Accra (Greater Accra) 06 March 2002 - The Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) has shut down one of its four operational potlines, thus reducing its total output capacity from 160,000 to 120,000 metric tonnes. The potline was shut down at 12
midnight last Saturday.
The move will result in the lay-off of about 200 workers including both junior and senior staff of the company on Thursday, March 7, this year. The company has a workforce of 1,225. VALCO, which as of 1994, had a capacity of 200,000 tonnes, had to shut down one of its five potlines in 1994 during a power crises, bringing its capacity to 160,000 metric tonnes.
Briefing members of the Executive Committee of the Greater Accra Regional Council of Labour, at its meeting in Tema on Tuesday, the Assistant Secretary of the VALCO Local Union, Mr Ilyas Malik Adams, said but for the timely intervention of the Tema District Council of Labour, close to about 500 workers would have been sent home by the end of this month.
He said the affected workers in addition to their end of service benefits, will be given goodwill pay, medical coverage for a period, while their children on VALCO scholarship will be allowed to complete their courses. A source at VALCO confirmed that the potline has been shut down. - Daily Graphic
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 March 2002 - The Executive Director of Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Dr Joe Abbey has criticised the Statistical Service for its inability to provide a reliable data to monitor the performance of the economy.
Dr Abbey contributing to a roundtable discussion on this year’s budget statement said, “we are tired of fighting figures that do not exist”. He explained that the Statistical Service’s inability to prove credible figures makes difficult to really assess the performance of the economy.
Dr Abbey said: “We want to call the Statistical Service to order. We need them to talk to us transparently and we need clear credible figures. The executive director said that it is unfortunate that the service always found it difficult getting the right figure for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is an important variable.
“We need credible figures that would serve as monitorable bench marks. We must stop fighting data and rather get to their interpretation,” he said. Dr Abbey noted that there were occasions where the data provided by the service had been doubled by the country’s development partners. “It is on record that Ghana has been embarrassed internationally because of bad reporting as a result of the unreliable data provided by the service,” he said.
Dr Abbey said that he was surprised that the tourists flow into the country increased by four per cent last year, whilst it was clear that after the September 11 attacks, the figures worldwide dropped. He noted that such a figure would definitely raise eyebrows about its credibility. He said due to the lack of credible data, it had become difficult to know whether social distress was mounting. - The Ghanaian Times
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 March 2002 - The commandos of the past regime currently residing in government bungalows would be ejected soon by the Ministry of Works and Housing. A letter to that effect was submitted to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Army Headquarters last year seeking the ejection of the commandos who are neither government workers nor being regularised into the Ghana Armed Forces.
These commandos were accommodated in the bungalows by the previous administration as special bodyguards of the president and other top officials of that regime. Although the Ministry of Works and Housing has not yet received any response from the CDS regarding the ejection of the commandos, the Ministry is bent on ejecting them to pave way for government workers to be properly accommodated.
So far, places that the Ministry has confirmed as being occupied by the commandos, most of whom were based at the Castle, are the Kwame Nkrumah Flat at Laterbiokorshie, Labone and opposite Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). The commandos according to “The Evening News” investigations should have been relocated from those bungalows when the previous government lost its incumbency to the new administration.
As at now it is not clear whether the government would resettle them or not. When contacted, a source at the Ministry of Works and Housing which confirmed the story said, it is illegal of the commandos to occupy those bungalows since they are no longer in government employment. It said a delegation from the Ministry toured the places last Tuesday to ascertain the facts on the ground. The source said the Ministry is however negotiating with the CDS to see how best the exercise could be carried out. – The Evening News
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com