The Third General Assembly meeting of Afigya Kwabre South District assembly was held on the Friday the 3rd of November, 2023 at the Kodie Methodist Church auditorium.
The meeting was called to order by the Presiding Member, Hon. Clement Afriyie Oppong, for the meeting to commence. An opening prayer was said by Hon. Edward Amankwaa, the Assembly member for Buoho-Wioso.
The Presiding Member in his opening remarks thanked the house for honoring the emergency invitation to the meeting and apologized for any inconveniences caused. Minutes of the previous meeting were read and the necessary corrections were made. After that, Hon. Andrews Mensah moved for the minutes to be accepted as an official document of the Assembly and it was seconded.
Apologies from the various absentee members were presented, about five members were absent from the meeting. It was observed and brought to the notice of the house that Hon. Obeng of Hemang electoral area had absented himself from meetings for more than three consecutive times which is against the codes and conduct of his position so the house agreed that the presiding member interacts with him and report to the house the reason behind his absenteeism.
After these deliberations, the floor was opened for the budget committee to present to the house the 2024 Composite Budget for the assembly. Mr. Samuel Bekoe, head of the Budget Department took the house through the various items of the budget in a presentation after which the floor was opened for questions, comments and deliberations.
Hon. Adu Poku asked why the estimated ex-gratia was one thousand five hundred cedis (₵1500), other members seconded the question and the presiding member also asked what informed that decision, an amount lesser than what was paid to the past assembly about three years ago. The Budget Officer responded to the question giving the reason of affordability. After a long deliberation the house agreed that the estimate ex-gratia should be five thousand cedis (₵ 5000) per head moving the ex-gratia estimate from GH₵57, 000.00 to GH₵190,000.00.
The next item that was deliberated on for adjustment was the estimated amount for road reshaping. The house suggested that many roads in the district are in a bad shape hence needed reshaping, therefore the amount should be increase to GH₵486,000. Since the assembly does not meet its revenue targets as revealed by the budget officer, the house then tasked the budget committee to adjust the budget reducing amount allocated to certain items with their expertise to get the budget balanced. The house accepted the budget to be used for the year 2024, and that brought the budget reading to an end.
After these intense deliberations, the DCE Hon. Christian Adu Poku thanked the house for their honest contributions to the discussions. He also encouraged members to be truthful in their revenue collection stating that, certain malicious acts drain the Assembly huge sums of money.
He also revealed to the house that, a marriage registration office would be opened in the district hence there was no need going to Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly for registration of marriage again.
He also appealed to members to avail their houses for new police officers to be posted to various areas of the district for proper protection throughout the district during and after the festive season.
Other matters discussed were the reallocation of the Patriensa dump site to a new care taker, the bad state of the Wioso dump site requiring the Assembly’s attention and the need for a takeover by the Assembly, citation for performing Chiefs to encourage the others.
The meeting came to an end in the afternoon with a prayer from Hon. Edward Amankwaa.
