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Wa, Ghana – Performance appraisal, which is the systematic evaluation of the performance of an employee and to understand his abilities and possible growth, is a critical factor in every organisational endeavour.
It was in this light that the Wa Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Tahiru Issahaku Moomen, subjected himself for a performance assessment even in the mix of challenges and setbacks.
Alhaji Moomen, assessed himself when he granted an interview to www.savannahnewsonline.com in Wa.
He first of all enumerated the challenges he faced when he was sworn into office on 4th May, 2017.
He said, there was a huge infrastructural deficit in the Municipality. According to him, there were a lot of lapses in the areas of Education, Health, Agriculture and Water and Sanitation.
He further stated, there was a huge debt close to Ghc800,000.00 to be settled by the Assembly, but unfortunately he could not verify the truth of the debt, and therefore, faced a big challenge.
According to him, all this came as a result of the non-performance of the previous administration, which is the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Alhaj Moomen said, as someone who always wants to win, he demonstrated in the areas of education, health, agric and water and sanitation in order for him to increase the municipality to a new level.
He said, under his administration, the Assembly was able to construct two separate KG blocks at Kabanye E/A Primary and Doodiyiri Primary schools. The Assembly also constructed a six (6) unit classroom block for Kperisi community, which is yet to be handed over for use, two (2) separate three (3) unit classroom blocks for Konjiehi community which is yet to complete and three (3) unit classroom block is springing up at Kpongu.
Alhaji Moomen, again said he was not impressed about the discouraging BECE results in the municipality which were as low as 45% in 2016 and 2017 academic year. In a bid to stem the tide, he provided teaching and learning materials to schools in the municipality to improve teaching and learning.
He said, after these interventions within the shortest possible time, BECE performance increased to 78%. Even with this, he still hopes the situation would be better as he is working hard to further close the school infrastructural gap.
In the area of health, Alhaj Moomen, stated that the Assembly had a comprehensive plan for health sector, and so the construction of Community Health and Planning Services Compounds (CHPS) were underway in the municipality through the support of the Japanese Government.
He cited the construction of CHPS Compounds at Seyiri and Tabiasi as typical examples.
He said, the Assembly had so far expanded CHPS Compounds services in Bamahu, Cheringu and Charia to accommodate delivery and midwives.
Alhaji Moomen stated, that indeed, agriculture plays a major role in the Ghanaian economy and that explains why the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led administration placed premium on it and its related policies.
“In the 2017 farmer production season, my administration focused attention on inputs supply including improved seeds and fertilizers and extension services to farmers, and also connected them to licensed buying companies to sell their produce. And in 2018 season, upon realising tractor ploughing became an issue, we subsidised ploughing cost for farmers in the municipality to ease their financial bedding.
Under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, the Wa MCE, said, 28, 150 acres were cultivated in 2018 involving 22,224 farmers comprising 19,679 males and 2,545 females, whilst 25,001 acres were cultivated in 2017.
Alhaji Moomen further stated, that under the one village one dam programme, his administration selected ten (10) communities in the municipality to benefit, and six were under construction. Asked whether fertilizer smuggling was not an issue, he said, the municipal agric office managed the situation well.
As the country is grappling with the problem of water and sanitation, Alhaji Moomen, said that through the intervention of Ministry of Special Development Initiative, the Assembly sunk six (6) limited mechanised borehole systems powered by solar panels at Sing, Konjiehi, Chansa, Biihee, Kparisaga and Dandafuro communities whilst providing boreholes fitted with hand pumps at Kagu, Yibile, Kadoli and Nakori communities.
As water goes with good sanitation, he intimated that he would not leave any stone unturned in the promotion of good sanitation practices.
“Landlords and estate developers were encouraged to include toilet construction in their building plans and redesign the toilet component of houses that had been built already in order to maintain good sanitation practices that befit the municipality.
“Environmental officers also went round to educate people in their homes on good waste management practices and those who were recalcitrant in obeying sanitary laws were processed for prosecution in the law court”, he said.
Asked what his challenges were, Alhaji Moomen, said his biggest challenge was to move the Wa Municipal market to the new site situated at cheria.
He said, his first attempt to move the market failed and he realised he needed much force than before to move it.
Potholes on roads in town, according to him, were also quite worrisome, but a contract has been awarded to fill them.
He also indicated that, through the Sino-Hydro project, 10-20km inner-city roads would be asphalted.
He said, one other area he is still battling with is poor security, as motorbike rustling and other theft activities were rampant in the municipality.
He therefore, advised residents of Wa township to corporate with the security agencies to stop crime.
The Wa MCE mentioned low revenue generation as another challenge.
Allowing residents of the municipality to bring out their impression about the performance of the Municipal Chief Executive, many of them commended him for going into Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the development of the Wa lorry park.
According to some of residents, they were highly impressed about the new storey buildings in the lorry park which they said had beautified the place.
Some were however disappointed in his relationship with his party folks and urged him to work assiduously to maintain cordial relationship with them.
Overall, many of the residents scored Alhaji Issahaku Tahiru Moomen 80 percent on his performance.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Abdul Nayaru Froko
