Elliot Fosu Bannor, flanked by other assemblymen in Asokwa, during the press conference
DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS are not forthcoming as expected in the Asokwa Municipality following a sharp drop in revenue generated from property rate this year.
As of September of 2022 property rate had fetched a staggering GH¢1,030,499 for the assembly, but the money has dropped to GH¢ 27,106.99 under the same period in 2023.
The 18 assemblymen in Asokwa Municipality, made up of 12 elected members and six government appointees, have laid the blame at the doorstep of collectors of the money.
The assemblymen said a private company engaged by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to collect the property rate for the assembly, is failing woefully to deliver to their satisfaction.
He said the government and the private company (collector) signed a contract for the latter to collect the property rate for the assembly at the blind side of the assembly members.
At a press conference at Asokwa on Friday, the angry-looking assemblymen threatened that they would start collecting the property rate as the law required, starting from October, 2023.
“Our revenue has decreased lately due to our inability to collect property rate,” Elliot Fosu Bannor, Presiding Member for the Asokwa Assembly, told journalists.
He alleged that, “a private company who have been contracted to collect the property rate for the assembly, is not performing as expected from them so we have to step in quickly”.
By law, he said, the assemblymen were required to form a taskforce to collect the property rate for the assembly therefore they (assemblymen) would start collecting the property rate by October.
“Act 936 mandates the assemblymen to collect the property rate on behalf of the assembly therefore we shall start collecting it, latest from the start of October this year.
“The assembly has the capacity to collect about GH¢ 3 million in property rate annually but we are in September and the company, engaged to collect the property rate, has collected just GH¢27,000.
“The assembly uses the property rate for developmental purposes such as the digging of well, construction of foot bridges, provision of street lights and the payment of monthly salary of our IGF staff.
“Unfortunately, the small amount of money being collected as property rate by the private collector is preventing us from carrying out developmental projects”, he bemoaned.
Fosu Bannor said, “check the statistics, when the assemblymen were in charge, by September of 2022 we collected GH¢1,030,499 for the assembly, but under this private collector, we have just GH¢27,106.99 under the same period in 2023”.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi