GRi Newsreel Ghana 16 – 08 - 2001
Substantiate bribe allegation- Police Command
Construction of Aflao-Tema road to start
Accra (Greater Accra) 16 August 2001
Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Works and Housing, on Wednesday said measures were being taken to exclude State Housing Company (SHC) from the list of companies to be divested.
Inauguration of a seven-member Board of Directors of the SHC., The Minister said: "The government will remove constraints on the company and assist it to perform creditably as steps are being taken to take the company off the divestiture list."
He said the past government placed SHC on divestiture due to constraints such as high institutional indebtedness resulting from non-payment of SSNIT and other loans and unpaid compensations on lands acquired for it by past governments.
As a result SHC, which has a reputation of being the most wide spread real estate developer in the country with 71 estates and 28,436 houses to its credit, has now been relegated to the background in the housing industry, Bartels noted.
The situation, he said, has affected the housing supply with its attendant non-affordability of houses built by private real estate developers.
"The NPP government believes that through effective team work, strategic planning and government's support, the new Board and Management staff can revive SHC and turn its fortunes around for the benefit of the Ghanaian worker, who can not afford a house on the private market.
"In place of the previous bureaucratic drift, the NPP housing policy seeks to connect with the plans of actual business sector initiatives in producing decent and affordable rental and homeownership houses for the majority of low and middle income families and workers," he said.
Bartels said as part of efforts to revive the SHC, the government was spearheading a partnership venture between Interbeton BV of Holland and the SHC to build 3,000 rental and lease purchase houses in Accra over the next three years.
"SHC has also been added to a number of real state developers including Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Home Finance Company (HFC) and Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to benefit from a 50 million dollar loan from the United State."
He urged the new Board and Management to concentrate on the traditional role of house building and land development for lease and purchase and desist from the sale of plots.
"The Company must take the initiative to revise the ground rent of its houses sold and leased to bring up the current rates. This I believe will generate revenue for the company."
Bartels charged the management of SHC to manage its estates well to ensure healthy environment, saying: "You must enforce planning and development regulation and control to prevent the littering of your estates with kiosks and uncontrolled extension works."
He cautioned the Board not to interfere with the daily operations of the company saying: "Your responsibility is to formulate policies and design plans and strategies for implementation by the management.
"In the past, interference by Board members and Ministers led to fraud and other adverse effects on the fortunes of the company. The days of political interference in the operations of government institutions are over."
Kwesi Brew, a businessman and Chairman of the Board, expressed his appreciation to the government saying: "We are pleased to be given the opportunity to be part of the positive change process and we pledge to deliver to the best of our ability."
Anthony Sarpong-Mensah, Acting Managing Director of SHC, said in the light of the new economic realities, SHC has re-oriented itself to strengthen its market presence.
"We have come up with contemporary house types ranging from one bedroom house to four bedroom detached two storey house with all facilities to meet the ever changing customer taste," he said.
"The company is also taking steps to enhance its debt collection methods and revenue generation strategies."
The SHC was established originally as the Gold Coast Housing Corporation in 1956 under the Gold Coast Housing Corporation Ordinance, 1955.
In 1995, SHC was converted to a limited liability company with the objective of operating a nation wide profitable land and housing development agency to make housing accessible and affordable to Ghanaians.
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 16 August 2001
The Central Regional Police Command has thrown a challenge to persons, who have made allegation of bribery against some of its men, to substantiate their claim.
A release signed by the Regional Commander, Yaw Adu-Gyimah at Cape Coast on Wednesday said the Policemen, who were detailed to supervise the demolishing of a building suspected to be the den of criminals in Cape Coast have denied collecting any money.
A national daily reported that some Policemen allegedly collected more than five million cedis to allow the suspected criminals to carry off stolen items and narcotic drugs.
The release explained that a week ago, Minuru Arafat Nuhu, Municipal Chief Executive, went to the Police in connection with the building, which he said had been earmarked for demolishing with the consent of its owner and that he wanted them to carry out a raid before it was brought down since it was believed to be a den for criminals.
It said as a result, nine Policemen led by an Assistant Superintendent, who it did not name, accordingly carried out a dawn swoop the following day but did not uncover any such drugs or "incriminating items" and informed the assembly.
On Tuesday, the day on which the demolishing exercise was to have taken place, the Municipal Building Inspector, Robert Essuman-Mensah, came to see the Deputy Regional Commander, P. K. Ampewuah, to inform him that the owner of the building had arrived in town and that he wanted some Policemen to assist in the exercise.
Three Policemen were, therefore, detailed with "specific instructions to back out if they did not meet the said Landlady, since the Police did not want to be entangled in a law suit," the release said.
It said the Policemen backed out as instructed because they did not meet the Landlady and accordingly informed their superiors.
It noted that the Police were not mandated to demolish dilapidated buildings with an order of a court, in which case the Police give protection to bailiffs.
"The Police involvement in this particular case of intended demolition was to assist the owner to protect any property worth picking from the debris", it emphasised.
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Akwatia (Eastern Region) 16 August 2001
Armed robbers at dawn on Tuesday attacked a prominent diamond and gold dealer at Akwatia and took away cash, gold and diamonds worth several millions of cedis.
The robbers, numbering five and wielding pistols, forced their way into the house of Kwame Frempong, popularly known as "Pippim" at about 03:00 hours. Frimpong told newsmen that the robbers tied his watchman after threatening him with death if he should shout or make any "false move".
They then entered and searched through drawers and took away over 150 million cedis, some dollars and pounds sterling, a quantity of diamonds and gold.
He said the foreign currencies were in his brief case, which the robbers took away.
He explained that he withdrew over 90 million cedis from banks in Accra for the payment of a large quantity of diamonds he had purchased from a number of people the previous day.
He arrived from Accra on Monday evening around 17:00 hours and his wife, who runs a cold store, had a truck load of fish from Tema being offloaded at about 01:30 hours on Tuesday dawn.
After watching a video film, he decided to retire to bed at around 02:00 hours but about thirty minutes later, he heard his dogs barking and when he called his watchman, there was no response.
Shortly thereafter, he saw the thieves forcing their way into the house, he attempted to shoot at them but the wife advised against it saying it might endanger the lives of the family so he hid the gun.
Frimpong said the robbers, who eventually entered his room, beat him up mercilessly and locked him up in his toilet before searching for the minerals.
After the robbers had left, members of his household freed him and he made a report to the Police.
The Police are investigating the case.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 August 2001
Ghana would participate in the United Nations (UN) Conference on Financing For Development to be held in Mexico, next March.
President John Agyekum Kufuor, who announced this in Accra on Wednesday said: "We are totally resolved to develop. We need financing and Ghana will be there to see how we can realise this healthy development in our relationship with Mexico."
President Kufuor said this when Paris-based Mexican Ambassador Claude
Heller led a two-man delegation to deliver a special message from the Mexican President Vicente Fox to him at the State House.
The message was to officially invite President Kufuor to the Conference and seek Ghana's support for Mexico to secure a seat on the UN Security Council.
Ghana would be interested to participate in the Conference and would consider Mexico's request for support to secure a seat on the Security Council.
President Kufuor expressed his appreciation to the historical changes, which took place in both countries last year with the triumph of democracy in both countries.
While it took Mexico 70 years to change government through the ballot box, it took Ghana about 40 years to achieve the same feat during the last elections, he recalled, adding that the democratisation in both countries should be seen as a positive sign of development.
President Kufuor said efforts should be made to re-establish diplomatic ties which existed between both countries but has been dormant since 1972 due to financial constraints.
He observed that there has not been trade or bilateral relations between the two countries since that time, saying, "it is high time we examined how to put the goodwill between us into beneficial relationship".
President Kufuor said Mexico could consider how they could assist Ghana with oil supplies and promotion in the tourism sector as well as establish exchange programmes in education.
Heller said Mexico's foreign policy was to play an active role in the globalised world and saw the new government in Ghana as an important ally.
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 16 August 2001
The Peoples' National Convention (PNC), one of the fragmented Nkrumaist tradition parties, has begun a vigorous re-organisation exercise towards the 2004 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Formed as an offshoot of the Third Republic's President Hilla Limann-led Peoples' National Party (PNP) in 1992, the PNC endeared itself in the political arena of the country to a section of the electorate.
The party, now led by Obstetric/Gynaecologist, Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama had to struggle through two general elections in 1996 and 2000.
From a seat in the second Parliament, the party currently boasts of being the largest party in the Nkrumaist tradition with three parliamentary seats.
They are the Sissala, Bolgatanga and Mamprusi West constituencies.
The Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the other Nkrumaist tradition party has only one parliamentary seat - the Ellembele constituency in the Western region.
Recently, the PNC began its re-organisation exercise in Koforidua with a meeting of the National Steering Committee that discussed some of the problems that affected the party's performance in the 2000 Elections.
It collated views from party members, especially, those at the constituency and ward levels and adopted new strategies that could propel the party to victory in the 2004 Elections.
Among the numerous problems that were identified at the meeting were the lack of logistics such as vehicles, bicycles, funds for campaign activities and the inability of some party executives to honour invitations to address political rallies.
Lack of vehicles dominated the discussions since most of the parliamentary candidates complained about the difficulties they encountered during the campaign period.
This, according to them, hampered their interactions with the people, especially, those in the rural areas and these, they claimed, impacted adversely on their chances of winning.
The Eastern Regional Secretariat of PNC had only one vehicle donated by the Regional Chairman for all campaign activities in all the 26 constituencies.
The Constituency Executives and Parliamentary Candidates alleged that, it took between two weeks and one month for a constituency to have access to the vehicle to tour the towns and villages.
It was no wonder, therefore, that most of the candidates could not reach the majority of the electorates to explain the party's manifesto and policies to them.
Another area, which enjoyed a lengthy discussion at the meeting was funding. Most of the constituency executives complained about lack of funds to organise and train foot soldiers for the party to monitor the elections.
In response to this, the Leadership of the party reaffirmed its commitment to provide the needed logistics and financial support to all constituencies.
Dr Mahama said the party was seeking support and resources from both its internal and external friends.
He confirmed that the party was involved in talks with other parties of the tradition towards a possible merger, but said there was still the need for it to organise very well in order to be a strong force in the merger.
He explained that the national re-organisation exercise was meant to identify and remove all bottlenecks that could hamper the chances of the party in the 2004 Elections.
The Leadership was also in the process of producing a new manifesto that would focus on the current economic, political and social conditions in relation to the NPP administration in order to offer alternative programmes to the people in the 2004 Elections.
Some members suggested to the Leadership to undertake vigorous media campaigns to market the party, organise the youth, especially, at the tertiary levels as well as mobilise the women's wing effectively to encourage them to participate fully in the affairs of the party.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 16 August 2001
The Minister of Works and Housing, Kwamina Bartels has said that efforts were being made to reach a compromise with Second-hand Car Dealers within the Tema Municipality to relocate at the Kpone Car Park soon.
Bartels, said in an interview on Wednesday, in Tema, that there was the need to strike a reasonable compromise instead of using force, adding that the dealers were coming round to appreciate the need for them to respect the order to go back to the Park.
"It is not easy for things that have been done wrongly for a long period of time, to change over night and what is worse, when you want to change such wrong attitude, it is misconstrued and one is given all sorts of name tags."
Bartels pointed out that there was no way that the dealers could be allowed to take the laws into their own hands to do their business at any part of Tema, to flout laid down regulations, where developers were expected to obtain permit before they undertake projects.
"The Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) and the Tema Development orporation (TDC) can't regularise car dealers stay at the motorway roundabout, neither can they allow those at the Spintex road to sell used cars at a residential area as it is the case at present."
Samuel Evans Ashong Narh, Tema Municipal Chief Executive, said removing the dealers was part of a programme to decongest the Municipality as well as ensure decency to portray to investors, who flock to Tema that "we have a clean environment".
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Aflao (Volta Region) 16 August 2001
More than 270 buildings including the Ghana News Agency (GNA) office at Aflao have been marked for demolition to pave way for the reconstruction of the Tema-Aflao road.
Other buildings to be affected include those of the district Police Headquarters, Ghana Telecom, Mamiya Photo Laboratory, Sanaa Hotel, Prince Hotel, Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Ghana Post, the Circuit Court and its offices and the depot of the West African Cement Limited (WACEM).
About 1,000 buildings would be affected from the Tema Motorway Roundabout to Aflao, a Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) Spokesman in Accra confirmed to the GNA in a telephone interview.
The demolition would also affect buildings along the highway in Agbozume, Afife, Akatsi, Sogakope, Ada Junction, Sege and Dawhenya.
Evaluation and compensation payments on affected structures would be finalised in December to be followed by demolition and construction work in March, next year.
The source said the project design, which was drawn in 1994, would be reviewed.
He said the property markings being undertaken are meant to view the expected property impact on the project and stressed, "it is premature to say anything on the exact number of property to be affected. The number might increase or decrease".
The GHA would evaluate the buildings to determine their actual owners before the payment of compensation and the demolition exercise.
He said funds have been secured for part of the road project between Tema Motorway and Sogakope while negotiations for money for the stretch from Sogakope to Akatsi had reached an advanced stage and that for the part from Akatsi to Aflao was also underway.
The source denied that the Tema - Lome road was to be diverted from Akatsi to Dzodze, saying, that though a road would be constructed from Akatsi to Dzodze, it was not meant to divert the Tema-Lome road.
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