National Chairman of the Pre-Mix Fuel Committee in the Republic of Ghana, Nii Lantey Bannerman has served notice that Landing Beach Committees that are in arrears of the 53 percent Community Development Fund would not be supplied with the product until they pay.
He said over the years, lack of effective supervision led to most of these landing beach in arrears of pre-mix business.
Not only are they refusing to pay, but also some used the money for their egoistic interest at expense of the interest of the fishing communities.
The LI 2233 establishing the Premix Fuel Committee mandates the landing beach committee to deduct 53 percent of the proceeds of margins from the sale of premix to the fishing community for developmental projects.
In an exclusive interview during an inspection of an ongoing 900-bed capacity dormitory at Tema Manhean SHS and market shed at Nyanyano near Kasoa, he said: “From Friday, we are going into their books and compare with bank statements. And if we compare and it does not balance, we will stop supplying the culprits with pre-mix until they make up for what they have not paid. And this action is going to affect all landing beach dealers across the nation.”
He assured of the committee’s avowed commitment to working assiduously to ensure that communities get their fair share of funds to develop and upgrade standards in the country.
“This time around, we are ensuring that monies are used to the benefit of communities; not for individual benefit.”
To further tighten supervision in the pre-mix industry, Mr Bannerman said a stronger committee is being put together to deal with hoarding, a crime he said some of the pre-mix committee members have been reported to be involved.
‘We have inaugurated a pre-mix taskforce in Tema with the MCE as a member, the Regional Pre-Mix Coordinator, too, as a member to stop hoarding activities along the shores. We want to stop hoarding completely from the system. Now, we don’t hear diversion and shortages in the system. Hoarding is becoming the business of illegal dealers. It is like a cartel; we hear that some of our operational officers are among,” he said.
Commenting on projects across the nation, he said over GHc12 million is being pumped into them and they include CHPS compounds, hospital, clinic wards, dormitory and many others in Elmina, Cape Coast, among others areas in Ghana.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
