“We noted that management of Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly did not legally register eight different parcels of land allocated to the Assembly by seven communities for the construction of eight projects. The anomaly could lead to future litigation over the ownership of these lands or the extent of the boundaries.”
This is according to Report of the Auditor-General on the Management and Utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and Other Statutory Funds for the year ended 31 December 2021.
The report continued that the act by the Bolgatanga Municipal assembly contravenes, “section 52 of Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) [which] requires, a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity, to be responsible for the assets of the institution under the care of the Principal Spending Officer and shall ensure that proper control systems exist for the custody and management of the assets.”
The MCE for Bolgatanga, Rex Asanga, speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show explained that the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly has been unable to register the stated number of lands because of the lack of resources.
“This is an age-old problem of the Assembly. Even when I was Assembly man in 2002, 2003, we were always advocating that, look, let us register the lands. We have clinics, health centres, and schools and we are not taking the opportunity to acquire the lands; to register. At that time, things were easier and we could have easily acquired these lands at no cost to us.”
“We sat down and relaxed,” he said.
Mr. Asanga, through the conversation, disclosed that the Assembly had not finalised the acquisition of the land on which the Yorogo Leather Factory is situated. The leather factory is one of the many factories under the government’s One District One Factory (1D1F) project.
” … the Yorogo Factory, 1D1F is one of those lands that we are talking about. The land that is next to the abattoir, we are still in the process. There are quite a number of lands that the Auditor-General has pointed to.”
To address the concerns, provisions have been made within the Assembly’s budget to deal adequately with land issues.
“Provision was made in this year’s budget for a Ghc100,000 to sort out these things. This include the acquisition of lands and all that.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
