MP condemns corruption in road construction sector
Six NPP supporters
return to fold
Mills receives Action Aid Boss
Three-tier car park
to be built at Kaneshie market
Do not damage posters - police
There are enough voter registration forms - EC
Rawlings calls for more collaboration with Cuba
MP condemns corruption in road construction
sector
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 10 May 2000
Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, MP for Old Tafo-Suame, has condemned what he described as ''high level corruption" in the country's road construction sector which has made road construction in Ghana the most expensive in the whole of the West African sub-region.
Giving statistics to support his assertion, the MP said while it costs 800,000 dollars to construct a kilometre of asphalt road in Ghana, it is 360,000 dollars in Nigeria with Togo and Benin doing it at 500,000 dollars and in Cote d'Ivoire, it is 450,000 dollars.
Mr. Mensah-Bonsu was speaking at public forums at Tarkwa-Maakro and Anomangye in Kumasi and to explain to his constituents how he disbursed his share of the MP's common fund.
He said while recognising the achievements made by the NDC government in the area of road construction and improvement, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that this has been made possible at a great expense.
GRi…/
Six NPP
supporters return to fold
Suhum (Eastern Region) 10 May 2000
Six executive members of the Suhum
constituency branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who resigned soon after
the 1996 general elections, have returned to the party.
They are Mr. Yaw Boakye, Mr. D.K.
Adu, Mr. Frank Ankomah, Mr. Lartey Ameyaw, Mr. Kwasi Boadu and Mr. Gyan Kwafo.
The Suhum constituency chairman of
the party, Mr Osei Bonsu, at Suhum, told the GNA on Monday that the six
rescinded their decision in the party's interest and they have agreed to settle
misunderstandings between them and some executive members of the party
amicably.
GRi…/
Mills receives Action Aid Boss
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 May 2000
Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday lauded the development and humanitarian strides of Action Aid, a Non-Governmental Organisation, saying it stands out in efforts to improve the lot of the people at the grassroots.
Unlike other outfits who hide under the banner of NGO to seek their own parochial interest, Action Aid has chalked successes in sustainable efforts at reducing poverty at various levels in the country, he told the Chief Executive of the London-based NGO, Salil Shetty, when he called on him the Castle, Osu.
The Vice-President said the government would give maximum support to Action Aid to continue its programme to bring development to the people, saying: "Action Aid stands out from the lot because the people for whom it is working have started feeling the results," Prof. Mills said, and asked the organisation to make women the prime target in its poverty alleviation programmes.
"We must help our women who are the base of the family to develop", Vice President Mills said and asked them to spread into other areas in order to meet the challenges of the times.
Mr. Shetty said his organisation which operates in 35 countries, does not only look at symptoms of poverty but also its underlying causes, adding that there are no short-term solutions to poverty.
GRi…/
Three-tier car
park to be built at Kaneshie market
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 May 2000
Work on a three-tier car park is
to start this year at the Kaneshie market complex to ease vehicular congestion
on the Obetsebi Lamptey Circle-Malam road.
The seven million-dollar car park,
would also help to decongest the station of sellers who have abandoned their
stores to trade at the main lorry station, thus causing human traffic, Mr.
Kwame Amporful, General Manager of the Accra Market Limited, told the GNA in
Accra on Tuesday.
He said the park whose
construction will be completed within two years, will have a capacity of 325
vehicles. The ground floor would take 82 buses, the first floor, 84 taxis with
the second floor taking 158 private cars.
Negotiations with the landowners
are still in progress after which the project would commence, he said.
GRi…/
There are enough voter
registration forms - EC
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 May 2000
The Electoral Commission (EC) on Tuesday assured the public that there are enough forms to register all newly qualified voters.
"We have enough forms at the regional and district offices to meet the demand of the exercise," Mr. Hubert Akomeah, Head of the Information Technology Department, told the (GNA) in Accra in reaction to reports of shortage of registration forms barely two days after the exercise started.
Mr. Akomeah said the temporary shortage of registration forms at some polling stations is the result of a rush by newly qualified voters at the weekend to be registered adding that the EC has 1.5 million voter registration forms for the 10-day revision exercise.
Mr. Akomeah noted that next December's vote is very crucial in the history of the country and all those who have attained the voting age as well as those who could not register during the last exercise had rushed to the polling stations.
He said the EC has statistics on the registration pattern in the country but started with a "cautious distribution" of the registration forms as a control mechanism to avoid wastage at polling stations, which led to the temporary shortfalls during the weekend.
Mr. Samuel A. Yirenkyi, Greater Accra Regional Director 94,000 people had registered in the region by Monday, which was high compared against the 250,000 that registered throughout the country in 1997 and cautioned against double registration, which is punishable offence by the law.
GRi…/
Rawlings calls for more collaboration with
Cuba
Accra (Greater Accra) 10 May 2000
President Jerry John Rawlings on Tuesday called on Africa to show gratitude for Cuba's contribution to the independence struggle and adopt policies that would make it unnecessary for Cuban professionals to continue serving in the continent.
He said Cubans shed their blood for the independence of some African countries and the Caribbean nation continues to dispatch some of its best doctors to serve in some of the most difficult areas in Africa.
"We have to say thank you to Cuba for what it has done in the past and for what it has continued to do," the President said, when he received a Cuban delegation at the Castle, Osu.
The four-member delegation, led by Mr Ramiro Valdes Menendez, President, Grupo de la Electronica of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications, is on a one-week visit to explore opportunities for co-operation with the Ministry of Communications. Grupo de la Electronica provides services in electronics, telecommunications and automation.
President Rawlings said the present generation of Cubans, need to stay at home to enjoy the fruits of the revolution sown by their fathers but they are moving out to put their skills at the disposal of Africa.
"Africa has the capacity to enhance its development and what it needs is better terms of trade, which do not allow one partner to cheat the other. It should be a win-win situation."
President Rawlings said co-operation in information technology between the Ministries of Communications of the two countries is important for Ghana, especially in the health sector.
"This is an opportunity we should not let slip by as happened in the past. We should also ensure that this new technology does not remain in the hands of a few. We should use it for the benefit of our people."
Mr. John Mahama, Minister of Communications, said the delegation has identified four main project areas for collaboration. These are tele-medicine, manufacture of computers, telecommunications and value added services.
Under the tele-medicine programme, it is envisaged that 14 hospitals would be connected to service centres in a major referral hospital in Accra, which will host the database for the project with regional nodes in each regional capital. The network would eventually be connected to Cuba and linked to other countries with tele-medicine network.
Mr. Menendez said his outfit would like to collaborate with Ghanaian companies, with Ghana eventually serving as a gateway to other West African countries.
Grupo has representation in China, Hong Kong, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Colombia. Last year, it sold goods worth 191.1 million dollars out of which it exported goods to the tune of 3.1 million dollars.
GRi…/