Alhaji Abubakari Inusah, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Director (RCD), has admonished Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Region to gazette their bye-laws on sanitation and insist on enforcement to clear their jurisdictions of filth.
He said the sanitation situation across the region was poor, and that affected the Region’s performance on sanitation at the national level.
The RCD, however, acknowledged that in the midst of the challenges some of the Assemblies faced, they made some significant improvement in their Open Defecation Free (ODF) drive.
He commended those MDAs, and urged those who lagged behind to initiate effective and practical measures to ensure ODF environment to collectively improve the Region’s ranking.
Alhaji Inusah gave the advice when he interacted with the staff of the Tempane and Pusiga District Assemblies as part of his familiarization visit to all 15 MDAs in the Region.
He encouraged them to “Submit your proposed bye-laws to your various Assembly members for their views and inputs, and thereafter, forward those to the RCC for gazetting.”
He told managements and staff of the two Assemblies at separate meetings that any Assembly that failed to improve on its ODF status would be named and shamed.
The RCD said it was critical for the Assemblies to create land boundaries to avoid conflicts, and take advantage of tourist sites in their jurisdictions to improve on their Internally Generated Funds.
He cited the Gbewa Shrine located in the Pusiga District as a potential tourist attraction site that could rake in revenue for the Assembly, stressing on the need for the Assembly to take advantage of the Shrine to improve on revenue mobilization.
Alhaji Inusah hinted that a monitoring team from the RCC would soon move round to the various Assemblies to evaluate their performance in readiness for the external monitoring team in order to improve on the Regional Performance Ranking at the national level.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu in his address, cautioned staff against laziness and absenteeism, and said management would not hesitate to take action against staff with lackadaisical attitudes towards work.
He called on management of the various Assemblies to provide the necessary tools and equipment to enable staff to deliver on their core mandate to change the narrative of the Upper East as a poor region.
Hon. Yakubu as part of the visit, inspected a yet-to-be handed over one-storey office complex for the Tempane District Assembly, and later commissioned a newly constructed office block for the Pusiga District Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service.