Vice President off to attend Langkawi conference

Contract awarded for Mpraeso-Adawso road

Mankessim-Ajumako road declared death trap

Barclays bank donates books to children's library

New plant conservation project launched

Leave the marine turtles alone -Warden

1997 Global State Of Environment Report Out

Korle Bu hospital administrator refutes allegations

Armed Forces undertake exercise to flush out criminals

Vice President off to attend Langkawi conference

Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 July '99,

The Vice-President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, left Accra on Wednesday for Langkawi, Malaysia, to attend the Langkawi International Dialogue '99, slated to run from July 24 to 28.

Mr Dan Abodakpi, deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and some members of the private sector, accompanied him.

Mr Asamoah Tenkorang, Personal Assistant to the Vice-President said the four-day conference under the theme, "Managing economic recovery for shared prosperity - the smart partnership approach", would discuss how to improve upon the economies of developing countries.

The Langkawi International Dialogue is held every other year to brainstorm among developing countries on development and economic values in the developing world.

Mr Tenkorang said this year's meeting would involve series of seminars on topical issues including "Learning from economic crisis, the way forward" and "Advanced technology and business."

Heads of state of most developing countries are expected to attend, including those of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Barbados, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Jordan, Uganda and Thailand.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Victor Gbeho and his Deputy, Mr Joseph Laryea, officials of the Ministry and the High Commissioners of South Africa and Malaysia, were at the airport to see the Vice-President and his entourage off.

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Bepong Kwahu (Eastern Region), 22 July '99

The government has awarded the construction and tarring of the 34.5 kilometre Mpraeso-Adawso road to SONAECOM construction limited.

When completed, the project will facilitate the evacuation of large quantities of foodstuff from the Afram Plains and Kwahu south districts to the marketing centres.

The contract sum was not disclosed, but it is believed to run in the billions of cedis.

Mr Mike Acheampong, deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, told the chiefs and people of Bepong at the commencement of the project that, the government is concerned with the plight of farmers and fishermen in the two districts, and therefore has plans to implement more development projects to enhance the living standard of the people in the two districts.

The managing director of Sonaecom construction limited, Baffour Appiah Dankwa, said the company has acquired equipment worth three billion cedis for the project.

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Mankessim (Central Region), 22 July '99,

Drivers plying the Mankessim-Ajumako road have declared it "death trap" because of its slippery condition.

They have cautioned motorists who use the road to be extra careful especially when it is raining.

A spokesman for the drivers said at Mankessim that portions of the road which were re-gravelled about a year and a half ago have become very slippery.

He said more than 10 accidents have been recorded on the road in recent times.

He called on the road authorities to ensure that contracts awarded are executed according to the required standard to help minimise accidents on the road.

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Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 July '99,

Barclays Bank on Wednesday presented Children's books and other learning materials valued at 15.5 million cedis to the children's library in Accra.

Nana Wereko Ampem II, Board Chairman of the bank, said the presentation is in fulfilment of a pledge made by Barclays to adopt the library for five years.

He said the bank sees education as the backbone to any vibrant economy and "any country that neglects it does so at the peril of its sustained and balanced economic development".

The bank has therefore set aside 400 million cedis this year to support education and health in the country, he said.

Nana Ampem promised that the bank will, in addition to the donation, furnish the computer room of the library with air conditioners to ensure the safety of computers it gave to the library last year.

The donation, which includes Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, Posters, toy microscopes, literature and other reference books, is to help facilitate the reading scope of children in the country.

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Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 July '99,

Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Wednesday said there is the need to create awareness on the cultivation and conservation of medicinal plants in Ghana.

Launching a new medical plant conservation project, known as the Darwin Initiative, for the survival of plant species, Mr Ahwoi said plants throughout history have been the biggest source of medicine for human health due to their effectiveness and affordability,.

However, efforts have not been made to conserve them. The project is aimed among other things, at producing a 50-acre medicinal plant garden for display and instruction.

Darwin Initiative based in the UK, the primary founder of the project, was launched at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.

It aims at using British scientific, educational and commercial knowledge and expertise to assist poor countries which are rich in bio-diversity to understand, conserve and sustain their natural habitats.

The project, which began in June, is to end by the year 2002. It comprises six partners, including World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UK), Aburi Botanical Gardens, Herbarium Department of Botany, and the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services, both of University of Ghana, Legon.

The rest are Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh and Botanic Gardens Conservation Monitoring Centre of U.K.

Other aims and objectives include relieving the pressure from over-harvesting of medicinal plants in the wild and provide base-line information needed by the government and multilateral agencies to support sustainable use of the country's genetic resources.

Many of the rare tropical medicinal plants are under threat of extinction, mostly due to uncontrolled bushfires, over harvesting, deforestation and widespread destruction of the natural habitat through human activities.

Mr. Ahwoi said in China traditional medicine is largely based on about 5,000 plants, used to treat 40 per cent of urban patients and 90 per cent of rural patients.

In India an estimated 400,000 licensed traditional practitioners are known to be operating alongside 332,000 registered medical officers.

In Ghana statistics are not available to establish the number of traditional medical practitioners.

The minister said the ministry is trying, through a proposed legislation, not only to capture all such practitioners but also to provide an agreed framework for their practices.

Mr Ahwoi urged collaborative agencies to work together not only to establish the project at Aburi but also encourage people to set up their own medicinal plant gardens in their various ecological zones.

Mr George Owusu-Afriyie, Chief Parks and Gardens Director, said the World Health Organisation estimates that up to 80 per cent of the world's population rely on plants for their primary health care needs.

He said over 1,600 botanic gardens worldwide which grow the largest array of plant diversity are today leading the fight to save plant diversity to meet the requirements of the convention on biological diversity.

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Tema, (Greater Accra) 21 July '99,

Mr Charles Amankwah, Warden of the Sakumono Ramsar Site, on Wednesday advised the public to desist from trapping and slaughtering marine turtles.

It is an offence under the Wildlife Conservation Regulation of 1971 to trap marine turtles, Mr Amankwah said at Sakomono, near Accra, where a dead turtle was found over the weekend.

He explained that the marine turtle, which has become an endangered specie, hardly comes ashore these days. "So when they do, people pay to have a look at them."

Mr Amankwa explained that a team from the Game and Wildlife Department had information that a marine turtle had been washed ashore at the Sakumono village.

"It was dead when the team got to the site, and an eyewitness said it was washed ashore dead." However "we realised that the chin and tongue were rotten, and we believe it was trapped by some fishermen."

He said the reptile was 93 centimetres long and 67 centimetres wide, and could be described as a "big turtle".

The warden said this brings to three the number of turtles that have been found around the Sakumono Ramsar Site and all appeared to have been trapped by fishermen, he added.

"Normally, the marine turtle would not come out at this time of the year. They mostly come out to lay eggs around late September to March.

The marine turtle, lays more than 150 to 200 eggs in its breeding period and has a life span of 100 years. It starts laying eggs at the age of between 25 and 35 years.

The turtle has been buried at the beach at Sakumono village.

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Accra, (Greater Accra) 21 July '99,

Significant progress has been made in the last decade in combating environmental problems in both developing and industrialised nations.

But a more positive and sustainable action needs to be implemented to effectively contain the situation, a Global State of Environment Report for 1997 has indicated.

The report, concluded earlier this year and released this week, said world-wide, greater progress were recorded in the realms of institutional developments, internal co-operation, public participation and the emergence of private-sector action.

"Legal frameworks, economic instruments, environmentally sound technologies and cleaner production processes have been developed and applied in combating these problems."

The report said environmental impact assessments have become standard tools for the initiation, implementation and evaluation of major development and investment projects in many countries.

It is heartening that a growing body of actors - governments, NGOs, the private sector, civil society and the scientific and research community - have responded to environmental challenges in a variety of ways and have taken great strides towards incorporating environmental considerations in their day-to-day activities, it said.

The Report urged government departments to take environmental considerations into account since the environment assumes a more important role in international relations and transactions.

"The participation of a broad range of ministries (other than those on the environment), regarding negotiations and implementation of the Biodiversity, Climate, Desertification Conventions, and the increasing array of voluntary agreements, codes of conduct, as well as guidelines generated by industry, banking and insurance sectors all exemplify an encouraging trend.

"Despite this progress on several fronts, from a global perspective, the environment has continued to be degraded during the past decade and significant environmental problems remain deeply embedded in the socio-economic fabric of nations in all regions.

"Progress towards a global sustainable future is just too slow. A sense of urgency is lacking. Internationally and nationally, the funds and political will are insufficient to halt further global environmental degradation and to address the most pressing environmental issues - even though technology and knowledge are available to do so."

The report said the recognition of environmental issues as necessarily long-term and cumulative with serious global and security implications remains limited.

It said the continued preoccupation with immediate local and national issues, and a general lack of sustained interest in global and long-term environmental issues remain major impediments to environmental progress internationally.

In the future, the continued degradation of natural resources, shortcomings in environmental responses, and renewable resource constraints may increasingly lead to food insecurity and conflict situations.

The report said changes in global biogeochemical cycles and the complex interactions between environmental problems, such as climate change, ozone depletion and acidification, may have impacts that will confront local, regional and global communities with situations they are unprepared for.

"Previously unknown risks to human health are becoming evident from the cumulative and persistent effects of a whole range of chemicals, particularly the persistent organic pollutants."

The effects of climate variability and change are already increasing the incidence of familiar public health problems and leading to new ones, including a more extensive reach of vector-borne diseases and a higher incidence of heat-related illness and mortality.

"If significant major policy reforms are not implemented quickly, the future might hold more such surprises," the report added.

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Korle Bu hospital administrator refutes allegations

Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 July '99,

Dr Sylvia Anie-Akwetey, Director of Administration of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, on Wednesday refuted allegations of wrongdoing made against her by consultants and specialists at the hospital and called for further investigations into the matter.

"These claims are false and I wish to clearly refute them so that the inaccuracies and falsehood in the publication of the consultants press statements in the newspapers yesterday would be corrected," she said.

Dr Anie-Akwetey, who was speaking at a press conference in Accra, said the claim by the consultants and specialists that she is a biochemist with no formal managerial training and totally unqualified to serve as the Director of Administration is false.

"On the contrary, I am not a biochemist as claimed by the consultants and specialists. I am a first degree holder in applied chemistry with management and have a considerable working experience in management and administration not only in the health sector but in other sectors of the economy.

"I have undergone formal training in management at the University of London, worked in senior management and administrative positions in health care and medical research organisations abroad."

Dr Anie-Akwetey said she did her doctorate at the Medical School of Victoria University, Manchester, and has worked with consultants, doctors, nurses and scientists for several years. She said she is also a specialist and a non-practising consultant in Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

She said her appointment as Director of Administration of the hospital was not an imposition as claimed by the consultants and specialists "My appointment is indeed legitimate, because I was appointed by the Ministry of Health and received an approval from the Public Services Commission".

Dr Anie-Akwetey also refuted the allegation that she has refused to obey instructions of the Minister of Health to proceed on leave to allow the ministry to reconcile reports presented to the ministry by the Justice Osei Committee and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which had conflicting conclusions.

"At no time has the Hon. Minister or Board written to me to proceed on leave," she said adding that the promotion of the Principal Hospital Administrator to the substantive position of Director of Administrator was "unlawful", because the decision did not come from the Minister of Health and that the Public Service Commission has no knowledge of it.

"I was on a four-month maternity leave when all these falsehoods and lies about me started.

"Many consultants signed the petition demanding my removal from office, because they believed that Justice Osei's committee had exonerated their colleagues on the dissolved Purchasing Committee from any suspected fraudulent practices"

She said she was also exonerated by the same committee as she was not incriminated in any fraudulent allegations.

Dr Anie-Akwetey said while the consultants were calling for the restoration of Rona Chemist, the major supplier of the hospital's requirements, and the reinstatement of the dissolved purchasing committee, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) stated that the two could not be restored to their former positions and status, because of fraudulent practices.

She said the purchasing committee had approved of sutures without expiry dates and defective urethra catheters that put the lives of patients at risk.

According to Dr Anie-Akwetey, the hospital needs only 2,000 sutures at a cost of three million cedis quarterly, but the purchasing committee approved of 20,000 at a cost of 30 million cedis, saying all these malpractices were at the expense of the tax payer and government.

"My only crime was that I criticised the purchasing committee for fraudulent deals. I spoke of bad trade and decisions that put patients at risk and deprived tax payers of hundreds of millions of cedis."

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Achiase (Eastern Region), 22^nd July '99,

A major military exercise to flush out all manner of anti social criminals is underway in the Achiase area in the Eastern Region.

Code-named "Exercise Tigers' Path 99", the four-day exercise, described in military circles as a "social blitzkrieg," is intended to train and rehearse commando-type troops, special forces and military intelligence units of the Ghana Armed Forces to effectively undertake the exercise.

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Ghana Armed Forces said "the arrival of the hard macho-looking specially selected soldiers at the jungle environment of Achiase has already instilled panic in some suspects."

It said some suspects have been rounded up in a joint military and police swoop as they attempted to move their camp from a nearby hideout.

According to the statement, Lt-Col. Oppong Okyere, Commander of the task force, warned the armed robbers to seek better jobs as "there will be no letting off for anyone caught."

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