Six months after the inauguration of Districts Assemblies across the country following the conduct of the District Assembly elections in December last year, the Lower Manya Krobo District Assembly (LMKDA) which was recently elevated to the status of a municipality is still reeling under the numerous effects of having to run without elected District Assembly members. The enumerable effects of the suspended election have virtually stagnated projects and the overall progress of the district. The Assembly election in the district was suspended last year following a Supreme Court injunction due to a raging boundary dispute over Akuse between Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region and the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region which has also been split into two autonomous districts Ningo-Prampram and Shai- Osudoku,. At present, the LMKDA is yet to have its budget for the fiscal year as well as the supplementary budget approved because the Assembly Members for the 31 electoral areas with the collective mandate to do so have since not been elected. Most development projects in the district have come to a standstill because of the lack of funds and new ones supposed to be rolled out have all been shelved. The Assembly also risks forfeiting the 2011 District Assembly Development Fund (DDF) of not less than GHC 600,000 (six billion Old Ghana Cedis) at the end of this fiscal year because it is falling short of the requirement for accessing the fund as detailed in the Functional Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT) of the District Assembly. Per the requirement, the District Assembly must have had a minimum of four (4) General Meetings (GM) by the end of the year and must have worked within the approved budget – which is even yet to be approved, eight months after the inauguration of the other District Assemblies across the country. As part of the criteria for accessing the fund, it is expected of the assembly to have in place an Audit Report Implementation Committee (AIRC) and functioning sub district structures including Sub Committees, Unit Committees and Area Councils but which is not the case, making the Assembly more liable. In an interview with the District Chief Executive (DCE), Isaac Agbo Tetteh said because the District Assembly is not in session, his outfit has had to forward the Assembly’s budget to the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) at Koforidua for approval. He added that the budget is currently receiving attention a t the RCC. Asked about the current approval process for spending on projects and activities of the assembly, he said he as well as the management and the RCC approve budget and regulate spending for projects/activities based on the various threshold. He indicated that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural development is putting in place a nine (9) member Interim Management Team (IMT) to steer the affairs of the district until the election and inauguration of the District Assembly Members. Some of the projects in the 2011 Approved Development Plan of the district which have been affected include an upgrade of the Agormanya Market- the biggest commercial center in the district – into a modern trade center to enhance revenue generation for the assembly as well as the construction of a Tilapia Resort at Kpong on the Volta Lake to boost eco-tourism, trade and revenue in the district. The DCE disclosed that the assembly is also holding on with the planned redevelopment of the Olympic-size sport stadium at Aklomuase which was started during the Acheampong regime in the 70’s but has been left fallow ever since. He said the intended facelift of the Odumase lorry park as well as the construction of major drains to prevent the incessant flooding of low-lying communities in the district are suffering a similar fate because the assembly is not in session to ratify and execute the development plan. He also indicated that as it stands now, the assembly cannot go ahead with its intended privatization of its revenue collection as captured in the development plan to ensure efficiency in the revenue collection, adding “we are all hoping for a speedy resolution of the impasse to relieve the assembly of the current predicament”. It would be recalled that in 2010, a Parliamentary Sub Legislating Committee, acting on the Local Government (Creation of New District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units) Instrument, 2010 (LI 1983) realigned six Electoral Areas - Zongo New Town, Akutue, Osukutu, Bungalow, Amedeka and Salon- at Akuse, originally part of the Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region to Danmge West in the Greater Accra Region. On Friday November 26 2010, following the release of the nomination and registration documents of the six candidates by the officials of the EC in the Manya Krobo District, an irate youth in the Lower Manya Krobo District forcefully locked the office of the EC located at Agormanya to prevent the EC from conducting the elections in the district. Subsequently, the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, led by Mahefalor Kwesitsu Azago and Mr. Charles Mate-Kole filled for an injunction to restrain the EC from conducting the election in the district and also challenged the legality of the LI1983 on which the EC was relying to conduct the elections, describing the action of the Parliamentary Sub Committee as “Contravening the Article 5 of the 1992 Constitution. The case is still pending before the Supreme Court. In an earlier interview with the Member of Parliament for the Lower Manya Krobo Constituency, Michael Teye Nyaunu, expressed disappointment in the re-demarcation exercise and condemned the action of the Sub Committee.