Ghanaians urged to adopt culture of shared responsibility

Africa Energy Ministers end meeting in the U.S.

People of Bremang petition Minister

Fire destroys house at Anloga

Pay meters project proves viable

Wereko-Brobby says management of Ghana telecom should be dismissed

Christian youth mission launches competition in Bible Knowledge

NDC's UK and Ireland branch donates 12,000 pounds for Election 2000

Reschedule your marriages - Registrar of Marriages orders

Tema recorded 56 fire incidents in 1999

Assembly to improve water supply at health centre

Drivers urged to co-operate with security agencies

Civil servants urged to deliver quality service

Seven houses set ablaze at Asankrangwa

Black Volta to be dredged at Debre

Fire destroys second farm in Savelugu/Nanton district

Larteh Akwapim (Eastern Region), 6^th January 00

Ms Rosemund Ayeko Toto, an educationist, has called on Ghanaians to stop apportioning blame whenever there is a failure in the education system and adopt a culture of shared responsibility.

She explained that the academic achievement of any student is affected by factors in the home, the school and the community and all the three settings need to work closely together.

Ms Toto was delivering a paper on: ''How to improve upon educational standards at Larteh'' at a Larteh Akwapim Millennium Congress on Sunday.

She called for the establishment of a community library to encourage students to read and a science resource centre with a computer room for the benefit of schools in the area.

Ms Toto said, ''the current educational system only tells the child where he or she can go but does not tell the child how to get there''.

Every society, therefore needs to have a vision and an action plan for the new millennium to enable its children to achieve not only enviable academic standards but also high civic performance, she said.

Dr Henry Appiah, Principal of Koforidua Polytechnic, called on chiefs and opinion leaders of Larteh communities to make teachers posted to their communities feel at home.

Such a gesture, he said, would serve as an incentive to the teachers to give of their best to improve the standard of education in the area.

Dr Appiah said ''our forefathers saw the need to do this by being courteous to teachers, presenting them with foodstuffs from their farms and even gave them free accommodation.

He said, it is disheartening today to see parents who benefited from past teachers, apart from their failure to show charity, sometimes pounce on teachers at the least opportunity.

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Bolgatanga (Upper East), 6^th January 00

Private investment and partnership have been identified as being crucial to the attainment of Africa's growing energy needs in the 21st century.

This was the outcome of the first meeting of Energy Ministers from Africa and the United States Secretary for Energy, Mr Bill Richardson, in Tucson, Arizona, United States.

A communiqué issued at the end of the three-day meeting, which ended on December 15, 1999, the ministers acknowledged the progress that has been achieved through bilateral, regional and international efforts towards the development of Africa's energy sector in a way that meets their mutual political, economic, and social goals.

The statement said the ministers from 48 countries, who were in attendance, recognised the need to take concrete steps to establish policies and programmes that foster sustainable energy development as well as increased access to affordable energy.

"They discussed the unique energy needs of Africa, including serious energy shortage, limited access to exploitation and consumption of energy and heavy dependence on traditional energy sources, taking into account its diversity and enormous potential", it said.

The ministers endorsed "a joint statement on sustainable energy development and co-operation in support of the environment", confirming their agreement to implement policies on sustainable and clean energy options.

Mr. Abingya explained that the purpose of the meeting was to carry forward a co-operative partnership initiated in March, last year, at a US-Africa ministerial conference in Washington DC, under the "Blueprint Energy Co-operation" between the US and Africa.

He said under the technical co-operation agreement signed between the ministry and the US Department of Energy, Ghana expects to expand her energy arrangements to cover other sectors that are vital to the attainment of the goals of "Vision 2020".

"Under the inter-ministerial agreement, the US Department of Energy and its affiliate agencies have provided technical support to a number of initiatives that are important to the successful transformation and modernisation of Ghana's energy sector".

For instance, he said, expertise have been provided for the establishment of new regulatory bodies for the promotion of the efficient use of energy through the Energy Foundation and for capacity-building at the Industrial Energy Assessment Centre at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi.

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Kumasi (Ashanti), 6^th January 00

The chiefs and people of Bremang, in Kumasi, have petitioned the Ashanti Regional Minister and the Regional Co-ordinating Council to probe the circumstances which have brought work on their health centre to a standstill.

The people said they did not understand why an amount of 70 million cedis given to a construction company, "G and "A" could not be used to complete the centre, which they had built almost to the lintel level.

They, therefore, want an inquiry to be instituted to ascertain how the money was used and the valuation of work executed by the contractor.

A petition signed by Mr. Kwame Kusi and Mr. William Peprah, both unit committee members at Bremang and issued to the press, said the community, through harvests and fund-raising activities, mobilised 10 million cedis for the commencement of the project in 1995.

The health centre has a dispensary, x-ray department, consulting rooms, out - patients' department, male, female and maternity wards.

While the project was progressing, they said, an appeal was made to the then Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Lt.Col. Emmanuel Okyere and the Assembly voted 70 million cedis to support the project in 1996.

They said when Lt-Col Okyere was transferred and Nana Akwasi Agyeman succeeded him, the current Metropolitan Chief Executive, awarded the contract to "G and A".

They said they thought the contractor was going to complete the project and provided him with gravel, blocks and extended water to the site.

When the contractor was contacted, he said he used the money on the project and it was left to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to release more money to complete the building.

He explained that the 70 million cedis could cover only the first phase of the project.

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Kumasi (Ashanti), 6^th January 00

Fire gutted a compound house at Anloga in Kumasi, on Tuesday, destroying 10 rooms, personal effects and 20 million cedis.

The items destroyed included eight sewing machines, eight packets of roofing sheets, a personal computer and accessories, books and clothes, the cost of which is estimated at about 250 million cedis.

About 60 people displaced by the fire are now living with friends and relatives.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known but it is believed to be an electrical fault.

Togbe S. K. Fugah, Chief of the Anloga Community, on Wednesday led officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and newsmen to inspect and assess the damage caused and also to console the victims.

Briefing the team, Mr. Hopeson Sedziafah, a spokesman for the victims, said the fire which broke out at about 11:00 hours, when most of the tenants had gone to work, was brought under control by the Ghana National Fire Service.

Togbe Fugah expressed the sympathy of the Anloga community to the victims and appealed to NADMO, non-governmental organisations and philanthropists to go to the aid of the victims.

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Tamale (Northern Region), 6^th January 00

An evaluation carried out by the Northern Electricity Department (NED) of the Volta River Authority (VRA) on pay-meter pilot project in the Northern region under which 5,900 meters were installed has shown that the project is viable.

Therefore, NED intends to expand the project, which was introduced last year to cover other areas of its operations.

The pay meter system, as opposed to the credit meter, allows customers to purchase electricity in advance through the use of special numbers.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tamale on Wednesday, Mr. Amadu Mahama, NED Commercial Manager, cited Pong-Tamale in the Savelugu/Nanton district, where a detailed analysis of electricity consumption showed a 20 to 30 per cent reduction.

"Unfortunately, most customers have not realised this reduction because we increased tariffs at the same time the project was implemented. So even though customers may be paying more, they are using less electricity."

Mr. Mahama said the evaluation showed that only 1.5 per cent of the installed meters failed to perform, which he described as reasonably good for a product of that nature.

He said a few customers have so far tried to by-pass the pay meters by wiring their houses in such a way that only part of the electricity consumed is recorded.

Mr. Mahama said this practice which is not peculiar to pay meters but also done with the credit meters, was nipped in the bud. "We can monitor the usage of electricity from the computer database and hence detect all illegal connections".

Mr. Mahama cited another case of a customer, who tried to tamper with the meter and got it burnt and warned that such culprits will be made to pay 80 dollars being the price of the meter and the cost of installation.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 6^th January 00

Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, Presidential Candidate of the United Ghana Movement, has called on government to terminate the contract of the entire management of Ghana Telecom as soon as possible.

This is contained in a letter dated January four, 2000 addressed to the Minister of Communications with copies to the press in Accra on Wednesday.

Dr Wereko-Brobby said he is making the demand because the management team is incompetent.

"With the singular exception of collecting our money, which it has discharged with ruthless greedy efficiency, Ghana Telecom's service has gone progressively downhill since it was placed under a new management.

"None of the ills that we associated with the old organisation has been cured.

"Rather, improvements in the quality and reliability of service, which had been attained just before the new boys came on the block have completely disappeared."

Dr Wereko-Brobby said as at January four, "virtually the whole of the Cantonment Exchange, serving lines beginning with 77 and 76, had been shut down for about one week".

"It was not an ordinary week, but the week of the onset of the new millennium when millions of Ghanaians wanted to exchange greetings and good wishes with families at home and abroad.

"An exercise of switching to a new exchange that was to have been completed overnight, has turned into absolute chaos which has brought untold hardship to many people.

"It is a culmination of progressively declining quality of service since the new management took over," Dr Wereko-Brobby said.

He noted that the management team has only 30 per cent in Ghana telecom and said "as majority shareholders (70 per cent), we Ghanaians would place more extensive, reliable and affordable service ahead of the maximisation of profits at this stage of the company's development.

"I have no doubts that our junior partners, who have no commitment to the development of this country beyond the profit motive, do not share our priority, which is why they placed revenue collection ahead of offering quality services."

Dr Wereko-Brobby said it is time for the majority's needs to be put first and this can be achieved by divorcing the share holding of the minority from its management of the company.

"There is a clear conflict of interest in the present arrangement and it should be discontinued as soon as practicable."

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Aburi (Eastern Region), 6^th January 00

Dr. E. A. Ayirebi Acquah, former Deputy Minister of Defence, has advised the country's youth not to neglect the Word of God so that they can become useful citizens in future.

He noted with regret that the present generation of young people lacks the sense of direction, and this has led them into mischievous and unprofitable activities.

Dr Acquah was speaking at the launch of an international Bible Recitation award scheme of the Word of God for Today's Youth International (WOGITYI), a non-governmental Christian youth mission, which aims at inculcating good morals among the youth.

Church and opinion leaders in communities must do well to encourage and guide the youth to lead disciplined and sanctified lives "so they will not forget their Maker and His teachings".

The former deputy Minister urged the youth to take keen interest in the mission's programmes to ensure their success.

Mr. Emmanuel Osae Bredu, Programme Director, said that the mission would organise an International Bible Recitation Award competition for the youth.

He said the overall winner would be sponsored to travel to Israel to visit historic places. There will also be consolation prizes.

Mr. Bredu said that the mission would encourage the youth to constantly read and understand the Bible, memorise the verses and apply such knowledge in their daily lives.

In addition, the mission aims to mobilise the youth to go into agriculture and other gainful employment and appealed to individuals and organisations to assist.

There were goodwill messages from the Ghana Presbyterian Church and the Christ Preachers Church.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 6^th January 00

The United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Thursday donated 12,000 pounds to the party towards Election 2000.

Mr. Ekow Mends, chairman of the branch, presented the cheque and a quantity of a special millennium issue of the 'Akatamanso Magazine' to Alhaji Issifu Ali, Co-Chairman of the party, in Accra.

He said the donation is part of a special millennium fund raising dinner-dance held during the visit of Vice-President John E. A. Mills to London.

Alhaji Ali said the money would help the party in the election campaign and urged other branches to do the same.

Mr. Vincent Assiseh, National Press Secretary, said the party is working tirelessly to raise funds locally and externally for the forthcoming elections.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 6^th January 00

Persons who have fixed Saturday, January eight for their marriages at the Registrar General's Department have been asked to reschedule their wedding dates.

This is as a result of the declaration of the day as a holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid Fitri.

A statement signed by Mr J.K. Harlley, Chief State Attorney said "all those whose marriages are scheduled for that day are to call on the principal registrar of marriages to reschedule their wedding dates".

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Tema (Greater Accra), 6^th January 00

A total of 56 fire outbreaks occurred in the Tema Municipality last year, destroying property totalling 1.81 billion cedis.

Twenty-seven of the outbreaks were in homes, 12 vehicular, eight electrical, and five each of industrial and bush fires but no casualties were involved in of them.

Mr. Francis Gyenyin, Assistant Chief Fire Officer in charge of Tema Office of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), told newsmen on Thursday that most of the fires were due to carelessness and ignorance about how to handle electrical appliances properly.

Mr. Gyenyin said his outfit would soon embark on an intensive programme to educate the public on the need to be cautious to enable them to prevent fire outbreaks.

In order to minimise the risk of fire outbreaks, the Municipal Fire Officer warned the public against constructing kiosks and other structures on pavements, access roads and water hydrants.

He said power fluctuations can cause fire and urged the ECG to inform the public to switch off their power when working on faulty transformers.

He advised against overloading of sockets in homes and offices to avoid fire outbreaks.

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New Edubiase (Ashanti), 6^th January 00

The Adansi East District Assembly has voted 55 million cedis to provide five additional boreholes to help improve water supply at the New Edubiase Health Centre.

In addition, the assembly is pursuing a boreholes mechanisation programme to address water problems facing residents at New Edubiase.

Barima Owusu Sekyere Agyeman, the District Chief Executive, announced these when he interacted with the staff of the New Edubiase Health Centre as part of his familiarisation tour of decentralised departments in the district.

He said the assembly is to construct new male and female wards as part of efforts to upgrade the health centre into a district hospital.

Barima Agyeman said under the European Union (EU) and the government's micro-project intervention, nurses at Aboabo, Ataase-Nkwanta and Bodwesango have been provided with accommodation, adding "it is now the turn of New Edubiase health centre".

The District Chief Executive praised the health staff for their prompt responses to emergency health cases in the district.

Mr. Kwasi Amankwaa, the District Director of Health Services, pledged the staff's preparedness to help improve health delivery in the area.

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Offinso (Ashanti), 6^th January 00

Nana Osei Sarfo-Kantanka, Offinso branch chairman of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU), has urged drivers to co-operate with the security agencies to track down criminals.

Nana Sarfo-Kantanka drivers at Offinso that they must not condone and connive with criminals by carrying their booty or taking them to places where they go to rub innocent citizens.

He commended drivers in the Offinso district for their exemplary professional competence which saw them through the Christmas period without any accident and urged them to maintain that record in the new year.

He announced that the union has drawn up a comprehensive programme to educate their members on road safety regulations and cautioned the drivers against speeding and unnecessary over-taking.

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Bolgatanga (Upper East), 6^th January 00

Dr. Robert Dodoo, Head of Civil Service, has called on civil servants to stick to their official duties and deliver quality services to keep the system running properly.

They should also dedicate themselves to their responsibilities and work diligently to ensure efficiency.

Dr. Dodoo said these when he paid a courtesy call on Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper East Regional Minister, during a working visit to the region on Thursday.

"The era of 'go and come' and 'we are looking into it' should be over and there should not be unnecessary delays in carrying out your duties."

Dr Dodoo assured civil servants that they would be commended on merit and politicians can no longer sack or cause the transfer of civil servants at will.

He advised civil servants not to allow themselves to be influenced by politicians or accept bribes because such gifts with ulterior motives make the giving party include the cost into their goods and services, thereby inflating commodity prices.

He said a panel had been set up to monitor the output of civil servants and assess the work of Chief Directors and Co-ordinating Directors to ensure that they put up their best.

Alhaji Sulemana asked civil servants to contribute their quota to the development of the region not only by carrying out official duties but also by helping the administration to formulate policies for development.

He urged civil servants not to allow themselves to be distracted by political activities this year but concentrate on their work.

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Asankrangwa (Western Region), 6^th January 00

Unidentified persons this morning set ablaze seven houses at Asankrangwa following clashes between factions in a local chieftaincy dispute at the weekend.

Personal property estimated at billions of cedis were destroyed by the fire.

Unconfirmed reports alleged that the police started the fire in retaliation of the death of Corporal Adudarko Bosompem who was shot while on guard duties during the clashes.

Assistant Superintendent of Police(ASP) Yaw Adoko, who is in charge of the Asankrangwa district, and Superintendent Nana Koranteng Mintah, Commander of the Police Platoon sent to assist to quell the clashes, have both denied the reports.

According to ASP Adoko, the police informed the district Ghana National Fire Service(GNFS) of the fire outbreak when it saw smoke engulfing the town.

Asked why the GNFS made no attempt to put out the fire, Mr. Albert Mensah, an official of the service, said that the district office followed instructions from the regional Fire Officer not to move any fire tender for security reasons.

Houses set ablaze included Hotel Radjners, two drug stores, a beer bar, a radio cassette retail shop and a spare parts store.

Also destroyed were a saloon car belonging to Mr. Anthony Atobrah, accounts officer of All Saints Academy, a kiosk belonging to a seamstress, and the personal effects of Mr. Matthew Kissi, a driver of the Electricity Company of Ghana.

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Damongo (Northern Region), 6^th January 00

Shallow areas of the Black Volta at Debre are to be dredged to improve navigation from Akosombo to Buipe Port in the Northern Region.

Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, who announced this at Damongo, said a Dutch marine company will undertake the project this year.

Alhaji Seidu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Yapei/Kusawgu in the West Gonja District, was addressing the last session of the district assembly for 1999.

The session, which was also attended by Alhaji Abdalla Adam, MP for Daboya-Damongo and heads of decentralised departments, approved levies and projects to be undertaken in the next two years.

Alhaji Seidu said seven communities in the constituency have been earmarked to be connected to the national grid this year under phases one and two of the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund.

He suggested that tax defaulters in the district should be prosecuted if the assembly is to improve revenue from its traditional sources.

Alhaji Abdalla Adam stressed the need for assembly members to monitor the work of revenue collectors to ensure that all monies are properly accounted for.

He called on the assembly to increase its support to the agriculture sector to enable farmers to increase production and their earnings.

The District Chief Executive, Mr. Steve de-Graft Safo, assured the members that development projects will be equitably distributed for each electoral area to have its fair share.

He appealed to the members to work harder this year to enable the assembly to achieve its revenue target and meet the legitimate needs of the people.

Last year the assembly had a shortfall of 20.5 per cent of its revenue target, collecting 83.7 million cedis of its estimated 105.3 million cedis.

The presiding member, the Rev Dr Edward Haruna, urged the members to attend meetings regularly.

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Gushie (Northern Region), 6^th January 00

A 70-acre maize farm at Gushie in the Savelugu/Nanton District belonging to Nanton-Naa, Alhaji Alhassan Sulemana has been destroyed by bushfire.

It is the second time in a month that such a disaster has occurred in the area. In the first incident the national best maize farmer, Alhaji Yakubu Fuseini, lost his 150 acre maize farm.

Commenting on the latest out-break the District Chief Executive, Alhaji Abdulai Haruna, warned that anybody found setting fire to the bush will face the full rigours of the law.

He said a task force has been formed to check the activities of hunters and herdsmen who invariably are the cause of such fires.

Alhaji Haruna asked chiefs, unit committees and assembly members to form anti-bush fire committees to check indiscriminate bush burning.

The Nanton-Naa could not tell the cause of the fire.

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