GES exposes imposter
IRS bags 600b cedis in first six months
Post-mortem fixed for latest victim
Primaries not best way to pick candidates
Rawlings’ stand on corruption
Prison officers live in prison
The ¢1.5m a week day School
NPP will win only 50 seats if...
21 NDC MPs retained
GES exposes imposter
The banner story of the Daily Graphic says a man who allegedly used the certificate of his dead brother to gain employment in the Ghana Education Service (GES) and admission to the university has been arrested.
Adam I. Sheini is reported to have used the certificate of Mr. Adam I. Sheini, also known as Mr. Emmanuel Adam I. Shein, who died in August 1989.
The paper says it was told by Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, Director-General of the GES, in an interview, that the imposter also used the same certificate ‘A’ (four year Post-Middle School Teacher’s Certificate) to gain admission to the University of Cape Coast as a mature student.
Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi said that the GES received an anonymous letter from the Northern Region, to the effect that Sheini was using the certificate of his deceased brother to teach in the area.
The story says a second letter came from the Universtiy of Cape Coast complaining about Sheini’s poor performance, which, according to the university, was far below standard explaining that his whole year’s aggregate was 0.79 and that his admission had been withdrawn.
The university is said to have caused the arrest of Sheini but he jumped bail only to resurface at the GES headquarters to inquire about his salary.
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IRS bags 600b cedis in first six months
The Daily Graphic in another front-page report says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has collected more than 600b cedis as revenue for the first half of the year, more than half of the 1.2 trillion cedis annual target set, according to Mr. David Adom, IRS Commissioner.
Mr. Adom, said to be addressing the fourth biennial delegates meeting of the Senior Staff Association, expressed optimism that the IRS would exceed the annual revenue target by 100billion cedis.
He reportedly attributed the performance so far to the diligence and hard work of the staff of the service and said with the falling international price of cocoa, gold and the rising price of oil, there is the need to raise revenue internally to finance projects and government activities.
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Post-mortem fixed for latest victim
A post-mortem will be conducted on Tuesday, July 11, on Anita Abban, 26, the latest victim of the serial killings in Accra, says the Ghanaian Times.
The paper said in a front-page coverage that some relatives of Anita have been identified and are helping the police in their investigation into the case.
Times says a police source told it on Thursday that the relatives would be expected to identify the body again at the Police Hospital Mortuary on Tuesday before the post-mortem.
The paper recalls that Anita’s body was found in an uncompleted building at Asylum Down in Accra on Sunday, July 2.
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Primaries not best way to pick candidates
In another front-page story, Times says Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said on Tuesday that his party did not hold primaries to select its parliamentary candidates because it is not the best democratic way.
Alhaji Huudu Yahaya in an address to party members at Gomoa West Constituency said, that the NDC adopted the consultative, assessment and consensus reaching method because it covered wider spectrum of opinion than primaries, in which few delegates decided for the majority.
He is reported as saying that the probability of rich contestants influencing delegates with money to vote in their favour in primaries could not be ruled out, and if that was done, the services of some honest people would be lost to the nation.
The NDC scribe was quoted as saying that the party was holding consultations to enable it to come out with “credible and marketable” candidates.
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Rawlings’ stand on corruption
The Ghana Palaver has it that President Rawlings stunned the world audience at the Geneva Social Development Summit on Monday June 26, 2000 when he dared Western financial institutions to relax banking confidentiality and secrecy rules so that corrupt African leaders who have stashed monies away into such banks can be exposed.
According to the story, President Rawlings stated that “since the 1995 Copenhagen Summit, a number of developing countries have been destabilised on corruption charges and the trail of evidence has invariably led to the financial and banking institutions of the Western World.”
The story quotes President Rawlings as having stated that if we want a truly transparent governance system in our countries then the governments of the developed world and their financial and banking institutions must cooperate with us. “They must make it impossible for the proceeds of corruption in the developing countries to be left in their countries and their vaults.”
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Prison officers live in prison
The Free Press reports that lack of facilities especially accommodation for prison officers at the Boys Borstal Institute in Accra is so severe that some of the officers do not even mind sharing the obviously sub-standard quarters with the inmates.
The paper says exploratory investigations that it conducted uncovered “very crude and inhospitable places of abode for the prison officers”.
Free Press adds that, “such is the gravity of the deplorable accommodation situation that some junior officers are compelled to stay in two of the dormitories measuring about 8ft. by 12ft. a room, meant for the inmates.”
The situation has also deteriorated to the extent that female officers live in small cubicles with no toilet facilities and other places of convenience.
“As women who deserve some level of privacy, when nature calls, these ladies have to attend to the call in the surrounding bushes and uncompleted buildings in the Roman Ridge vicinity,” The paper said.
The paper quotes one officer as stating, “the uncomfortable nature of the place is such that when it rains, our personal effects get soaked. In the dry seas, here is almost like Sahara desert, the situation even becomes worse when you put on a fan.”
Free Press, according to the story further uncovered that at the moment the transit quarters constructed some years ago, serves as a permanent accommodation for some junior officers and their families. It said the Senior Officers’ Mess which was intended to provide accommodation for those in transit has also turned out to be a permanent quarters for these officers.
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The ¢1.5m a week day School
The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that a private American-owned, high-charging Lincoln community Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary Schools at Abelenkpe, a suburb of Accra, is in a battle over lands with the government and residents over its development of what is alleged as an unauthorised land. Lincoln’s foreign dominated students, reportedly pay $12,000 per annum.
The story says the trouble begun when the school, in expanding its ultra-modern complex started developing what the residents say has been earmarked for a community clinic.
A protest letter dated 2 June 2000 and signed by seventy residents, including the assemblyman for the area, Ibrahim Usman Jnr and copied to various government agencies said a site meant for a clinic that would serve about eight surburbs of Accra has been given away to the private school.
The residents, according to the story, are blaming officials of the Land Commission and the government for what they described as “an insensitive decision to deprive them of their basic needs.”
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NPP will win only 50 seats if...
The Dispatch says a recent research that it conducted indicates that unless the New Patriotic Party (NPP) engages in political horse-trading (agreeing with the rest of the opposition to present single candidates in some constituencies), it would lose some of its current parliamentary seats.
The story says that without-prejudice, the exercise that it undertook indicated that the NPP, without horse-trading, is likely to lose 11 of its current 61 seats to clinch just 50 seats in December.
Dispatch submits however that horse-trading should very likely give the NPP an additional 22 seats of the NDC’s 133 in 1996, the CPP grabbing four and the PNC getting three.
The paper further says that central to the ‘horse-trading’ negotiations will be the National Reform Party (NRP)’s fielding of candidates in those 22 Constituencies to draw votes from the NDC.
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21 NDC MPs retained
The Evening News says 21 sitting MPs from seven regions of the country have been retained by the National Democratic Congress to contest the 2000 December elections.
The lead story of the paper said a release from the NDC party headquarters in Accra, named the approved candidates as Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe, Gomoa West, Kobina Fosu, Asikuma-Odoben Brakwa, and K. Alhassan Dadzie, Assin South, in the Central Region.
Those retained in the Brong-Ahafo Region are, Alhaji Ali, Atebubu South and E. Baah Dankwa, Asutifi North.
Mr. Alban Gbagbin, Nadowli North, M.A. Seidu, Wa Central and Iassahaku Salia, Wa East are for Upper West.
Messrs. Norbert Awuley, Builsa South and John Akologo Tia, Talensi are reportedly for Upper East, while Abraham Kofi Asante, Amenfi West and C.K. Asante, Bia are for Western Region.
The paper gives the list for the Volta Region as E.K. Doe Adjaho, Avenor, col. C.K. Agbenaza, Ketu South, Kosi Kedem, Hohoe South, and Gershon Gbediame, Nkwanta.
For the Northern Region, Alhaji Abdulai Salifu, Tolon, Joko Tawiah Likpalimor, Kandai, Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu, Nanton, John Mahama, Bole and Alhaji M. Yahaya, Chereponi in the Northern.
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