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12.03.2007 "Kufuor buses" in danger
Accra, (Independent) -- Ghana’s only public transport system might collapse just as its forerunners (City Express and Omnibus Service Authority) went to ground if Government fails to halt the company’s dwindling fortunes. Government owns 45 percent of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) which, employs 3,000 workers with a fleet of 500 buses.  THE END ?
The cause of the dwindling fortunes, according to the paper, is managerial inefficiency and ‘massive siphoning of fuel and ticket racketeering.’
The lot are said to be ‘the same old mistakes that led to the eventual collapse of City Express and OSA.’
About 90 of the buses, imported from China have for some months been grounded, and quoting the MMT’s Communication Officer, Washington Numerkor the 90 buses are parked in the company’s yard “because they have outlived their lifespan of three years.”
“The conventional practice in the public transport industry is that whenever the buses involved reached their lifespan, the only option is to park them and procure new ones. He also indicated that the lifespan of the DAF or Neoplan buses is five years”, said Numerkor.
The company, he said was in the process of procuring new buses to replenish the stock.
Over 350 staff of the company were sacked last year for various acts of indiscipline, fuel siphoning and ticket racketeering that are currently choking the company.
An employee of the company who was arrested on November 18, 2006 while attempting to steal gallons of fuel is still walking free.
“The action of these unscrupulous conductors, stealing of bus spare parts by some engineers and non use of the 90 buses have contributed to the decline of the daily returns of MMT from over ¢300 million to ¢100 million.”
MMT seriously disputed the figures but failed to state what it thought was the actual situation with the excuse that it was still compiling the figures.
Source:
Independent
Striking health workers dismissed
The Ministry of Health has stated that all health worker who were not at post as from March 6, 2007 should consider themselves dismissed.
A letter dated March 5, 2007 and signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Lepowura M.N.D Jawula on behalf of the sector minister consequently directed all heads of health institutions to compile a list of recalcitrant staff to be forwarded to the Controller and Accountant- General to stop their salaries immediately.
Sections of the health workers have been on strike for about a week now to back their demands for enhanced salaries.
The Chairman of the Health Workers Group, Raymond A. Tetteh, dismissed the ministry’s directive and described it as an empty threat.
“We are not worried at all. We don’t even consider the circular as a threat”, he rebuffed during the weekend.
He argued that there were no laid down requirements for firing health workers saying the approach resorted to by the ministry was not one of such requirements.
Although Mr Tetteh could not be specific, he said a member of staff could only be sacked if he or she absented himself or herself for about two weeks and considering the fact that the strike was barely one week old and so unilateral, the ministry’s directive was inappropriate.
He nevertheless indicated that the leadership of the Health Workers Group would meet on Monday to impress upon its striking members to call off their strike to enable the Appellate Body of the National Commission to continue work on resolving the impasse.
The NLC has described the strike as illegal, saying it is in bad faith coming at a time the parties are at a negotiating table.
For a couple of months now members of the HWG have raised issues with what they consider to be anomalies in the salary structure of health workers.
As a way of expressing their displeasure, they resorted to “work-to-rule” tactics where they worked, as they put it, like civil servants from 8am to 5pm from Monday to Friday only.
However, last week Monday some health workers in the Greater Accra Region decided to go on strike and that has attracted the fury of the sector ministry which this time is not in the least eager to massage their ego.
“The ministry takes a serious view of the ongoing strike,” the letter noted and called on the striking workers to call off their action and go back to work immediately.
The letter which has been posted on the notice boards of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and was faxed on March 5, 2007 and stamped as having been received by the Medical Director of the Hospital on March 8, 2007.
It asked all heads if health institutions to send daily reports to the ministry through the Regional Director, on staff who reported for duty and those who failed to comply with the directive for the necessary action to be taken.
It further asked the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service and the Chief Executives of the teaching hospitals to bring the directive to the notice of their staff and report on the state of the strike with a list of absentee workers.
According to Mr Tetteh, the strike was not nationwide but only in some health facilities in parts of the Greater Accra Region, adding it was not approved by the HWG.
He explained that a meeting of all the parties in the dispute with the Appellate Body of the NLC on February 28, 2007, the parties were briefed on the progress of work of the body and given the assurance that by March 31, 2007, its report would be delivered.
Source:
Daily Graphic
| < BACK NEXT > 11.03.2007 Amoateng's Seat Up For Grabs Tomorrow
Statesman --
The people of Nkoranza North constituency will tomorrow vote to elect their Member of Parliament, a seat which effectively became vacant a little over a year ago but only declared vacant last month following the resignation of Eric Amoateng, who is being tried in America on charges of smuggling heroine.
This contest is considered by all sides as the first real test of the popularity of the two main parties since the 2004 general elections. This is because it has long been a swing seat and the circumstances that led to the by-election cannot be said to command any sympathy votes for the incumbent party.
The Regional Chairman of the ruling party has vowed to quit his post if he failed to secure the seat for his party.
John Evans Atta Mills, National Democratic Congress flagbearer for the 2008 general elections was in the constituency with some of his party's big guns. He was notably accompanied by two NDC MPs, Collins Dauda and Ahmed Sorogho, when he toured some of the very communities the New Patriotic Party was also visiting.
Collins Dauda, MP for Asutifi South, speaking to The Statesman boasted highly confidently that the NDC would win by sixty percent and urged Nana Obiri Boahen, the Brong Ahafo Regional NPP chairman to prepare for his resignation as he pledged to do should the NPP lose the by-election
Both leading parties are equally confident of winning. Their talk of victory this time is seen as real. Until Amoateng"s impressive win in 2004, Nkoranza North was controlled by the NDC. The NDC’s Hayford Francis Amoako won the then Nkoranza seat in 2000 with 49.6 percent of the vote, beating Kwame Amporfo Twumasi of the NPP and five others. Earlier, Theresa Nyarko Fofie had done even better, obtaining 69 percent of the vote to Yaw Kudom of the NPP’s 25 percent in the 1996 election.
The leadership of the NPP and NPP, the two major contenders, over the weekend rounded up their rallies, criss-crossing the communities in the constituency.
President John Agyekum Kufuor, leading the NPP campaign machinery visited several of the communities at the weekend before returning to London to board a special flight today for his royal visit to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
President Kufuor’s message was simple: Vote for the party and not the individual.
At a durbar at Pinihin, the President told the people that he needed parliamentarians who understand the NPP’s philosophy and could therefore easily work with him.
He, therefore, urged the people to return the seat to the ruling party by voting for Derek Oduro, the NPP’s aspirant.
President Kufuor said it would be wrong to replace Mr Amoateng with a person who does not understand "the language of the NPP.”
Responding to a request by Nana Kudom Gabriel, chief of Pinihin, the President said the supply of potable water supply was to be improved and expanded.
President Kufuor also promised the farming community tractors and other equipment for higher productivity.
Nkoranza North constituency organising secretary for the NPP told this paper that the northern part of the constituency had always been a strong hold of the NPP even at the period the area was not divided and was being controlled by the NDC.
According to him, the result of tomorrow’s by-election is a foregone conclusion, predicting a 75 percent win for the NPP.
The NPP supporters who spoke to our reporter said the NDC candidates’ father did nothing for the community at the end of his two terms as an MP.
Like father like son, they argued that the son cannot perform any better. The NPP entourage includes Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary, Peter Mac Manu, Chairman, some notable presidential aspirants and Ministers.
Source:
Statesman Kufuor arrives in London
... to begin State visit
London, March 12, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday arrived in London to begin a three-day historic state visit on the invitation of the British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
He is accompanied by the wife, Theresa and a high powered delegation including the Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Daniel Adzei-Bekoe and another member of the Council, Madam Ama Busia, Foreign Minister Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Kwamena Bartels and some senior Government officials.
The visit, the first ever to be made by a Ghanaian Head of State, is designed not only to reinforce the historical political links between Ghana and her former colonial ruler, Britain, but also showcase Ghana's economic and political success story with a view to getting more development support for the country.
The highlights would include bilateral talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Leader of the British Opposition Party, the Commonwealth Secretary General and the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
President Kufuor's other engagements would involve holding business meetings with the West African Business Association and the Commonwealth Business Council, working breakfast with African Heads of Mission and a major policy statement at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Additionally, he would deliver a lecture at the Liverpool John Moores University, where he would receive an Honorary Doctorate Degree. Ghana and Britain have maintained excellent relations since Ghana's independence with the former colonial master being its biggest trading partner.
Trade between the two stood at 221 million pounds sterling for the period between January and September, last year.
Source:
GNA
| Wolfowitz greeted with blackouts at KIA
When the World bank President, Paul D. Wolfowitz breezed into town on the evening of March 2, 2007, four days before Ghana celebrated her 50th Anniversary, he was greeted with a power blackout at no other place than the VVIP lounge of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
About ten seconds before Paul Wolfowitz stepped into the lounge to address the media the whole airport went dark. The incident, which was not a new development to Ghanaians, however surprised newsmen who were at the airport to cover the arrival of the world Bank President because they least expected the Kotoka International Airport, touted as the ‘gateway to Africa’ to suffer the same fate they experience in their daily lives.
It was however, a development which some saw as symbolic and perhaps, God’s design to showcase to president that this was how far the Bank had traveled with Ghana as a development partner.
The irony of it is that after being touted as a success story in Africa, Ghana currently struggles to provide sufficient and reliable energy for domestic consumption and industrial use, little wonder that Ghana’s industries even lacked the capacity to produce the jubilee clothe, according the Minister of Presidential Affairs.
But the darkness and its undertones did not scare the World Bank boss from pursuing his agenda. Paul Wolfowitz, according to the Ghana office of the Bank, was said to have been invited by the government of Ghana to participate in the country’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, a commemoration of Africa’s struggle against all traces of colonialism and imperialism. As it turned out, he had little to say about the anniversary celebrations apart from acknowledging that Ghana was the first country in the post war period to gain independence and that that alone makes Ghana a leader for the whole sub-continent.
Paul Wolfowitz first observation on arrival was about Ghana’s economy, which he saw as doing well in the last 10 years; a period he described as one of “good sound economic policy” making. “We would say that Ghana’s economic performance in the first years was disappointing and not what the people here wanted, but I am very pleased that in the last 10 years or so, Ghana has become one of the stronger performing African economies and that has come about through attention to human development and through attention to good, sound economic policy,” he told Ghana’s Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Mr. Baah-Wiredu, at the airport.
Ghana, he said, should continue to step up policy reforms and improve the business environment if she is to achieve the growth levels of the best performing economies in the world and create jobs for her teaming unemployed youth.
He insists on reforms or what he prefers to call “improved policy environment” as being what will take Ghana to economic success, not the type and volume of financial support the Bank can offer to the country that has been its member since September 1957.
“No amount of money by itself is going to work without continued effort to improve the policy environment,” he proffered in answer to a question from journalists as to why the Bank is reluctant in giving lump sums to countries like Ghana to invest in say energy infrastructure, the lack of which today, is crippling Ghanaian businesses.
Paul Wolfowitz’s answer however betrayed the Bank as an institution that lends to only those who toe its line of economic thinking, and not for the purposes of achieving a world free of poverty as its claims in its mission statement. But even, it has insisted providing loans on a piece-meal basis so as to keep countries like Ghana and others in the developing world at levels that fit well into the interest of the developed world.
From the Bank’s own data, Ghana has, to date, gained only $4.2 billion as credit since 1983 when she accepted and religiously implemented the Bank’s proposed Economic Reform Programme (ERP). The implementation of the ERPs, which saw thousands of workers in state enterprises losing their jobs, several state owned enterprises offloaded onto private hands and state withdrawal from delivering health care among others, however did not see Ghana coming out poverty as the Bank had predicted.
Today, the Bank itself acknowledges that gains from those policies, have been concentrated in the forest areas, where there is a concentration of cocoa, gold and timber production. And that there was the least poverty reduction in the savanna region, which relies more heavily on subsistence agriculture. As a result, poverty remains more widespread in the three chronically deprived regions (northern, Upper West and Upper East.) around 40% of poor people in Ghana live in the three sparsely populated northern regions.
The above facts however illustrate the point that western economic policies have failed to change the structure of the Ghanaian economy. It is still reliant on primary exports and has a weak manufacturing and industrial base.
Source:
Public Agenda
Govt account was not overdrawn - CAGD
Accra, March 12, GNA -
The Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) on Monday denied that government's account was overdrawn to the tune of 4.5 trillion cedis in 2005.
At a press briefing in Accra, Mr Christian Tettey Sottie, the Controller and Accountant-General explained that the figure was a cumulative cash balance from previous years dating back to the 1990s and noted `that the Auditor General's Report rather indicated a surplus on government account for 2005.
Further, he said, the report showed that "there has been an improvement in Cash Balance from 5,465 billion cedis in 2004 to 4,565 billion cedis in 2005 meaning there was a positive cash balance movement of 900.45 billion cedis."
Two local newspapers, the Ghanaian Times and Independent reported on February 1, this year from parliamentary debates that in 2005 4.5 trillion cedis was overdrawn from government chest and that the outfit manufactures "ghost names" for those monies.
Mr Sottie said the government's total expenditure for the year 2005 was 25,158.7 billion cedis as against a budget of 27,413.8 billion cedis.
Total revenue realised he said, was 30,532.8 billion cedis against the budgeted revenue of 29,881.3 billion cedis showing that revenue collected in 2005 was in excess of the budget by 651 billion cedis. Commenting briefly on what transpired at parliament on the said date, Mr Sottie said Parliamentary Debates volume 55 number 02, had several paragraphs with the heading "unsubstantiated cash balance of 4.5 trillion cedis."
Reacting to the "Ghost Names" story in which the newspaper quoted Mr P. C Appiah-Ofori, Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa as the source of the allegation, Mr Sottie said it would be difficult for the outfit to indulge into such illegal acts because its work was basically dependent on information provided by the various MDAs. He said it was not clear as to whether the MP's allegation was referring to variance analysis and reporting under management accounting instead of financial statements in financial accounting to meet statutory requirements.
Explaining the processes in respect of pay rolls at the Department, Mr Sottie said apart from the statutory accounts prepared by the outfit, the MDAs also prepares management accounts that were not published but used by management.
"We want to assume that the MP's description of the process of creating 'ghost names' is from an informed position," he said. He said public accounts were prepared with the Financial Administration Act 2003 and its regulations and added that the CAGD did not insert ghost names.
Source:
GNA
Ghana has not ratified ILO Convention on minimum age to work
Accra, March 12, GNA -
Although Ghana prides itself as the first country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has to date not ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on the Minimum Age to Work.
The ILO Convention 138 of 1973 stipulates that children could only be engaged in employment upon completion of basic education or at least have attained the age of 15 years.
The ILO Conventions has, however, been incorporated into the Children's Act of Ghana, Act 560, Madam Margaret M. Sackey, Senior Programme Officer of the International Labour Office, said on Monday. She was speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop on Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) and State of Human Rights Monitoring in Ghana which opened in Accra for about 40 participants of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
The workshop seeks to build the capacity and expertise of the Commission's Investigators and Public Education Officers in the application of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods in handling child labour cases.
The workshop which drew participants from all the 10 regions also seeks to promote effective public education and advocacy skills and help develop a monitoring and reporting format.
Madam Sackey said Ghana's inability to ratify ILO Convention 138 of 1973 was a dent on its image since there were only seven countries left that were yet to ratify the convention and most of the seven countries were those that had been hit by conflicts of all sorts. She said the focus for ILO now was the immediate prohibition and elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) for all children under the age of 18.
"The ILO office in Ghana has adopted and is implementing a time bound programme to eradicate WFCL in the shortest possible time," Madam Sackey said.
She listed eight time-bound WFCL being implemented in Ghana to include Ritual Servitude, otherwise known as trokosi, trafficking, Kayaye, child domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation of children, children in quarrying and small-scale mining (galamsey), children in fishing and children in commercial agriculture.
"As at now, we are working in nine regions, with the exclusion of Upper West, because there was no proposal from that region," Madam Sackey said.
She said the role of CHRAJ in this project included awareness creation, law enforcement agency partner, alternative dispute resolution agency, the application of relevant laws and the integration of child labour interventions into district plans and programmes.
"As a global demand, all children should be kept from small-scale mining sites by 2015," she said, adding that, the ILO office in Ghana was working at preventing 9,000 children from being exposed to WFCL. "We are also working with some NGOs who have helped to withdraw about 2,093 children from WFCL as at the end of February last month," she added.
Mrs Chris Dadzie, Director of Public Education of CHRAJ, said the goal for now was to eliminate WFCL towards the eventual elimination of child labour in Ghana.
The workshop is being sponsored by the ILO. 12 March 07 Source:
GNA
Ghana marks Commonwealth Day
Accra, March 12, GNA -
Ghana on Monday called for efforts to pre-empt and minimize the occurrence tensions in the world through the active engagement of governments, individuals and civil society organizations.
She said these must work in tandem for conflict prevention and resolution towards the building of peaceful and harmonious communities. This was contained in a statement issued in Accra by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD to mark Commonwealth Day, which falls on Monday, March 12.
The Ministry said the theme: "The Commonwealth - Respecting Differences, Promoting Understanding" reflected both the uniqueness of the organization and one of the most fundamental challenges facing humankind. These were how, within societies and between nations, the people of a globalised world could live together in peace, security and harmony.
The Ministry noted that during the last Commonwealth Summit in Malta in November 2005, the leaders saw this as a multi-faceted global problem.
"Some of the problems confronting our world include marginalization, exclusion and poverty; terrorism and extremism; ethnic, religious, cultural and political differences; inequality and injustice. "History teaches us that all these issues, if not addressed with the requisite sensitivity and discernment, could contribute to inter-communal tensions and conflict.
"Efforts to pre-empt and minimise the occurrence of these tensions require the active engagement of governments, individuals and civil society organisations."
The Ministry said the government was working strenuously towards the creation of an inclusive society where each individual had ample opportunity for self-realization.
"We attach great importance to education not only for the acquisition of knowledge but for the positive values that people learn at school such as tolerance and non-discrimination," it added. The Ministry said Ghana, located in a region that had had more than its fair share of violent conflicts, had come to appreciate the enduring value of unity in diversity.
It said Ghana believed that the efforts she was making through effective policies of integration to eliminate the causes of social tensions and misunderstanding should constitute part of the best practices within the commonwealth. Source:
GNA
GPRS II is to maintain macro-economic stability - RM
Sunyani, March 12, GNA -
Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister on Monday said the objective of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS) was to maintain macro-economic stability in the country.
"It is also anchored on pursuing accelerated private sector growth, vigorous human resource development, good governance and civic responsibility", the Regional Minister stated.
He urged agencies charged with implementing programmes and projects under the GPRS II at the regional and district levels to demonstrate, through evidence-based information, to ensure that the interventions were having the desired effects, in transforming the lives of the beneficiaries.
The Regional Minister was speaking at the opening of a workshop on the District Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) guidelines for Regional and District Planning Co-ordinating units in Sunyani.
The five-day workshop, the first of it kind in the country, was organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and funded by the World Bank.
Mr. Baffour-Awuah explained that the government and its development partners had committed significant resources to support a wide range of development interventions designed to improve social and economic conditions in the country.
He explained that the GPRS I that was implemented from 2002 to 2005, was a broad-based development strategy for accelerated poverty reduction and decentralisation.
The emphasis of GPRS II from 2006 to 2009 is growth inducing policies and programmes with the potential of supporting wealth creation for sustainable poverty reduction, the Regional Minister stated.
Mr. Baffour-Awuah explained that monitoring the implementation of the District Medium Term Development Plans (DMTDP) from 2006 to 2009 was a continuation of the successful and collaborative effort to develop efficient results based on the M&E system for GPRS II.
This will not only facilitate the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on performance outcomes, but would also enable the NDPC and other ministries, departments and agencies to feed the analysis from the district and regional reports directly into policy and decision making processes, he said.
The Regional Minister entreated Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region to ensure that the M&E plans were prepared and implemented.
Mr. Jonathan Azason and Mr. Opare Djan, Senior Planning Analysts from NDPC and facilitators of the workshop, explained that the workshop aimed at helping to monitor the implementation of their medium term development plans.
Mr. Djan said the monitoring would help know whether the target, objective and goals set were being achieved in the GPRS II. He reminded the participants that the planning Act 480 of 1994 gave the legal authority to NDPC to make sure that all municipal and district assemblies prepared their district medium development and M&E plans. The Planning Analyst expressed the hope that the participants would go back and use the knowledge they would acquire to prepare their district specific development plans. Source:
GNA
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