This research work investigated the firewall security and performance relationship for distributed systems. The relation between the security and performance efficiency is presented through different scenarios and the relationship between security and performance in firewalls is evaluated. Emphasis is on the relationship between network security and performance; the effects of firewalls on network performance. Various scenarios were evaluated through simulations using OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition 9.1 to show the effects of firewalls on network performance. The result shows that the network security does not have a direct correlation to network performance.

The paper focused on the challenges that exist on the process of revenue collection in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. Like all metropolitan and municipal authorities, the AMA faces several challenges ranging for the efficient provision of service to revenue collection.
The study attempt to eliminate or reduce to minimum the challenges in the process of revenue collection, the problems associated with revenue administration, the tax base coverage and challenges in identifying property owners. Other objectives are to proposed and design a database solution for effective management of property ownership and revenue collection and also to propose a network solution for connecting the assembly's and the land sector agencies.
The study used the interpretative case study approach to obtain study individuals in their natural settings and also obtain deeper understanding of the event. Data was obtained from written narrative, observation and semi structured interviews of 20 participants.
In this study the researcher investigated the challenges associated with the collection of property rate in the AMA. It was discovered that revenue trend has not been stable in revenue collection. It was discovered that the AMA does not have a full or comprehensive register of all taxable activities or levies in their jurisdiction. There exist no system to track invoices and payments. Data on services, facilities, levies etc. are handled manually and consequently subject to fraud, abuse and significant revenue loss.
The research therefore recommends ways of minimizing the revenue leakage associated with property rate administration by the AMA; The proposed database system for collecting property rate stores detailed information of individual customer's and their property (land and building), these details would be stored with land or property coordinates from Google map for easy site identification. The system is designed to generate invoices and send it via mail to the appropriate customers and also keep payment records as well as summary reports of all services.

E-Voting has been attracting a lot of interest in the country and has been a subject for discussion in various media during the past years after elections. The current method of voting during general elections in Ghana is through paper base voting which comes with a lot of problems ranging from delay in voting resulting in long queues, double voting, result manipulations, spoilt votes due to wrong thumb-printing and delay in declaring results. To study seeks to investigate the feasibility of e-voting implementation in Ghana. The findings of this research will likely generate greater awareness about the e-voting system in Ghana and also provide useful knowledge to stakeholders about the benefit of e-voting system and also provide useful knowledge in policy formulation concerning Ghana elections. The study adopted mainly exploratory and descriptive analysis as well as a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches. Purposive and simple random techniques were used in selection and administering of questionnaires to employees of Electoral Commission and the voting population from selected regions in Ghana. The result of the findings shows that for e-voting system implementation to be successful, Government must show strong commitment to provide support by securing donor fund to improve on the existing infrastructure and provide the needed resources to support the successful implementation. The study also shows that Government need to improve infrastructure in most part of the country and Electoral Commission should also embark on educating the people on e-voting and creating awareness. It was recommended that e-voting for now should be implemented on pilot basis and run alongside paper voting until infrastructure is available nationwide.