Ghana Highways to spend 5.4 billion cedis on roads in UWR
Heads of departments urged to fight corruption
Fire destroys two shops at Adum
Plans to ensure food security in the offing
NDC must apologise for giving false data - NPP youth wing
District assembly to engage lawyers to retrieve loans from defaulters
Foreign Ministry to investigate dollar scandal at Tripoli
Ghanaians return home for summit
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 July 2001
Organisers of next week's homecoming summit on Wednesday called on residents to give of their best in welcoming expatriate Ghanaians who will be arriving for the special three-day event.
"Once again we should let the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality be at play as we welcome our kinsmen to their motherland," Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Chairman of the summit planning committee said at a media briefing in Accra.
The summit, scheduled to open in Accra on July 23 to 25, seeks to renew confidence of citizens living abroad in their country.
It is on the theme: "Harnessing the global Ghanaian resource potential for accelerated national development" with the slogan: "Motherland call, together, we create the nation's wealth."
"It is to enhance dialogue and explore opportunities for productive relations between Ghanaians living abroad and their country, and to identify the means to tap into the capacities they acquired abroad for the creation of the national wealth," said Mr Asamoah-Boateng.
At least 500 Ghanaians living abroad are expected to arrive in Accra by the weekend for the summit, being organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in conjunction with some allied institutions.
Official records show that Ghanaians abroad informally contribute between 300 and 400 million dollars annually to the economy back home, making the group the country's fourth highest foreign exchange source.
He said a firm decision has yet to be taken on whether Homecoming should remain an annual event.
However, the event is not for expatriate Ghanaians only but residents as well.
According to the programme, President John Agyekum Kufuor will open the summit on Monday at 10 a.m. at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Summit workshop issues will focus on optimising economic opportunities in Finance, Export Trade, Agribusiness, Agro-processing, Manufacturing, Transport and Tourism.
Other areas are Information and Communication Technology, Science, Technology, Environment, Education, Health and Culture.
There will be exhibitions and industrial visits as well as cultural, entertainment and recreational programmes.
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Wa (Upper West) 19 July 2001
The Ghana Highway Authority is spending a total of 5.4 billion cedis on the upgrading and routine maintenance of roads in the Upper West Region this year.
Out of the amount 2.9 billion cedis will be spent on the Wa-Sombo-Jirapa road and the Tumu-Wellembelle-Wahabu roads.
Mr Joe-Fred Peseo, Regional Director of the Authority told the Ghana News Agency at Wa that the reshaping of roads, re-gravelling and construction of culverts would cost an estimated 2.5 billion cedis.
He said a number of rumble strips would be constructed to check over speeding, which has been identified as one of the major causes of accidents in the region.
Mr Peseo called on the Police to enforce the road traffic regulations to stop the blatant abuse by drivers.
He said the country has been re-zoned and studies on the road network are underway to upgrade and rehabilitate certain roads to link them up to other roads to shorten distances.
Under the programme the Wahabu-Funsi-Yaala road in the region will be upgraded to link Kumbungu in the Northern Region.
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Salaga (Northern Region) 19 July 2001
Mr Bismark Haruna Dari, East Gonja District Chief Executive has asked heads of departments to institute measures to curb corruption at their workplaces.
Corruption, he said, undermines the smooth running of government machinery and the overall national development effort.
Speaking at a meeting with department heads at Salaga on Monday Mr Dari called for transparency in discharging duties saying, "Lack of transparency creates suspicion and rumour-mongering".
Mr Dari suggested regular interaction between heads and subordinate staff through durbars to listen to their views and grievances, which could be vital inputs for solving problems.
The DCE also asked them to check vices such as lateness to work and drunkenness among the workers, which affect productivity.
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 19 July 2001
A 13-year-old schoolgirl, Jemima Quarshie attracted a crowd of sympathisers on Tuesday at the Koforidua Central Hospital when a middle-aged woman reportedly swindled her of 10,000 cedis during one of her pre-school morning hawking.
A sobbing Jemina, a student at the AME Zion Junior Secondary School (JSS) told her sympathisers that her mother sent her with some biscuits to hawk before going to school, as she normally does when she is in the afternoon shift.
She said on reaching the nearby Evangelical Presbyterian Church premises, the middle-aged woman accosted her and asked her to accompany her to the hospital so that she could buy some of the biscuits for her patient on admission.
On reaching the casualty ward, she said the woman bought two thousand cedis worth of the biscuits and asked for a change of eight thousand cedis under the pretext that she was taking it into the ward to collect two five thousand cedi notes from the patient to bring to her.
According to Jemina, after collecting the biscuit and the amount, the woman went behind the ward and she did not see her again.
One Mr Yaw Agyare Buadu gave Jemima 10,000 cedis to replace the loss.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 19 July 2001
Fire gutted two stores at Adum, the nerve centre of economic activities in Kumasi in the early hours of Wednesday destroying items worth millions of cedis.
The stores, Asomadu Enterprise and Owusu and Asare Company Limited sell various electrical items, which were all destroyed. The only items that were salvaged were plastic chairs.
It took the Metropolitan Fire Service about two hours to bring the fire under control.
When the GNA got to the scene, personnel of the Fire Service assisted by some members of the public were salvaging what was left from the two shops.
Divisional Fire Officer Herbert Acquah told the GNA that they were informed about the outbreak at about 06:00 hours.
He expressed concern about the behaviour of some members of the public, who under the pretext of helping to salvage items during the fire outbreaks rather steal them.
He condemned those, who were obstructing the firemen and said but for the presence of the Police they would have had a hell of a time putting out the fire.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 July 2001
Mr. Emile Short, Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has said the role of the police in maintaining law and order cannot be whole without respect, support and encouragement from the public.
“The commission therefore condemns without qualification all forms of civilian aggression against the police", he said at the launching of Fraternal Order of Police (FOP): Ghana at a ceremony in Accra.
FOP is a voluntary association formed to assist the police. It will help in areas such as training and equipment.
Mr Short who has just returned from a two-month trip to Tanzania where he helped to establish a human rights commission said the CHRAG would step up its education efforts to sensitise the public on the importance of respecting and cooperating with the police to prevent crime.
Mr Short expressed concern about the deterioration of police/civilian relations, which he said, reached its highest peak during the police swoops at Ablekuma and Akwatia.
"While the commission was appalled by the alleged killing of two police officers in the course of their normal duties at Ablekuma, it was equally horrified by the apparent careless abandon with which the police carried out its investigations into the alleged killings."
Mr Short said " those who wield the use of deadly force in society shoulder an onerous responsibility; they bear the burden, notwithstanding the rather difficult social and economic environment within which they function."
He said the police and civilians have a long way to travel in forging a wider appreciation of human rights values, standards and norms in the society.
He commended the founders of the FOP whose objectives include restoration of the good image and providing a broader platform for police /civilian relations.
Mr Short said for democracy to be sustained an effective police force with the requisite training and resources as its backbone should be in place and charged the FOP to endeavour to make significant contributions to that effect.
Mr Kwasi Nkansah Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, who represented the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ernest Owusu-Poku, said the police administration is faced with a heavy responsibility of shaping its image and this could be achieved through training.
"As a consequence the administration has initiated various training programmes aimed at enhancing the professional skills and competence of personnel."
He said the focus of the service now is to ensure that officers and men respect fundamental human rights of individuals.
Mr Short appealed to the FOP and other organisations to assist the police with logistics to enable them to function effectively and asked the public to also take precautionary measures to make their homes safe and secure.
He appealed to the government to provide communication equipment, vehicles and accommodation to boost the morale of personnel.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 July 2001
Major Courage Quashigah (RTD), Minister of Food and Agriculture said on Wednesday that the ministry would soon unveil strategies to ensure food security all year round.
"Ensuring food security in the country has been identified as the major problem facing the ministry but we hope to achieve 50 per cent by the end of our years with the strategies to be unveiled," he said when he presented tractors to some universities, agricultural colleges, the Armed Forces and the Prisons Service.
The minister said currently the average consumer spends about 120 per cent of his or her earnings on food.
"This shows that the journey to achieving food security as a nation is very far. As we plan to improve on our food situation we must not forget to endeavour to produce good quality food which makes the nation healthy.''
He commended the food processing industry for adding value to produce for export and suggested that packaging should be done hygienically.
Major Quashigah urged the beneficiary institutions to give students the chance to try their hands on the tractors. They appealed to the minister to add spare parts.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 19 July 2001
The youth wing of the NPP on Tuesday called on the NDC to unreservedly apologise to Ghanaians for exposing the country to international embarrassment due to false data it provided to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The wing noted that the act has caused the country great financial losses and dismissed the party's assertions that the fund only imposed a penalty because of allegations raised to that effect by the present government.
A statement released on Tuesday by the acting National Organiser of the NPP Youth Wing, Mr Kwame Twumasi-Awuah said, "The IMF is a well respected body with highly qualified experts, who depend on facts and not hearsay and allegations of others to draw their conclusions".
"Does the NDC want to say that whatever is said by the present the government is accepted hook, line and sinker by the IMF and for that matter other similar organisations?"
Mr Twumasi-Awuah said the presentation of false data constituted a breach of trust reposed in the NDC by Ghanaians for which it should render an unqualified apology.
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Mpraeso (Eastern Region) 19 July 2001
The Kwahu South District Assembly is to take legal action against all Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) loan defaulters to retrieve 305.6 million cedis.
Only 39.1 million cedis out of the 346.5 million cedis granted to about 200 individuals and groups as loans under the PAF have been recovered in the past three years.
This was announced by the out-going District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Solomon Kasta at an executive committee meeting of the assembly at Mpraeso.
He said all efforts by the assembly to collect the loans from the defaulters had failed hence the decision to institute legal action against them.
Mr Kasta reminded the defaulters that the loans were not a gift from the government but a revolving fund to assist farmers and small-scale industrialists to enhance their production and alleviate poverty for improved standard of living.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 July 2001
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday assured victims of the alleged missing dollar scandal at the Ghana Mission in Libya that an official investigation is underway to unravel the mystery.
This was contained in a statement issued in Accra about the alleged theft of the unspecified amount deposited at the Embassy by some 200 Ghanaian residents who were evacuated by the government last year during an attack on black immigrants by rampaging Libyan youth.
The release signed by Mr Leonard Daniel Mensah, Acting Director of Information, Culture and Linguistics Bureau was prompted by a story on the scandal by an Accra daily.
It said the ministry is in touch with the Attorney General's Department and would soon come out with an official statement on the matter.
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