The state-own Daily Graphic says President J.A. Kufuor has re-emphasised the need for African countries to continuously pursue objectives that would unify the continent and provide the needed impetus for economic growth and prosperity.

To this end, he has called for the commitment of African leaders to sub-regional co-operation and integration to enable them to trade among themselves.

President Kufuor said this when he paid a farewell call on the Beninois President, Mathieu Kerekou, at his residence in Cotounou.

The President, who was accompanied by his wife, Theresa, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, was in Benin for the inauguration of President Kerekou, who was sworn in for a five-year second term last Friday.

The two Presidents conducted a review of bilateral relations between their countries and exchanged views on the African and international situation.

The talks, held behind closed doors, also dwelt on ways and means of promoting peace, security, stability and development in the sub-region, sources indicated.

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Govt to review trade policy

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, has announced that the Trade Liberalisation Policy, which has had adverse effects on local industry will be reviewed, reports the Graphic.

The review is aimed at giving renewed impetus to local industries to make them globally competitive, Dr Apraku said in a speech read on his behalf at the annual get-together of the Chicago Business Club, an association of young business entrepreneurs with the aim of promoting business between Ghana and the United States, in Accra.

He said the government would empower the private sector in a more creative way and also place emphasis on the use of modern technology as an aid to industry and business.

Dr Apraku said in line with the support to make local industries more competitive, the Ghana Investment Fund would be established this year to provide long term capital to local enterprises, especially those involved in export trade.

He therefore, urged the private sector to embrace the fund by sourcing it to improve their activities.

GRi…/

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The Ghanaian Chronicle

NDC panics over Baby Ocansey

Last Thursday’s arrest of Hajia Baby Ocansey, the woman at the centre of the BOG $1.5m scandal has sent panic waves among the top hierarchy of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), according to the Ghanaian Chronicle.

The independent paper says it can reveal that an impromptu meeting was arranged last Friday and attended by some top Executives of the NDC at MaCarthy Hills in Accra to discuss the effect of how the bust-up of the elusive Hajia Amina B. Abubakari Siddiq, alias Hajia Baby Ocansey, will impinge on the already sinking image of the party.

Hajia Ocansey who went underground for several months after the incident, will appear in court today.

Baby Ocansey, who is claiming to be the Women Organizer of People’s National Convention, (PNC) hours after her arrest, told newsmen at the charge office of the CID headquarters that she had so much information about the former NDC government and was prepared to reveal the whole truth about her involvement in the fake cheque and that, “more secrets will come out at appropriate time”.

Chronicle can reveal that four members of the top hierarchy of the NDC swiftly held an emergency meeting at MaCarthy Hills, a suburb of Accra, at 11am, a day after the arrest of Baby Ocansey, to strategise on the impact of Hajia’s utterances and how the party will respond to her allegations.

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900m cedis missing from National Treasury

The Ghanaian Chronicle says it has established that the national treasury at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department was invaded and millions of cedis were carelessly taken from the national kitty.

Officials at the national treasury of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department in Accra are still at a loss over how an amount of 950,000,000 was stolen from the fuel unit of the department last year. They are also yet to come to terms with missing fuel coupons running into millions of cedis.

Chronicle established that 350,000,000 cedis of the amount was stolen from the fuel unit of the department in Accra while the mysterious loss of 600,000,000 occurred at the Bolgatanga office.

The Public Relations Unit of the Department in Accra told Chronicle on Thursday the police are still investigating the stolen cash at the Accra office and expressed the hope that the thieves would be apprehended.

The unit however claimed innocence of the 600,000,000 that got lost at the Bolgatanga office at a time the electioneering campaign was on-going.

GRi…/

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Ghanaian Times

Okyeman launches moral crusade

The Okyeman Council will deal drastically with any person, especially teachers, priests or chiefs who impregnate schoolgirls in the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional area, says the state owned daily, the Ghanaian Times.

The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Oori Panin, who announced this at a durbar held in his honour when he visited the town as part of his tour of towns and villages in the area, said the council would soon launch a campaign to hunt down all “run-away fathers” from the area and compel them to take up their parental responsibilities to their abandoned children.

“If such fathers prove difficult, Okyeman would let the law take its course in dealing with them because the Council can no longer tolerate irresponsible fathers”.

He cautioned women in the area to always look for responsible men to ensure a better future for them and their children.

Osagyefo Amoatia stressed the need to end teenage pregnancies in the country saying that such pregnancies did not only bring untold hardship to the mothers and their children but society as a whole.

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Accused steals cop’s 0.35m cedis in courtroom

Drama unfolded at a Cape Coast Circuit court on Friday when an accused person in handcuffs managed to steal 350,000 cedis belonging to a Police Constable on duty a the court, reports the Ghanaian Times.

The accused, Harry Appiah, 35, was arraigned before the court for stealing wax prints last December.

The incident happened minutes after court proceedings had ended and the accused, together with other accused persons were being sent away from the courtroom to the Ankaful Prisons.

Police Constable Eddy Asomaning told the ‘Times’ that he withdrew the amount from a bank and kept it in a polythene bag which he placed near the prosecutor’s bench whilst he went about his duty until proceedings at the court were over.

He then went to pick the money, but realized that it was missing.

Constable Asomaning said he asked his colleagues and the accused persons who were standing near the prosecutor’s bench but they all denied seeing the money.

He then decided to search the accused persons and in the process found the money in Appiah’s pants.

Benueyeh, who was handcuffed together with Appiah was also accused of stealing.

Appiah, when questioned, said that he picked the money from the floor.

He will be arraigned before the court today charged with stealing again.

GRi…/

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The Daily Guide

Rawlings’ bodyguard queried

The Daily Guide says eleven soldiers, including the personal bodyguard of ex President J.J. Rawlings, RSM. Kuntoh, were on March 16, 2001 picked up by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for interrogation.

According to the private daily, three of the soldiers were attached to the ex President’s household.

The paper says source close to it indicates that the 11 who had come to security notice were picked up after the BNI had sought permission from the Military authorities.

Their invitations, Guide says it is reliably informed were related to matters concerning illegal possession of arms, to issues pertaining to national security.

GRi…/

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The Dispatch

NDC made GCB risk 24 billion cedis

The Dispatch asks if it is possible that a company can open a new account at a bank and within a month, be granted loans totalling $3.5 million, about 24.5 cedis billion. The answer the independent paper says is yes, as evidenced by the decision of the Board of Directors of Ghana Commercial Bank Limited (GCB), under pressure from officials of the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, in the loans granted to Omega Wood Processing Limited without security.

According to the paper, officials from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) have started an in-depth investigation into how the loans were granted, against all banking regulations.

The Dispatch says it learnt that in August 1999, the Board granted Omega various loans totalling $3.5 million.

Omaga had no security to offer and were relying on the assets of another timber company, A.E. Saoud Limited, which they were then negotiating to buy.

According to the paper the deal between Omega and Saoudi is at a standstill. Omega has therefore not been able to provide any security. Nevertheless, the Board continues to grant them further facilities.

GRi…/

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The Independent

Ghanaians reduced to slaves at GHACEM

The Independent says although slavery was abolished over a hundred years ago, it can reveal on authority that the inhuman treatment is manifested in various forms in Ghana.

The premises of Ghana Cement have become an ugly spectre of a white Norwegian supremacy where rights of workers are trampled upon at will with the connivance of certain Blacks in positions of leadership.

Our investigations have established that GHACEM management headed by a Norwegian Managing Director is bent on dealing meanly with some workers who are currently demanding proper conditions of service.

The workers, mainly casuals and those from the security section of the company are either being transferred or sacked outright by management.

But the resistance put up by the workers has led to interventions by certain institutions including the Attorney General’s department and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

The resolute stance adopted by the workers manifested in a statement they issued challenging management’s sudden and unjustified decision to terminate the appointments of thirty seven of their colleagues at the security department and replace them with employees from the Sec Point, an external security agency.

Another batch of forty-two casual workers of the company have also petitioned the Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) under what they termed unjustified loss of employment, forced labour and loss of income.

According to the group of forty-two, they had served the company for several years, some for as long as fifteen years without being confirmed as permanent staff. They have suffered the worse form of health related problems than all other workers at GHACEM.

“We have been exposed to all manner of health risks in terms of occupational diseases that are prevalent”, they argued.

The workers accused management that, “contrary to Article 24 (1) of the constitution, we have endured discrimination from our employers and been denied a lot of privileges and benefits granted to other staff”.

They contended that notwithstanding the fact that the job is fraught with a lot of occupational diseases and the permanent members of staff are therefore sent to yearly mandatory medical check-up, the casuals have been denied access to this facility.

The petition again stated that by GHACEM’s own practices over the years, most permanent staff graduate from the casual employment to permanent and wondered why their appointments have since not been confirmed despite numerous promises.

GRi…/

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The Accra Mail

ECG, GT, GWC failure

The Accra Mail says 2001 started off with much hope and confidence for Ghana, but the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Telecom (GT), and Ghana Water Company (GWC) are already spoiling the fun only four months into the new millennium.

The independent metro paper says ironically, they all bear the name Ghana proudly in their corporate identities but are refusing to make Ghanaians proud with their performance!

The three utilities have come to represent some of Ghana’s most time wasting and annoying establishments. Electricity Company of Ghana has become a gold medallist in the game of putting off power “by heart” Ghana Water Company scores top marks for “closing taps by heart” and Ghana Telecom breasts the tape with the speed of its inability to put Ghanaians in touch!

The above metaphors are neither meant to be clever nor funny, but truly represent a nation’s utilities gone haywire. The harm being done the country by their combined ineffectiveness is incalculable. President Kufuor’s “Golden Age of Business” will remain a pipe dream if these three most vital utilities continue with their bad ways. These three utilities have paradoxically undergone highly publicised structural changes in the immediate past, ostensibly to make them more efficient. ECG and GWC shed their civil service-like garbs and became “companies”. They used to be corporations. GT even went further and invited the Malaysians, who now part own it.

They have all not surprisingly, and perhaps with some justification pinned all their hopes on the mast of tariff increases.

GRi…/

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Public Agenda

Economic take-off is still far off - Nduom

The independent weekly, Public Agenda, says high hopes of a quick improvement in the economy and therefore the lives of Ghanaians must be put on hold, as government is currently concentrating on building solid foundation for future take-off.

According to the paper, Dr Kwesi Nduom, Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation brought home this reality to public service workers and civil servants at a two-day workshop on the nation's economy.

"What we are doing now should have been done over the years, we are trying to manage the domestic debt, for the government not to over spend and we are putting money at the right place," he told the workers.

Commenting on the nature of this year's budget, the economic planning minister said government and the new economic planners came out with the type of budget they did, because, "It is a foundation building for the economy we did not have sound foundation."

He said, according to the targets set in the vision 2020 document, the country should have achieved certain standards, but already the programme has gone through five years and certain target have not been achieved.

When the debt hardship is reduced, it would impact positively on the economy and attract enough investment to stimulate growth.

GRi…/

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NPP News

NPP youth storm H'quarters

Hundreds of NPP activists who served as polling agents during the 2000 elections, last Saturday descended on the party headquarters in anger but eventually went home happy and smiling, according to the party’s mouth piece, NPP News.

The activists who served mainly in the Volta Region besieged the headquarters in response to an announcement on an Accra FM station, to collect their reward for the role they played during the campaign and election.

Although their demands were met they were also promised an official acknowledgement of their efforts.

According to a party spokesman there are plans to organise a celebration day to officially acknowledge the efforts put in by the activists and to honour each of them accordingly.

GRi…/

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Ghanaian Democrat

Ecowas States gear up for single currency

The benefits expected from the common Central Bank and Currency as envisaged in the year 2004 in the West African Sub-region will yield a substantial micro-economic and macro-economic stability for the ECOWAS countries, reports the Ghanaian Demcrat.

The NDC mouth piece says, apart from handling only one single currency instead of eight in the sub-region, the micro-economic benefits will include lower transaction costs and elimination of currency speculation as well as a larger market.

This will lead to greater efficiency resulting from a more competitive process of cross-border transactions.

Mr S.K. Apea, Senior Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) made this observation at a round-table discussion on the topic: "A Second Monetary Zone as a critical Factor in the Fast Track Approach to West African Economic Integration" in Accra recently.

According to Mr Apea, the Heads of State and Government, realising that ECOWAS had not achieved its core objectives after two decades decided to review the treaty towards an Economic Union at which there would be a single currency by 2004.

GRi…/

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