Ho (Volta Region)
A letter dated 23 April this
year, and signed by Steve Selormey, the Regional Co-ordinating Director (RCD), the
Council regretted that MDAs have disregarded 'with impunity", an earlier
directive by the Regional Minister last year.
The reminder accordingly
directed all government organisations concerned to ensure that the "VAT
law as it applies to provision of services and supplies is respected". The
letter noted that non-compliance of the directive undermined government's
efforts to generate sufficient revenue for developments.
Attached to the reminder, were a
copy of the first directive and a VAT Service notice in the media on the same
subject. The Volta Region VAT
Secretariat last year collected only 900 million cedis out of its target of 1.2
billion cedis.
Emmanuel Akpaku, Head of the
Volta Regional Secretariat told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Ho, that in
March this year, there was short collection due to "the normally dull business
activity in the region and government agencies' persistent refusal to deal with
business organisations registered with the VAT.
GRi.../
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Agona Swedru (Central Region) 28
April 2003- The Lands Commission has been called upon to review the policy of
auctioning state lands and to ensure that they are restricted prime areas with the
proceeds going into poverty alleviation.
The Commission should also set
up Special Division to manage land acquisition and to compensate original
owners in the many cases of encroachment on state lands. These were the
recommendations of participants at a two-day roundtable discussion on land
administration reforms at Agona Swedru in the Central Region.
It was organised by the
Integrated Centre for Social Development (ISODEC), in collaboration with the UK
Department for International Development for participants from non-governmental
organisations, the academia, government institutions, and the National House
and development partners.
They discussed "Tenure
Security in Urban Housing", "Tenure Security in Rural
Populations", "Women's Tenure and Customary Law", Public Lands
and Public Services", "Land and Rights of Persons with Disability,
Access, Shelter for Work and Family, Proximity to Services" and Migrants,
Strangers and Modelling a Common Land Regime for ECOWAS."
The recommendations would be an
input for the national consultations on land policy reform currently underway
with the aim of managing lands and renewable resources in
Participants noted with concern
that the numerous problems of uncertainty of land title and costly litigation,
which undermined development and social progress and called on the newly
established Land Administration Project (LAP), which was at the forefront of
land reforms, to give technical assistance to traditional authorities in the
recording of land transactions in their localities.
They further urged that the LAP
should sensitise chiefs and family heads to lead communities to change customary
laws that had traditionally and historically excluded women from land
ownership.
The participants commended the
government for introducing a Bill in Parliament that provided accessibility of all
public buildings to persons with disabilities. They asked that provisions of
the Bill were fully integrated in the LAP in the design, implementation and
budgeting to solve the problem of persons with disabilities in acquiring land
and accessing public buildings and services.
The participants pressed for the
establishment Desks in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to provide
access and prompt services to persons with disabilities and called for a network
of organisations to lobby government and political parties for measures that
advanced the rights of the disabled.
They noted with
They recommended specifically
laws that regulated the activities of trans-border herdsmen and a harmonisation
of tax laws to prevent evasion and migration. The interest of refugees and
migrants should be considered in domestic legislation.
There should also be reciprocal
law on rivers and water bodies across borders and to protect natural flora and
fauna and endangered species, such as elephants whose habitats and movements cut
across national boundaries, the participants said.
GRi.../
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