Sunyani, April 22, GNA – Mr John Ansu Kumi, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, has ordered some 800 traders occupying the Assembly’s market stores to pay their rent or face forceful ejection.
He expressed worry that for some period now, the traders had defaulted on rent payments piling up to more than GH¢800,000.
Mr Kumi expressed worry that the traders had failed to pay the GH¢20 monthly rent charge despite consistent reminders and notices, saying the Assembly was left with no option but to eject the defaulters.
In his sessional address at the First Ordinary Meeting of the Third Session of the Seventh Assembly held in Sunyani, Mr Kumi regretted that though many of the traders had rented out the stores to others at GH¢1,500, they were still reluctant to pay the GH¢20 monthly rent fee.
The meeting extensively discussed strategies to improve the Assembly’s Internally Generated Fund (IGF) to push the development of the municipality forward.
“We are going to use all legal means to collect all outstanding rent and charges so that the Assembly can mobilize the needed resources for development,” Mr Kumi stated.
Mr Kumi noted that weekend and night markets had gradually become a common thing in the Sunyani Business District, saying the Assembly would also intensify its revenue mobilization drive as well.
“Management of the Assembly has also constituted weekend and night revenue collectors to collect revenue,” he said and advised traders to comply and pay their taxes.
On sanitation management, Mr Kumi said the Assembly had initiated a “pay as you dump” policy and placed refuse containers in some neighbourhoods to generate revenue from household waste disposal.
In that regard, he said a sanitation task force committee would soon be constituted to check the indiscriminate disposal of solid and liquid waste, which was dirtying and worsening the sanitation situation in the municipality.
He commended the Police and other security agencies for their hard work in crime prevention, saying, the security situation in the municipality had improved.
He gave an assurance that the Assembly would continue to support the Police in maintaining law and order.
Notwithstanding, Mr Kumi said the Assembly required Assembly Members and everybody to control the parking of vehicles at unauthorized places, uncontrolled hawking on walkways and indiscriminate littering to keep the city clean.
GNA