By Abebe Dawuni
Yendi (NR) Aug 18, GNA-The Yendi Municipal Assembly has fined seven persons for engaging in open Defecation after admitting their crime in court.
The Assembly has also started prosecuting landlords who do not have toilets in their houses with effect from June 2023 and those that allow their plots to be used as dumping sites.
The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) Alhaji Hammed Abubakar Yussuf announced this when he addressed the first ordinary meeting of the Yendi Municipal Assembly of the Northern Region at Yendi.
He said in spite of the high ratings of UNICEF for the Yendi Municipal Assembly (YMA) it was still grappling with sanitation issues, particularly in the Municipality
The Assembly’s gutters are choked with rubbish dumped by households with the persistence of open defecation.
He, therefore, requested the Assembly members to bring it to the attention of their electorates and also support the Assembly in the efforts to improve the sanitation situation.
He said the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit had started compiling the list of those defying the directives and soon they would be summoned before the law court for such sanitation offences.
Touching on the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) he said the performance of the Assembly with respect to IGF stood at GHS 426,424.00 representing 55.132 per cent of the targeted amount of GHȻ777,550.00 as of June 2023.
He said that exceeded their performance for the same period last year where they managed to collect only GHS 248,000.00.
He said as resolved by the Assembly, 17 additional commissioned revenue collectors were recruited to augment the existing collectors and hoped their contributions to the collection would enable them to meet their target for the year.
He said the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) for this year (2023) had delayed putting so much pressure on their meagre IGF, with the first quarter allocation of GHS 262, 000 received in the second week of August.
He said it was used to pay outstanding debts with respect to projects and supplies and announced that DACF Secretariat was to drill and Mechanize 10 boreholes in the Municipality.
He mentioned other beneficiaries as Pansiya, Nyangbani Jatodo, Achiriyi, Yinsala, Kpanjihi, Montondo, Satimbor, Naabila and Pion Kambonaayili.
He congratulated the Heads of Departments and units and all other officers of the Assembly who worked to enable them to achieve the feat and urged them not to rest on their oars but to continue to work hard for the good people of the municipality.
He said the government through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations was also constructing a Public Employment Centre under the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project aimed at providing a conducive office environment to facilitate the registration of job vacancies and job seekers and the collection and dissemination of labour market information, provision of job matching, job counselling and career guidance services.
He said the project was expected to support efforts of government towards the reduction of unemployment if completed in the six-month schedule.
GNA