|
|
15.03.2007 Human right problems in Ghana exposed
The 2006 Report on Human Rights Practices released by the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour has indicated that although the Government of Ghana generally respects human rights and has made significant improvements during the year, there are still problems including incidents of vigilante justice.
"Human rights problems included deaths resulting from the excessive use of force by police, vigilante justice, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, police corruption and impunity, arbitrary arrest and detention, prolonged pre-trial detention, infringement on citizens’ privacy rights, forcible dispersal of demonstrations, forced evictions and corruption in all branches of government" are some problems cited by the report which was released on March 6, 2007.
The report, which is annually released by the bureau, also mentioned violence against women and children; female genital mutilation (FGM), societal discrimination against women, persons with disabilities, homosexuals, and persons with HIV/AIDS, trafficking in women and children; ethnic discrimination and politically and ethnically motivated violence; and child labor, including forced child labour.
During the year, the report said the government took significant steps to improve the protection of human rights, including passage of separate pieces of legislation to protect the rights of whistleblowers and persons with disabilities.
On respect for human rights, the report said: "there were no reports that the government or its agents committed political killings; however, the use of excessive force by security forces resulted in the deaths of several criminal suspects and other persons during the year."
It cited the cases of the four persons who were shot and killed by police officers at Dansoman Estates in Accra and the shooting and killing of a 26-year-old man on May 19, 2006 at Kotobabi after mistaking him for one of the robbers they were seeking as some of the human rights violations.
The report however noted that "unlike the previous year, there were no reports that some members of the security forces appeared to sanction violence."
The report did not record any cases of politically motivated disappearances.
Freedom of speech and of the press were generally respected by the government, according to the report but stated that opposition parties occasionally complained that state-owned media outlets minimized media coverage of opposition politicians adding that individuals criticized the government publicly without reprisal.
It mentioned cases in which some journalists were manhandled in the course of their job.
It for instance mentioned the case in which policemen from Tema, Ada and Kisseih allegedly used excessive force to prevent members of the media from covering a press conference held at Kportsum, near Ada; the attack on a photographer and two journalists working for the Enquirer newspaper at the covering of CHRAJ’s ruling on Dr. Richard Anane, former Minister for Transportation, and the case of two journalists who were barred from a press conference held by the Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority (GPHA) which was allegedly done in retaliation for an article run by the journalists’ newspaper. The GPHA later apologized to the newspaper.
"The state-owned media reported extensively on charges of corruption or mismanagement by both current and past government officials. During the year the state-owned media gave some coverage to opposition politicians and printed occasional editorials critical of government policies. The opposition claimed that government media denied it equal access and coverage on numerous occasions. In practice the state controlled media gave greater exposure to government officials", the report noted.
The 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices is released yearly by the US State Department and describes the performance of governments in putting into practice their international commitments on human rights.
The report was jointly released on March 6 by U.S Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary Dobriansky with a Universal Declaration calling upon "every individual and every organ of society to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.
Source:
Ghanaian Times Workers to get loans for houses - Minister
Accra, March 15, GNA -
Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, on Thursday said plans were underway to make accessible loans to government workers to help them acquire personal houses.
He noted that the decision was informed by the fact that government workers depended on their salaries to put up their houses and this affected other needs.
"We are all aware that after food is shelter to make the individual comfortable," Mr Owusu-Agyemang, said, adding that affordable houses would be built by government for interested individuals to buy. The Minister made this known when the out-going Swiss Ambassador, George Zubler, paid a courtesy call on him to bid him farewell. Mr Zubler, who has ended his five-year duty tour concurrently in four West African countries - Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo and Liberia would take up another ambassadorial appointment in Ukraine. Mr Owusu-Agyemang noted that the co-operation between the two countries had yielded good dividend in all sectors of the economy, including tourism and lauded the efforts of donor partners for their continuous support.
Mr Zubler said co-operation between the two countries had resulted in growth of Ghana's agriculture and the private sector. He said the country would continue to be one of the 16 countries, which the Swiss government would continue to support and commended Ghana for its development policies. Source:
GNA
| < BACK NEXT > 14.03.2007
NPP will rule for the next 30 years -Minister
The Minister for Youth and Employment, Boniface Abubakar Saddique has predicted that the ruling NPP will rule Ghana for the next 30 years because of its good policies, programmes and success chalked under President Kufuor's administration.
"For the next 30 years, NPP will rule Ghana, I therefore urge all Ghanaians to renew NPP government power to continue its good works," he stressed.
The Minister who is also MP for Salaga was speaking at the launching of 500 Zoom Lion motorized Tri-cycle for street sweeping, drain cleansing and litter picking at Konadu Yiadom Park, Kumasi.
According to him, numerous programmes embarked upon by the government particularly the National Health Insurance Scheme, the National Youth Employment, the Capitation Grant, School Feeding Programme and many others have come to stay to help improve the people.
The Minister pointed out that President Kufuor did not come to amass wealth for himself but rather to help fast track social and economic development.
His (Kufuor's) achievement for the past six years is there for all to judge. Mr Saddique pointed out that NYEP programme is not fake but a reality and entreated the youth especially the unemployed youth to take advantage and register.
Source:
Daily Dispatch
VALCO to suspend operations
The Volta Aluminum Company Limited will effect from Friday, March 16 suspend its operations due to inadequate power supply from the Akosombo Dam.
The shut down, the 11th in the history of VALCO since its establishment in 1967 will result in declaring majority of the 700 labour force redundant.
Dr Charles Mensa, Chief Executive officer of the smelting plant which the state has 90 percent shares with 10 per cent for ALCOA, described the latest action as regrettable and a disappointment to those who looked up to VALCO to realize the late President Nkrumah’s dream of industrialization.
He explained that the decision t shut down was voluntary when the company realised the declining level of water in the Akosombo Dam.
He said about 200 staff members would be retained too secure and maintain the plant.
Dr Mensa said the skeleton staff would build an extrusion and rod-mill plants in readiness for power to provide the environment for the country’s industrialization and the creation of jobs.
He said the shut down would offer the management of VALCO the challenge to develop alternative sources of power.
According to Dr Mensa, in the interim the extrusion and rod-mill would help to produce aluminum doors and windows and transmission lines for electricity.
He said the long term objective of VALCO was to develop a coal fixed power plant to take the smelter plant off the national grid.
Dr Mensa explained that it was expected that it would take VALCO a minimum of 24 months to develop the plant, adding that VALCO was working with an independent power provider to start the construction as early as possible.
He said the plant, which will cost about $400 million to construct, would generate about 500 megawatts of power.
Dr Mensa said to enable VALCO to produce full capacity; the company required about 350 megawatts of power.
He said when VALCO achieved that objective; it would be in a position to give the surplus power to the state to improve the capacity of the national grid by about 150 megawatts.
Asked whether the use of coal to power a big smelter like VALCO was outdated, Dr Mensa discounted that claim and explained that coal was readily available in Enugu, Nigeria and Southern African countries.
He said VALCO could no longer rely on electricity to run the plant, adding that an investment whose raw material was electricity could no longer be predicted.
Dr Mensa said VALCO was better off generating its own power and taking control of its operations.
Source:
Daily Graphic
$20m breakdown will be done in 2008
Accra, March 15, GNA - Government says a breakdown of the full utilization of the 20 million dollars approved for the Ghana@50 Secretariat will be available in next year's Auditor-General's Report, and urged the Minority in Parliament to wait till then before asking for accountability on the spending procedure.
Moving a motion for the approval of the 2006 Supplementary Appropriation Bill, Professor George Gyan-Barfour, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said it was necessary to hold on for the full utilization of the amount to be effected.
Prof. Gyan-Barfour was responding to comments by Mr John Mahama, NDC-Bole Bamboi that Parliament 93should never make the mistake of approving an omnibus amount without requesting the full breakdown of what it was going to be used for."
Mr Mahama had argued that Parliament as the keeper of the national purse had the right to know what and how any amount it approves is used. "Rather when we the keepers of the national purse ask for an explanation on how monies we have approved for national development is being used, we are 93arrogantly snubbed" and not given the full facts, but omnibus figures."
This brought, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Deputy Majority Chief Whip to his feet to ask Mr Mahama to withdraw his point that Parliament was arrogantly snubbed by officials of the Ghana@50 Secretariat. "We did not approve the 20 million dollars for Dr Charles Wereko Brobbey, hence this honourable House could not have invited him to answer any questions on the matter," he added.
Mr. Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader said even though there was a constitutional provision on when the Supplementary Bill be brought before the House, it should be done within a time framework. Contributing to the motion on the second reading of the repeal of the National Reconstruction Levy, Mr Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader said even though he supports the repeal of the law, it was sad that it had already caused devastating blows and deaths of many companies.
Mr Mahama said there was nothing to congratulate government about on the matter and likened the situation to a group of people who hijack a plane, kill the pilots and after being helped by the control tower to land safely, they want to be congratulated.
"There was no need to kill the pilots in the first place," saying that, 93similarly there was no need to introduce the law in the first place. It is too little too late, having seen to the collapse of several companies". Mr. Manu S.K. Balado, NPP-Ahafo Ano South congratulated government for the courage in introducing the law and using it wisely over the period it existed.
Source:
GNA
| Panellists call for overhaul of Procurement Act
Accra, March 15, GNA -
Panellists at a workshop on procurement and fiscal decentralisation in Ghana on Thursday called for a complete overhaul of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) to ensure a clear demarcation between procurement procedures at the central and local government levels.
Leading the call for the overhaul, Mr Benjamin Kumbuor, NDC MP for Lawra-Nandom, said the existing law seemed to place final decisions in the public procurement process in the hands of the central government structures such as the Public Procurement Board (PPB) and the Regional Tender Boards (RTB) to the detriment of the District Tender Committees (DTC) and individual entities like the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The workshop, organised by Public Agenda, an Accra-based newspaper, was under the broad theme: "Decentralisation in Ghana III". It focused on making the Procurement Act 2003 more relevant to Ghana's fiscal decentralisation process through consensus building. Mr Kumbuor noted that as each of the 110 districts had their own peculiarities in terms of development requirement, it was necessary to ensure that the law allowed peculiar procurement processes for each district.
"The law should have provided the broad structures for procurement in the country and have a proviso that allows each district to draw up their own procedures to meet their own peculiar situation," he said. Mr Kumbuor pointed out that in Lawra, for instance, due to inadequate lawyers, the Attorney-General's Department continued to represent entities in tender procedures at the district level. "This is wrong because the A-G cannot represent competing entities."
Ms Elizabeth Salamatu Fogo, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bole in the Northern Region, said members of the DTC had very little training in the procurement law and procedures and this made it difficult for them to oversee the procurement processes efficiently. She called for more training for DTC members and also recommended that presiding members and District Magistrates should be made members of the DTC to ensure openness and proper legal efficiency of the committees.
Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw, NPP MP for Asuogyaman, faulted the procurement process, saying in his constituency he was once almost compelled to sign a tender document, which had questionable content. He said the monitoring and evaluation powers of the Regional Tender Board (RTB) and the PPB created the impression that the final decision in a tender process lay with the central government, adding that those powers should be taken from the central government agencies. Mr Anim Boateng Adjei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PPB, said the law placed the final decision in the procurement process in the hands of the various entities including the MMDAs and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
He said there was a proposed amendment from the PPB, which sought to streamline the process in such a way to ensure that the central government agencies in the procurement structure only existed to review procedures suspected to have been circumvented.
Mr Adjei said the proposed amendment also sought to reduce the number of qualified legal procurement entities by about one-third from about 1,500 to 1,000 entities.
He assured participants that the proposed amendments, other than a complete overhaul, would ensure efficiency in the public procurement process.
Mr Ebenezer Essilfie from the Awutu-Efutu-Senya District Assembly described Mr Kumbuor's call for a complete overhaul of the public procurement Act as unacceptable, saying that Mr Kumbuor was a member of the government that oversaw the establishment of the Act. Mr Daniel Aidoo, Acting Procurement Manager at the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), raised the issue of emergency procurement and suggested that the proposed amendment should capture that to give entities some legal backing in emergency cases. 15 March 07Source:
GNA
Ducie community gets small town pipe water to prevent guinea worm
Wa, March 15, GNA - The people of Ducie, a guinea worm endemic community in the Wa East District, have started benefiting from a mechanized water system provided by DFID at a total cost of 2.8 billion cedis.
The system is temporarily ran on a generator but the major system, which would be powered by solar energy, would be completed next month, Mrs Blandina Batiir, the Regional Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, said on Wednesday.
She was speaking at a one-day meeting to review water and sanitation activities for last year.
The meeting brought together all stakeholders in the water sector in the region and they evaluated reports from all the eight districts and relevant non-governmental organizations. In addition to stakeholders' contribution to the provision of water, Mrs Batiir said, the CWSA had a budget of 35 billion cedis last year for the implementation of the Small Town Water and Sanitation Project in eight towns in the region.
The towns are Nadowli, Daffiama, Jirapa, Lawra, Nandom, Tumu, Gwollu and Sakai.
Civil contract works on the projects, which were awarded in February and March last year, have almost been completed and the systems would be handed over to the communities by the end of March. Mr David Yakubu, the Regional Coordinating Director, appealed to the CWSA to strengthen its monitoring mechanisms, especially of the water boards of the various communities, and be prepared to apply sanctions where necessary to enable it to achieve its targets. Source:
GNA
Minister disagree with Transport Ministry
Koforidua, March 15, GNA-
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah has expressed his disagreement with the Ministry of Transport over the suspension of the payment of advance mobilization loans to contractors.
He was speaking at the formal opening of the two-day Annual Management Seminar of the Department of Feeder Roads at Koforidua on Wednesday.
Mr Barimah explained that, road construction was a very expensive project and so must be supported by the Ministry or else there could be delays in its execution by the contractors.
He said if project managers of the Ministry and agencies fail to deduct the due advance mobilization loans given to contractors when paying them, then the Ministry must re-organise itself and call its officials to order.
Mr Barimah therefore called on the Ministry of Transport to take a second look at the policy.
The Deputy Minister of Transport, Mr Magnus Opare-Asamoah in his response explained that, the suspension of the payment of the advance mobilization loans by the Ministry was a temporary measure to help put its house in order.
He said it was also to ensure that it avoids the situation where some contractors collect the loans and use them for other purposes. The Ministry he said, had not been able to honour the payment of contractors for work done due to inadequate funds and expressed the hope that the suspension of the mobilization loans would help speed up the payment.
Mr Opare -Asamoah said the Ministry was concerned about the number of contractors who procure contracts with falsified certificates, which was a crime.
He urged the regional engineers, evaluation panels and heads of department under the Ministry to ensure that, all contractors certificates submitted for tendering any project was verified with the monthly lists of contractors posted on the website of the ministry.
Mr Opare-Asamoah warned regional engineers and heads of department that they would be sanctioned if they award contracts to companies not on the list of classified contractors on the ministry's website. Mr Opare-Asamoah expressed the concern of government over the slow execution of road projects due to some of the contractors who take on contracts all over the regions making it difficult for them to complete on time and also to specification.
He commended the Department of Feeder Roads for their over all performance and ability to complete 70 per cent of their work schedule for last year.
Mr Opare-Asamoah however cautioned the department to improve upon its performance to help build a good image for it self. The Director of the Department of Feeder Roads, Mr Elvis Asafo-Adjei, said last year, the department was able to provide periodic maintenance on 17,340 kilometres of road out of the projected 26,580 kilometres representing 65 per cent.
He said out of the projected 227 kilometres of roads it earmarked for bitumen surfacing, only 176 kilometres representing 78 per cent was tackled.Source:
GNA
South Korean Embassy cheats staff
For the past 16 years, the South Korean Embassy operating in Ghana has refused to pay Social Security contributions for its workers.
Even meetings the Social Security & National Insurance Trust had with officials of the Mission since May, 2006 to resolve the embarrassing issue has not yielded any good results, according to the Dispatch newspaper.
Investigations by Daily Dispatch have revealed that at a meeting on May 5, 2006, the inability of the South Korean Embassy to comply with Ghana's Social Security Laws was due to a misconception that establishments operating similar in-house schemes for their employees were not obliged to contribute to the SSNIT scheme.
At another meeting on June 29, 2006, it was realised that the Embassy was not operating any In-House Compensation/Provident Fund Scheme for the local staff as previously alleged, rather, a form of gratuity was paid to staff on disengagement irrespective of age but based on the number of years' service at the Embassy.
The said in a rather bizarre twist of events, the Embassy claimed that the old salary documents had been destroyed. They rather asked SSNIT to furnish them (the Embassy) with three years salary information. The Embassy officials said they would get back to their Home government for consultations.
By a letter of September 14, 2006, the Embassy was able to provide information on the local staff at the Embassy, however, the Embassy has been stalling up to date.
A source at the Foreign Ministry explained that if the matter was brought to their attention, they would investigate.
Source:
Daily Dispatch
Call for a break in the state discrimination against private schools
Sunyani (B/A) March 15, GNA -
A number of popular schools of thought have attempted to define education from different perspectives but all agree that education is the greatest explosive force that could effect desirable social human development. This buttresses the assertion that learning is said to have taken place when there is a change in behaviour and since the school is the institution responsible for teaching and learning, its role in human development cannot be over-emphasized.
From Wikipedia encyclopedia, schools existed as far as back as Greek times if not earlier. Islam was one of the earliest cultures to develop a schooling system in the modern sense of the word as it puts a lot of emphasis on knowledge and had to develop a systematic way of teaching and spreading knowledge in purpose-built structures.
At first the mosque combined both religious performance and learning activities, but by the tenth century the Seljuks introduced the first school or Madrassa as it was called in Arabic, a proper school built independently of the mosque. They were also the first to make the school or Madrassa system of a public domain under the control of the Caliph. The Nizamiyya Madrassa is considered by consensus of scholars to be the earliest surviving school, built towards 1066 CE Emir Nizam Al-Mulk.
Under the Ottomans, learning was given a new dimension as towns of Bursa and Edirne took over as the main centers of learning respectively. The Ottoman system of Kulliye, a building complex containing a mosque, a hospital Madrassa, and public kitchen and dinning areas, was indeed revolutionary making the learning accessible to a wider public through its free meals, health care and sometimes free accommodation.
In Europe during the Middle Ages and much of the early modern period, the main purpose of schools (as opposed to universities) was to teach the Latin language. This led to the term grammar school, which in the United States is used informally to refer to a primary school but in the United Kingdom means a school that selects entrants on their ability or aptitude.
Following this, the school curriculum was gradually broadened to include literacy in the vernacular language as well as technical, artistic, scientific and practical subjects.
The size and scope of schools varies depending on the recourses and goals of the communities that provide for them. A school might be simply an outdoor meeting where one teacher comes to instruct a few students, or, alternatively, a large campus consisting of hundreds of buildings and tens of thousands of students and educators.
The basic unit of a school building is generally the classroom, where the act on instruction takes place. Other places typically found in schools include, a cafeteria, sporting facilities, auditorium, offices, library and laboratories. Boarding schools where students live full-time among their peers also include dormitories.
Most modern states consider it a duty of the government to provide at least a basic education to the children of its citizens. For this reason, many schools are owned or funded by states. Private schools are those, which are operated independently from the government. Private schools usually rely on fees paid by families whose children attend the school for funding; however, sometimes such schools also receive government support.
Many private schools are affiliated with a particular religion; these are known as parochial schools in the United States of America. In the UK most schools are publicly funded and are known as state schools or maintained schools in which tuition if provided free. There are also private schools or independent schools that charge fees. Some of the most selective expensive schools are private. (Wikipedia Encyclopedia).
In Ghana our history of education has seen the missionary institutions, the local authority schools and private schools, all coexisting. At the basic level the most expensive but also the most sought after schools are private, giving rise to the general and sometimes erroneous belief that private schools are profit-making business enterprises that need no support.
This is not only hypothetical but has unfortunately led to the sidelining, neglect and discrimination against the sector as, if even they are, it is not any justifiable basis for subjecting the children in particular and the institution in general to selective and discriminatory ordeals, considering their immense contribution to the human resource development of the country, the core of development of the economy and indeed the development of any country.
This stance of the state runs contrary to the nation's much trumpeted pride of being the first country in the world to ratify the United Nations Convention on children's rights.
Private schools form 20 per cent of basic schools and contribute more than 60 per cent of the total intake into the so-called endowed second cycle schools but government policies are seriously skewed against them.
Were it not the number of private schools in urban areas and their enrolment levels, many children of school going-age would be roaming the streets because public schools are already bursting at their seams with increased intake as a result of government interventions like the school feeding, free bussing and the capitation grant programmes.
Even if the public schools absorbed such children, the already lack-lustre standard of education in such schools would fall to abysmal levels. In the face of economic constraints facing many parents, the recovery rate of school fees is not optimum, thereby disabling private schools to pay and motivate their teachers adequately, leading to high turnover of their experienced teachers.
The frustration of private schools is due to the denial, discriminatory and exclusionist state policies that eliminate them from almost all state funded educational programmes and interventions for teachers and students.
Policies as the long distance learning facility for pupils teachers, national best teacher award scheme (if criteria for reward is the end product of work), selective supply of government logistics and inputs from the GETFUND, selective award of government scholarship to learners, exclusion from state sponsored recreational and academic competitions and last but not the least the denial of the capitation grant to the children and their parents who together with the proprietors and teachers, all pay taxes to the state from which all the above-named state facilities are provided to public schools. The impending education reforms, which the Ghana Education Service is preparing their teachers for, to the exclusion of private schools who are even prepared to pay, has the potential to spell disaster for the education enterprise in Ghana.
The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) is not asking for the impossible as it is aware of state interventions to other private institutions like the supply of doctors, nurses and inputs to private and mission hospitals.
There is also the support given to the Offuman Agricultural Project where a former best national farmer's farm has been turned into a state extension service center.
If the state recognizes education as the vehicle for economic growth and national development and it is the private schools that produce the cream of the national human resource base, then this discrimination, neglect and non-recognition should be a call for action.
A call that many Ghanaians, including high profile government official as Mr. Fosuabah Mensah Banahene, Administrator of GETFUND, have publicly asked private schools to dialogue with government for the removal of such discrimination.
In response to these wake up calls from well meaning Ghanaians, Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) and the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment for the removal of all the inhibitions, discrimination and limitations for a better delivery of quality education.
Mr. Kwame Pianim, chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, said in a news item broadcast on Joy FM radio station on February 26, this year that every child, whether in the public or private school deserves to benefit from the capitation grant and GETFUND.
Speaking at the sixth anniversary and prize-giving day of Action Secondary Technical School in Accra, he emphasized that education is a major tool that can push the economy forward.
He therefore urged the government to assist the private sector to contribute towards providing education for all children since the public schools are not enough.
Mr. Pianim argued that the country's population since independence had increased several fold, which had made it difficult for the government alone to shoulder the burden of funding education. "Government alone cannot shoulder that responsibility and therefore when private individuals are helping, the impression should not be given that society and the government are not appreciative of the private sector.
"So for example if you take the capitation grant and the school feeding programmes, after they extend it to all the public schools, I will like to believe that it will be extended to the private schools because it doesn't matter whether the child is in a privately owned school or public school, they are all children of this country and we owe them the duty of educating them".
The Director of the school, Mr. James Amankwah, also appealed to the government to support private schools to enable them to improve the quality of education such schools provided.Source:
GNA
|
|
|