The Central Regional Minister, Hon. Eduamoah Ekow Panyin Okyere has charged various Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the region to directly involve themselves in the resource mobilization campaign of the Assembly, particularly with regards to internally generated funds (IGF).

Hon. Eduamoah Ekow Panyin Okyere encouraged MMDCEs that it's not enough to sit in the office and issue directive for others to go out and mobilize taxes for the Assembly.

Rather there is the need for MMDCEs to educate revenue mobilizers on where exactly to go for taxes, monitor them and if possible visit tax mobilization sites themselves, since there has been leakages of huge sums of money in the NDC's 7-months in office which is unacceptable.

The Regional Minister made this address at his maiden meeting with members of the Central Regional Coordinating Council on Thursday.

Emphasizing that the foundation of development is accountability, he added that according to the 2023 DPAT assessment, only 9 out of the 22 MMDAs in the Central Region scored above 80% on compliance indicators related on planning, budgeting, and reporting, with IGF mobilization growing by a modest 3.2% against a national average of 5.9%.

On the issue of galamsey and the coordinated action and boldness to resolve it, he exposed that majority of MMDCEs in the region are directly or indirectly involved in illegal mining activities.

He scolded that should any arrest on illegal mining be effected, it should first start within MMDCEs and government officials in the region, since most of them are accomplice to the menace, as such persons are closely monitored.

Hon. Eduamoah Okyere further uncovered in his address that the 2023 Water Research Institute report revealed that turbidity levels in the Pra, Ankobra, and Offin rivers exceeded 1,200 NTU--far above the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 5 NTU.

Same as the Forestry Commission's 2022 report which indicated that the region lost about 28,000 hectares of forest cover between 2001 and 2022.

Sompaonline.com//Eric Annan