenue collectors were identified as major hindrances to the effective mobilization of the IGF.

Mr. Aduum indicated that the Assembly had only two revenue collectors and an inadequate number of commissioned revenue collectors and as a result, the Assembly had employed the services of the Nation Builders’ Corps (NaBCo) trainees to help in the collection of the revenue.

He said the Assembly with support from the German International Cooperation (GIZ) had trained all the revenue collectors and equipped them with eight tablets to effectively and efficiently collect revenue and ensure proper supervision to minimize revenue leakages.

Mr Aduum noted that apart from educating the public to understand the essence of paying their taxes regularly for the development of the Municipality, the Assembly had been issuing demand notices to defaulters especially on property rates and business operating permits, and warned that legal action would be taken against tax defaulters.

“On rent payment, I must say that inventory has been taken on government bungalows, and those occupying the bungalows illegally would soon be taken out and all those occupying the bungalows without paying rent would be taken to court,” he said.

He added that plans were further advanced to reconstitute the zonal councils and train them as part of strategies to strengthen the sub-structures and added that the result of the 2021 Population and Housing Census would enable the Assembly to properly identify businesses and property owners among others.

This, he said, would help increase revenue mobilization for effective planning and development.

“Let me use this opportunity to appeal to you, the Assembly members to support management in that regard so that we can mobilize the needed revenue to develop the Municipality,” he added.