USE STOOL LANDS REVENUE TO PROVIDE COMMUNITY PROJECTS (SEPT 22, PAGE 20)

THE Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry, Mr Gershon K.B. Gbediame, has called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to use stool lands revenue disbursed to the assemblies to provide development projects that will benefit the communities, particularly those whose lands are affected.
He stressed that it was not for nothing that 55 per cent of the stool lands revenue was disbursed to the assemblies.
Mr Gbediame made the call when members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry met officials of the Mpohor Wassa East District Assembly at Daboase in the Western Region to discuss the use of the stool lands revenue disbursed to the assembly in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
He said the communities whose lands had been affected were losing their lands for life, and therefore, urged the assemblies to be innovative in their activities.
Mr Gbediame stated that the stool lands revenue was disbursed to the assemblies without any guidelines and that was the reason why the assemblies used the money for other purposes.
“We will recommend to the appropriate authorities so that there should be guidelines for the use of the stool lands revenue”, he added.
Mr Gbediame also realised that the assemblies did not know how much they should collect as stool lands revenue for a year, and that they collected whatever was given them as revenue from the stool lands.
The Mpohor Wassa East District Finance Officer, Mr K.P. Ampiah, said the assembly collected GH¢42,410.20, GH¢96,987.97 and GH¢63,188 in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively as stool lands revenue.
He said part of the money was used for the maintenance of the assembly’s tipper truck, paying sitting allowances, salaries and wages, for poverty mapping, reshaping of some roads and the construction of school blocks and public places of convenience.