The Assembly announced that since the implementation of the project in June 2018, it successfully met its revenue targets as compared to previous years, leading to improved service delivery.

Alhaji Mohammed Rufai, the East Gonja Municipal Co-ordinating Director, made this known on Wednesday in Salaga at a stakeholder review forum organised by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), a Non-Governmental Organisation.

The forum was to share and discuss issues and lessons learnt from the Report on the EPRM project to climax its period of implementation.

It is a one year initiative of the GDCA that seeks to strengthen citizens' participation in revenue collection and utilisation and to improve on local government transparency, accountability and performance.

It operates in six zonal councils in the Municipality namely; Kulaw, Salaga,  Kpembe, Makango-Mafaba, Bunjai and Kpariba.

The project is supported by the STAR Ghana Foundation with funding support from the UK Aid, Danida and the European Union.

Alhaji Rufai commended the GDCA for supporting the Assembly with various interventions to help improve on revenue generation.

He said the implementation of the project was timely, especially when the Assembly was upgraded to a Municipality.

A number of interventions and activities like the citizens' engagement and capacity building of revenue collectors and CSOs had improved on public awareness on the need to pay taxes as well as participate in effective revenue generation and demand accountability from duty bearers.

He said the Assembly had, at the inception of the project, established a cattle market, which served as a good source of revenue and facilitated the meeting of its annual revenue targets on schedule compared to previous years.

Mr Richard Appiah Asabere, the East Gonja Municipal Budget Analyst, said as at 2017, the Assembly could only generate 70 per cent of the revenue target for its Internally Generated Funds.

The annual budget target for 2018 was Gh¢ 162,860.00, however, the Municipality was able to generate Gh¢285,975.97, thereby exceeding the revenue target with an encouraging margin, he said.

Mrs Barikisu Antaru, a trader in Salaga, said she had been educated on the importance of paying her tax through the project and empowered to access information on the Assembly's revenue generation to ensure improved service delivery.

Mr Gmabi Phillip, the EPRM Project Coordinator, said the GDCA, through its EPRM project, came into being as result of a joint collaboration between the Assembly, traditional authorities and the citizenry to help focus on the development of the area.

This was done by giving priority to the effective generation and mobilisation of internal revenue and other resources to improve on the people's livelihoods. 

Mr Phillip urged the Assembly to continue to adopt prudent measures to help sustain the gains made to promote sustainable development of the Municipality.