Let’s join hands
We’ll hold govt to its promises – TUC boss
Panic in NDC – Quality Grains lady spills the beans
June 4 to be buried
Fat cat boards sap Ghanaair
Rawlings sobers up…and kicks against May 15 celebration
Nana’s man arrested
Bagbin must prove it – Jake dares
Minimum wage now 5,500 cedis
ESB to be restored?
Chakitey’s death unnatural – witness quotes pathologist
Let’s join hands
The President, Mr J.A. Kufuor, has called for a partnership of government, employers and workers to lift the country from its unacceptable economic conditions, reports the Daily Graphic.
This objective can be fruitful provided there are workers who are enthusiastic, supportive and productive, President Kufuor said in Accra on Tuesday when he addressed this year’s May Day parade.
He pointed out that the country needs to embrace the new thinking that has helped other countries to transform their economies.
To this end, he called for the transformation of the adversarial relationship that exists between workers and employers.
Mr Kufuor, who also spoke about wages and prices policies in the country, said: “We don’t need to go far to see just how out of joint we are in the subject of prices and incomes.”
He said: “for far too long, we have been living in a totally false economy. We pay false wages and charge false prices for our goods; thus, inciting criminal activity, like smuggling among an otherwise law-abiding population.
He expressed the hope that the debate he is initiating on prices and wages will be enthusiastically embraced by organised labour as well as by all sectors of society.
“This should be a debate that is conducted with as much realism as possible. Whilst it is right to expect fair wages for our labour, it is equally right that we pay fair prices for the services that enable us to lead quality lives,” he stressed.
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Mixed reaction to new minimum wage
The Graphic carries that sections of workers in Accra and Kumasi on Tuesday expressed divergent views on the new minimum wage of 5,500 cedis.
Whilst some of them who attended the May Day celebrations in the two cities described it as “woefully inadequate and below their expectations”, others said the minimum wage is the best, considering the prevailing precarious economic situation in the country.
Those who oppose the new minimum wage contended that with the recent increases in the prices of petroleum products, the 100 per cent upward adjustments in water and electricity tariffs with the associated soaring of prices of commodities, the new minimum wage cannot bail workers out of the economic and social shocks.
Speaking in an interview with the paper, Mr Eric Gyimah, Administrative Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, said the approved minimum wage is inadequate but justifiable, given the prevailing economic situation.
Mr J.K. Mensah, Chairman of the GIHOC Distilleries Workers Union, described the minimum wage as acceptable, saying the timing for the consensus decision by the Tripartite Committee would allow for smooth bargaining by institutions that depend on collective bargaining.
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We’ll hold govt to its promises – TUC boss
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has pledged to hold the government to its promise to control inflation and stabilise the micro-economy.
This is in light of workers accepting the inadequate increase in the daily minimum wage of 5,500 cedis giving the rising cost of living in the country, the Secretary-General, Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwa, said in his May Day message at the workers’ parade at the Independence Square in Accra on Tuesday.
“In the coming period, the economic and social situation of the country could be assessed from the impact of government’s policies,” he said.
To this end, he said that the TUC would insist that the government “places incomes at the centre of rewards to labour and integrate it with social protection for all workers”.
Mr Adu Amankwa said that the TUC would demand to see the material benefit of the sacrifices of workers, and therefore called on the government to rise up to its task.
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3 ECG staff held over 61 million cedis deals
Three workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have been arrested for fraudulently crediting some customers of the company with unauthorised payments through the computer system leading to the loss of 61 million cedis to the state.
The Ghanaian Times mentioned that them as Kwaku Owusu of the Accra West District, E.W.K. Larnyoh and Albert Wuttoh, both computer operators in the Accra East District Office and Magnus Dapaah of Accra West Office who is on the run.
Speaking to the Times in Accra on Tuesday, Mr E.K. Baidoo, a Public Relations Officer of the company, said that there had been numerous complaints of fictitious payments being credited to customers’ accounts through a clever manipulation of the computer payment system.
He said that in October last year an anonymous source hinted the company of the fraudulent deal of which he (the source) was a victim.
According to the source, under the arrangement, a customer’s account is credited with a huge amount of money after which the suspects would contact the customer and convince him to pay something quite substantial to the syndicate in order for the records to hold.
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Panic in NDC – Quality Grains lady spills the beans
The Dispatch says as the world was celebrating May Day on Tuesday, two events, happening in the southern United States city of Atlanta and Accra had some well-known people within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in heart-stopping panic.
The lady at the centre of what has become known as the Quality Grain Scandal, Ms Juliet Cotton, aka Ms Renee Woodard, has sent a message to some of her close friends in the NDC that said: “Try and cool the heat on me or I will go down with all those who received gifts from the project.”
Sources close to Ms Cotton in Atlanta told the paper that the lady, who said she had unimpeded access to some of the highest-placed people in Ghana, claimed that she was “asked to present a sort of report as the government had already decided to guarantee any amount that she wanted for the project.”
A couple of Ms cotton’s casual friends who were astonished by her lavish lifestyle told the Dispatch that she had said “the formula to land good business deals in African countries is to meet the right people, say and do the right things, be flexible and arrange trips to the US for them”.
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June 4 to be buried
The Accra Mail carries that one month from this Wednesday, another June 4 anniversary will be upon Ghanaians. The 22nd. Only this time round, it would not be celebrated with state time, money and resources, and the Ghana Armed Forces would have nothing to do with it.
There would be no route marches. There would be no threats and insults at the El Wak Stadium and no roads would be closed around the Flagstaff House in Accra.
The June 4 holiday, which was sneaked into Ghana’s calendar of holidays by the NDC dominated parliament of 1992-96 would in all probability not be celebrated at all from this year on.
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Fat cat boards sap Ghanaair
The Ghanaian Chronicle says part of the reason for the current haemorrhaging of the Ghana Airways can be traced to the massive abuse of the corporation’s assets and services by board members, management staff and political appointees over the years.
According to Chronicle, a lifelong arrangement instituted by past Board and Management, with concurrence of sector Ministers, board members are allowed as many as eight tickets a year with the extraordinarily expensive privilege that the tickets of board members and their spouses must be first class or in its absence, the royal board members may consider flying business class and their tickets confirmed for flight by the airline.
In addition, their baggage is also hauled completely free for them, including those of their children. Up to four children of the board members are also given tickets.
Thus the board member and his wife could travel two times a year and obtain up to four tickets for their children totalling up to eight.
The paper says the punch line in this extraordinary comedy of privileges is that former board members of the 43-year old airline which has had as many Chief Executives are also entitled to six tickets a year, also First Class or Business Class travel and also have free luggage such as is allowed first class passengers.
Finally, Chief Executives, including the last one, are also entitled to six tickets for himself and up to four of his registered children.
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Rawlings sobers up…and kicks against May 15 celebration
The Free Press reports that ex-President John Jerry Rawlings has warned cadres of the Progressive Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) to desist from celebrating the anniversary of the May 15 Uprising, stating that he would disassociate himself from any illegalities.
This was after the cadres had called on him to solicit help, both moral and financial for the celebrations.
A top cadre, who wants to remain anonymous revealed that early last week, when the cadres called on the ex-President to welcome him back from his foreign trip, they broached the subject of the celebration but he told the cadres that the celebration of any revolution or coup had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court and he would therefore, not support any illegality.
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Nana’s man arrested
The Weekly Insight carries that the security agencies have started congratulating themselves following the arrest of Dr Albert Barnafo, who is believed to be a close confidant of the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
Although no formal statement has been issued on the arrest of Barnafo, it has been learnt that he was initially questioned about a deal involving the Ministry of Works and Housing and the World Bank.
Security sources claim that the interrogation of Barnafo has given them insight into the business and financial world of the former First Lady and her associates.
He is alleged to have broken down and promised to reveal all that he knows.
Over the last four years Dr Barnafo who held no political office, travelled frequently abroad, sometimes in the company of other associates of the former First Lady and spent some good time in France, Britain and Switzerland while he visited the US also.
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Bagbin must prove it – Jake dares
The Minister for Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey has categorically denied allegations by the Minority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin that he has awarded 1.9 billion cedis contract for the renovation of the Osu Castle to his own private company, The Daily Guide reports.
He therefore threw a brazen challenge to Bagbin to prove the allegation of his company’s involvement in the renovation of the Castle.
Obetsebi-Lamptey, who was speaking on Joy FM morning programme with Komla Dumor on Monday, hinted that he has filed a suit against Bagbin because he was the source of the story.
The Minister for Presidential Affairs equally supported his suit of 100 million cedis as damages against the Daily Graphic saying he had earlier on notified the paper to retract the story and apologise to him, but his word went unheeded until several media houses picked the Graphic’s story and started using it.
He said if Graphic, a widely read national newspaper, had retracted the story and apologised to him he could have ended it there.
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Minimum wage now 5,500 cedis
The National Tripartite Committee has set the new minimum wage at 5,500 cedis with effect from May 1, reports the Tuesday edition of the Daily Graphic.
The new wage was agreed to at the end of a high-powered meeting of the parties; the Government, the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) and Trades Union Congress (TUC). The old minimum wage was 4,200 cedis.
A key agreement reached at the negotiations, which all the parties said was done in good faith, was that subsequent minimum wages, starting from next year, would be determined before the budget is presented to Parliament.
A commnique issued at the end of the meeting and signed by Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, Minister of Manpower Development and Employment; Mr Ato Ampiah, President of the GEA and Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwaah, Secretary-General of the TUC, directed any institution or enterprise whose minimum wage falls below the new wage to adjust it accordingly.
Mrs Bannerman said the decision to determine the minimum wage before the budget is presented from next year marks a new beginning of government-labour relations.
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ESB to be restored?
The Tuesday edition of the Ghanaian Times reports that the government is looking into the possibility of restoring the End-of-Service Benefits (ESB) to workers, Mrs Grace Coleman, a Deputy Minister-designate of Finance, disclosed when she took her turn on Monday to answer questions from the Appointments Committee of Parliament, alongside five others.
Mrs Coleman said that even though the idea to freeze ESB was taken by employers and other stakeholders in the labour industry, recent trends had made agitations rife on the issue.
“The government is not going to close its ears to the debates and analysis being made on the issue,” she assured.
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Chakitey’s death unnatural – witness quotes pathologist
The Chronicle in its Tuesday edition carries that there are broad hints that the driver who allegedly caused the October 29, 2000 Tema motorway accident involving the convoy of Ex-President Jerry Rawlings and died days later at the Police Hospital might have died through unnatural causes.
“A post-mortem conducted on the body of the 30-year-old Daniel Chakitey Dawutey driver of Nissan Urvan bus ER 7512 showed a high concentration of blood around his brain. This situation, medical experts explain, could be hardly connected to diarrhoea, which has been quoted in the past as cause of death. Suspicion of foul play had also gained currency”.
The story says signs of shock, was also detected when his kidney was dissected. His intestines however revealed signs of excessive diarrhoea.
The autopsy was conducted by the Chief Pathologist of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Professor Agyemang-Badu Akosah.
The presence of blood in the brain of the deceased was the sticking concern of some doctors interviewed by the Chronicle.
Explaining this phenomenon, one of the doctors who refused to be quoted openly said even though it was not ordinary for such a situation to arise especially when the victim is certified to have died from diarrhoea, he could only speculate cause of death to trauma.
He said the phenomenon was symptomatic of one whose head had been subjected to severe beatings or hit with a heavy object.
Chakitey, a native of Somanya in the Eastern Region, died three days after his last court appearance where he had complained to his relatives about his deteriorating health.
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