Brain drain alarming
Okyehene bemoans
Motor accidents claim 1,100 lives last year
Drama in K’si court
Armed robbers raid Keta Sea Defence site
NDC moves to silence “Evening News”
Ghana Airways going bankrupt
AGC exceeds production targets
GCD boss sent Home
Ports Authority in 22yrs rent arrears
Nsiah tipped to head KMA
You can sue ECG
Reconciliation must be all inclusive – Agbenaza
Brain drain alarming
The state Daily Graphic writes that the brain drain problem facing the health sector is assuming alarming proportions following the departure of 24 pharmacists between January and March, this year alone, for US and Britain in search of greener pastures.
This is due to the unattractive incentive packages, poor remuneration and conditions of service for pharmacists in the country.
Available records indicate that 50 pharmacists left the shores of the country (28 being for last year) between 1997 and 2000, and it is feared that should the trend continue unchecked, the country may lose about 100 trained pharmacists by the end of this year alone.
The Registrar of the Pharmacy Council, Mr M.F. Awuku-Kwatia who made this known at an induction ceremony to welcome newly qualified pharmacists into the council, described the situation as frightening, considering its consequences on the health delivery system in the country.
He said there is, therefore, the need for government to take urgent steps to create the congenial environment needed to attract pharmacists to stay and contribute to the development of the health sector.
He said immigration laws in Britain and the US have been made flexible for medical practitioners entering there, adding that this has attracted most of the country’s pharmacists.
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Okyehene bemoans
The Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has expressed concern about the increasing number of children who drop out of school before age 12 to engage in illegal mining (galamsey) and chain saw operations in the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, reports the Graphic.
He said the practice is gaining roots and stressed the need for parents and guardians to deal with the issue so as to safeguard the future of the children.
He reminded parents that education is a life long investment they could make for their children and under no circumstances should they deny them, who are the future leaders of the country, that opportunity.
The Okyehene stated this at a durbar organised in his honour at Kade in the Kwabibirem District in the Eastern Region, marking the end of his seven-week tour of the area.
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Motor accidents claim 1,100 lives last year
In another story, the Graphic says more than 1,100 people died through motor accidents recorded in the country last year.
The Acting Executive Director of the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) Mr Noble J. Appiah announced this at Takoradi at a regional durbar with stakeholders to sensitise them on the devastating effects of road accidents.
He said, most accidents are caused by over-speeding, unprofessional driving mostly in urban areas and drunken driving.
He stressed that statistics show that 10 per cent of private drivers and six per cent of commercial drivers drive under the influence of alcohol.
44 per cent of accident victims are pedestrians and 46 per cent are children belown the ages of 16 years.
Mr Appiah said the NRSC is faced with the challenge of developing a road safety strategy aimed at reducing the accident fatality rate by five per cent in the next years.
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Drama in K’si court
The Ghanaian Times, another state-owned daily, reports that an accused person in a robbery case on Wednesday created a scene at a Circuit Court in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region when he refused to be taken into remand custody after the case was adjourned to next week.
His reason? He had been in remand custody for the past three years and he could no longer withstand the dehumanising conditions there.
Screaming, “I can no more sleep with about 70 inmates in one room,” Antwi said, fiercely resisting every attempt by the court police to send him back to remand.
His cries touched the heart of the tribunal chairman, Mr Vincent C. Senu, who asked that he be brought back for trial.
After order was restored, the accused who had pleaded not guilty to the charge of robbery, changed it to guilty to facilitate his trial. He was consequently sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
And when sentence was pronounced, it was like heaven had come down: He jubilated and exclaimed; “Ah, I have wasted precious years in remand.”
Antwi was said to have been involved in the robbery of a large quantity of car tyres in 1997.
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Armed robbers raid Keta Sea Defence site
Those robbed included the expatriate staff. The gang made away with some valuable items and unspecified amounts of money.
Supt. S.S. Woder, Keta Divisional Police Commander, told the ‘Times’ by telephone on Wednesday that the Project Manager, Mr Gary Schark, sustained a deed cut on his stomach in the raid. Five others sustained various degrees of injury including a fractured leg.
They were treated at the Aflao Central Hospital and discharged.
According to the Divisional Commander, the attack was the second such incident in less than five months.
He said that they spoke English with a Nigerian accent, suggesting that they could be Nigerians.
Supt. Woder said that the police were working on some clues in their intensified attempt to bring the robbers to book.
To avert a similar occurrence, the Divisional Commander said that he had posted a 24-hour police guard at the place with patrol teams parading the streets and vicinity it regular intervals.
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NDC moves to silence “Evening News”
The Evening News carries that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has filed two writs against its Editor and the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers, seeking aggravated damages of articles published in the Monday, March 12 and Tuesday, April 3 editions of the paper.
In the first writ, the NDC is seeking damages for an article entitled “NDC Attempted To Withdraw 7.2 billion cedis for post election violence” while in the second, the party is seeking a similar relief for an article entitled “Rawlings To Refund 116 million cedis ESB…He is not qualified, so is Ato Dadzie”.
In both actions the NDC is asking the court to place an injunction on Mr Francis Assuah, the Editor, Mr Jake Obtsebi-Lamptey, the Chief of Staff and the NTC (defendants) from publishing or causing or authorising or causing or authorising to be published, libels against the party.
In a statement of claim, in respect of the April 3 article, the NDC said, both the heading and article were false and a blatant concoction by the defendants meant to cause the most damage and hurt to the reputation of the party and bring its leadership and members into disrepute and contempt.
As regards the article in the March 12 edition, the NDC said Mr Obetsebi caused to be released, 88 list of names of NDC appointees to the press, claiming falsely that they were not entitled to ex-gratia awards which they had received as a result of agreement between two transitional teams of which he was included.
It said the story was false and the defendants know or ought to have known that.
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Ghana Airways going bankrupt
In spite of the impressive picture painted about the national airline, Ghana Airways (Ghanair), in its operations by the company’s management headed by Mr E.L. Quartey Jnr, ‘The Chronicle’ says it’s investigations into the financial position of the company indicate that Ghanair is grinding to a halt.
According to documents available to the independent paper, Ghanair consistently registered a loss of about $36 million (equivalent to 252 billion cedis) between 1999 and 2000. In 1999, the company made a loss of $18 million, while last year they made another loss of $18 million instead of a targeted profit of $3.4 million.
The gloomy state of the company’s finances and consistent losses, incurred within the year under review, were captured in a memo dated March 29, 2001 sent to Ag. Chief Executive, Mr. Owusu, from the Deputy Chief Executive (Finance & Administration), Alex Sykes.
In 1999, the Board of Directors of Ghanair even rejected the completed, but not audited, accounts of the company and invited Arthur Anderson, a private consultant, to investigate the accounts, discovering a loss of $18 million. A year after, the financially tumbling Ghanair again recorded a circa $18 million.
Insiders say that if measures are not put in place by the government to salvage the company from the financial predicament that the former Chief Executive, Quartey, Jnr, has plunged the company into, the nation may wake up to realise that the only national carrier has collapsed.
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AGC exceeds production targets
The Chief Executive and Group Managing Director of Ashanti Goldfields Company, Mr. Sam E. Jonah, has hinted that the Group exceeded its mid-year revised production and cost targets for the full year,
The Crusading Guide, reports him as saying that this was achieved in an environment, which remained difficult for the industry as a whole adding, “annual gold production was a record at 1.7m ounces, 11 percent above the previous year”.
This submission was contained in the 2000 annual report of the Ashanti goldfields Company which has seven production mines in four African countries.
He underscored that these results were achieved despite the planned closure of two major treatment plants at Obuasi, and the premature cessation of surface mining during the second quarter of the year.
Mr Jonah said the Group also achieved the lowest cash operating costs in six years and added that, “at Siguiri, the mine achieved a record production of 303,381 ounce at cash operating cost of US$181 per ounce”.
The report pointed out that Obuasi’s cash operating costs for the year fell remarkably from US $222 per ounce in 1999 to US $208 per ounce in 2000.
It intimated that Ashanti faced a very significant financial challenge in the year 2000 and was pleased that considerable progress had been made in the resolution of the challenge.
Jonah, according to the report, was happy that the new administration and the legislature had all given indications of their determination to promote growth of the private sector.
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GCD boss sent home
The Minister for Mines and Energy, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has, according to independent paper ‘Free Press’, ordered the Managing Director of Ghana Consolidated Diamonds Ltd. (GCD), Mr Solomon and the Technical Manager, Mr Kwame Ankrah to proceed on leave immediately.
According to the paper, the directive, which was issued last Friday, was in response to various allegations of abuse of office levelled against these top management personnel by the workers of the company.
Sources at GCD, Akwatia alleged that these top officials had been enriching themselves at the expense of the company.
Among other things, they were accused of using the lumber from GCD’s concessions for their personal purpose and allegedly allocating diamond concessions to their friends and relatives.
Meanwhile, last week workers of GCD at Akwatia embarked on a demonstration to protest against the delay in the divestiture of the company.
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Ports Authority in 22yrs rent arrears
Independent weekly, ‘The Weekend Statesman’ says the chiefs of Ahanta in the Western Region have appealed to the Western Regional Minister, J.B. Aidoo, to use his good offices to get the Ghana Ports Authority and its sister organisation, Ghana Railway Corporation, to pay accumulated rents for the land they rent from the traditional authority.
The two organisations, according to Nana Baidoe Bonsu XVI, Paramount Chief of Ahanta, have not paid any rents to the traditional authority for 22 years.
The chief and his sub-chiefs, who had paid a courtesy call on the regional Minister, said the arrears run into millions of cedis and the people need the money to help improve the people’s living standards.
The Minister assured the chiefs that everything possible would be done to ensure that the situation is reversed.
Statesman says it has found that payment of rents was suspended in 1979 as a result of a chieftancy dispute, which started with the destoolment of the chief of Takoradi, Nana Busumkura II.
Reliable sources at the two organisations admitted that there has been a failure to honour their legal obligations to the beneficiary stools, which are Amanful, Takoradi, Poasi, Sekondi and Essikado.
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Nsiah tipped to head KMA
The search for a Presiding Member for the “turbulent” Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) will soon be over following a compromise among the members to avoid the confusion that surrounded the previous elections.
According to The Statesman, it can confidently say that the elected assembly member for Dadiesoaba electoral area, Nana Nsiah Awuah, has been pencilled in as the next Presiding Member of the KMA.
This, it is learnt follows the voluntary withdrawal from the race by Dr Edward Prempeh, a government appointee and Oheneba Agyemang Atwereboanda, Hiahene of Kumasi.
The Ashanti Regional Minister and Acting Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Sampson Kwaku Boafo is reported to have been instrumental in getting the KMA to reach a consensus over the choice of a Presiding Member.
The paper says it further learnt that this would be the first time in the history of the assembly that an elected member has headed the KMA.
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You can sue ECG
The Accra Mail says as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company (GWC) intensify their campaign for astronomical hikes in their tariffs, so are members of the public also putting the two utility giants under the microscope of efficiency and performance.
The utilities reportedly, are asking for not 1% or even 10% increases in their tariffs but upwards of 300%! They claim that’s the kind of increase that would make them perform better and provide quality service.
However, energy experts like Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby, the president’s advisor on energy have argued that they should put their houses in order first before talking of any hikes in tariffs.
Dr. Brobby has argued that if they improve their revenue retrieval functions, like hunting down illegal connections, which account for about 50% of their outputs, they would generate enough funds, which would definitely obviate the need for the kind of percentage increases they are asking for.
Both the ECG and GWC agree that illegal connections account for substantial losses in their revenues but seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
The upshot of this kind of inertia, according to the independent paper, is that consumers who have legal connections and pay their bills are being asked to subsidise those with the illegal connections and are enjoying free electricity.
The egg or chicken paradox comes into play here: which comes first, better services or more money?
There is no doubt however on one thing. The services provided by these utilities have degraded over the years and have not been up to scratch in recent times, sometimes even becoming destructive.
The ECG’s eratic load shedding regimes coupled with surges and low voltage supplies have over the years left a trail of destruction that run into billions of cedis, the liability of which have been borne by the ignorant and unsuspecting public.
A perception has been developed over the years that the ECG cannot be sued and so industrial and domestic victims of the company’s bad ways have had to shoulder their tragedies alone and without any compensation.
“The law in reality is on the side of the customer,” affirms the Statesman.
GRi../
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Reconciliation must be all inclusive – Agbenaza
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South, Lt. Col. Charles Agbenaza, has said the process of reconciling the nation should cover all regimes, which have managed the country since independence.
According to a story carried by the NDC’s mouthpiece, the Ghanaian Democrat, he said the abuse of power, trampling on the right of the people and other excesses persisted in all the regimes.
During a news conference at Ho aimed at fostering new relations between NDC MPs in the Volta Region and the media, Lt. Colonel Agbenaza stated that the party is committed to constructive criticisms of government policies to ensure that their implementation benefits the ordinary man.
According to him, the NPP government is creating the false impression that the national debt was incurred by the NDC administration.
He stated that the debt situation should be considered in relation to the numerous development programmes undertaken by the NDC government during the last eight years.
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