Directors to face sanctions…For delays in payment of teachers
Internal Revenue Service in record collection
Resettle Rawlings – Minority proposes
They are milking SSNIT dry…Billions of cedis down the drain
First Ladies should take back seat…UN conference urges delegates…
Directors to face sanctions…For delays in payment of teachers
The Ghanaian Times reports in its top story that all District directors of Education are to submit their returns for the payment of salaries and allowances to teachers latest by Wednesday, January 26, or be suspended for two weeks without pay.
Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education is reported to have given the directive at an emergency meeting with the Deputy Minister responsible for pre-tertiary education, Mr Kwabena Kyere, the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Paul Osei-Mensah and other officials to discuss an announcement of strike action by teachers over non-payment of salaries and allowances.
The Times says that a statement issued in Accra yesterday by the Ministry of Education and signed by Mr Kyere, said that the directive was part of the measures being taken to curtail delays in the payment of salaries and allowances to teachers.
The Minister, the statement said, had ordered that District Directors responsible for the delays should be sanctioned. The Ministry blamed the District Directors for dereliction of duty, which it said had led to the strike action by teachers in some districts.
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Daily Graphic
Internal Revenue Service in record collection
In a front-page story, the Daily Graphic reports a record collection of 131 billion cedis for December, last year, by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS
The amount is said to be 4.6 billion cedis more than the target for the month. The Graphic says that the Commissioner of the IRS, Mr David Adom, who disclosed this in an interview, said this is the first time that the Service has collected so much revenue in a month.
According to him, an amount of 96.7 billion cedis was collected during the same month in 1998. Mr Adom is quoted as saying that the revenue was generated from mainly corporate taxes, which yielded about 69.15 billion cedis while employee taxes amounted to 31.6 billion cedis.
He attributed the achievement to improved auditing in the IRS, as well as an intensification of revenue collection from companies and the self-employed.
Mr Adom, the Graphic says, explained that following the fall in the price of gold last year, the IRS recorded a shortfall in revenue from the mining companies, which form a major aspect of revenue generation for the Service. He said as a result of these difficulties the IRS intensified its revenue generation efforts in the other sectors and this led to the marked increase in December, last year.
GRi../
The Evening News
Resettle Rawlings – Minority proposes
The Evening News, in its lead story, reports that the Minority in Parliament has proposed the passage of a State Settlement Act by Parliament under the ambit of Articles 68 and 71 of the Constitution, to provide a resettlement package for President Jerry Rawlings.
The paper quotes Mr J.H. Mensah, the Minority Leader as proposing this while contributing to the debate on a motion to thank the President for his sessional address last Thursday. The proposed ACT, he said, should be implemented in the light of recommendations of the Greenstreet Report.
Mr Mensah is reported as saying that the Minority had recognised that at the youthful age of 52 and after nearly 20 years at the helm of national affairs, President Rawlings would have some problems managing his imminent retirement.
"The whole nation has a legitimate interest to help him overcome those problems", the Minority Leader is quoted as saying. According to the Evening News, Mr Mensah also said the present arrangement seems not to make adequate provision for the settlement of the Vice-President and the Speaker of Parliament, adding that the bill would be appropriate to cater for their resettlement.
Mr Mensah is said to have also proposed the passage by Parliament of a National Reconciliation Act leading to the setting u of a National Commission on Reconciliation and Restitution to be appointed unanimously through political consultations and operating under the authority of Parliament.
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The Weekend Statesman
They are milking SSNIT dry…Billions of cedis down the drain
The Weekend Statesman says that at a time when two banks have been liquidated for lack of funds, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT)is literally throwing billions of cedis into the gutter.
In a front-page screaming headline story, the paper says that documents available show that a triumvirate comprising Director-General Charles Asare, Board Member, Kwame Addo and business tycoon, Eddie Annan, are running SSNIT like their private enterprise and spending the public money "by heart".
According to the Weekend Statesman, there is evidence that Eddie Annan has been paid 500 million cedis for the computerisation of the Golden Beach Hotel at Elmina in the Central Region, and yet the work has not started.
The paper says that the high-rise office block still rising opposite "Cedi House" in Accra, which is being financed by SSNIT, was originally estimated at 47 billion cedis. Now the revised estimate is 102 billion cedis yet the project is only halfway through.
According to the paper, the contractors were brought down from the United Kingdom, courtesy of SSNIT Board Member, Kwame Addo. The Weekend Statesman says that Kwame Addo is reported to be the brain behind a two billion-cedi SSNIT loan to Bridal Trust, a joint venture of SNIT and other partners of which his is the chairman.
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The Ghanaian Chronicle
First Ladies should take back seat…UN conference urges delegates…
In a front-page splash, the Ghanaian Chronicle reports a women’s conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as saying that African First Ladies should take a back seat in directing the affairs of the ship of state in their respective countries.
The conference is said to have also noted that the growing First Lady syndrome across the continent should be treated with caution since it is an obstacle to gender advancement. The Chronicle says this was the consensus among women activists who attended the sixth African Regional Conference of Women, a United Nations sponsored programme under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in Addis Ababa.
The Chronicle says that the conference, attended by various government institutions and non-governmental organisations, was held to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action by African countries. It was also used to plan the next women’s meeting scheduled for New York, this year.
The paper says that a delegation of the 31st December Women’s Movement led by Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, its President, also attended the confab.
According to the Chronicle some participants said the large retinue of women delegates at the conference was of the opinion that the "First Lady syndrome" in Africa is an obstacle to development…
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