Ghana's major efforts against drug abuse, but problems remain
Accra, March 19, GNA -
The US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has said that Ghana has taken steps to combat illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and has mounted major efforts against drug abuse. It noted that Ghana had active enforcement, treatment, and rehabilitation programs, but corruption and a lack of resources remained problems.
"A national narcotics scandal in 2006 involving allegations of official complicity in narcotics trafficking complicated Ghana's efforts to combat the drug trade, but served to focus public attention on the growing problem," it said in a statement on the 2007 International Narcotics Strategy Report released by the US Department of State.
The statement released in Accra by the US Embassy said Ghana-U.S. law enforcement coordination strengthened in 2006, particularly at the policy level, but operational cooperation was strained by narcotics scandals.
It added that interagency coordination among Ghana's law enforcement remained a challenge.
The report said Ghana had become a major trans-shipment point for illegal drugs, particularly cocaine from South America, as well as heroin from Southeast and Southwest Asia.
"Europe remains the major destination, but drugs also flow to South Africa and to North America. Accra's Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is increasingly a focus for traffickers. "Ports at Tema, Sekondi, and Takoradi are also used, and border posts at Aflao and Elubo and Sampa see significant drug trafficking activity."
The statement said in 2006, South American cocaine trafficking rings increased their foothold in Ghana, establishing well-developed distribution networks run by Nigerian and Ghanaian criminals.
"Ghana's interest in attracting investment provides good cover for foreign drug barons to enter the country under the guise of doing legitimate business."
The report said South American traffickers, however, reduced their need to visit Ghana in person by increasing reliance on local partners, thus further insulating themselves from possible arrest by local authorities.
The report said trafficking had also fuelled increasing domestic drug consumption.
"Cannabis use is increasing in Ghana, as is local cultivation of cannabis. Law enforcement officials have repeatedly raised concerns that narcotics rings are growing in size, strength, organization and capacity for violence.
"The government has mounted significant public education programs, as well as cannabis crop substitution programs. Diversion of precursor chemicals is not a major problem."
On policy initiatives, the report said the two top officials at the narcotics Control Board (NCB) were suspended at the outset of the 2006 narcotics scandal.
It also spoke about the Georgina Wood Committee set up by the Ministry of the Interior to investigate the loss of the two tons of cocaine apparently not seized by enforcement personnel, and related issues.
The report said following the release of the committee's report in September, the UNDP funded a series of experts' meetings to develop a new national drug policy and make recommendations on improving the country's counter-narcotics efforts. The series of meetings was ongoing at year's end.
It noted that in 2006, the Attorney General succeeded in amending the narcotics law to allow stricter application of the bail bond system. "The government began drafting a Proceeds of Crime Bill and a Money Laundering Bill in 2006, and final drafts were reportedly near completion by year's end. The government reportedly plans to present the bills to parliament for consideration in early 2007."
On law enforcement efforts, the NCB reported that total drug seizures of cocaine, heroin and cannabis from January to September 2006 decreased by 17 per cent compared to the same period in 2005, likely reflecting a temporary decrease in trafficking activity following the 2006 narcotics scandal.
Projected fourth quarter data (based on data for the earlier part of the year) suggests that the number of cocaine arrests in 2006 dropped to roughly half that of 2005, while heroin and cannabis arrests both showed modest declines.
The report noted that Ghana did not, as a matter of government policy, encourage or facilitate illicit production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions, nor is any senior
official known to engage in, encourage, or facilitate narcotics production or trafficking.
"Despite the regular arrests of suspected narcotics traffickers, Ghana has an extremely low rate of conviction, which law enforcement officials indicate is likely due primarily to corruption within the judicial system.
"The backlog of cases pending trial and the limited resources facing the judiciary remain problems in controlling drug trafficking in Ghana."
It said corruption among law enforcement officials remained a serious problem in 2006.
"Ghana made progress in late 2006 addressing its legislative and enforcement deficiencies, brought into the public eye by the narcotics scandal, but there is a long road ahead," the report said.
It said the NCB's plan to hire 40 additional agents would be a good start.
"Tougher confiscation provisions, with a portion of such resources dedicated to fighting narcotics trafficking, would strengthen Ghana's counter-narcotics regime.
"Better oversight of financial transactions is particularly important given the potential for any narcotics financial networks to be used by terrorist organizations or for internal corruption." The reports said upgraded measures to combat corruption were also essential.
19 March 2007
Source:
GNA
About 150 people donate blood
Accra, March 19, GNA -
About 150 people on Sunday donated blood to the Blood Bank of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital under a programme organised by the Hope Assemblies of God Church in Accra with a call on the public to help stock the Blood Bank with adequate supplies.
The Head Pastor, the Rev. Robert Arhin, said the public should not wait until blood dried out at the Bank before donating, adding that availability of blood at the right time would save the lives of people in need.
"As Christians, we are called upon to be each other's keeper; this is what true Christianity is all about," Rev. Arhin said.
Rev. Arhin called on members of the congregation to take part in the blood donation exercise since tests on their blood might reveal hidden diseases for early treatment.
Most of the participants GNA talked to said they were delighted to have taken part in the exercise to save life.
People with diseases such as diabetes and hypertension as well as pregnant women were excluded. *
"Funding for family planning must be increased to meet the needs of these women, not only to determine the world's future, but also to prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce maternal and infant death."
19 March 07Source:
GNA
* ( And hidden... ??? ) ghana-net 19.03.2007
MPC: Load shedding could have negative impact on economy
Accra, March 19, GNA -
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Monday gave a positive assessment of the economy but warned that the continued load shedding and unpredictable energy supply could impact negatively on the economy.
"(However,) continued load shedding and unpredictable energy supply is constraining activity in, especially the energy sensitive sectors with the risk of potential output losses and cost price pressures in the immediate horizon," Dr Paul Acquah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, told a Press Conference in Accra.
Dr Acquah, who is also the Chairman of the MPC, said the economic fundamentals remained strong with the last quarter of 2006 witnessing increased economic activity, mostly driven by fiscal expansion. He said implementation of a firm budgetary expenditure policy well aligned with budgetary resources in the current budget should support steady fiscal consolidation, put downward pressure on prices and sustain the progress toward achieving the single-digit inflation target with accelerated growth.
On the whole, Dr Acquah said, the economy was positioned firmly on the path of declining inflation, and towards the goal of single-digit. It is in this direction that the Monetary Policy Committee had decided to maintain the Prime Rate at 12.5 per cent.
Besides, business and consumer confidence indicators are at high levels and inflation expectations relatively subdued, with stability in the foreign exchange markets.
The Bank's Composite Index of Economic Activity indicates a pickup of growth in the fourth quarter to 11.7 per cent in real terms, with year-on-year real growth of 17.5 per cent above the trend growth of 10.2 per cent.
"All the sub-components of the index recorded significant increases except for the notable declines of cement sales and industrial consumption of electricity, which have strong links with the on-going electricity load management," Dr Acquah said.
According to Dr Acquah the banking industry was building up strong balance sheets and an increasing or diversified asset and private sector credit portfolio of improving quality that should support continued economic expansion.
Bank credit to private and public institutions increased by =A27,156.4 billion (37.6 per cent) to A226,177.4 billion in the 12-months to January 2007.
The manufacturing sector absorbed 23.6 per cent, followed by services (21.0), commerce (18.4 per cent), construction (13.6 per cent) and mining and quarrying (5.7 per cent).
In real terms, credit to the private sector increased by 32.6 per cent, significantly higher than 14.9 per cent recorded for the same period in 2006, and the highest in 35 months.
Dr Acquah said the financial sector was also seeing increased growth as banks took advantage of opportunities to diversify their portfolios and grow their assets.
He said based on the latest data available, total assets of the banking industry grew by 41.1 per cent to A251,837.2 billion (45.1 per cent of GDP) at the end of 2006, compared with 17.5 per cent in 2005 (37.9 per cent of GDP).
"This development continued into January 2007 with annual growth of 38.1 per cent. This is driven mainly by increases in gross loans and advances."
Dr Acquah said the growth in the financial sector was also taking place against the background of improved financial sector soundness indicators. The banking system is well capitalised, profitable, efficient and fairly liquid.
Banks' solvency remained strong as the industry recorded Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 17.0 per cent as of January 2007 compared with 16.1 per cent same period in January 2006 and against a required Capital Adequacy Requirement of 10 per cent.
He said the ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in total loan portfolio continued to decline. It fell from 11 per cent in October 2006 to 7.9 per cent in December 2006 and further to 7.5 per cent at the end of January 2007.
Similarly, NPLs' net of provision fell from 5.9 per cent in October 2006 to 2.0 per cent in December 2006 and to a low of 1.3 per cent in January 2007.
All measures of operational efficiency and profitability of the banking industry (deposits to total assets, cost to income, deposits per employee, assets per employee, net income, operating profits) with the exception of cost to income and cost to total assets, improved during the period.
Dr Acquah said the external payment outlook remained positive with commodity prices for cocoa and gold holding firm.
The overall balance of payments position improved from a surplus of US$84.34 million in 2005 to US$415.12 million in 2006.
Total exports recorded an increase of 33.0 per cent during 2006 over the 2005 level to US$3,726.67 million.
Growth in exports during the third quarter of 2006 was sustained into the fourth quarter with a marginal (1.1 per cent) increase to US$932.10 million. The fourth quarter export growth was driven by growth in non-traditional exports (34.5 per cent) and gold exports (1.2 per cent).
Dr Acquah said total imports in 2006 rose by 22.0 per cent to US$6,753.68 million. Capital and intermediate goods accounted for 73 per cent of total imports.
The relatively high import growth in the third quarter of 2006 slowed down by 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, driven mainly by a relatively smaller oil imports in the fourth quarter of 2006. Total oil imports for 2006 increased by 45.7 per cent to US$1,646.1 million, significantly above the US$1,129.4 million recorded in 2005, reflecting an increase in realised unit price and 2.3 per cent in volume over 2005.
"The current account recorded a deficit of US$810.2 million compared to US$773.4 million in 2005. However, the overall balance recorded a surplus on the strength of debt cancellation, private capital flows, and unrequited transfers raising gross international reserves to US$2.05 billion at the end of February 2007.
Dr Acquah said private inward transfers, including those received by NGOs, embassies, service providers, individuals, through the banks and finance companies for January-December 2006 amounted to US$5.78 billion, which represented 21.5 per cent increase over those for 2005, which were in turn 58.3 per cent increase over the transfers through banks and finance companies in 2004.
He said the foreign exchange market remained buoyant in 2006 with purchases and sales of foreign exchange by the banks and forex bureaux increasing by 16.6 per cent over the 2005 level to US$6.8 billion. Cumulative purchases and sales for the first two months amounted to US$1,140.87 million compared with US$1,086.43 million recorded for the same period in 2006.
On Government expenditure, Dr Acquah said total expenditure for 2006 (including the supplementary budget) amounted to A239,828.6 billion, exceeding the budgetary ceiling by 2.4 per cent.
He said provisional data on the execution of 2006 Budget indicated that total revenue and grants (including the supplementary budget) amounted to A231,917.7 billion against an end year target of =A234,135.4 billion (a shortfall of 6.9 per cent).
The overall budgetary deficit - including the supplementary budget- for 2006 resulted in a net domestic financing of A24,765.2 billion (4.2 per cent of GDP).
Dr Acquah explained that the financing of this deficit caused a bounce in the public debt/GDP ratio from 10.8 per cent to 13.5 per cent. This was accompanied by a significant lengthening of the maturity structure of the stock of public domestic debt.
He cited revenue shortfalls and unrealised resources under the Supplementary Budget, which contributed about 3.7 per cent of GDP to the total fiscal deficit for the fiscal deficit.
In addition, public sector wage settlements, which were about 13 per cent in excess of programme, and unexpected transfers to manage the energy crisis overstretched the expenditure under the Budget.
Source:
GNA
Law School launches 48th annual week celebration
Accra, March 19, GNA -
The 48th annual Law Week of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana Law School opened in Accra on Monday with an appeal to the students to be committed to a robust and fearless Bar to prevent the re-emergence of despotism and autocratic rule.
Professor Justice A. Kodzo Paaku Kludze, Retired Supreme Court Judge, who launched the week-long celebration, said as future guardians of the rights and liberties of the people of Ghana, the student lawyers had the responsibility to defend the rights and liberties of both the poor, rich and powerful, though that might come with some risks. He said: "You must be painfully reminded that we as Lawyers have not always defended our ideals. We have often assisted dictators to use the law to suppress our people. Dictators love spineless Lawyers, who can transform an illegality into legality."
Speaking on the theme; "The Role of the Law in the 50 Years of Ghana's Independence", Professor Kludze noted that usually those dictators were not lawyers but rather it was the lawyers, who misused their ingenuity to prostitute their learning to craft laws that deprive the people of their fundamental rights.
"I hope that being aware of our past, you will resist the temptation to assist a dictator to ever impose himself upon the good people of Ghana," he said.
He said during this year's Golden Jubilee Celebrations, tributes were paid to people from all sectors of the society, including Chiefs, politicians and market women but virtually nothing had been said about the part played by students in the struggle for independence and in the vicissitude of the social and political history of Ghana.
Professor Kludze said some of the reasons lied in the quality of students, who now led the student movements and who were perhaps not interested in the historical truth or were incapable of appreciating what the students of this country had contributed to the social and political evolution.
He noted that at the time of the Convention People's Party rule, the only independent voice was that of the students, of which he was the President in 1963, who expressed opposition to a one party State, the Prevention Detention Act, denial of free speech and the arbitrary dismissal of Judges.
Professor Kluzde said many of the law students would in the future be elevated to the Bench to interpret and apply the Constitution and be the arbiters of the rights of the citizenry, adding that to discharge their responsibility effectively the students must assiduously apply themselves to the study of Law.
He commended the SRC for committing itself to the annual lectures on the infamous Baffuor Akoto's case, which served as a reminder that in the different stages in the nation's history people were denied their basic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association and endured the frequent imprisonment of ordinary citizens, who had no access to the courts.
He said the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) was unhappy regarding the administration of the Ghana Law School and called for steps to be taken quickly to get a substantive Director to fully handle its affairs.
Madam Gertrude Aikins, Acting Director for Public Prosecution, on behalf of the Attorney General, said efforts were made by Lawyers to defend the defenceless throughout the history of the country that was interspersed with military rule.
She said, there were situations where laws were open-ended, which made one to easily fall foul to it adding that though things looked normal currently, there was the need for Lawyers to remain vigilant so as to fight for the rights of the citizenry.
Madam Aikins said the quest for independence was pushed by many Lawyers including some members of the Big Six and that it was necessary for the students to maintain this achievement by ensuring that the rule of law prevailed.
Professor Nii Ashie Kotei, Acting Director of the Ghana School of Law, commended the staff, especially the teachers for their role in maintaining the high academic standards of the School.
He said without good Lawyers to maintain the rule of law, Ghana would have been affected by the series of conflicts that had plagued other African countries.
Mr Sam Pee Yarley, President of the SRC, said as an Executive they decided to concentrate on issues that affected the welfare of students as their main goals by providing the basic human needs of the students. He said, apart from providing water dispensers and re-aligning the sewerage system, they had also constructed an SRC plaza that consisted of four offices, a restaurant, a restroom and a Barrister's shop where for the first time in Ghana students could buy their wigs and gowns and other legal accoutrements.
Mr Kwami Tetteh, President of the GBA, who chaired the programme, said structures for the rule of law were present in Ghana and that called for celebration.
He reiterated the need for a substantive Director for the School and urged the SRC to use the Law week to educate the public on their rights and responsibilities and to reflect on their activities to advance their cause. The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah III and some members of the Ga Traditional Council; Nii Adjiri Blankson, Mayor of Accra and high-ranking members of the Ghana Bar Association were present at the occasion. Activities for the celebration include a lecture and a dinner dance where personalities, who have contributed to the maintenance of the rule of law, would be awarded.
19 March 2007
Source:
GNA