Denkyembour District Assembly Holds General Assembly Meeting
Posted by Elvis Offei-Bekoe - 22nd october, 2020
On Thursday, 22nd October 2020, the Denkyembour District Assembly held the 3rd General Assembly meeting for the year 2020 at the District Assembly Hall. The meeting began with an opening prayer at around 10:00 am.
The Presiding Member for the assembly; Honourable Asante Kennedy, called the house to order and gave his opening address. He expressed his gratitude to all assembly members, heads of departments, Nananom and all guests for honouring the invitation. He also appealed to the assembly members to give out their maximum cooperation during the meeting.
A quick roll call was undertaken by the District Coordinating Director to check whether all assembly members and heads of departments were present. The minutes for the previous meeting were discussed and confirmed by the house. The house also discussed all the actions that had been taken on the recommendations from the previous meeting.
The District Chief Executive for the Denkyembour District; Honourable Seth Birikorang Ofosu was called upon to deliver his sessional address to the house. He began by expressing his gratitude to all members present. He informed the house of the President’s visit which occurred on Sunday 4th October 2020.
He centred his address on Finance, Security, Developmental Projects, Education, Health, Agriculture, Community and Social Development. He stated that the assembly was able to raise about GHC 405,695.14 of Internally Generated Funds between January and September 2020. He also informed the house about preparations made towards a peaceful election and urged all assembly members to be ambassadors of peace in their various electoral areas. He also presented the progress report for all developmental projects being executed within the district. He stated that there has been some distribution of face masks, tissue, hand sanitizers and liquid soap for Junior High School and Senior High School students. He also stated that there has been the distribution of mathematical sets and calculators for all Senior High School students.
On issues of health, he stated in his address that the district recorded 82 positive cases with 5 deaths. He stated that the district currently all positive cases had been cleared and the district no more had any positive case. He expressed his gratitude to the District Health Director for facilitating a successful Polio Vaccination. He informed the house about the free breast screening at St Dominic’s Hospital. On issues of Agriculture, he stated that there have been about fifteen (15) demonstrations on new and improved ways in animal and crops products including rice, maize and vegetable production. He also informed the house that the district was performing well under the planting for food and jobs program. He announced to the house that, the national farmers’ day celebration would be celebrated under the theme “Ensuring Agriculture Development under COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities”.
Lastly, he informed the house that some Persons with Disabilities had received some items such as tricycles, deep freezers, Fufu machines, grinding machines and industrial sewing machines as part of the annual donations given to the disabled from the disability fund. He also stated that a total number of three hundred and eighty-seven benefited from the LEAP program.
He also presented the report from the Executive Committee of the district to the members of the meeting. He mentioned reports from the seven sub-committees of the assembly. Some of the issues he raised pertained to finance and administration, development planning, justice and security, social services, sports and culture, the environment and works of the assembly.
The District Budget Analyst; Mr Eric Eshun was called upon to brief the house on the 2021 composite budget. He gave a presentation on the various areas being budgeted on in the 2021 composite budget. Major programs and projects being budgeted on including Management and Administration, Social Services such as Education, Youth and Sports, Environmental Health, Sanitation, Social Welfare and Community Services. There were budget allocations on Infrastructure Development, Economic Development which includes Agriculture, Trade, Disaster Prevention and Sanitation. Some major infrastructural projects being budgeted for include supply, fixing and maintenance of streetlights, drilling of mechanized boreholes, reshaping of roads and construction of culverts in selected communities among others.
The District Police Commander also gave a short presentation about maintaining law and order in the upcoming elections. He briefed the house about plans and measures that had been put in place to maintain calm and maintain peace from now till after the elections. He also appealed to the District Chief Executive and management to help his unit in the repair of some vehicles to aid them in their activities.
The District Fire Officer was also called upon to educate the members on prevention of domestic and bush fires as we approached the dry season. In his presentation, he appealed to all members to be very cautious when dealing with issues concerning fires. He also informed all members to regularly check for leakages on their gas cylinders and gas tubes. He also advised all members to get a fire extinguisher in their houses. He announced the emergency lines to call in case of any fire outbreaks.
The Presiding Member for the Denkyembour District Assembly; Honourable Asante Kennedy in his closing remarks, expressed his gratitude to all members for making it through the meeting. He also encouraged all members to be ambassadors of peace in the upcoming general elections.