Three policemen interdicted…Over robbery incident
13.3bnC arrears for civil servants
Education Trust Fund to be operational 2001
AGC: Conspiracy exposed!.. Gov't boys push for bloodbath
Increase in VAT rate?…Retrieve 1.5 trillion cedis from CIHBA, Ghana Telecom - MP
Ghana sees the worst labour year…40 strikes recorded
2000 elections make or break - JAC declares
NPP is sure of 120 seats
Three policemen interdicted…Over robbery incident
The Ghanaian Times in its top story, reports that three policemen implicated in a September 30 robbery incident at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, have been interdicted on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri.
The Times says that police sources named the three as Inspector J.K. Nyamekye, 56, Corporal Alex Danquah and Constable Ray Samuel Quaicoo, all of the Techiman Police. According to the sources, the interdiction was to facilitate investigations, which have become puzzling following conflicting claims by the complainant and the suspects.
The paper says that a day after the robbery, the complainant, Kofi Nkebere, who claimed to have been robbed of two million cedis by a policeman and some civilian, identified Corporal Danquah of the Techiman Police Charge Office as the cop, who led the gang.
Nkebere is said to have claimed that Corporal Danquah snatched his bag containing the money, a charge the policeman denied. The Times says that about a week later, the police arrested one of the civilians involved in the robbery and he exonerated the Corporal and rather implicated Inspector Nyamekye and Constable Quaicoo. The two policemen are also reported to have denied any involvement in the robbery.
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Daily Graphic
13.3bnC arrears for civil servants
In its lead story, the Daily Graphic reports that the Controller and Accountant-General's Department has directed the payment of arrears of certain allowances totalling about 13.3 billion cedis to civil servants throughout the Ghana.
The restoration of the allowances is in accordance with efforts by the government to address some shortcomings in the implementation of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), otherwise known as the Price Waterhouse Report.
The Times says that a circular dated December 21, 1999, signed on behalf of the acting Controller and Accountant-General and addressed to all heads of departments directed all treasury officers to effect the payment of allowances for fuel, vehicle maintenance, driver and guide, with retrospective effect from January 1, 1999. According to the circular, officials in 23 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are to benefit from the restoration of the allowances totalling 13,392,925,428 cedis.
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Education Trust Fund to be operational 2001
In another front-page story, the Graphic quotes Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education as saying that the National Education Trust Fund could become operational by the next academic year.
Detailed draft proposal of the fund has already been submitted to Cabinet for study and approval. The paper says Mr Spio-Garbrah, who disclosed this in an interview indicated that if all the funding sources proposed by the National Education Forum are accepted by Cabinet and Parliament, the Education Trust Fund could begin operating with about 200 billion cedis.
Mr Spio-Garbrah said the fund will provide support to genuinely needy and brilliant students to pursue various courses. It will also offer assistance to brilliant university graduates who could serve as teaching assistants and lecturers in the various universities as a way of helping to solve the acute shortage of lecturers in Ghana's universities.
According to the Education Minister, the fund will further help to improve and expand academic facilities in various institutions so that more students could be admitted to pursue science-based courses.
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The Ghanaian Chronicle
AGC: Conspiracy exposed!.. Gov't boys push for bloodbath
The Ghanaian Chronicle carries a story about the controversy in the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) and says that the challenge of Africa's sole multinational, which singularly accounts for over 90% of the market capitalisation of the Ghana Stock Exchange, are not over and threaten to take a new life from Monday, next week.
According to the Chronicle, on Monday, an ex-parte action will be initiated at an Accra High Court by Messrs Ghartey and Ghartey in the first of a series of what the government's advisers on Ashanti describe as a "risky" push designed to toss out the entire AGC board, including Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance and board chairman.
The paper says that the move is unknown even to AGC, but its intelligence has pieced together a series of 'intercepts and deep throat confessions', which show this planned legal action as the quickest way to get for the government what has eluded them all this time - an emergency general meeting to launch a bloodbath.
The Chronicle says that the government's advisers, Messrs Jude Kofi Bucknor, 47, chief executive of Cal Merchant Bank and Ken Ofori-Atta, 41, boss of Databank Financial Services, together with their London 'counterpart', have already secured the support of one of the minority shareholders.
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Increase in VAT rate?…Retrieve 1.5 trillion cedis from CIHBA, Ghana Telecom - MP
In a second story on its front-page, the Chronicle reports that the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, has said that the ruling government has no moral right to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate from 10% to 12% when it cannot retrieve a colossal amount of 1.5 trillion cedis in loans from defaulting companies.
The paper says that Mr Baah-Wiredu disclosed that about 40 companies are indebted to the government and until they pay up, asking Ghanaians to pay extra taxes in VAT, is burdensome. The Chronicle says that the MP, who was talking to the paper after meeting with his constituents to brief them on his stewardship in Parliament, cited the 1998 report of the Auditor-General's as his source of information.
He is quoted as saying that even if one-third of the said loans was recouped, the government would have 500 million cedis in its coffers to run its business. Mr Baah-Wiredu said according to the report, Ghana Telecom owed 54 billion cedis, Council of Indigenous Business Association (CIBA), 4 billion cedis, Mankoadze Fisheries, 8 billion cedis, among several others and urged the government to recover those loans instead of trumpeting that it has no money and wants to increase the rate of VAT.
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Free Press
Ghana sees the worst labour year…40 strikes recorded
In a front-page screamer, the Free Press says Ghana had the worst industrial strife during 1998 and 1999, recording strike actions averaging 40% over the two-year period. The main reason for the industrial unrest was the controversial salary adjustment contained in the Price Waterhouse report.
The paper was quoting a Christmas and New Year message delivered by the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Christian Appiah-Agyei at an annual unionist-journalist encounter in Accra. According to Mr Appiah-Agyei, the private sector also witnessed some industrial unrest due to poor working conditions and abuse of workers' rights by some unscrupulous employers.
The message said that the removal of subsidies from health and education sectors, coupled with the extremely low wages in all sectors of the economy, and had resulted in an increase in the incidence of poverty. "After almost two decades of adjustment, one out of every three Ghanaians is absolutely poor, even by African standards as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was still below $400, with Ghana's extern al debts standing at over $5.5 billion", Mr Appiah-Agyei is quoted as saying.
This according to him, represented over 90% of Ghana's GDP. Also over 40% of Ghanaian adults are still illiterate while many children are malnourished, with the large portion of the population still facing hunger, destitution and social exclusion.
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2000 elections make or break - JAC declares
In a front-page banner, the Weekend Statesman reports that the Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising the five main opposition political parties, says that elections 2000 will be a 'make or break' affair for Ghanaians.
"The elections can either provide fresh opportunities to put our ingenuity and skills to restoring our nation to its prominent position as the beacon of hope for self-propelled achievement for Africa, or the polls will accelerate the decline of our nation into greater poverty and total dependency on the generosity of external benefactors" the paper quotes the JAC as stating in a New Year message to Ghanaians.
The message is said to have been jointly signed Mr Felix Amoah, acting chairman of the Convention Party (CP), Mr J.A. Kufuor, presidential candidate of the NPP, Mr Peter Kpordugbe, interim chairman, National Reform Party (NRP) and Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, presidential candidate of the United Ghana Movement (UGM). The Weekend Statesman quotes the message as saying that the path that Ghanaians take will be determined by the choice that "we make in this year's elections".
"The instrument for our choice is the conduct of genuinely free and transparently fair elections, which is more than an orderly procession of the electorate casting their votes on polling day. Free and fair elections encompass a set of process, which together, create the equal playing field on which alternate political ideas compete to offer the electorate the best opportunity to make an informed choice on polling day", the message noted.
The paper says that JAC stated that for an equal electoral playing field, there is the need for the existence of a credible electoral roll and equal access to the publicly owned mass media for all competing parties.
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NPP is sure of 120 seats
The Evening News carries a lead story in which the NPP is reported as targeting to win 120 seats in Parliament during this year's general elections. According to the story, this will require the party to win 59 more seats to add up to its present 61 seats in the 200-member Parliament.
The Evening News reports Mr Dan Botwe, general secretary of the NPP as disclosing this in an interview on the strategies of the party to clinch victory in the year 2000 polls. "This year is a peculiar one, considering the fact that the opposition is trying to unseat an incumbent government, which has ruled Ghana for almost two decades", he is quoted as saying. On steps being adopted by the party to check rigging, Mr Botwe said about 100,000 members are being trained to effectively manage the 20,000 polling stations throughout Ghana.
He said the idea is to maintain strict monitoring of the elections to ensure electoral victory.
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