Ugly
face of medicine in Ghana: profit-raking instead of life-saving - Pharmacist
The government has approved ¢20 billion for
disbursement to public Senior Secondary Schools as part of the government’s
rebate of fees announced recently.
Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Minister
of Education, announced this at the weekend at the Speech and Prize Giving Day
of the Tamale Secondary School (TAMASCO). He said that 11,000 dual desks would
also be distributed to cater for 22,000 pupils in schools in the northern
sector.
The Minister attributed the delay in releasing
the feeding grants for schools in the North, to the long procedure involved in
processing information from the schools.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to
improve vocational and technical education by equipping some technical and
vocational schools in the country to give the youth employable skills.
More…/
Alhaji Rahim Gbadamoshie, former Director
General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has said that the three-year
duration of the Senior Secondary School programme is alright and that no
extension is needed.
He said that the problem confronting the
three-year programme was not the duration but the lack of resources to enable
the students to achieve the required standard. Alhaji Gbadamoshie was speaking
at the Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Tamale Secondary School (TAMASCO) at
the weekend.
He said that instead of spending funds on an
additional year, such resources should be used to equip the schools properly.
The former GES boss said that the three-year duration was in line with
international standards.
Alhaji Gbadamoshie, who was the first prefect
as well as the first past student to head TAMASCO, expressed his
dissatisfaction with the failure of past students, most of whom were in
responsible positions, to help the school.
Mr Saaka Bohna, the current Headmaster, said
that beside academic work, the school’s administration had now refocused on
supporting students in other extra-curriculum activities like sports, since
such activities had become decent means of earning.
Nana Kwadwo Nyarko III, Omanhene of Prang
Traditional Area and president of the Brong-Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, who
chaired the function, said that past students of TAMASCO had a moral
responsibility to support the school.
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The six-year-old primary school pupil, Master
Kwame Isaiah Addo, who was kidnapped by a Nigerian businessman but was rescued
by a police at Bawku in the Upper East Region, has been sent to the Women and
Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service in Accra, to help trace his parents.
The boy was accompanied by Detective Sergeant
Richard Daplah in whose care he had been for the past three months. Before
their departure for Accra at the weekend, Master Kwame Issiah, a pupil of a
primary school at Achimota told the Times in Fanti that he would be able to
locate his parents when they got to Accra.
According to him, his father stays near the
Gaskia Cinema Palace at Zongo in Accra, while his mother stats by the Kaneshie
Police Station in Accra. The station officer, Chief Inspector Kassim Braimah,
said that radio messages were relayed to all the police stations in Accra to
help trace the boy’s parents but no feedback had been received.
It is recalled that ‘Times’ on November 12,
carried a front page story on the arrest of a 20-year-old Nigerian businessman,
Mahamadu Nashiru, for stealing Master Addo in Accra and attempting to take him
across the border to Nigeria.
GRi…/
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Some Ghanaian exporters have called for a
review of the Valued Added Tax (VAT) Law which mandates a VAT registered person
to pay the tax up front and later charge it when selling his goods or providing
a service.
Under the VAT Law, at the end of the accounting
period, the registered person is expected to indicate the total tax paid and
the total tax collected. Where the VAT registered person pays more tax than he
collects, the trader is said to be in a credit position. When the credit
persists for a period of three months or more and the registered person is in
the export business, that person qualifies for a refund.
Though the law provides as a refund to
exporters as an incentive, many exporters complain that by paying the tax up
front their capital gets locked up for some time if the refund is unduly
delayed.
They have therefore suggested a review of the
law to allow them not to pay the tax up front. The appeal was made at a seminar
in Accra on “ECOWAS trade liberalisation scheme (ETLS), VAT payments and refunds
and the Duty Drawback Scheme”, organized jointly by the Ghana Export Promotion
Council (GEPC) and African Project Development Facility (APDF).
Stephen Mintah, general Manager of Sea Freight
Pineapple Exporters of Ghana, said as sea pineapple exporters, they pay VAT on
imported packaging material which is used exclusively for export, adding that
there are two main types of cartons used; “air cartons” which are mostly
produced locally and “sea cartons” that are mostly imported. Currently, he
said, the quantity of various cartons used annually are sea carton – 3.5
million pieces and air cartons - 1.75 million pieces. He said the sea cartons
cost 31.5 billion cedis, while air cartons cost ¢15.75 billion.
The VAT paid on these was ¢5.9 billion. Mintah
said under the current VAT law, this amount must be paid up front and is
supposed to be refunded within 30 days after submission of returns, adding that
“this is where our headache is, delays”.
He said, in May 2000, they undertook a survey
of outstanding VAT refunds due to pineapple exporters. The study revealed that
the nine out of 30 exporters that were sampled had a total of ¢6 billion
outstanding at the time.
GRi…/
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Ministry of Health reacts to dumping of dud
drugs on Ghana
We write to rejoin your lead story with the
banner headline “Indian firm dumps dud drugs on Ghana” in the November
26-December 2, 2001 edition of your paper.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has a multiple
sourcing strategy that prescribes an open competitive bidding for all service
delivery inputs including drugs. In the Ministry’s tender document, goods are
described in generic terms in order to minimise the incidence of limited
competition.
The open tender competition in any economy has
its own strengths and weaknesses. All told however, it is the ability to map
out effective strategies to hold in check these unavoidable weaknesses that
becomes paramount. One major weakness relevant to this discussion, which of
course has a potential of being a threat to good health has to do with the
issue of sub-standard drugs.
Taking cognisance of the likelihood of the
dumping of sub-standard drugs and other non-drug consumables, the Ministry of
Health works with the relevant regulatory bodies namely Food and Drugs Board,
Customs Excise and Preventive Service, Pharmacy Council and the Ghana Standards
Board. Since it is not feasible (considering the quantities) to conduct tests
on every single drug, the normal scientific procedures of sampling are
employed.
It is the effectiveness of these control
measures that detected the sub-standard drugs in question and it is normal in
procurement to request the importing company to replace the quantity of drugs
that were found to be sub-standard.
In the Ministry’s view, sanctions may only be
applied when there is consistency in the supply of sub-standard goods to the
Ministry.
The Ministry has, however, requested the Food
and Drugs Board to investigate the allegation made discussion for further
action. The Agenda has earlier reported of dud drugs that were being shipped
from India unto the Ghanaian market.
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Ugly face of medicine in Ghana: profit-raking instead of life-saving - Pharmacist
Public Agenda’s story: “Indian firm dumps dud
drugs on Ghana,” published last week has opened the Pandora Box on some
negative practices in drug administration in the country.
Public agenda has gathered that a number of
underground practices go on in the drug management administration of the
country, allowing some unscrupulous businesses and individuals to take
advantage of the systems, to enrich themselves at the expense of health
delivery.
One of such practices is an alleged obnoxious
accord between some doctors and a number of pharmaceutical companies or their
agents in which these doctors throw their Hippocratic code to the window and
prescribe drugs manufactured by ‘understanding’ firms to sick patients do no
even need them for cure of their ailments.
The motive, Agenda learned, is just to boost
the profit margin of their paymasters. Doctors and pharmacists Public Agenda
spoke to would not name the unscrupulous doctors but they acknowledged that
such practices were taking place. They were however, unable to put the
parameters on the practice because of its underground nature.
Officials of the various health professional
associations, Agenda spoke to would not contest the assertion that such
practices were taking place but said it was difficult to put a nose on the
culprits because of the Mafioso nature of the system.
The Deputy Registrar of the Pharmacy Council,
Joseph Nyoabge, said speculation is rife that some drug suppliers are in league
with doctors to increase the profits of the drug suppliers, but it is difficult
to investigate the practice. “For now,” he said, “what the Council could do is
to caution its members against such practices. Continuing education programme if
the key.”
GRi…/
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Hardly do we hear that a chief takes to the
street running. But Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, the Okyenhene, did exactly
that last Saturday to show his commitment to the crusade against the spread of
the HIV/AIDS menace.
He did not stop there. The Okyenhene also
stunned his people and invited guests to this year’s World AIDS Day at Kyebi
when he agreed to undergo a voluntary HIV/AIDS test. This singular gesture by a
prominent traditional ruler symbolizes his determination to serve as a role
model for the youth and to encourage others in similar positions to voluntary
undergo the test to ascertain their HIV status.
The day, which was marked last Saturday, was
under the theme: “Men Make a Difference - I Care, Do You?” It was organized by
the Okyenhene, with support from a number of organizations, including the
United Nations, to highlight the negative effects of the disease, with the view
to halting its spread.
Earlier at the durbar, the Okyenhene pledged
that, he and other traditional rulers will continue to spearhead the fight
against the disease and asked all Ghanaians to be faithful to their partners.
More…/
All the 2110 students admitted to the Winneba
Campus of the University College of Education (UCEW) are to be non-residential
as a result of non-availability accommodation facilities at the university.
The already precarious accommodation situation
on the campus has been compounded by the recent closure of the 420-capacity
hall of residence at the southern campus owing to its deteriorating physical
conditions.
The Principal of the university, Professor J.
Anamuah-Mensah, made this know at the 9th Matriculation Ceremony of
the university at Winneba in the Central Region at the weekend. The fresh
students, made up of 1,482 men and 628 women matriculated into various
undergraduate and graduate courses, are part of the total of 3,094 students who
were admitted into the various campuses of the university in the country.
Prof. Anamuah-Mensah said the students are
going through harrowing experiences such as excessive rents, poorly ventilated
rooms, and lack of sanitary facilities, adding that this is affecting their
studies.
He said the Winneba campus, like the other
campuses at Kumasi and Mampong-Ashanti, also has infrastructural constraints
and these have compelled the university to admit only 42 per cent of the total
number of qualified applicants who sat for the entrance examination into the
university.
He commended SSNIT for responding to the
accommodation needs with the construction of hostel facilities at the Winneba
campus and appealed to district assemblies and landlords to help ensure decent
accommodation for students.
Prof Anamuah-Mensah said one thousand people
would soon be admitted to pursue a diploma in Basic Education, under the
distance education programme introduced in the university, to ensure that more
people have access to university education.
He appealed to the Ministry of Education to
ensure that the university is well-equipped to turn out well qualified teachers
for the basic and secondary schools to help improve the standards of education
in the country.
On the university’s new grading system, Prof
Anamuah-Mensah explained that the 50 per cent pass mark concept is based on the
fact that the learner must exceed a minimum of 50 per cent of each course and
urged them to study hard to enable them to achieve their objectives on campus.
He also advised them to demonstrate a sense of
discipline, adding that as professionals they should lead exemplary lives
worthy of emulation by the pupils and the general public.
GRi…/
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