Albert Okyere, MCE of ASHMA
OVER 50 per cent of houses in the Ashaiman Municipality of the Greater Accra Region do not have building permits, the Municipal Engineer of the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA), Daniel Afrifa has revealed.
According to him, the Assembly would be compel to take drastic measures in addressing the situation since the building owners are not forthcoming to regularize the documents.
Engineer Afrifa said the situation is very alarming and needed to be checked.
He said that Ashaiman is one of the densely populated areas in the Greater Accra Region, with a high number of slum dwelling places and things needed to be done right.
The area, he said since it recognition as a municipality in 2008, has made significant gains in terms of infrastructure development, with the emergence of high rise buildings and things cannot be done the same way.
The Municipal Engineer said the situation is making the assembly to loose huge annual revenue mostly in property rates but added that the assembly is taking steps to fix it.
Meanwhile checks shows, the challenge with the payment of permits by most residents, has to do with the conflicting roles of both the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) as some residents have paid their permits to the corporation instead of the assembly and vice versa.
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman