Basse Area Council Generates Over D4.3m in 6 Months

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Basse Area Council (BSAC) has generated a revenue of D4, 322, 675 within the period of January to June 2012, its finance director has disclosed.

Morro Keita made the disclosure recently during a day long meeting organised by the Council at its chambers in Basse. The meeting brought together the deputy governor of the region, the chairman of the Basse Area council, ward councilors, members of the Technical Advisory Committee. It was meant, among other things, to report on the income and expenditure of the period under review.

Tabling the financial report of the period under review, Keita explained that out of the above mentioned money generated by the Council, over D4, 206, 760, was spent on the Council’s operational expenses; ranging from salaries of its staff, projects and other development adventures.

The finance director seized the opportunity to urge the ward councilors, chiefs, Alkalolou, and the revenue collectors to recover the remaining money owed to the Council, with a view to enable it embark on more development projects. He stressed that there cannot be any meaningful development in the communities when the Council is facing some financial constraints.

The chairman of Basse Area Council, Omar Sompo Ceesay, for his part, commended the finance director and Council staff for what he called a “big achievement”, while stating further that their aim, among other things is to ensure that there is effective and efficiency service delivery at the Council. “We are doing everything possible to embark on more developments in the region,” the chairman told the meeting, while stating that strategies have been put in place to address some of the challenges confronting them.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Local Government Services Commission, Pa Amadou Susso, who harped on the importance of the meeting, hastened to assert that the revenue base of the Council is “very small”. He said: “I think what should be done is correct assessment of the revenue base and if that is done, I think it will increase, [because] URR is not a small region and therefore is not a poor region. So there is still room for improvement.”  Susso used the opportunity to disclose that there are plans afoot to embark on reforms within the Council, stressing that improvements are needed in all the domains of the Council; ranging from revenue collection to other developments issues.

For the deputy governor of the region, Momodou S. Jallow, the meeting was to avail the opportunity to be exposed to some of the developments undertaken by the Council during the period under review. He however challenged the Council to participate more in the development of the region.
Author: Momodou Jawo in Basse, URR/Daily Observer