Members of the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region have engaged in hot verbal exchanges with the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Andrews Kwesi Sodah, who they said was operating contrary to decisions taken by the assembly.
The incident happened when they were discussing issues that arose out of the minutes of the previous meeting, at its third ordinary meeting of the fourth session of the fifth assembly.
But for the intervention of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Magnus Kofi Amoatey, the meeting would have ended abruptly.
According to the members of the assembly, the MCE and management of the assembly had taken them for granted on many occasions and it was time they stood firm to stop that.
According to the members, at the last assembly sitting three months ago,they agreed to take an overdraft of Gh�10,000.00 to repair broken down refuse containers in order to improve the sanitation situation at Somanya and the municipality as a whole.
Contrary to that agreement, the MCE and management doubled the amount and took GH�20,000.00 for which the MCE spent GH�14,000.00 on a grader.
The MCE�s action was described by the house as misapplication of funds.
The issue dragged on for almost two hours, with most of the members insisting that the MCE should stop defending the wrong decision he took with management and refund the unapproved GH�10.000.00
One of the assembly members who wanted to support the action of the MCE was heckled by his colleagues with shouts of �sit down�, �don�t defend the defenceless.�
Some of the assembly members said as much as they appreciated problems that management went through sometimes, the MCE should not take unilateral decisions when it came to the assembly�s financial transactions.
�You are the MCE for the assembly, but you don�t have that power and authority to take any decision at all on financial matters if the assembly does not give you that go ahead�, a member emphasised.
After a long debate and arguments, the assembly members accepted the MP�s advice and passed a new resolution by adopting the extra GH�10,000.00 as being accepted by the assembly.
The MCE, however, sincerely apologised to the house, adding, �it did not occur to me that we settled on GH�10,000.00 and I shall strictly adhere to what we discuss at our meetings.�
In his sessional address, Mr Sodah said the assembly collected an amount of GH� 754,965.97 from its local sources as of the end of September, representing 79.47 per cent of the targeted annual figure of GH�950,000.00. The assembly has also received a total of GH�1,490,959.82 representing 23.46 per cent of the expected grants of GH�6,356,270.20 for this year.
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