We haven't issued any permits- Town and Country Planning declares

THE Town and Country Planning Department says it has not issued any permits for the construction of any of the structures sited on watercourses in parts of Accra.
It has, therefore, asked the inter-ministerial committee set up for the demolition of those structures to investigate whether owners of those property have permits and where they obtained them from.
The Director of the department, Mr Kofi Dankwa Osei, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the law should be allowed to work and those found to have issued permits without authority punished accordingly. “I think if anyone is found to have issued permits for people to build on water courses, that person should be used as an example,” he stated.
He was reacting to allegations made by some ministers in the wake of the current floods in Accra that the department might have issued permits that allowed residents to build on watercourses.
Mr Osei explained that it was not the sole responsibility of the department to issue permits, as the public had been made to believe, noting that the authority to do that rested with a technical committee comprising other land administration agencies which made recommendations for the Chief Executive of the metropolitan assembly to approve.
He stressed that under no circumstance would any member of the committee issue permits for applicants to build on watercourses and urged the media not to support residents found culpable by highlighting the agony they would go through when their buildings were demolished.
He said the department would not hesitate to furnish the inter-ministerial task force with documents to assist it in its investigations.
According to him, the fact that the department was poorly resourced did not mean that it should undermine its core functions of planning, controlling and ensuring the sustainable and cost-effective development of human settlements in accordance with sound environmental and planning principles.
He said what the government had to do was spend money on extensive dredging of drains, particularly the Korle Lagoon and the Odaw River.
"These are the major outfills and they should be free enough for water to pass through," he said, pointing out that another major headache for the national capital was the Sodom and Gomorrah settlement.
The Deputy Director of the department, Mrs Doris Tetteh, corroborated the point that the issuance of permits was not the sole responsibility of the department.“It is a comprehensive process and no individual can issue a permit without the knowledge of other members of the Technical Committee,” she stated, and mentioned some members of the committee as representatives of the Department of Urban Roads, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Lands Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the AMA and other stakeholders.
Mrs Tetteh, who was in a meeting with members of the Technical Committee during the interview, said areas such as Fadama, Awoshie, North Kaneshie, Kaneshie and other areas which experienced the recent flooding in Accra that killed seven people had always been flood-prone.
She explained that the population of the capital had increased tremendously and so facilities and infrastructure should also be improved in order to avoid the situation where people became victims of floods.
Mrs Tetteh said it was time to implement the technical decisions and the government had a duty to commit itself to the decision to demolish buildings on watercourses and free the thousands who suffered from the annual ritual of floods in Accra.

Aftermath of Rain Disaster- 45 Houses to go down

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AN inter-ministerial committee has been formed by the government to identify and demolish all buildings and illegal structures on watercourses to prevent a recurrence of last Friday’s floodsin Accra that claimed seven lives.
The inter-ministerial task force includes representatives of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Roads and Highways (Urban Roads) and the Ministry of the Interior and officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council and personnel from the security agencies.
They have up to Friday to submit their report.
It is estimated that more than 45 buildings will be affected.
In August 2007, after a similar disaster in which five people were killed by floods in the western part of Accra, 25 buildings were marked for demolition by NADMO but after three of them had been pulled down, owners of the affected properties sought a court injunction to stop the exercise.
It has been on hold since then but this time the agencies charged with the job have indicated their preparedness to go all the way and demolish all the buildings and illegal structures found to have been constructed on watercourses.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, who disclosed this after a visit by the leadership of the various authorities to the affected areas and victims of the floods, said after taking inventory of all structures on watercourses, the task force would identify those that had building permits and those that did not have before taking action.
“We will determine whether the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) gave them permits to build. If they are covered by permits, we will negotiate with them, but if they are not, we will have to do what is right to save the rest of the members of the community from such disasters,” he said.
In addition to the demolition exercise, the AMA has been charged to clear all silted gutters in the metropolis and make sure that all kiosks and illegal structures along the streets are removed.
Commenting on the corrective measures, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, said work on that part of the Kaneshie road where the bitumen was washed away by the rain would be completed for free flow of traffic by today.
He blamed officials of the TCPD who, he said, had not been honest to the country by allowing houses to be built on watercourses.
The Deputy Minister for Local Government, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, said, “Henceforth, every law that has to do with development will be enforced. We have to do what is right and we will apply the law to the fullest.”
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr Hanna Louisa Bisiw, also criticised the issuance of illegal permits by officials of the TCPD.
“Each illegal permit is equal to a life lost. We have to be very responsible to our country,” she said, and described the behaviour of those involved as unpatriotic, considering the amount of money the government had spent to decongest the capital and other flood-prone areas.
The National Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Kofi Portuphy, said as of yesterday trucks were loading relief items for distribution to victims and noted that NADMO had set up camps in the affected areas where the items would be distributed, with assistance from the leadership of the various assemblies.
He disclosed that a medical team would visit the affected areas to check any possible outbreak of water-borne diseases.
The Chief Executive of the AMA, Mr Alfred Vanderpiuje, during the tour, warned all victims who were reconstructing their structures along the drains to halt the practice because they were going to be pulled down.
He also said people who parked their vehicles on the road would be prevented from doing so to ease traffic, particularly on the Mallam-Kaneshie highway.
The Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Rose Bio-Atinga, said the police, for their part, would provide security for all affected victims who, she urged, should feel free to contact the police in case of any complaint.

Ministry to embark on massive tree-planting exercise

THE Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has announced plans to embark on a massive national tree- planting exercise to halt the depletion of the country’s forest plantation and reserves.
The sector Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, who made this known, said the ministry was currently in contact with other stakeholders to tackle the problem.
He described the extent of degradation of the country’s forests as appalling and stressed the need for such an exercise to protect natural resources.
Alhaji Dauda, who made the point during a courtesy call on him by the Bulgarian Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Nedelcho Peneff, said Ghana once had 8.2 million hectares of forest but now it had reduced to about 1.5 million hectares.
“You realise that the extent of degradation is as a result of our own activities and so we have decided that what has been lost must be replaced,” he stated.
He, therefore, asked for support from Bulgaria to deal with the situation which, he said, was badly affecting the pattern of rainfall in the country.
Ghana recently ratified the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), which requires it to strictly adhere to its own laws. The VPA is a set of standards and guidelines intended for proper forest governance and timber harvest, with the view to ensuring that only legal timber was exported from Ghana to Europe.
Alhaji Dauda said Ghana was currently faced with the challenge of adding value to its mineral resources and, therefore, requested the Bulgarian Ambassador to assist the country to attract investors who were willing to set up refineries in the country.
The courtesy call by the Bulgarian Ambassador was essentially to congratulate the minister on his appointment to that political office and to discuss possible areas of co-operation.
Mr Peneff commended Ghana for its democratic maturity, saying, “Ghana has demonstrated to the world that the culture of democracy is of high standard and should serve as an example to the continent and the rest of the world.”
He recalled the long-standing relations between Ghana and Bulgaria, dating back to 1962 when Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, visited that country.
He expressed the hope that the relations would be reactivated, and on that basis extended an invitation to Alhaji Dauda to visit Bulgaria and identify possible areas of co-operation between the two countries.
“We do not need to just exchange documents but take concrete steps that will benefit both countries,” he stated.
Mr Peneff expressed his willingness to help attract investors from Bulgaria to set up refineries in Ghana and urged the minister to furnish him with documents on the country’s total stock of minerals and natural resources for reference.

Constitution must grow with times — Gyandoh

Professor Emeritus Samuel Otu Gyandoh, a professor of Law at the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia, USA, has described the Constitution as a living organism which must grow with the times.
“We can adapt the Constitution to changing times by timely amendments, like Act 527 of 1996, and by judiciary interpretation,” he said.
Delivering a lecture to mark the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) in Accra on Tuesday, Prof Gyandoh said what “we do not need as a country is another Constitutional Commission, Constitutional Assembly or Committee of Experts to draw up new Constitution for a future Fifth Republic of Ghana".
He said it was not proper for any group of people to claim to have reached the pinnacle of political wisdom to dictate to generations yet unborn.
Speaking on the theme, "Constitutional Review in Ghana", he said there was always room for improvement of the human condition, and was optimistic that a review of relevant portions of the 1992 Constitution would deepen the country's democratisation process.
He also touched on some discrepancies bordering on dual citizenship — article 8 and 9 (5) and indemnity — Act 527, 1996, which he said, had raised unresolved problems of legitimacy for the nation.
On dual citizenship, Prof Gyandoh said citizenship laws should be inclusive and not exclusive, as in a situation where a person with dual citizenship could be a Minister and Member of Parliament but not Secretary to the Cabinet, or Ambassador or Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector-General of Police, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service or the Director of the Immigration Service.
On indemnity, he said the 1992 Constitution should take into account the fact that the era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) rule was a military rule in order to preserve the spirit and enduring values enshrined in the Constitution.
Professor Mike Oquaye, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who dilevered the second lecture was also of the view that a review of the 1992 Constitution would deepen and strengthen the country’s democracy.
In his support for a review, he said constitutions were subject to the law of mutations but they should be stable enough to contain the competing forces of instability within the body politic.
He therefore urged Parliament to tighten the screws of the 1992 Constitutional engineering, but however, agreed with maintaining the indemnity clause so that the country could move forward.
He said any change in the Constitution should have specific goals to secure good governance, promote the rule of law and separation of powers.
Prof Oquaye said a review should as well check arbitrariness, secure accountability, ensure human rights and provide a credible electoral system that guaranteed smooth and effective transition of political power.
Additionally, he recommended that a review process should secure effective decentralisation, promote the rights of women, children and the vulnerable groups in the country.
"As we seek to review our Constitution, let us leave no stone unturned. Let us not take anything for granted," he stated and urged Parliament to be as detailed as possible and as imaginative as human vision would allow.
The President of GAAS, Prof Reginald Amonoo, was also optimistic that a review process would enhance the country's democratisation process.
He refereed to a paper that was presented by Prof Joseph R.A. Ayee, Dean, Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ghana, Legon on the topic "Signposts to Healthy Politics in Ghana," which identified what could be done to promote positive politics instead of negative and adversarial politics in Ghana.
According to Prof Amonoo, GAAS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiffing (FES) Foundation had been partnering to promote and strengthen democracy and social justice in Ghana since 1993.
The Resident Director of FES , Ms Kathrin Meissner, described Ghana's transformation to democracy in 1992 as a major turning point.
She commended Ghana for a peaceful election in 2008 and noted that though there were serious challenges that needed to be addressed in the future, the 2008 election was certainly proof of the overall political stability that Ghana had achieved.
Ms Meissner however noted that the relevance of Ghana's Constitution laid in the commitment of the good people of Ghana to it, and pointed out that a review process would create an opportunity and reaffirm the consensus for the country's political system.

Consider benefits for political, high office holders’

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June 18, 2009

PARLIAMENT must consider issues bordering on emoluments and retirement benefits for political and high office holders in its intended review of the 1992 Constitution.
It has further been urged to consider other provisions including political transitions, the limitation of the legislative authority of Parliament, the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary elections and others relating to the composition, membership and conditions of service for Commissioners of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, a Principal lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), and Mr Alban K. S. Bagbin, the Majority Leader of Parliament, made the recommendation on Tuesday at the second inaugural lecture to mark the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) in Accra,
They spoke on the theme, “Confronting the Challenges of the 1992 Constitution”.
Mr Ahwoi said Article 71 of the Constitution which provided a formula for the determination of salaries, allowances, facilities, privileges, retiring benefits or awards for public office holders, including the President and Vice President, needed to be amended by Parliament if judicial interpretation could not adequately address the challenges associated with it.
He was against the practice where the President appointed a committee to make recommendations for the benefit of the executive and public office holders in line with Article 71 of the Constitution.
He said “should the practice continue, a time will come when there will be a number of ex-Presidents and sets of ex-Parliamentarians all buying from the same market and yet enjoying different retirement benefits or end-of-service benefits”.
He said it was his submission that in interpreting Article 71, a distinction should be drawn between “salaries and allowances” and “retiring benefits and awards”.
Mr Ahwoi said whilst “salaries and allowances” may be determined by each new President, “the retiring benefits and awards should be fixed at all time, with an adjustment formula for inflation and other significant indicators.
For ex-Ministers and ex-Members of Parliament who may be entitled to one-time-end-of-service benefits or ex-gratia payments only, he said the solution may be to fix the quantum in convertible currency such as the US dollar or by way of formula with an in-built inflation factor.
On provisions concerning political transition, he said the experiences of the political transitions of 2001 and 2009 “should teach us that there are vast lacunae in our constitutional arrangements”, which ought to be filled by either constitutional amendment or the exercise of the residual power of Parliament conferred by Article 298.
He therefore agreed with proposals contained in the Institute of Economic Affairs draft “Presidential Transition Bill 2009”.
According to him, the draft bill, proposed among other measures the establishment of an institution that would be responsible for inventory and stock taking of state assets and properties to ensure a smooth and civic handing over of such assets from an outgoing to an incoming administration.
“That is intended to act as a buffer to avoid any dispute between the two parties over all such assets”, he added, and pointed out that the core of the problem related to the short period between Presidential and Parliamentary elections and the date of the inauguration of the new President and Parliament.
To deal with this problem, he said the provision on the period of Parliamentary elections could be amended to allow for a longer period between the Parliamentary elections and the inauguration date of January 7.
Other key areas of the 1992 Constitution he addressed included the concept and practice of the ‘hybrid’ Executive system of government, Decentralisation and Local Government, and the Media and the Right to Rejoinder.
Mr Bagbin, who partly focused his address on the limitations of the legislative authority of Parliament (article 108), said the provision deprived the legislature of one of the most effective mode of exercising control over the use of public funds by the Executive.
“By this prohibition, Parliament is prevented from debating matters that involve expenditure from public funds, the raising of taxation or increases in the rate of taxation on its own initiative without a request from the President”, he emphasised and raised other concerns which he said were inconsistent and therefore called for a review to remove the limitation.
On the appointment of Ministers by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as member of Parliament, except that the majority of Minister shall be appointed from Parliament, the Majority Speaker said experience over the past 16 years had shown that Ministers with Parliament seats tended to find it difficult to effectively combine the two portfolios.
“There is therefore the real challenge of divided attention which is naturally not their making”, he stated and pointed out that the situation was likely to continue for as long as Parliamentary privileges and facilities continued to remain very unattractive as compared with ministerial portfolio.
As a solution, he suggested that the hybrid executive system should be reverted to the Presidential system with complete separation of Parliament from the Executive.
Mr Bagbin also suggested that the condition of service of the Commissioner of CHRAJ, should provide for progression from the status of a justice of the Court of Appeal to a justice of the Supreme Court whilst that of the Deputy Commissioner should be allowed for progression from justice of the High Court to a justice of the Court of Appeal.
He said article 218(e) which prevented the Commission from initiating its own investigation into a matter within its jurisdiction had the effect of dampening the Commission’s initiative to investigate perceived acts of corruption, including the promotion of human rights values, integrity and the rule of law.
To that effect, he urged Parliament to amend article 218 to enable CHRAJ to perform its watchdog role as an independent governance institution.

Ghanaians urged to recognise relevance of Founder’s Day- Dr Jonah

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June 17, 2009

A POLITICAL Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Kwesi Jonah has urged Ghanaians to recognise the relevance of the intended Founder’s Day celebration to be instituted in the country.
He, therefore, urged the government to also translate the ideas and ideals Nkrumah represented into concrete action.
Dr Jonah made the assertions in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.
He said the day should be a ceremony where the main achievements of Nkrumah would be highlighted in the media in the form of radio and television discussions, lecturers and symposiums in schools.
Congratulating the government for its intention to institute the Founder’s Day celebration, Dr Jonah suggested to the government to specifically highlight the good things that Nkrumah wanted to achieve and see which of his plans and projects were still relevant today.
“Nkrumah is the only African leader to lead a sub-Saharan African country to independence and that alone is a significant achievement to be celebrated”, he stated.
Dr Jonah stated that with that achievement, Nkrumah became the symbol of hope and the source of inspiration for all liberation movements in Africa.
He said the achievements of Nkrumah were so memorable that “Ghanaians can not afford to forget about him”.
“You cannot discuss the liberation of the African continent without mentioning Nkrumah. They all looked up to him”, he added, and enumerated some African liberation movements that looked up to Nkrumah experience.
“Some of these movements which sought advice from Nkrumah included the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) from Namibia, African National Congress (ANC) from South Africa, the National Liberation Front from Algeria, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and many other movements which were hosted at the former Students’ Hostel in Accra”, he stated.
According to him, what made the celebration of Nkrumah even more relevant today could be justified considering two important targets Nkrumah outlined to achieve.
“That is the United States of Africa and unity in Ghana, as the country was nearly divided after independence”, he said.
First, Dr Jonah said, Nkrumah struggled for Ghana’s independence after he left the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to form the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
That, he said, made the British realise that the struggle for independence had transcended down from the educated elite to the ordinary people.
“They became conscious of the fact that, someone was now mobilising the ordinary people to fight for independence”, he said.
He stated that because the British had no choice, they had to organise three major elections, in 1951, 1954 and 1956, all of which were swept by the CPP.
Dr Jonah said immediately after independence, Dr Nkrumah discovered that some political parties springing up in the country were based on regions, religion and ethnic groupings.
He said Dr Nkrumah, therefore, passed the “Avoidance of Discrimination Act” which banned the formation of political parties based on those lines apart from nationalistic point of view.
Dr Jonah said details of the Act which had unified Ghana so well leading to the formation of the United Party (UP), a combination of all those smaller parties, could now be found in the Political Parties Act in the 1992 Constitution, where it was indicated that all political parties should be organised on national lines and each should have at least offices in two-thirds of districts in Ghana.
He added that immediately after independence, Dr Nkrumah hit the ground running, realising that Ghana as a tiny West African country could not survive against the powerful colonial super powers, and therefore declared that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of Africa.
In that regard, he said, Nkrumah organised the Conference of Independent African states in Accra in 1958 where together with other African leaders, they discussed how to liberate the continent of colonialism.
Dr Jonah said, after that conference, Dr Nkrumah realised that most of his fellow heads of states were conservatives, because most of them had suggested that the continent could be integrated along functional lines and through regional grouping.
He said Dr Nkrumah believed that Africa needed to develop a strong economy and army to defend itself, but unfortunately, “his peers did not understand him”, and the resultant impact, he said, “politically we are unable to resolve the numerous conflicts and genocide which had been recorded on the continent”.

Two organisations sign partnership agreement

THE Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) has signed a partnership agreement with Rising Data Solutions Limited (RDS), a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, to train people and create jobs in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.
Under the agreement, RDS will provide a curriculum and logistics in the field and train teachers to teach the course at the college, while GTUC would house the classrooms, hardware and teaching personnel for the implementation of the course.
The college will also absorb the class into its official curriculum where students who earn qualifying marks in the course will gain employment with RDS.
The two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Accra yesterday to seal the partnership.
The President of GTUC, Dr Osei K. Darkwa, said the government had identified Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES) and the BPO industry as one of the key industries for the creation of jobs and the provision of marketable skills for the youth for the country to position itself as a destination of choice for outsourcing.
He expressed optimism that the collaboration would equip the students of the college with the requisite skills in areas such as communication and listening, telemarketing, keyboard, time management, computer, customer care, telephone etiquette, accent neutralisation and pronunciation skills.
He indicated that a study conducted in 2006 by an Indian company, Hewitt Associates, with assistance from the World Bank and Information for Development (infoDev) in Ghana, estimated that the sector could create 37,000 jobs by the year 2011, with an added value of US$750 million to the economy.
The Vice-President of GTUC, Dr Robert Baffuor, gave the assurance that the university would continue to provide the platform and build the requisite foundation to place Ghana on the technology map.
The Public Relations Manager of RDS, Mr A. J. Whitman, noted that the partnership was part of RDS’s ongoing campaign to bring more jobs to Ghana via the BPO industry.
“We are proud of this partnership with GTUC because both parties recognise that the private sector cannot grow without the educational sector, and vice versa,” he added.
The Head of Corporate Communication, Vodaphone, Mr Albert Don-Chebe, gave assurance that Vodaphone was strongly behind the deal and commended RDS for having the courage to invest in Ghana, despite the challenges.
The Director of Finance and Administration of the Ministry of Communications, Mr M. B. Alhassan, disclosed that the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) were strongly behind Ghana in the development of the BPO industry.
“This emphasises the government’s commitment to the sector,” he indicated, and noted that to further support the sector, the government was putting up a data centre to properly monitor and evaluate its performance.

Develop framework for use of ICT -Health experts urged

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Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has called on health experts in Africa to develop a framework that will enhance the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to make health service accessible to the people, particularly those in the rural areas.
With the advent of mobile telephony, he said simple health messages could be devised and communicated to the people on daily basis.
He said Africa needed such a framework to review its policies and strategies for achieving its major health goals beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Mr Mahama made the call at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Annual Ministerial Review Conference in Accra yesterday.
The two-day conference is being attended by members of the Economic Commission for Africa, African Ministers of Health, and representatives of United Nations (UN) bodies.
Mr Mahama, therefore, called on all the members of ECOSOC to consider the meeting as one that would define how they in Africa would deploy electronic health solution for the sake of their people.
He said there was the need for an African position on the way and manner ICT must be deployed on the continent.
The Vice-President charged them to avoid a situation where solutions were not based on African problems and challenges but rather on other systems which did not have identical challenges.
Mr Mahama said he had seen proposals that aimed at high-end telemedicine technology but which did not take into account the existing human and technical resource at both ends of the set-up, the cost involved, and whether they addressed their priorities.
He said most African countries had regrettably made slow processes in the application of electronic health solutions probably because investments in this area had been misdirected by hard talking technology-oriented vendors who did not understand their circumstances and yet claimed to hold the solutions to their problems.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Madam-Sherry Ayittey, stressed the need for ICT to be used to improve the healthcare needs of women and children.
She said such technology should also be cost-effective and affordable and urged the government to collaborate with ICT experts to explore the power of the technology for the benefit of all.
The Minister of Health, Dr George Yankey, appealed to health experts to make ehealth a necessary facilitator in healthcare delivery.
The President of ECOSOC, Madam Sylvie Lucas, said the objective of ehealth was to improve primary healthcare delivery.
She urged African governments to seek the opportunity of ICT to advance health care in their countries.
The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Mr Thomas Stelzer, observed that ehealth could be used to address challenges such as lack of infrastructure, heavy disease burden and brain drain, in a comprehensive manner.
It could help scale health care appropriately to each economy and also enable a transformation from disease management to a focus on proactive wellness, he added.

Future Leaders Group assists Aburi Girls

THE Future Leaders Group (FLG) has donated 100 pieces of choir robes and 20 tambourines worth GH¢2,120 to the Aburi Girls Senior High School at Aburi in the Eastern Region.
The Group has also awarded scholarships to five needy students in the school to encourage them to study hard, despite their financial challenges.
The Chief Executive Officer of FLG, Mr Emmanuel Dei Tumi, who made the presentation on behalf of the group, said the group recognised the importance of religious and moral education in schools, hence their resolve to assist the school with the robes and tambourines.
He said education was not only about acquiring theoretical knowledge, but also about the inculcating morality and the fear of God in students, who in recent times, were being lured into cyber fraud and other deviant activities.
Mr Tumi disclosed that FLG had awarded scholarships to over 200 students in the country, from primary to tertiary level, and intended to increase the number to cover other needy, but intelligent children.
“Very soon, we will establish a scholarship scheme to let them know that they are not alone, and to realise that some of us are here to help them,” he stated, and challenged the students to stay committed to God and their books to achieve the best from their studies.
The Headmistress of the School, Mrs Sylvia Asempa, expressed the school’s appreciation for the items and the scholarships, and said she hoped it would go a long way to boost the morale of the girls and contribute to their Christian values.
“We hope the scholarships will contribute significantly in building firmer foundation for the students and the nation as well,” she added.

Opoku wins second edition of “The Challenge”

Joseph Opoku, a 26-year-old telecommunications engineer of MTN-Ghana and former student of the University of Mines and Technology, emerged winner of the second edition of “The Challenge” reality television show.
For his prize, Mr Opoku is the beneficiary of a postgraduate scholarship from the University of Westminster worth £40,000, including tuition for a 12-month postgraduate course, fully paid accommodation in an international students hostel, a monthly living allowance, a return ticket to the UK valid for a year and a new laptop.
Upon completion of his course, he is expected to return to Ghana to start work in a lucrative management position with either tiGO or the United Bank of Africa (Ghana) Limited.
The three runners-up were Sandra Barimah, Araba Abakah-Anaman and Anastacia Arko, who are to benefit from scholarships to do postgraduate courses at the Thames University, the London Metropolitan University, both in the United Kingdom, and IPMC in Ghana, respectively.
The event, which was held in Accra on Saturday, saw the six finalists exhibiting quality presentation of ideas and tasks they had accomplished as part of the challenge at previous stages.
The remaining two finalists who went home with consolation prizes and much confidence in themselves are Michael Quaye and Afuma Akosua Gyan.
At the first stage of the final challenge, the finalists were grouped into two teams, with each team identifying and executing a task dubbed the “Social and Economic Impact Task”.
The task, according to the organisers, was supposed to be sustainable and capable of bringing economic benefits to the people.
That stage, which ran throughout the duration of the competition, was won by the JESK Team, which set up a small-scale snail farm for the Frafraha Orphanage in Accra.
The team, which comprised Joseph, Enoch Nii Boi Quaye, an evictee, Sandra and Katherine Attoh, another evictee, donated GH¢1,000 towards the sustainability of the project.
At the second stage of the final challenge, the finalists had to justify why they deserved the ultimate prize in three minutes and it was that nerve-breaking session of the competition that posed the greatest challenge to the finalists.
Each attempted to convince a six-member board why he or she deserved the ultimate prize, but in the end Mr Opoku, whose answer to the question as to how he had made it that far, “Excuses do not work; it is either you have the result or you do not”, came up tops.
In an interview, Mr Opoku commended his colleagues for the part they played to bringing out the best in him.
The Minister for Information, Mrs Zita Okaikoi, commended the organisers and sponsors of the show and said the competition was in line with the government’s policy to enable the youth to develop their full potential and be ready to take up the mantle of leadership of the country.
She expressed the hope that the competition would encourage learning and research among the youth and offer them employment opportunities.

Caption: The six finalists in a group picture after the event. They are (from left to right) Michael K. Quaye, Akosua Afuma Gyan, Sandra S. Barimah, Joseph Opoku, Araba Abakah-Anaman and Anastacia C. Arko.

Ghanaian praised for trust in democracy

THE Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Stig Barlyng, has commended Ghanaians in general and politicians in particular for exhibiting rare constitutional stamina in the light of the closest result in the 2008 general election.
He recalled that “during the exciting and nail-biting days between the first voting and the last result, Ghanaians rose to the challenge of maintaining trust in democracy”, adding that “Ghana has shown the way, not only to sister nations in the sub-region, but to the rest of the world”.
Mr Barlyng made the commendation during the celebration of the 160th independence/National Constitution Day of Denmark in Accra in remembrance of the 1849 signing of the Danish Constitution which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy.
He said “To Ghanaian politicians, a very slim majority should always be a reminder that political power is illusive. Democracy works best when the majority and minority agree on the fundamentals, and agree to disagree on means of fulfilling the basics”, he stated.
Mr Barlyng stressed “ In democracy, respect for minority was as important as looking for the comfort of the majority”.
He acknowledged the fact that Ghana was confronted with economic challenges as a result of the global economic downturn, but expressed the hope that a solution could be found in the adaptation of new realities in sub-regional, continental and global alliances.
Ghana, he said, would forge ahead by strengthening democracy, decentralisation and good governance”.
The ambassador stated that Denmark had had cordial relations with Ghana for about 400 years, which if observed with “present day eyes”, were problematic, but now was far ahead in the positive direction.
He said celebration of the Danish Constitution was marking democracy with a whole array of freedoms and rights, where one person’s liberties and rights were limited by similar rights and liberties of every other citizen.
“This code is the sacred, simple and basic principle in the law of laws—the Constitution”, he declared, and recounted the various constitutional amendments, which the Danish Constitution had gone through, with a referendum to be held today to rectify the popular female succession of the monarch.
Mr Barlyng expressed the Danish government’s intention to maintain funding for African development irrespective of the economic hardship that also confronted them.
“We are staunch supporters of the international development agenda with focus on strengthening the country-led development as expressed in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action”, he emphasised.
The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, who led the government delegation, also acknowledged the contribution made by Denmark towards the development of Ghana and expressed the government’s determination to build a solid democratic state.
He observed that with support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Ghana had been able reduce child mortality rate, malaria and guinea worm infestation in the country.
Mr Ahwoi agreed that those were challenging times that required innovation and alliances with sub-regional, continental and global partners if Ghana was to forge ahead in its development agenda.
He expressed the government’s commitment to the fight against climate change which Denmark was at the forefront.
The minister said it was important to join the fight because any change in climate greatly affected agriculture which was the bedrock of the country.

Petty bribery on the rise

THE 2009 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) released by Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) indicates that petty bribery is on the rise, with the police considered the most frequent recipients in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The report said the number of respondents in Sub-Saharan Africa region who reported paying a bribe in the previous year was much higher than the global average, which was 26 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa, as against 13 per cent at the global level.
It also revealed that people continued to see political parties as the most corrupt in their countries, whilst the private sector resorted to corruption to shape state policies.
The Executive Secretary of GII Mr Vitus Adaboo Azeem, a local chapter of Transparency International (TI) who released both the global and Ghana report in Accra last Wednesday, called for more civic education to sensitise Ghanaians to the effect of corruption.
“This calls for a change of attitude and a system of democratic practice where all citizens are equal before the law and where meritocracy rules over and above all other considerations”, he stated.
Corruption, he expressed, had a devastating effect not only on individuals but also on the country as a whole, leading to lack of access to quality healthcare, education for children and portable water, with the poor always being the hardest hit.
In Ghana, he said a total of 1, 190 respondents were randomly selected from one municipal capital and one district capital from each of the ten regions in the country.
“The respondents were asked to rank six institutions on their perception of how corrupt they are on a scale of one to five with five being the very corrupt”, he said and emphasised that, “overall public officials or civil service were perceived to be the most corrupt sector in Ghana.
At the global level, the report which was released by TI in Berlin, Germany yesterday revealed that, “people continue to see government as ineffective in the fight against corruption” whilst at the local level, the GII report indicated that 58 per cent of respondents in Ghana felt that government’s efforts at fighting corruption were quite effective.
About half of the respondents at the global level, according to Mr Azeem, had the perception that the private sector and the judiciary were affected by corruption, whilst 43 per cent of interviewees believed that the media was affected by corruption.
The global survey covered a total of 73,132 people in 69 countries around the world, including ten African countries namely, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.
The report was based on this year’s world-wide public opinion survey of citizens’ views on and experiences on corruption conducted by Transparency International (TI), in the fight against corruption world-wide.
It assessed the extent to which key institutions and public services were perceived to be corrupt, beside measuring public views on government’s efforts to fight corruption.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, a member of GII urged the media to uphold the integrity of the profession and use its power creatively by balancing stories and not to show partially.
He challenged journalists to join the crusade and respect the rule of law in their endeavours, considering the fact that journalist or the media had been found to be corrupt as well.
“The media should stand up against ‘soli’, to avoid conflict of interest and use the pen for creativity and not for destruction”, he emphasised.
A Senior lecturer at the School of Administration, University of Ghana, Legon, Mr Kwame Gyasi advocated that the fight against corruption ought to be a personal crusade and not left in the hands of the leadership of institutions.
He bemoaned the situation where educated personalities tended to defend those who were guilty of the crime and pointed out that “education is to reform people’s character and not to deform their character”.

‘Formulate national building code’

THE President of Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA), Mr Osei Kwame Agyeman has proposed the formulation of a national building code to reduce the incidence of fire outbreaks.
The code he said, would complement the National Building Regulations and Legislative Instrument (LI 1630) of 1996 which were intended to ensure the safety of life and property.
Mr Agyeman told the Daily Graphic that most of the measures being adopted by the authorities in urban centres to address challenges of congestion were short-term and would not be able to adequately solve the problems.
He cited the case of Kumasi where the spate of development was far beyond the capacity of the planning authorities and said it would be difficult to manage the metropolis in future unless urgent measures were taken.
Mr Agyeman said the non-enforcement of building regulations in the country presently made it difficult for the authorities to address emergency situations such as fire outbreaks and provide access to healthcare, basic utilities such as water electricity and educational facilities.
“When you create a market that contains commercial goods, structures and people with no access for emergency services and utilities, then you are creating a hazardous environment, which we have been living with on a daily basis,” he added.
Mr Agyeman said the country needed to integrate the planning of socio-economic and infrastructure activities which were features of every human endeavour and called for the establishment of agencies to regulate the building industry and environment.
“Ideally, we should have a planning scheme. By law no development should take place without a legitimate planning scheme,” he stated and attributed majority of the problems or challenges facing the various assemblies to uncontrolled planning which had led to the growth in squatters, crime and social deviants in urban centres.
Mr Agyeman urged planning authorities to be bold and stand by their decision to decongest urban centres and submitted that to salvage the situation in Accra, the transport terminals and market areas at the Central Business District (CBD) for example needed to be permanently relocated.
He said Accra had sprawled and the old concept of trading or human activities converging at CBD was outmoded and needed to be changed.

‘Jurnalists urged to specialise’

THE Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu has emphasised the need for journalists to specialise in specific fields, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), in order to make significant contributions to the country’s development.
“You have a wider coverage, what you report has implications within and outside Africa”, he said, noting that, “the world has become a global village and therefore you should be ready to take responsibility of your reportage”.
In that direction, he also sked journalists to be circumspect and non-judgemental in their reportage and at all time and respect laws that protected reputation.
Mr Iddrisu was addressing participants comprised of media personnel at the end of a symposium organised by the African University College (AUCC) in Accra on the theme, “Communication, New Media and Development in Africa”.
The sector Minister, said he considered the theme for the symposium timely as Africa, “asserts itself in the globalised world and launches itself as an active partner of the world information society.
“We need specialise training for up and coming journalist. Specialise training in ICT, particularly in an area to assist government to fight cyber crime, agriculture and the constitution to be able to make significant contributions to the country’s development”, he emphasised.
Mr Iddrisu announced that it was the decision of government to ensure that every district in the country owned a community radio station to balance the disparity across the country.
He admitted that the government’s greatest challenge was how to mainstream ICT and how to make it an enabler through improved connectivity, hinting that currently government was making progress with the e-governance project to link citizens and the government online.
Through that , he believed rural Ghana could make meaningful input in the decision making process and expressed his ministry’s commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented information society, where every one could create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge.
The Acting-Dean, Journalism and Communication at AUCC, Mr Absalom Mutere urged the government that in its pursuits for e-governance, it should also ensure the passage of the Right to Information Bill, as a backdrop, because without that, the project would not yield the expected result.
He also pointed out the importance of ICT infrastructure, if citizens were going to easily access the e-governance facility, particularly at the grassroots level.
The President of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), Dr Osei K. Darkwa said the e-governance facility, which he described as “an online version of the off-line government” had the ability to re-organised government machinery.
He said GTUC had a policy where student were given discounts to enable them purchase laptops as a way of entrenching the use of the ICT, and to ensure maximum use the technology, he noted that the University had a wireless network where every student with a password could easily access.
Currently, Mr Darkwa disclosed that the University was in collaboration with Omatek Computers, an ICT company that assembled laptops in Ghana to assist students at the University to also learn how to assemble laptops, and acquire more skill in the application of the technology.
In order to address the problem of cyber fraud in the country, he suggested that because the enforcement agencies lacked adequate tools to clamp down on perpetrators, the government could set up incubator centres where students with brilliant and innovative ideas could be supported in their various projects.
“They need money, and so if they have their own patented products, I believe it will be beneficial to them, thought it will not totally eradicate the problem”, he added.

Caption: The Minister of Communication, Mr Haruna Iddrisu (right), the President of AUCC, Mr Kojo Yankah (middle) and the President of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), Dr Osei K. Darkwa, in an interaction at the symposium.

‘Enforce protocol on free movement

MEMBER countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have been urged to enforce the protocol on free movement of citizens, if they wish to solve the problem of illegal migration of their nationals to Europe and North Africa.
It is estimated that 2,000 West African nationals leave their countries for destinations in Europe and North America annually, often through illegal routes, where some of them perish or end up with shattered dreams.
A World Bank report estimates that 70,000 of Africa’s most qualified people leave each year and the continent spends $4 billion to replace them with expatriate workers.
Many Ghanaians have migrated to other countries, especially in Europe and the Americas, through illegal channels. Some of them, including highly qualified professionals, often find themselves engaged in menial jobs in those countries.
But two civil society organisations, the West African Civil Society Forum (WASCOF) and the Open Society Initiative For West Africa (OSIWA) argue that the enforcement of regulations under the ECOWAS protocol would help solve the problem of young West Africans migrating illegally to Europe, North America, and other African destinations, “where the most inhuman treatment has been their lot”.
At a press conference in Accra, the two organisations identified some of the challenges to the enforcement of the protocol as the absence of adequate mechanisms to control the infiltration of criminals, drugs and small arms and lack of harmonisation between national laws and policies among member countries.
Others included inadequate road infrastructure linking member countries, high prevalence of illiteracy and poverty that placed populations in situations in which travel documents, including birth certificates, were of little importance, the absence of mechanisms for the settlement of complaints of harassment and abuse of human rights of citizens by agents of member states.
Consequently, they said many West African migrants left their home countries without proper documents and enter host countries illegally.
A member of WASCOF, Ms Bashiratu Kamal, expressed regret that the “system of harmonised immigration and emigration documents envisaged by the ECOWAS Council of Ministers in 1992 has not been implemented anywhere, yet at regional level, there is no ECOWAS Summit without an express will to plant the seed of what could be called a borderless West Africa”.
She complained that while members were enjoined to establish national committees to monitor the enforcement of the provision contained in the Protocol, travelling within West Africa was still one of the most painful experiences for community citizens.
Ms Kamal asserted that though many decisions had been taken to reduce the minimum requirements by which a citizen of a member country could enter another member country, those decisions had not yet filtered down to border posts, airports, immigration and customs points.
Mrs Susan Naa Sekyere, the Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), urged security agencies charged with ensuring the free movement of people and goods to sit up.
She said there was much talk about Ghana being the gateway to West Africa when there was no free movement within the region.
Mrs Sekyere recounted situations where tomato sellers in the country had to go through hell in their efforts to import tomatoes from neighbouring countries into the country.
An Executive Member of WASCOF, Ms Getrude Adu Yebo, also urged the media to educate the public on their rights as citizens and what pertains in the ECOWAS Protocol.
She also recounted her experience while travelling from Nigeria to Ghana and had to pay exorbitant charges just to cross the borders.
According to her, she reported the conduct of the security agents when she returned to Ghana and she was told by officials that the agents were doing their job.

GII welcomes govt's assurance

GHANA Integrity Initiative (GII), an anti-corruption organisation, has welcomed the government’s assurance to review the Public Assets Declaration Law and lay before Parliament the Right to Information Bill.
The organisation, however, pointed out that a major challenge or weakness inherent in the review of the Public Assets Declaration Law was a section of the Public Office Holders Liability Bill which sought to empower the Auditor-General to keep information provided by office holders on their assets as confidential.
The Executive Secretary of GII, Mr Vitus Adaboo Azeem, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Monday, that the section of the bill should be expunged otherwise the purpose of the law or assets declaration could be defeated.
The Public Assets Declaration Law is expected to be repealed by the Public Office Holders Liability Bill which is currently before Parliament.
He said when approved by Parliament, the new law would require all stakeholders to operate under the ambit of its stipulations to ensure that it was not used unduly to smear the image of individuals and organisations.
“Public Office holders should also not unnecessarily withhold information or should not be compelled to release information through court action”, he urged.
He called for the need for adequate sensitisation of the general public so that people’s rights were not abused.
Mr Azeem recalled that after the passage of the Assets Declaration Law in 1998, the Audit Service as an implementing agency failed to provide the regulations until 2007.
“We also made recommendation for amendments to the law because the supposed review is supposed to address the weakness that make it ineffective as an anti-corruption tool”, he said.
He expressed the hope that the review should take into consideration their proposed recommendation.
Among those recommendations, he said, included the need to provide public disclosure, verification by the Auditor-General or an appropriate authority, more frequent disclosure as done in other countries where public officers disclosed their assets yearly or at least after every two years.
The declaration, he said, should be extended to cover the Armed Forces and all other public officers who had in their custody and control public funds and assets.
Mr Azeem also welcomed the government’s assurance to lay before Parliament the Economic and Organised Crime Office Bill by the end of the year, to replace the Serious Fraud Office Law.
He urged the government to provide the necessary resources to the Economic and Organised Crime Office and some amount of independence to allow it to investigate and prosecute, according to its mandate.
Asked what differentiated the Economic and Organised Crime Office Bill from the Serious Fraud Office Law, he explained that the former would give the office the power to cease tainted property or property suspected to have been illegally acquired before proceeding with investigations.

AMA to decongest Accra- ”Soldier Bar“ to go

THE Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is to demolish “Soldier Bar”, a popular brothel at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and other unauthorised structures within its environs in Accra in two weeks time after the necessary cross-checks have been made.
The assembly has also indicated its preparedness to take full responsibility for waste management in the capital, taking on board the supposed 80 per cent of the activities of private waste management companies, in addition to its 20 per cent mandate.
To that effect, the Chief Executive of AMA, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, has directed the Metropolitan Waste Management Department to clear all the irreparable old trucks and equipment on its compound and make room for new ones.
Speaking to journalists at the end of a tour of parts of Accra on Friday, Mr Vanderpuije said he was in contact with benevolent NGOs outside the country who were willing to help address the deplorable unsanitary conditions in the national capital.
“AMA should be doing 100 per cent of the work and we are going to take full responsibility for waste management in the city,” he stated, and pointed out that AMA was looking at a comprehensive approach that would sustain whatever it would start.
“I would soon meet with mayors of major cities in the world to discuss how they could help us to restore sanity in our cities to appreciable level. But before that, we need to put our house in order," he disclosed, and noted that the AMA would consider this and take a bold decision to eliminate street hawking.
Mr Vanderpuije gave an indication of a massive decongestion exercise in the capital, after a status report by the various heads of department and the AMA Health Directorate had been brought before him for assessment.
Mr Vanderpuije blamed the actions of some authorities at the various centres of the assembly as a contributory factor to the unsanitary conditions in the city.
He mentioned some of the activities at the “Soldier Bar” in particular, and said owners of most drinking spots were operating with licences illegally obtained from AMA officials.
He indicated his resolve to investigate whether the operators had legal approval to operate there, and if yes, he was still going to demolish the structures because the AMA had a responsibility to eliminate those structures under its jurisdiction.
“We will demolish the structures there, not just for the sake of beautification, but for the sake of those children and women whose lives are in danger, considering the environmental conditions under which they operate this illicit sex trade,” he warned.
“Activities there are illegal and we should not allow them to operate.
“We need to rethink that position. The AMA has a responsibility in the elimination of these activities and the sanitation problems in the city. We need to rethink the construction of pavements, particularly at Kaneshie, on the usage of the road as parking area by trotro and taxi drivers”.
The AMA boss also visited the Metro Roads, Accra Metro Sewage, AMA Public Health Department, Accra Metro Health Directorate, the Kaneshie Market, Tema Station, Makola Market, among others.
He described the filth and the stench in the city as an eyesaw.
“The situation in Accra brings tears to my eyes,” he stated, indicating that in almost all the market centres in Accra, trotro and taxi drivers parked indiscriminately on roads and pavements with no regard for authority.

Caption: Chief Executive of AMA, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije in spectacles, in the midst of AMA officials during the tour which took him through the streets of Makola, Kaneshie, and Tema Station