Tarkwa youth demonstrate against Goldfields Limited

Mills ask CEPS and IRS to set new standards

Low wage levels cannot give foreign direct investment

Let's sustain peace and stability - priest urges Ghanaians

Abontiakoon (Western Region) 14 Dec. '99

Tarkwa Police on Monday shot and wounded nine persons at Abontiakoon, near Tarkwa, as thousands of people, mostly unemployed youth, demonstrated against Goldfields Ghana Limited (GGL) for mass lay-off of its employees when it abandoned an underground mine.

The victims were sent to Tarkwa Government Hospital where six of them were treated and discharged. The remaining three, whose injuries were serious, are on admission.

As early as 0400 hours, the demonstrators wearing red bands and singing war songs, placed obstacles over a distance of about two kilometres on the Tarkwa-Bogoso main road to block traffic.

Travellers had to walk, as vehicles, including those carting cocoa, lumber and other goods from Sefwi Wiawso and Kumasi to Takoradi Harbour, were all grounded by the action.

The demonstrators burned lorry tyres on the road, compounding the already hazy atmosphere caused by the harmattan weather.

Mr. Kofi Bekoe, unit committee chairman of Cyanide, a suburb of Tarkwa and director of operations of Akoon Co-operative, a small scale gold mining society said the society is requesting to operate the abandoned mine.

Mr Bekoe said the Society has written to the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Mines and Energy for permission to operate at the abandoned mine, under the small-scale mining programme.

With the recent massive lay-off at GGL, unemployment has worsened in the area, he said, and appealed to the government for a quick resolution.

GRi../

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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 14 Dec. '99

Vice President Professor John Evans Atta-Mills on Monday called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the VAT Secretariat to set new standards and permit increasing number of customers to access their services through modern communication systems.

The government must improve the public access to its services and should operate an economic system that shines through every developmental policy, Professor Atta-Mills said in a speech read for him at the opening of the Fifth Quadrennial Conference of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Kumasi.

The four-day conference is on the theme: "Public Services and the Challenges of globalisation in the next Millennium".

The Vice-President said the government has approved a programme to reinvent and

modernise the public services of Ghana to enhance its competitiveness and performance and to enable it to cope with the challenges.

Parliament has already given its approval to the programme and implementation has already started under the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP).

Under the programme, the capacity of the public services would be strengthened to enable them to play the role of a catalyst facilitator and a partner for good governance and sustainable development.

"These reforms will also strengthen both economic and legitimate political leadership to effectively represent and act as intermediary between different forces of the society", Professor Atta-Mills said.

Professor Atta-Mills said globalisation requires competent public services to make central government machinery more effective, efficient and customer friendly and to permit the full participation of the private sector and social partners in the development process.

Professor Atta-Mills said presently, new human capital management and incentive system; performance management system and comprehensive information technology and renewal systems are being designed for the Public Services.

The Government, he said, is also in the process of introducing a public-private sector partnership programme to increase private sector input through exchange programmes, joint activities and apply private sector standards such as audit supervision on public services operations.

Mr John Mahama, Minister of Communications said his Ministry was trying to ensure that Ghana was not left out in the new developments in the communications world.

There is the need for workers to reorient themselves to the use of computers because they have come to stay, he said.

It is, therefore, not too late for even the older people in employment to become computer literate.

GRi../

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Kumasi (Greater Accra) 14 Dec. '99

Mr. Christian Appiah-Agyei, secretary-general of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has observed that low wage levels cannot attract increased flow of foreign direct investment.

This is a myth, because in spite of the slave wages being paid in the country, her share of such investment continues to be abysmally low, he said.

Mr. Appiah-Agyei was speaking at the fifth quadrennial delegates conference of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Kumasi on Monday.

The theme for the four-day conference is "Public Services and the challenges of Globalisation in the next millennium".

The TUC secretary-general explained that labour cost depends on productivity, and a country with low per capita income and low wages could not have competitive advantage on the world market.

The Government and TUC must collaborate to address the question of low productivity, and work out a satisfactory solution.

He said that public services have borne the brunt of the negative consequences of the World Bank-directed Economic Recovery Programme.

Mr. Abraham Tetteh Dian Okine, acting general secretary of the PSWU said the TUC has been exonerated on its stand that the Price Waterhouse Report and the Ghana

Universal Salary Structure had serious defects and were unrealistic.

The PSWU totally rejects the Price Waterhouse report and would continue to fight against it, he said.

Mr. Okine regretted that in spite of the freedom of workers in the country to establish trade unions to protect and promote their working interests, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has been deunionised.

Mr. Okine said the PSWU and the TUC affirm their confidence in the collective bargaining process and urged members to continue to support the union.

He appealed to government officials and employees associations to stop commenting on the contents of the New Labour Code as it has not been completed, to ensure industrial peace.

The union must have its own vision for the future and guide members into the future.

Mr Samuel Mensah-Nyarko, National Chairman, said the PSWU would help to shape the destiny of the TUC and the total membership in the attempt to confront issues at stake.

GRi../

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Winneba (Central Region) 14 Dec. '99

The director of The School of Jesus, in Accra, Reverend Jesse Addae, has called on Ghanaians to resolve to promote peace and stability in the country.

Speaking to newsmen on the country's socio-economic prospects in 2000 and beyond, he said "Ghana has enormous human and natural resources, which must be exploited to advance her development."

"There is no doubt that Ghana has a bright future; what is needed is how to protect and sustain the existing peace and stability."

Besides, he said, Ghanaians must learn to work hard in whatever capacity they find themselves and endeavour to shun acts that would divide them.

On the country's democratic dispensation, Rev. Addae said democracy is all about tapping the good sense of the people for constructive ideas and suggestions to accelerate the economic, moral, and spiritual emancipation of the country.

GRi../

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