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HEADS OF Departments, Agencies and Services in the Brong Ahafo Region, have expressed grave concern over the late release of the Government of Ghana (GoG) grants to their respective institutions to effectively run their operations. Most of the government subverted organisations in the region have not received a single grant since the beginning of the year. Only a few of them have received just the first quarter grant for the year. Those on the Controller and Accountant General�s Department Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) Programme complained of the difficulties they were going through in accessing their grants even though they had their warrants. DAILY GUIDE learnt that the situation had seriously affected government business in the organisations involved as some of them were struggling to pay their utility bills, buy fuel and office logistics. This came to light during the second meeting of the Regional Heads of Departments, Agencies and Services in Sunyani last Tuesday. The meeting was to afford the Regional Minister and his team and opportunity to interact and discuss with sector heads issues relating to the region�s development needs to enable them to fashion out ways and strategies to improve the livelihood of the people in the region. In a response, the Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, largely attributed the situation to the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) as having taken the chunk of the nation�s resources thereby denying government�s institutions their fair share of the national cake. �In view of the scarcity of resources and in particular, the financial challenges confronting us, owing largely to the fact that we use about 70% of our Internally Generated Fund (IGF) for the payment of the salaries of workers under the Single Spine Pay Policy,� he pointed out. The Regional Minister therefore underscored the need for the heads of Departments, Agencies and Services to be disciplined and adopt prudent measures in the management of the scarce resources. �Therefore, it is important for us to ensure that our consumption of fuel, electricity and the use of paper (A4) for printing, photocopying and typing, among others are judiciously used to avoid mismanagement and waste,� he stressed. Explaining the rationale of the meeting, Mr. Aidoo noted that it was intended to provide the appropriate platform to know the progress made on the execution of development projects and programmes in the various sectors since the beginning of the year and also learn at first hand from the sector heads the challenges facing them. He reiterated his administration�s commitment to provide the required leadership coupled with the combined technical and professional expertise of the senior public servants to achieve the needed development for the region so as to improve the quality of life of the people. The minister appealed to public servants to eschew partisan politics and also desist from engaging in provocative discussions and the use of abusive language that could inflame passions. Instead, he urged them to use their time to concentrate on their administrative duties and responsibilities that will help protect, secure and guarantee the peace and security of the nation. �As Civil Servants (and Local Government Staff) who are closely linked to government business, my humble appeal to you is to endeavour to refrain from engaging in partisan politics in order to give the government and the executive the assurance to have the confidence and trust to work with you,� he said. Mr. Aidoo also touched on some of the progress made so far in various sectors such as health, education, road, water and sanitation. On education, he disclosed that a total of 596 educational projects such as dormitories, libraries, ICT centres, classrooms, among others had been executed across the region since 2009. In the water sector, the minister said a total of 588 boreholes had been drilled within the period. Also, 501 concrete platforms had been constructed and 375 hand pumps installed across the region under the Peri-Urban and Rural Water and Sanitation Project. Construction works on the Phase II of the Wenchi-Sampa road, he said was 81 percent complete, while 73 percent of work on the 59km Berekum-Sampa road had been done.