GRi Newsreel 02-06-2000
Teenage
pregnancy - 380 girls in Sunyani dropped out of school
Two policemen
and surety died in accident
Police learns
more on fraud, economic crimes
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 02 May 2000
Three hundred and eighty
schoolgirls in the Sunyani District became pregnant and dropped out of school
last year, Mr. Kwame Menka, Principal Technical Officer at the Sunyani District
Health Directorate announced on Tuesday.
They formed part of 503 teenage
pregnancies that were recorded at antenatal clinics in the district over the
period, Mr. Menka said at the inauguration of the District's Population
Advocacy Committee.
The 10-member committee is charged
with the responsibility of helping to solve the numerous population problems.
Mr. Menka stressed the need for the
committee to work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, which is
implementing special programmes to address population issues, including
sexually transmitted diseases, family planning and responsible parenthood.
The District Chief Executive, Mr.
Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, said a Ministry of Health study has revealed that many
teenagers in the district indulge in unprotected sex by the time they are 14 or
15 years old.
He identified parental neglect and
permissiveness, economic hardships, curiosity and cultural practices, which
make females submissive to their male counterparts as some of the causes of
teenage pregnancy.
The committee should, therefore,
draw up and implement programmes to effectively eradicate all the population
problems in the district, he said.
Speaking on the theme for the
inauguration: "Teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortions - the way
forward," Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo stressed the need to make it easier for
teenagers to have access to information about sexuality.
"In this age when sexually
transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS are spreading fast, it is important that
every effort is made to wipe away ignorance on reproductive health among the
youth".
GRi../
Adomi Senchie (Eastern Region) 02
May 2000
Two policemen and a surety were
killed when they were hit by a vehicle, which veered off the road at Adomi
Senchie, near Atimpoku on Friday.
The dead persons and another who
was injured, were waiting for a vehicle to convey them to the house of the
surety when the accident occurred.
A police source told the GNA at
Senchie, that Corporal P.K. Owusu and Constable Gabriel Donaah, both of Adomi
Senchie, the surety and another person, were waiting to board a vehicle to the
house of the surety when the accident occured.
He said the victims were rushed to
the VRA Hospital at Akosombo but the Corporal Owusu and Constable Donaah and
the surety were pronounced dead on arrival, while the fourth person is still on
admission at the hospital.
The source said the driver of the
vehicle absconded immediately after the accident leaving the vehicle behind,
the source said and appealed to the public to assist in his arrest the runaway driver.
GRi../
Tamale (Northern Region) 02 May
2000
The Northern Region supervisor of
the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), Mr. Robert Adam, on Tuesday called on
consumers to cultivate the habit of checking the quality of goods before
purchasing them.
Mr. Adam made the call in Tamale
after leading an exercise by the Northern sector secretariat of the GSB to
seize large quantities of expired goods on display at shops, supermarkets and
open markets in the northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
The goods worth more than five
million cedis included drugs, biscuits, canned foods and beverages.
Mr. Adam said the random searches
were conduced at Bawku, Bolgatanga, Navrongo, Wa, Sawla, Yendi, Walewale and
Tamale.
The exercise was meant to retrieve
goods that have not been certified by the GSB, those improperly labelled and
expired ones.
The supervisor appealed to members
of unit committees, as well as assembly members to help flush out people who
sell unauthorised and expired goods to the unsuspecting public especially to
those in the rural areas.
GRi../
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 02 May 2000
The implementation of the second
phase of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), under the Public Sector
Medium to Long-Term Salaries and Wages Policy, will take off in June.
Mr. A.K. Yankey, Chairman of the
Central Management Board (CMB), disclosed this at a two-day seminar to educate
members of the Consultative Forum in Ashanti on the policy in Kumasi on Tuesday.
The Consultative Forum comprises
the Civil Servants Association, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT),
Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), Judicial Service Staff Association
of Ghana (JUSAG) and the Health Services Workers Union (HSWU).
Mr. Yankey said, with the end of
the second part of negotiations in April, the implementation would start in
June while all arrears, in respect of the increases would be paid by the end of
July.
The appellate body looking into
petitions from organisations and individuals on the implementation of the
salary structure had submitted its second interim report, he said and added
that the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare was working on it.
Mr. Yankey said the policy on the
new salary structure was on course and that the problems encountered last year
after the implementation of the policy by the CMB, the Controller and
Accountant General's Department, and the Ministry of Finance had all been
resolved.
He said government's objectives for
the public sector reform programme include ensuring a pro-active and motivated
public service capable of contributing towards the attainment of broad policy
objectives of the government in the areas of good governance, accelerated
economic growth, private sector development and equitable social development.
"The critical theme at the
centre of compensation policy and practice should be equity, that is equal pay
for work of equal worth," he added.
GRi../
The strike action by members of the Ghana Union
of Traders Association (GUTA) entered its third day on Wednesday with shops
remaining closed to the public but Mr. George Frimpong, President of GUTA, told
the Ghana News Agency that consultations with the Ministry of Trade and
Industry was ongoing.
"The leadership of the association will
inform members on the next line of action as and when we deem it
necessary."
On its rounds through some major shopping
centres in Accra, the GNA saw shops on Pagan Road, Asafoatse Nettey Road,
Lutherodt Street and the Pemasu House closed.
Shops selling electrical appliances at Opera
Square, general goods shops at Makola and some parts of the shopping mall were
also closed.
Some shop owners taunted policemen and a few
military personnel who were present at Opera Square and in front of Melcom,
which closed earlier in the morning but reopened a few hours later.
Other areas visited include the Swalaba
Shopping Centre, near the General Post Office, spare parts and electrical
gadget shops at Zongo Junction, Kaneshie, Abossey Okai and along the
Odorkor-Kaneshie road.
Some shop owners found loitering maintained
that they would not open their shops to the public until the government
responds favourably to their concerns.
However, owners of shops located at the
Dansoman Junction, near Mataheko, and scrap dealers at Kokompe at Darkuman,
were going about their normal business.
When contacted, Mr. Emmanuel Allotey, Secretary
of the local union of the Scrap Dealers Association at Kokompe, said their
members were not contacted about the strike.
He said even though both associations deal in
spare parts, their operations differ from those who fall under GUTA but added
that despite the strike action, the volume of business has not increased.
Members of GUTA on Monday embarked on a week's
strike action to press home demands for the government to put in place measures
to check the continued slide of the cedi which has eroded their capital, when
converted into hard currency to buy wares.
They also called on the government not to
introduce a 20.5 per cent special tax on non-essential imports saying that the
introduction of the tax would not serve its purpose because the timing is not right.
The Ministry of Trade and GUTA is expected to
issue a joint statement later today on the out of negotiations
GRi../
Npraeso, (Eastern Region) 02 May 2000
The Kwahu Traditional Council has called on the
government to suspend the second phase of operation "Cowleg" in which
a large number of cattle and their herdsmen are being flushed out by the
military from the Kwahu South and the Afram Plains districts for destroying
crops and water sources.
The Council said though the cattle and their
herdsmen entered the area illegally from Nigeria, the government should
negotiate with the herdsmen in the spirit of ECOWAS, to make them sell the
cattle to their Ghanaian counterparts.
The President of the Council, Dasebre Akuamoah
Boateng the second, made the call at a meeting with the DCEs for Kwahu South,
Fanteakwa and Afram Plains, as well as the Fulani herdsmen, the military
personnel and a representative of the Nigeria High Commission in Ghana at
Mpraeso.
He said since the cattle have already caused
extensive damage to the environment, the herdsmen should be made to pay
penalties for entering the country illegally and for degrading the environment.
Dasebre Boateng said the presence of the
herdsmen and their cattle shows that a similar exercise carried out some years
ago had been a failure and urged the authorities to find an alternative answer
to the problem.
Mr. Collins Owusu Appiah, Fanteakwa DCE, said
with the assistance of the military
about 4,000 cattle have been driven out of the
district to the Kwahu South district and they together with those at Afram
Plains would be sent back to Nigeria through the republic of Togo and Benin.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 May 2000
An international conference to address issues
affecting women is due to open in Accra on Wednesday May 02.
The conference under the theme "The
Digital Woman: A focus on Women's issues", is to facilitate the creation
of a more democratic digital economy in the 21st century.
The conference, to be organised by Digital
Women, a local NGO, in collaboration with the National Council on Women and
Development (NCWD) aims at creating continuity via a permanent body of women
leaders who will champion the execution of the action plans from International
conferences.
It will also sensitise and develop the rich
capabilities of women to meet the challenges of the new digital century.
Commander Griffiths, Minister of Trade and
Industry, will address participants on how to mobilise resources to narrow the
digital divide for the development of women in the area of education, commerce,
health and culture.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 May 2000
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) said on
Tuesday that it has suspended with immediate effect the increase in rental fees
charged for the use of facilities in public basic schools in the metropolis.
It said the suspension has become necessary in
view of representations made by a section of the society calling for a review
of the new rates.
Mr. Elliot Adom, Public Relations Officer of
AMA, said in a statement to the GNA that, the general meeting of the Assembly
in December 1999 increased the fees to meet the rising cost of maintenance.
"Unfortunately, this has been
misinterpreted to mean a clampdown on churches in the metropolis. We are
therefore reverting to the old fees until this issue is resolved."
AMA recently increased the monthly fees for the
use of facilities at public basic schools in the metropolis from 200,000 cedis
to 500,000 cedis.
All organisations wishing to use the facilities
were asked to re-register with one million cedis and deposit two million cedis
against damage. Churches were in addition to pay 250,000 cedis per day for
harvests, crusades and conventions.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 May 2000
Work on the Keta Sea Defence Project takes off
fully on June 1, after the completion of mobilisation of both material and
human resources by Messers Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company of the USA.
The project, which commenced on 15th September
1999, is meant to halt the ravaging nature of the sea on the livelihood of the
people.
Speaking during his turn at the Meet-The-Press
series, Mr. Isaac Adjei-Mensah, Minister of Works and Housing, said as part of
the mobilisation and preparatory works, large consignments of equipment and
machinery have been brought to the site at the Havedzi and Metsirikasa Quarry
site.
He said that a second dredger "Utah"
which is much bigger than the "Alabama" dredger, would arrive on July
15 for the project which will cost 84 million dollars and is expected to be
completed in four-and-a-half years.
Mr. Adjei-Mensah said components of the Project
involve the building of a defence structure of seven groynes and beach
nourishment, land reclamation on the Keta Lagoon site and work on the
seven-kilometre stretch of access road from Havedzi to Keta.
The rest is the outfall structure at Kedzi for
lagoon flood control and bird habitat islands.
On the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration
Project, the minister said the government has secured a 29 million-dollar loan
from the Kuwaiti Fund, the Arab Bank for the Economic Development of Africa (BADEA),
and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for it.
The project involves dredging of nearly 1.2
million cubic metres of material, construction of a waste diversion channel
around the lagoon, and the provision of a 1.5-kilometre sea outfall structure.
The Minister said the first contractor for the
project who had brought in people with low qualification has been fired and
replaced with a more competent one, adding that due to shortfalls in project
financing, only one stage of the project has been started.
He said funding agencies have agreed to provide
additional money, adding that the Kuwaiti Fund recently signed a 10
million-dollar agreement with the government to support the project.
Mr. Adjei-Mensah touched on the water situation
and blamed the current shortages in some parts of Accra, on the unbridled
developments in the metropolis. This has put severe pressure on the generating
capacities of the water pumping stations that were originally meant for very
small populations.
To improve on the situation, water tank depots
are to be built in is such water-shortage endemic areas as Tantra Hill,
Achimota, East Legon, Adenta, Pantang, Ashalley Botwe, John Teye, Kasoa,
Kaneshie, Nungua and Lamna, near Kokrobite.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 May 2000
Mr. William K. Aboah, Commissioner of Police,
Criminal Investigations Department (CID), said on Tuesday that there is an
upsurge of crime in the country in spite of the political will and efforts by
the government and the international community to track down all forms of
crime.
Criminals have taken advantage of the
improvement in information technology to dupe a lot of victims, Mr. Aboah said,
noting that telephone fraud is on the increase and cuts across fixed lines,
cellular phones, public phones, switch boards and call cards.
"The methods used by the criminals are
becoming increasingly subtle and ingenuous. Their resourcefulness is such that
it causes concern in several courts."
Mr. Aboah said, with the increase in
sophistication of communication equipment and document fraud, the banks and
financial institutions were most at risk.
He said various factors, including economic,
family ties, taste for high life, level and rate of deterioration in moral
standards, confirm that crime today presents a very serious problem to which
everybody should assist in finding a solution.
Mr. Aboah, also the Director of the Ghana
Immigration Service, was presenting a paper on "Fraud, Economic and
Cross-Border Crimes" at a one-day's seminar organised by the Committee for
Co-operation between Law Enforcement Agencies and Banking Institutions (COCLAB)
in Accra.
The committee comprises representatives from
the VAT Secretariat, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, the banking
institutions, Police Service, Attorney General's Department, Immigration
Service, Serious Fraud Office, Internal Revenue Service and the
Registrar-General's Department.
It was established in 1997 to create a forum
for interaction between the police and officials of financial institutions to
create a better understanding between the law enforcement agencies and the
financial community.
It also a forum for the exchange of information
regarding newly identified syndicates and the techniques of fraud schemes,
among other functions.
Mr. Aboah said the national and trans-national
nature of crime today raises the question of what should be done at a time when
the security agencies are divided between the desire for security, on one hand,
and the ambition to be better off on the other hand.
He stressed the importance for a centralised
data bank that can be used to obtain reliable statistics of cases dealt with in
the country to avoid relying solely on figures supplied by the police.
Chief Superintendent Rose Kotoe of the Economic
Crime Bureau said the INTERPOL General Assembly passed a resolution in 1986 to
create a working group on co-operation between law enforcement agencies and the
banking communities.
She said Ghana, as a member of INTERPOL, fully
appreciates the immense benefits to be derived from the creation of such a
committee, taking into consideration the rate at which fraud cases are
developing in the country.
"The decision to institute a more
formalised system of police and bank co-operation towards the prevention and
detection of economic crimes is in the right direction to track down all
criminal activities."
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 02 May 2000
The Ministry of Mines and Energy,
on Wednesday said measures would be taken to mitigate the negative
environmental impact of the Bui Dam Hydro-electric project, scheduled to take
off in 2001 and completed in year 2007.
A statement issued in Accra by the Ministry said the implementation
of the project would be contingent upon an Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) to be undertaken by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in collaboration with
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana.
"A formal request has been sent to the World Bank to solicit
funding to meet the cost of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and other
topographic survey."
The statement recalled publications
in the 3rd to 9th April, 2000 edition of the Dispatch, under the headline
"Bui Dam to displace 30,000" and the 14th May edition of the
Statesman, under the headline "Bui Dam in trouble"
It described the claim in the
Dispatch that the project would displace 30,000 people, as out of tune, saying
that a feasibility study conducted on the project in 1995, indicated among
other things that about 2,500 people would be displaced.
Other negative environmental
effects of the project, the statement said, include a partial inundation of the
Bui National Park, specifically 21 per cent of the park area and minor impacts
on the fauna and flora in the area.
The statement, however, noted that
the government and its collaborators in the Bui Dam project are committed to
preventing environmental and population settlement problems similar to what
occurred after the construction of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam.
"The conditions precedent to
the release of funds for projects of this nature today are different from those
of yesteryears. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and management costs are
all now part of the cost of projects of this nature".
It said a memorandum of understanding, signed between the VRA and
a private sector development consortium in October, 1999, therefore, prescribed
measures such as the EIA, health and socio-economic impact as well as reduced
cost of operation of the project as precedent to the release of funds.
Under the precedent conditions, the
boundaries of the Bui National Park is to be extended, well resourced and put
under a management authority, and all displaced persons are to be resettled and
compensated adequately among other things.
Ministry is working in close
collaboration with the Bui Development Committee and the VRA to ensure that the
environmental impact study would be done in details to meet the requirements of
the EPA Act of Ghana.
It would as well fulfil the conditionalities of
various development partners and private sector financing institutions.
It said contrary to allegations
that the European Union and the World Bank have pulled out from the project,
the latter has given its consent for preliminary studies leading to the
preparation of a full scale EIA.
The Ministry, therefore, appealed
to the public not to see the minor environmental issues involved in the project
as anti-development, saying that not only would the project offer an additional
400 megawatts of hydroelectric power, but would also have several positive spin
off effects on the economy.
"Apart from the main objective
of power generation to meet local requirements, the project would also make
water available for irrigation and development of agro-based industries, the
development of eco-tourism and the creation of jobs.
"The project will also balance
power supply to the northern part of the country and by its strategic location
promote cross boarder dispatches to Burkina Faso".
The statement said the government would, therefore, as a matter of
policy, continue to develop a mix of such generation facilities over the
period, to avoid the reoccurrence of the 1983 and 1998 power crisis.
GRi../