Denkyembour District Assembly Holds 2nd General Assembly Meeting For 2022
Posted by Elvis Offei-Bekoe - 20th September, 2022
On Tuesday 20th September 2022, the Denkyembour District Assembly held its second ordinary meeting of the General Assembly for the year 2022 at the District Assembly Hall.
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, the Member of Parliament, heads of departments, Nananom and all guests for honouring the invitation. He also thanked the management of Somatra Ghana Limited for honouring the summons to explain their activities with the assembly. The Presiding Member then took the house through minutes of previous meeting which was accepted as a working document after corrections and deliberations.
The Manager of Somatra Ghana Limited was called upon to educate the house on their activities. The manager for the company stated that the company was established in 2010 as a subsidiary company of CSIR-OPRI to help improve their Internally Generated Funds of the company. He stated that the company started as partnership between CSIR-OPRI and Somatra Ghana Company Ltd but was later registered as a Limited Liability Company with their own separate management. Their main activities included provision of oil palm seedlings for export and local use. With issues pertaining to their business registration, business operating permit and property rates, the manager informed the house that some form of commitment had already been made and that they would sit with management of the assembly in the coming days to settle all outstanding fees and licenses.
The District Health Director; Mr Daniel Derby was also called upon to give a brief presentation on the status of HIV and AIDS within the district. The presentation stressed on the data for Mother-to-Child Transmission for January to June 2022. He mentioned that out of 968 pregnant mothers have been given Anti-Natal Care out of a targeted 3146 for the year. Out of the number, 24 of them tested positive for HIV and 9 tested for Syphilis and all of them have been put on treatment. Also with the routine testing apart from pregnant women, a total of 112 have tested positive out of 1690 tested for the period under review. 80 of them being female and 32 being male and all of them have been linked into care.
The district manager for Zoomlion Ghana Limited was also called to brief the house on the new pay-as-you-dump policy being piloted throughout the country. He said that the Zoomlion was introducing the pay-as-you-dump within the district to reduce the amount of loitering within the communities. He explained that this would go a long way in keeping our communities clean. There would also be some form of payment which would be used to pay the wages of caretaker at the sites and also serve as payment for emptying the containers at the final disposal site.
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 also expressed his deepest gratitude to all assembly members, heads of departments and Nananom for the respective roles they played in his second nomination and confirmation as District Chief Executive.
He centred his address on Finance, Security, Developmental Projects, Education, Health, Agriculture, Community and Social Development and Administrative issues. On Finance, he mentioned that the district realised IGF revenue of Six Hundred and Fifty-Eight Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-Five Cedis, Eighty-Eight Pesewas (658,435.88) as compared with total IGF revenue budget of Seven Hundred and Eighty-Nine Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Ghana Cedis, Fifty Pesewas (789,127.50.) this represent 83.44% of the budget, which indicates that, the assembly has performed tremendously well. The total budgeted expenditure for the period stands at Seven Hundred and Eighty-Nine Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Ghana Cedis, Fifty Pesewas (789,127.50) and the total actual expenditure of Six Hundred and Forty-Nine Thousand, Two Hundred and Ninety-One Ghana Cedis, Thirteen Pesewas (649,291.13) which represent 82.28% of the expenditure budget.
On health, the District Chief Executive mentioned that World Breastfeeding Programme was successfully carried out in all the facilities across the District. The District Health Directorate in collaboration with District Education Service undertook malaria intervention activity. Long Lasting Insecticides Treated Nets were distributed to all schools both public and private in the District. Primary 2 and 6 pupils benefited from this exercise. He then added that the District Health Directorate on Thursday 1st September through to Sunday 4th September, 2022 administered a Polio Vaccination to Children within the District with the Novel Oral Polio Vaccine.
Lastly on security issues, he said that the district was enjoying a very peaceful atmosphere and that the security agencies were to be commended for a very good work done. He then presented recommendations from the Executive Committee to the house for deliberation.
The Presiding Member for the assembly in his closing remarks announced to all members on the upcoming football match between Denkyembour District Assembly and Kwaebibirem Municipal Assembly on 21st September 2022 at Kade Roman School Park. He then expressed his gratitude to all members, heads of departments and staff for making it to the end of the meeting.