Committee lauds the ministry’s performance report

It was stated that the Ministry of Works and Urban Development has carried out remarkable activities on the integrated programme of building of houses, micro and macro enterprises, and in construction industry with a view of tackling housing and employment problems, and poverty alleviation, committee said.

The members of the Infrastructure Affairs Standing Committee of the House the Hon. Ato Namsi Arka has made this statement when the House heard Ministry’s performance report of the 2000 fiscal year in the first special session held on May 7, 2008.

The Hon Ato Namsi Alka said that the ongoing efforts of the ministry to build houses for needy residents of Addis and other cities as well as towns to alleviate the housing problems of urban dwellers is encouraging and added that the efforts exerted to alleviate poverty in towns creating employment opportunities in micro and macro enterprise development programmes are promising.

Moreover, he stated that in order to give rapid responses to questions related to development, the ministry should start to accelerate the roads not yet been constructed and issue directives that would facilitate matters of compensation for the persons who are displaced due to road construction.

Meanwhile, Minister of Works and Urban Development his Excellency Dr. Kassu Ilala noted that the ministry has trained contractors and councilors, and supplied constriction materials to build several houses in Addis Ababa and regional states to tackle housing problems.

As far as micro and macro enterprises development is concerned, his Excellency Dr Kassu underscored that the ministry prepared micro and macro enterprises development programmes for citizens to create employment opportunities and alleviate poverty in towns.

With regard to town administration and good governance, his Excellency remarked that the ministry has prepared integrated town infrastructure policies and strategies, regulations, directives and manuals as well as on finance utilization and tariffs.

As concerns the capacity building programme in the construction industry, the ministry has finalized the construction industry development policy and capacity building programme and submitted to the council of ministers for approval, his Excellency said.

On the other development, the House has referred a proclamation to ratify for the Establishment of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority with a majority vote to the Budget and Finance Affairs Standing Committee for further scrutiny.

According to the preamble of the draft proclamation, the bill has become necessary to merge different federal revenue collecting institutions into a single revenue-collecting agency to improve the efficiency of the sector.

Meanwhile, the House has passed the bill that requests for additional budget for the Federal Government with a majority vote after it had deliberated on the decision proposal presented by the Chairperson of Budget and Finance Affairs Standing Committee of the House, the Hon. Wana Wake.

Meantime, questions forwarded by the members of the committee were responded by his Excellency Dr. Kassu Ilala.