The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, who made the call, said that would relieve the assemblies to invest in other projects including developing markets, lorry parks and tourist attraction centres, to push forward the overall development of the region.

Delivering an address at the second heads of departments meeting of the Volta Region Coordinating Council (VRCC), Dr Letsa said the government had realised that the continuous dependence on revenue and debt financing of projects could not accelerate development to the level required hence the need for the assemblies to increase revenue by going beyond the annual 10 per cent revenue increments, and target doubling internally generated funds.

That, according to him, would ensure assemblies become self-sufficient and reduce their dependence on government transfers such as the common fund to run their affairs.

He said increasing revenue should remain one of the focal areas of every assembly, adding that "instances where total revenues cannot cover cost of compensation including goods and services ought to be revisited".

The VRCC meeting with MDCEs, Municipal District and Coordinating Directors (MDCDs), Heads of Departments and Presiding Members, was to discuss best ways to deepen inter-service and agency collaboration in order to encourage support among agencies.

Performance

Dr Letsa said the staff of the VRCC were determined to sustain performance to not only be the best, but to improve the overall score to reflect the holistic performance of the Regional Coordinating Council, as it was adjudged the Best Regional Coordinating Council after emerging tops in the 2020 performance contract.

He said though some Municipal and Disaster Assemblies were lagging behind in the 2020 performance contract, while struggling to move up into the top 50, the RCC had resolved to strengthen monitoring of the assemblies, provide them with the requisite technical back strapping.

The minister, however, cautioned that sanctions would be instituted against any officer who might deliberately fail to discharge his duties which may result in low performance of any assembly in the region.

The regional minister also cautioned the MDCEs to ensure that no incident of galamsey or illegal mining was recorded in any of the districts in the region.

He, therefore, asked the MDCEs to institute a monitoring mechanism to detect, contain and alert relevant state agencies to immediately move in to halt illegal mining activities.