Government to resume privatisation of State Own Enterprises
Suspected wizard lynched at Bolgatanga
Government to resume privatisation of State Own
Enterprises
Accra (Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - The government has stated that it
will resume the privatisation of public-owned enterprises, which it suspended after
taking the reigns of government last year.
The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, who made the disclosure noted
that plans are advanced to sell 25 per cent of Cocoa Processing Company through
the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Ghana’s shares in Coca-Cola Ltd., Barclays Bank
and 12 other companies listed on the GSE and whose value is easy to assess will
also follow.
Mr Osafo Maafo was reacting to an observation made by a reporter at the
closing of the 11th Consultative Group meeting in Accra that Government
had, so far, been in favour of continuing the privatisation programme. “We are
committed and we have assured our development partners that yes there were
delays but that did not mean we were not committed.”
From those listed on the Stock Exchange which are easier to privatise,
Government will then move to the more difficult ones, he said, indicating that
insisting private participation into water and electricity would take some
time. “We will do it carefully and transparently to the benefit of all Ghanaians,”
he added assuring that the poor handling of the programme that happened in the
past would not be repeated.
On whether opting for HIPC has started lowering inflows of capital from
Ghana’s partners, the World Bank country director, Peter Harrold said the
amount pledged has actually increased because of the debt relief. The total
commitments made by Ghana’s partners was $1 billion or some ¢716 trillion, $250
million of which was debt relief. The total sum is bigger than $1.5 billion
pledged for 1999 and year 2000.
Mr Harrold said this is a clear “demonstration that we are not suffering
a reduction in assistance because of HIPC.” Though the second largest provider
of debt relief to Ghana, Japan, which had written off $700 million of Ghana’s
debts, had declined to give more loans. But she would give grants in aid of
schools, health and road projects that Ghana undertakes, Mr Harrold asserted. –
The Ghanaian Chronicle.
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tourism award takes off in July
Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - The 2002 Ghana Tourist Board’s Regional and
National Tourism Awards will begin in the Ashanti Region on 20 July 2002 and
end with the national awards night in Accra on Saturday 5 October 2002, to
coincide with the World Tourism Day.
This
year’s winners in both the competitive and honorary categories in both the
regional and national awards ceremonies will receive handsome packages in
addition to their regular prizes.
According
to a release issued by Dateline Marketing Limited, the marketing consultants of
the awards, this year’s attractive packages are meant to encourage more
competition among the stakeholders as well as increase the quality of its
output in the tourism industry to attract more tourists into the country.
The
awards, the biggest event of the year, will seek to honour corporate bodies,
tourism stakeholders, individual, community, district and regional initiatives,
as well as non-governmental organisations, whose activities and projects have
impacted positively on the tourism industry.
The
winners in the regions will then compete in the national awards, which will be
organised to coincide with the World Tourism Day celebration in October. The
competitive areas are: Newcomer of the year, house keepers of the year, host of
the year, guest house of the year, hotel of the year and visitor attraction of
the year.
Others
are travel and tour agency of the year, tour guide of the year, restaurant of
the year, fast food joint of the year and nite club of the year. The rest are
traditional caterer (chop bar) of the year, drinking bar of the year, cleanest
town/village of the year and airline of the year.
The
honorary awards are: Exemplary region in tourism promotion, district initiative
in tourism promotion, community initiative in tourism promotion, individual
initiative for tourism promotion, exemplary traditional authority support for
tourism development and donor agency support of tourism development.
Others
are, exemplary marketing of Ghana through sports, NGO support for tourism
development, dedicated support for human resource development in tourism,
consistent tourism writer and tourism-oriented media. The rest are, tourism
promotion through marketing of traditional festivals, integrated tourism
services provider, exemplary entrepreneurship in tourism facility development
and music personality award for tourism.
The
release also indicated that the other objective of this year’s awards
ceremonies is to harmonise coordination between the regions’ and the national
so as to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the programme. It appealed to
the general public, stakeholders in the tourism industry and sponsors to
participate fully to assist Ghana Tourist Board realise its objectives. – Daily
Graphic.
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Forty-eight fight for twelve posts in NDC
Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - With barely 16 days for the NDC to go to its
delegate’s congress on 27 April, 48 members of the party have declared their
intention to contest for various positions. Mr Bede Ziedeng of the party’s
secretariat disclosing this to “Te Evening news” said three men- Dr Obed Yao
Asamoah, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Mahama
Iddrisu, and Advisor on Presidential Affairs and Mr J.H. Owusu Acheampong,
former Minister of Agriculture have filed nomination forms for the position of
chairman.
Six
people- Sqn Leader Clend Sowu, former MP for Anlo, Ms Sherry Ayittey, a leading
member of the 31st December Women’s Movement, Prof Kofi Awoonor, a
former Presidential Aide, Mr S.K. Apraku, MP for Krachi and Mr L.K. Molbila,
former Regional Secretary for Upper East Region and the immediate past managing
director of the State Insurance Company are contesting for the two
vice-chairmanship positions.
For
the general secretary position, only one person has indicated his interest so
far. He is Mr Abubakar Sumani, MP for Choggu Tishigu. According to Mr Ziedeng,
nobody has filed for the position of deputy general secretary.
Two
people – Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, MP for Fanteakwa, Mr Kofi Dokyi Nyarko from Ga
South, have filed for the position of national organizer. Alhaji Mustapha from
Ho-Central, Alhaji Awudu Ariff from Asokwa East constituency and Mr William
Aggrey, a former propaganda secretary, are vying for deputy national organiser
position.
Mrs
Margaret Clarke Kwesie is the only person who has declared her intention to
contest the position of treasurer. Nobody has filed for deputy treasurer. For
propaganda secretary, only Fiifi Kwetey from the Youth Forum has so far filed
his nomination for the post.
Three
others, Alhaji Issa Boateng from Okaikoi South, Prince Adamu for West Mamprusi
and Alhassan Amadu from East Ayawaso have applied to contest the deputy
propaganda secretary position.
The
following: Mr Ekwow Spio Gabrah, Bede Ziedeng, Jerry Acquaye Thompson, Mrs
Ernestinal Lomotey, Alhaji Collins Duada, Mr Dominic Azumah, Mr Evans Ahorsey
and Alhaji Baah Abdulai have filed their forms without indicating which
positions they are contesting. Mr Ziedeng said nominations are open until 12
hours to the day of congress. – The Evening News.
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - War-time British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill once famously remarked that you can tell how civilised a society is
by looking at the way it treats its prisoners. Today, the focus worldwide is on
how to tackle the cycle of re-offending through productive rehabilitation
programmes in the hope that ex-offenders will be able to give something back to
the society they wronged.
Here
in Ghana, the Prison Service’s inability to reform inmates amounts to the
“building of a time bomb” an ex-convict has warned, “which could explode at any
time.” A source at Ghana’s foremost prison, Nsawam Medium Security, told The
Statesman that over half of its inmates had already tasted prison life at one
time or another. Yaw Agyarkwa who was recently released from a ten-year jail
sentence there corroborated this.
The
Accra Community Centre Tribunal sentenced Agyarkwa, 51, in June 1995, on his
own guilty plea, for drug peddling. He was arrested at Tudu, a haven for
narcotic drugs in Accra, for pushing Indian hemp, otherwise known as “wee”. On
his release, however, Agyarkwa feels compelled to consider a return to the
crime, which saw him spending a quarter of his youth locked up. “It is not out
of desire but a case of not seeing any other way out,” he said.
“I
haven’t eaten for three days,” he told The Statesman, “I sleep in a railway
station, my friends live like madmen, and no one is willing to give me a job
because of my criminal record.” The ex-convict has blamed his predicament on a
prison system, which, he claims, has “no place for reform”.
Instead
of training programmes and education to better equip inmates for society after
release, Agyarkwa said that his ‘lessons’ taught him only novel uses for a car
jack on break and entry jobs.
“Prisons
are full of artisans and carpenters, capable of building furniture for local
schools or at least keeping the streets of Accra clean of litter. Instead we
sit idle in the yard. The labour is there but nothing is done,” he said. “We
are left to form gangs and plan crimes when we are released. In fact, I saw
more illicit drugs in jail than anywhere else,” he recalled. Thus, if he went
into prison as a graduate in crime, seven years inside has earned him a “PHD”
on how to commit crime.
In
their Annual Report for the Year 2000, the Ghana Prisons Service admits that
there are “no formal education facilities in the prisons” and, at the end of
the year, there were only 15 inmates across the country in classes learning to
read and write. But the so-attributed “logistic” problems hampering prison
welfare reforms extend far beyond literacy concerns.
Vastly
more worrying are the healthcare figures which show a marked increase in the
incidence of death from 76 cases in 1999 to well over 100 during 2000, with
nearly 5 per cent of those from malnutrition. “The budgetary allocation for
medical stores to cater for prisoners’ health was woefully inadequate,” the
report concedes. “Coupled with the cash and carry policy though, it was
impossible for the Prisons Service to achieve any significant improvement in
healthcare delivery for prison inmates.”
Yaw
Agyarkwa however, contests the Prison Service’s excuses on the basis of
under-funding alone. “When my cell mate fell ill during the night it took over
two hours for a warden to respond,” he claims, “yet his office was only a
stone’s throw away. We had to carry him over our shoulders to the infirmary
where he later dies.”
Interestingly
the report- which spends an entire page expounding the glories of its catering
unit (“bakeries, snack bars and other food joints…patronised by officers at
subsidised rates”)- dedicates only two sentences to inmates’ nutritional needs:
“In
compliance with the Service objective of providing meals consistent with the
maintenance of good health of prisoners” it reads, “the various prisons
continued to feed inmates on the 2000 cedis approved by the government in
April.”
“Yes, we got rice” Agyarkwa admits, “…once in a blue moon. And water too, except that at breakfast they tried to call it porridge.” Nevertheless he agrees that prison should not be a place for pampering. “Society has a right to abhor crime” he says, “but not to reject us. Whether they like it or not, we are a part of the community. He pleaded for the non-governmental organisations and Church groups that throng prisons on humanitarian grounds to liase with prison authorities to establish rehabilitation centres providing care, counselling and vocational skills to enable ex-convicts to re-adjust to normal life.
“Serving
humanity through reformation,” the Prisons Service heralds in its motto. Yaw
Agyarkwa would challenge both assertions. The Prisons Service is currently
investigating his claims and would therefore not comment when contacted by our
the paper. - The Statesman.
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Yendi (Northern Region) 12 April 2002 - The decapitated body of the late
Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II has been deposited at the Yendi Hospital Mortuary.
Security forces stationed at Yendi disclosed this to the Minority Leader in
Parliament, Mr Alban Bagin, and Ms Alice Boon, MP for Lambusie. They, however,
did not disclose how and when they came by the body.
Mr Bagbin is at the head of a two-man delegation from the Minority Group
on a five-day visit to Dagbon and East Mamprusi to assess the situation on the
ground. He told the Yendi District Chief Executive, Mr Mohammed Tijani, that he
had earlier had talks with the Andani and Abudu Gates in separate meetings. “We
also held discussion with members of the District Security Committee, (DISEC)
in Yendi,” he said.
Mr Bagbin said that due to the sensitive nature of the case, Parliament
did not allow any open debate on the issue but rather agreed for a six-week
State of Emergency, instead of the three months proposed by government. He said
that the Northern Region is the grain basket of Ghana and if calm was not
restored for the people to do farming, there would be a serious famine in the
country next year.
Mr Bagbin said that the Minority treasured the present calm maintained
and said that it should continue to ease the work of the judicial enquiry. “The
case is not a political or party one, it must be treated as a national issue,”
he stressed.
The Minority Leader said they shared the grief and sorrow of the people
of Dagbon and commended them for their sense of maturity, tolerance, patience
and cooperation with security forces. The Minority promised to give foodstuff
worth about ¢5 million to all the displaced people in Tamale and Yendi. – The
Ghanaian Times.
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Kade (Eastern Region) 12 April 2002 - Some supporters of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Kade constituency are disenchanted with regard to
political appointments made by the President, Mr J.A. Kufuor after the 2000
elections.
The supporters feel they have been neglected or rejected by the party in
the scheme of appointments to positions in government as no one from the area
has been appointed to any office. They described this omission as painful since
the constituency is a stronghold for the NPP and fought for victory of the
party in the 2000 elections.
Speaking to the Chronicle in an interview, Mr Asiedu Amponsah, a leading
member of the party in the constituency, said up till now not a single NPP
supporter has received any appointment there. When his attention was drawn to
the fact that at least a District Chief Executive (DCE) has been appointed,
Asiedu made it clear that what they have been aiming at is an ambassadorial or
ministerial post, or something similar.
He claimed that politics is about numbers. Therefore, although the
government’s present move in appointing people from the other side of the
political divide is in order, that should not be done at the expense of devoted
and qualified NPP stalwarts. The supporters charged that the party should guard
against anything that will amount to frustration for its rank and file.
The supporters advised that the President should take a second look at his
mode of appointments and try to satisfy all constituencies that contributed to
the victory of the party in the 2000 general elections.
The disenchanted supporters were, however, happy that putting
technocrats in sensitive political positions has contributed immensely to the
positive implementation of government policies and programmes. “Government
should spare no efforts in educating the citizenry on its policies whiles the
National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and allied institutions should be
equipped logistically to carry out their constitutional duties,” they said. –
The Ghanaian Chronicle.
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - A “Royal marriage” of the
Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, took place last weekend in Accra. The
ceremony was performed the customary way and not Europeanised.
The lucky lady, Julia, is a lawyer by profession and a banker, now with
the ECOBANK. Julia, now in her 30s, is an ex-student of the Wesley Girls High
School, Cape Coast. She was called to the Bar in 1994, after obtaining her
first degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, and completing her
professional course at the Ghana Law School in Accra.
Dubbed a special “kente wedding,” Julia, an Akan, was full of smiles, as
she hooked the most eligible bachelor of our time, to the surprise of close
associates, who saw very little of the courtship.
Coincidentally, the son of President J.A. Kufuor also tied the knot with
his wife on the very next day. It was, therefore, a weekend of Big Receptions.
Meanwhile, Otumfuo is expected to forego part of his honeymoon, mediating in
the Yendi crisis alongside two other paramount chiefs. - Ghana Palaver.
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 12 April 2002 - After two days of work, Joseph Kwatei Quartey,
35, a taxi driver, at Sukura, in Accra, handed only the keys of the vehicle to
his master. Quartey was said to have told his master that, he could not
remember exactly where he has parked the taxi earlier in the day.
His
master, who was not convinced, reported the matter to the Dansoman Police, in
Accra, leading to his arrest. A police spokesman, who confirmed the story, said
on March 30, this year, the suspect who was in-charge of the Opel Kadet taxi,
with registration number, GR 1940 R, left for work in the metropolis as usual.
But
he was not seen by his master for two days. Alarmed, his master (name withheld)
reported the matter to the police. During interrogation, the suspect told the police
that, he could not trace where he parked the taxi the previous day. The
spokesman said the suspect led the police to a number of spots in the
metropolis, in search of the taxi but all proved futile. The spokesman said the
suspect will be arraigned before court in this week. – Daily Graphic
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Bolgatanga (Upper West Region) 12 April 2002 - A 50-year old man of Foe,
a suburb of Bolgatanga has been lynched by a mob on suspicion of being a
wizard. John Allerne, the decease, according to a police source, was alleged to
have be-witched a neighbour last year and went into hiding.
On his return an aggrieved mob at Foe, based on last year’s suspicion,
pounced on him and beat him to death on Monday. The body has been deposited at
the Bolgatanga Central Hospital for autopsy. The police confirmed the story to
The Ghanaian Times but said they have stepped up their efforts to arrest the
culprits. – The Ghanaian Times.
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com