The Tolon/Kumbungu District Assembly has held its maiden meeting for the year with a call on the Assembly Members to commit themselves to working to uplift the living conditions of the communities.
Mr. Iddi Manzah Mahama, the District Chief Executive made the call when addressing the meeting at Tolon on Wednesday.
He said: "A cursory look at the efforts of the district in the past and compared to other districts created at the same time in the Northern Region points to the fact that Tolon/Kumbungu District is seriously lagging behind in infrastructural development and in the socio-economic well-being of our people".
"I therefore want Members of the House to join me to pledge our unflinching commitment and determination to speed up the development of the district this time around", he said.
Mr. Mahama said to achieve this objective, there is the need for consensus-building while members should approach issues before the House with objectivity and prioritise the developmental needs of the district since resources are limited.
Mr Mahama said the Assembly had been allocated GH¢ 1,958,567.81 as its share of the 2009 DACF adding that in accordance with the guidelines, 39 per cent of the amount had been determined for the House while the remaining 61 per cent would cater for the Assembly programme and projects.
The allocation of the DACF is determined under a formula approved by Parliament.
The DCE enumerated projects the Assembly had either completed or in their implementation stages including those with support from development partners.
He mentioned seven projects made up of three-unit classroom blocks at Kumbungu, Nyankpala, Nwodua, two teachers' quarters at Gbulahigu, Kpandua and two box culverts at Zugu-Kushebou under the first phase of the sixth EU Micro-pojects, which had been completed and handed over.
Under the second phase, he said, three housing projects are nearing completion while four income-generating facilities consisting of three housing units for food processing equipment at Tolon and Bognaayili and a housing unit, a tailors' association at Nyankpala would be completed and handed over by the end of July.
Mr. Mahama said with the support of NORPREP, the Assembly was providing 30 and 15 boreholes respectively under different packages throughout the district adding that the contract was reviewed by the District Tender Review Board and subsequently awarded last year.
Mr Mahama said the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) had supported a number of farmer groups with farm inputs in the form of grants for various agricultural activities in the district.
He said MiDA intended to rehabilitate the Bontanga and Golinga dams and to expand the number of cultivable acreages of the two irrigation facilities.
On the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), he said four more schools in the district, Gbrumani Ahmadiyya Primary, Satani AME Primary Kanfehiyili Primary and Gbulahigu Primary had been added for consideration under the programme started in 2007 with the Tibung and Kpalgun Primary schools
Mr. Sumani Mahamadu Abukari, the Presiding Member, deplored the revenue mobilisation performance of the assembly and urged the House to embark on more aggressive revenue mobilisation.
Mr. Abukari assured hardworking revenue collectors that the Assembly would motivate them to work harder but warned that the House would not hesitate to sanction those whose conduct or activities would compromise effective mobilisation of revenue.