- NPP Conference gets underway in London

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New schools in the North have no money

Wa, March 16, GNA -

A number of day Senior Secondary/Technical Schools which were absorbed into the boarding system in the three Northern Regions have not received funding from government to enable them to operate.
Mr Charles Nyaabo, Northern Regional Chairman of the Conferences of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), who disclosed this, said all efforts by the Heads of affected institutions to get the money to run these schools had so far proved futile.

He said the schools operating the boarding system, which began this academic year have not been allocated any funds by the Central Government, and with the schools about to go for holidays in the first week of April, their fate was still in the balance.

Mr Nyaabo, who is the Headmaster of Damongo Secondary School in the Northern Region made this known at the seventh joint Northern conference of Heads of Assisted secondary/Technical Schools in the three northern regions at Wa on Thursday.

In the Upper West Region, the Islamic Secondary School at Wa and Ko Senior Secondary School in the Lawra District have been seriously affected by the delay in the release of the funds.

The three-day conference, which was under theme, " the impact of education in the three northern regions after 50 years of independence" offered a platform for the heads to discuss common problems that militate against quality education in the three regions.

Professor Raymond Bening, former vice-chancellor of the University of Development Studies (UDS), who was the Guest Speaker, said when the PNDC took the bold step to establish the UDS, the high hopes of procuring foreign financial assistance to support its establishment could not be realised.

This was because the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which funded the Tertiary Education Project for the four public universities to revamp education, did not favour the establishment of a University in Northern Ghana.

Professor Bening said the World Bank's stance meant that the University was grossly under-funded and this affected all the operations of the institution, however, he noted that the University has clearly demonstrated what a determined people, could do for themselves. Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minster urged people at the helm of affairs not to bemoan the past and throw their hands in despair, but rather move to the realm of effectively exploiting opportunities and changing their mindset from dependency to independence.

He said it was regrettable that schools that hitherto served as models and sources of attraction for people from the South had all lost and had become pale shadows of their glorious past.
Old boys and girls of these institutions must therefore demonstrate more love and concern for their alma mater since their collective efforts in that direction would yield the desired results for their schools, he stated.


Source:
GNA

Rehabilitation of Western Railway Line on course

Accra, March 16, GNA -

Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, Minister of Harbours and Railways, on Friday told Parliament that the partnership between the Ghana Railway Company and the Ghana Manganese Company had resulted in the rehabilitation of some portions of the railway track between Nsuta and Takoradi in the Western Region.

"As a result, derailment on that stretch has virtually reduced to zero," he said in response to a question on plans to rehabilitate the Awaso-Dunkwa-Takoradi railway line to reduce damage by heavy vehicles on the Awaso-Kumasi-Yamorasa-Takoradi trunk road.

The Minister however, said the Ghana Bauxite Company had engaged the services of haulage trucks, which continues to cause extensive damage to the roads.

"We are aware that the Ministry of Road Transport and the Ghana Highway Authority are in the process of stopping them from hauling bauxite and manganese on the road and this, we believe, will compel them to sit down with us to dialogue on the rehabilitation of the railway line."

He said the Ministry of Harbours and Railway was currently in talks a company and some local banks to source for money to rehabilitate the tracks.

Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi said it was expected that with the availability of these funds the entire western railway lines would see a major rehabilitation.

Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, also in the House to respond to a question, said the construction of the Kintampo Waterfalls in the Brong Ahafo Region had been completed.

The Minister said the only work yet to be completed was the extension of electricity and water to the facility.

Source:
GNA

Enforcement of labour law faces problems

Koforidua, March 16, GNA -

 Mr Francis Agbotse Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation on Friday, said a Legislative Instrument (LI) to support enforcement of the Labour Law had not been brought before Parliament for passage and the National Labour Commission was not showing much interest in its passage. He explained that if the LI was not passed, enforcement of the law could be a problem when a major industrial dispute arose in the country.

Mr Agbotse MP for Ho West announced this at a public forum for the Committee organized by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in collaboration with USAID at Koforidua.

He said due to the lack of a supportive LI, the law on Piracy could not be enforced because the law required an LI to specify the security device on the tape recording or the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) to enable the police enforce the law.

Mr Agbotse explained that when laws were passed, there was the need for LI or Constitutional Instrument (CI) to support their implementation.

Ms Obeng Dapaah, MP for New Abirem and member of the committee said it had the primary oversight responsibility to check delegated and unregulated power held by individuals or bodies at the national and local levels assign to them by statutory or constitutional instruments. Nana Kwasi Adjei-Boateng, New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, called for a review of the Standing Order 77 of Parliament for Civil Society Organizations to make sufficient inputs into draft documents before the Subsidiary Legislative Committee.

Mr Kojo Asante, Governance and Legal Policy Officer of CDD-Ghana said for sometime now, the centre had been at the forefront to help build the capacity of the Parliament of the Fourth Republic through the support of USAID.

He said the responsibility of the Committee was to ensure that, bye-laws passed by statutory and constitutional bodies for their enforcement under the constitution or law were in consistent with the mother statute, the constitution as well as other checks.

Source:
GNA

Chief Treasury Officer arrested

The Chief Treasury Officer of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Francis Aryeetey, has been arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for allegedly stealing ¢3.5 billion belonging to the state.

Aryeetey, 43, is alleged to have fraudulently awarded a contract to Malpress Company Limited to print and supply 900,000 booklets of vehicle registration certificates at the cost of ¢3.5 billion.

An accomplice, identified as Halm Lutterodt, who withdrew the money from the account, is being sought for by the BNI.

All the documents which Aryeetey allegedly used to secure the payment of the money into an account he opened with a rural bank in the Greater Accra Region have been confirmed to be fake.

The documents included a payment voucher, expenditure authorisation, purchase order, activity and expenditure initiation form, notification of award of contract letter and store receipt advice.

Aryeetey is also alleged to have forged the signatures of 14 top officials at the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, including a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, to ensure that the deal was successful.

He is alleged to have also succeeded in withdrawing nearly ¢1 billion before his arrest.

A source at the BNI which disclosed this to the Daily Graphic said a scrutiny of the documents had so far shown that apart from the waybill from Malpress, which showed that the items were delivered on November 1, 2006, all other transactions were effected in a day.

It said the notice of award of contract was dated December 29, 2006, the same day that a letter for financial clearance from the CAGD was written to the Ministry of Finance.

The source said the Ministry allegedly also gave the financial clearance on the same day it received the application for the clearance, with the CAGD also issuing the cheque covering the amount on the same day, December 29, 2006.

It said from the waybill, it meant that Malpress supplied the items even before the contract was awarded.

It said further investigations had also revealed that nobody at the Ministry’s Treasury’s Unit worked on the payment voucher and that, contrary to the norm, there was no bank transfer advice from the CAGD before the payment was effected.

According to the source, the money was lodged in the bank account on February 5, 2007 and ¢915 million withdrawn on February 13, 2007.

The Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Christian Sottie, told the Daily Graphic that there was no way the Department would shield any of its staff found to have indulged in any criminal act.

He said when the deal came to his knowledge, he immediately called the BNI to arrest Aryeetey and investigate the matter.

According to him, the department had not awarded any such contract to any company and that it could only be a fraudulent deal.

Source:
Daily Graphic

 COCOBOD signs $150m loan agreement

London, March 16, GNA -

 The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has signed a landmark deal for a-150 million dollar term-credit facility with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to enhance efficiency and boost Ghana's cocoa production.

It is the first time ever that a corporate organisation from the country has secured a loan from the international financial market and is widely seen as a demonstration of the growing confidence in the nation's economy.

The facility with a one-year moratorium is repayable in three years.

President John Agyekum Kufuor witnessed the joint signing of the agreement by Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, Mr Tom Hardy, the RBS Head of Project Financing for Africa and the Middle East, Mr Joe Mensah, Managing Director of Ghana International Bank and Mr Dramani Egala, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company, in London on Friday.

Mr Osei said the money would be invested in three key areas to enhance productivity, quality assurance and the domestic value chain, through the application of improved farm level agronomic practices, modernisation of the Board's quality control laboratories to carry out chemical test analysis to assure quality and the building of a 100,000 tonne warehouse in Sekondi-Tarkoradi to reduce cost.

He said he was optimistic that the expected 30 percent increase in Ghana's cocoa production within the period would take care of the loan repayment.

The country last year hit an all-time record cocoa production of over 700,000 tonnes and this is projected to increase to about one million tonnes in the next three years.

President Kufuor noted that the COCOBOD had a track record of credit-worthiness and that past records showed it had always been able to meet all of its financial obligations to its lenders. He said the government stood ready to assist the cocoa industry not only to raise output, but also the quality of the country's cocoa beans, which already was ahead of all other producers.

"The future of COCOBOD as a reliable partner in international commodity financing arrangement of this kind is therefore never in doubt."

President Kufuor said cocoa was a legacy bequeathed to Ghana by its forefathers and for the matter, the government was determined to do everything to ensure that it was handed to the next generation on a very strong footing.

The RBS Chief Executive Officer, Mr Johnny Cameron, said they were delighted to partner Ghana in the drive to improve the cocoa sector of the economy.

This showed how a Western Bank could add value to emerging economies, he added.

16 March 07
Source:
GNA

Busia stirs controversy in Parliament


Accra, March 16, GNA -

A statement by Prof George Gyan-Baffour on the contribution of the late Prof Kofi Abrefa Busia to the development of democracy in Ghana stirred a controversy in Parliament on Friday as the Majority praised Prof Busia against criticisms from the Minority.

Prof Gyan-Baffour's statement titled: "K. A Busia the Doyen of Democracy" eulogized Prof Busia as a "rare gem of Ghanaian politics, a man whose politics was influenced by his intellectual brilliance".

The statement said the late Prof Busia, who later became Ghana's Prime Minister, in the Second Republic of Ghana, was born in Wenchi on July 11, 1913 and attended Bechem Methodist and Wenchi Methodist School from 1918 to 1927, and thereafter trained as a teacher at Wesley College in Kumasi between 1931 and 1932 and later became a teacher in that same school.

Prof Gyan-Baaffour chronicled the rise of Prof Busia from the student days at Oxford University, and became the "first African to be awarded a degree from the University College, Oxford."

Busia later became the first African District Commissioner in the Gold Coast Colony, first African Lecturer in the Department of Sociology of the university of Ghana, and later elected member of the Legislative Assembly by the Ashanti Confederacy of the Ghana Congress Party in 1952. In 1954, he became leader of Opposition in Parliament, but went into exile after a series of unfavourable political developments. Prof Gyan-Baffour said Prof Busia came back after the overthrow of the Convention People's Party and held various positions under the National Liberation Council, and founded the Progress Party that won the 1969 Elections.

However, Dr Busia's "Government was sadly overthrown in a coup d'etat by Col I.K Acheampong in 1972. He died in exile in Oxford, England, on 28th August, 1978 and was buried in Wenchi."

Minority Leader Alban Bagbin in a contribution said the history about Dr Busia was a controversy, adding that there was not only a contention about his date of birth which some historians had said was in 1918, and that Busia did not have the benefit of early education and had to be supported by missionaries before he went to school.

He said also that Dr Busia's policies contradicted his writings, adding that he created a terrain, which made a lot of mistakes that was still with the nation today.

Mr Stephen Balado Manu, NPP-Ahafo Ano South, disagreed with the stand of Mr Bagbin, and said he knew the school, which the Prof attended, as Prof Gyan-Baffour also maintained that the date of his birth was certain because Prof Busia died at 65 in 1978.

Contributions were divided on issues such as Prof Busia rise from humble beginnings to positions of prominence; policies of the Busia administration and the Aliens Compliance Order.

Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of State, and MP (NPP) Sunyani West, called on the chiefs and people of the Brong Ahafo Region to initiate a study into the life and achievements of Prof Busia.

"I would expect to see a library at Sunyani named after K.A Busia", the Minister said.

Mr Kojo Armah, CPP Evalue Gwira, cautioned against making of statements that would divide the House.

16 March 07

Source:
GNA

NPP Conference gets underway in London

The Diasporan branches of the New Patriotic Party have gathered in London for their first international conference in London. The first of its kind, the conference which runs for two days from Friday 16th to Saturday 17th March will highlight some of the political, social and economic achievements of the NPP government. The conference will also seek to bring all the international branches together to find strategies to help the party in Ghana win in the 2008 elections.

The conference brings together delegates from Ghana, Canada, the US, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and other European countries and will be chaired by the national Chairman of the Party, Mr. Peter Macmanu

The theme for the conference will be to help the NPP as a party to build on President Kufuor’s legacy and to strengthen the NPP for leadership in Ghanaian politics in 2008 and beyond. The conference theme is formulated around NPP’s contribution towards national development over the medium to long term, and its overriding objective to build a free, just and prosperous society that will be a true beacon for Africa.

The conference objectives are threefold:

• To highlight and exploit the legacy of the Kufuor government in support of the future needs of our party

• To forge and reinforce closer workings of our network of international branches and NPP members in the Diaspora as part of our objective to build a strong party in Ghana;

• To establish structures for effective communication; and to work together to build a strong party with a shared vision for our nation such that all sections of the party can contribute effectively and meaningfully to the task of national development.

In a pre-conference briefing held at the London Landmark Hotel, on the eve of the conference, the Chairman of the host branch, the NPP UK, Mr Atta-Krufi hinted that the conference will explore all avenues to vigorously mobilise all available human and material recourses to ensure a massive and effective membership drive outside Ghana to make the party more formidable than ever, adding that there was the need to sensitise the overseas branches about issues affecting the party and the country as a whole.

Mr. Atta-Krufi said the Government under the leadership of President Kufuor has made great strides towards consolidating Ghana’s democratic and economic gains and it is these gains that the conference will seek to celebrate. He said “we can now look to the future with renewed hope and resolve to confront the challenges of our times. Therefore whilst the immediate focus of the first international conference of the NPP will be to contribute to the efforts of the national party to organise and prepare the party to win the 2008 election, the longer-term objective is to reinforce our position as the natural party of government that can and will deliver progressive and lasting change for all the people of Ghana”.

The US chairman of the NPP, Mr. Kofi A. Boateng also observed that after the conference, measures, with effective time frame, should be put in place to ensure the reactivation of the Party’s International Desk at the national headquarters and made a firm request to the all branches to make firm financial commitment to help sustain its running

The National Chairman of NPP, Mr Macmanu who chaired the pre-conference briefing thanked the UK group for hosting the conference and welcomed all the delegates to UK. He said it was important for the international branches to find a network of pulling ideas together this conference is a shining example of the overseas branches working together. He reiterated his firm commitment to running the international desk at the party headquarters and assured them that there was a general consensus among national executives of the urgent need to get the Desk running. He said that the Chicago and Botswana branches have already made representations to his executives about the Desk and that there was the need for the Diasporan Party to work together to support the running of the Desk

The conference is being hosted by the NPP UK & Ireland branch on behalf of all international branches and with the full support of the NPP National Executive Committee and the Party in Ghana.

Source:
The Planning Committee, International Conference, NPP UK