We will not confirm any mayor until our issues are resolved – KMA assembly members

Members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly have decided they will not accept any Mayor nominee from the presidency until the assembly’s debts are settled.

A sessional address by the former Mayor, Osei-Asibey Antwi on the 11th and 12 of May 2017 revealed that the assembly’s debt was GH¢119,213,333.22 as of then.

 The assembly has bemoaned how it owes its contractors and business allies over GH¢50 million within four years. This unfortunate situation has forced the Assembly to send SOS to the central government for bailouts.

Also, the 2020 Auditor General’s report has revealed that KMA used GH¢670,720.78 from the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) to pay judgment debt to four contractors. The Auditor-General recommended to the Assembly to refund the penalty paid from the Assembly’s Internal Generated Funds (IGF) into the DACF.

 Presiding Member of KMA, Stephen Ofori, lamented that “it will take the Assembly more than 10 years to pay its debt if they are to rely on the IGF”.

Mr Ofori then seized the opportunity to appeal to the Finance Ministry through the Local Government Ministry to come to the Assembly’s aid in paying up the debts.

He also revealed that “now KMA’s territory has been reduced due to the creation of the new Assemblies but the time the debt was compounding, all those newly created Assemblies were sub metros to the Assembly but when they were weaned from KMA, their debts remained so that’s why we are still trying to wrap our heads around ways to generate funds to pay off the debt”.

The KMA Presiding Member finally indicated that due to financial liabilities the Assembly finds itself and the central government\s unresponsiveness to their call for a bailout, they will resist any attempts to have a new Mayor installed until their demands are addressed.

By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh

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