Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII, a Member of the Council of State, has appealed to the government to take over the payment of end of service benefits to members of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDAS)
Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, who is the Omanhene of Abeadze Dominase and President of the Central Region House of Chiefs, said by government taking over the payment of such benefits, the assemblies would be relieved of the problems they encountered in raising money to pay.
He said that would also bring uniformity into what each member would receive.
Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi made the call at the last meeting of the assembly before its dissolution to pave way for the district level election in December.
The call emanated from the heated debate between the assembly members and the administration including the Municipal Chief Executive as to how much should be paid to the 72 members.
The members were demanding not less that GHc1, 000.00 whilst the administration pegged it at GHc500.00
Through intervention of the Council of State Member, the members reluctantly agreed to take GHc600.00
Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi said asking the assemblies to pay their members end-of-service benefits from the internally generated fund would be difficult to sustain as their IGF were not enough to meet their recurrent expenditure.
He said the assemblies were doing a good work to promote the decentralization concept, therefore paying members end of service benefits by government would be in the right direction.
Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, the Municipal Chief Executive, appealed to the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to always come out with what must be paid by the assemblies to their members before dissolution of the assemblies.
He enumerated developments projects undertaken by the assembly over the past two years and commended Mr. George Kuntu Blankson and Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, the two members of parliament for the area, for the good work they had been doing to improve the living standard of the people.
Mr Quansah expressed concern about attempts by some assembly members to introduce partisan politics into the assembly and advised such people to stop it since it would not augur well for the advancement of the assembly.
Mr Kofi Aikins, the Presiding member of the assembly who declared the assembly dissolved, thanked the members, the administration, MCE and the MPs for their cooperation that had contributed to the success of the assembly.