GRi Press Review
Ghana 29 - 05 - 2001
9 babies in
prison - CHRAJ threatens action
Bid to
break duopoly on Ghanaian market - Govt
won't renew pact
UG to
furnish students with audited accounts
Former DCEs
running away from auditors
Malam
Issa's case goes to Supreme Court
Rawlings'
pal to lose air cargo monopoly
Gov't calls
Rawlings to order
Passport
Office issues 45000 Passports in 3 months
June 4th
'Yaamutu'
Inusah is a
good man!
Jerry now
with own Guards
The
Ghanaian Times
9 babies in
prison - CHRAJ threatens action
Nine
babies, between the ages of one and 10 months, are in various prisons across
the country, according to The Ghanaian Times. They were born in prison by their
mothers who were tried while pregnant.
This was
disclosed to the Times on Monday by Mr Richard Kuuire, Director-General of
Prisons, in an interview on the number of children in prisons.
Four of
such babies are at the Nsawam Female Prisons; two of them are a month old, one
is six months old and the other 10 months. The Kumasi and Akuse Female Prisons
have a baby each and both are a month old. The Sekondi Female Prison has two
babies of two and three months respectively, while Ho Female Prison, has a
seven months old baby.
According
to Mr Kuuire, the Prisons did not have any budgetary allocations for special
care for the babies and nursing mothers.
"Our
midwives (Prison officers) look after the pregnant women and send them to
hospital to deliver after which the baby and mother are brought back to prison,
he said.
When
contacted Mrs Bridget Katsriku, Chief Director of the Ministry of Manpower
Development and Employment, said that the Ministry had no knowledge of such
babies in prison.
However,
Mrs Angelina Dormakyaareh, a Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human
Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), said that the commission would
investigate the matter.
She said
that the appropriate legal procedures would be initiated to ensure that the
rights of the babies were respected.
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Bid to
break duopoly on Ghanaian market - Govt
won't renew pact
The
Government has decided not to renew its agreements with Ghana
Telecommunications Limited (Ghana Telecom) and Western Telesystems Limited
(WESTEL) when they expire in February next year, reports the Daily Graphic.
It said the
inefficiencies in service delivery and the high cost of tariff charges are
unacceptable, for which reason there is no need for the renewal of the
agreements.
The
Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, who made this known at a
forum of Ghanaian and German businessmen and women in Accra on Monday, pointed
out that the intention of the government is to break the duopoly of the two
companies in order to attract other investors into the telecommunications
sector.
The
agreements, in part, give the two operators the sole right to operate as the
national telecommunication companies in the country.
Dr Apraku
said: "We are de-regularising the sector to make room for more operators
as well as promote competition and improve efficiency."
More…/
UG to
furnish students with audited accounts
The
authorities of the University of Ghana, Legon, have indicated their willingness
to furnish the student body with the audited accounts of both the academic and
residential facilities user fees as well as other fees paid by the students
from 1999 to date.
This, they
said, would help justify the recent increase in the two fees imposed by the
administration on the students for the 2000/2001 academic year.
Mr Peter
Ben Yarquah, University Relations Officer, said this in reaction to threats by
the Students Representative Council not to comply with the new policy on user
fees, if the student body is not furnished with the audited accounts.
The student
body last Friday at a news conference, threatened that until the authorities
had accounted for the user fees, they would not pay any fees.
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Former DCEs
running away from auditors
The Evening
News says the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo
Baah-Wiredu, has warned that all District Chief Executives in the erstwhile NDC
government who are refusing to co-operate with auditors currently auditing
their books will forfeit their End-of-Service Benefit to the state.
He added
that those who will be found to have misappropriated funds would be handed over
to the security agencies to be dealt with according to the law.
However, if
the misappropriation is described as administrative by the auditors in their
final report, the amount involved would be surcharged to the DCE involved.
Mr
Baah-Wiredu's warning to the DCE's stems from reports reaching Accra that most
of the erstwhile DCEs are deliberately not co-operating with the audit teams
charged to scrutinize their books.
Recently,
the government directed the Auditor-General's Department to audit all financial
transactions of the immediate past District Chief Executives within six weeks.
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Malam
Issa's case goes to Supreme Court
The
Chronicle says dissatisfied with Justice Julius Ansah's two consecutive rulings
in the ongoing trial at an Accra High Court over the mysterious loss of $46,000
belonging to the state, the ex-Minister of Youth and Sports Mallam Yussif
Issah, who is charged before the court, has challenged the orders of the court
and moved to the Supreme Court and the Appeal Court.
The Fast
Track Court will hear a submission by Mr Ambrose Dery, counsel for the accused,
today challenging the court on matters of law and praying the court to the
issue of submission of no case.
The High
Court had invited the accused to open his case after the prosecution had closed
its case, last week.
Counsel for
the accused has also filed a motion in the Supreme Court for the constitutional
interpretation of one of the charges slapped on the accused.
The charge
of fraudulently causing financial loss to the state, according to the defence
team, was vague and unconstitutional. He has therefore asked the Supreme Court
to restrain the High Court till the final determination of the case.
The court
had earlier on overruled a submission by Dery that the charge was
unconstitutional.
More…/
Rawlings'
pal to lose air cargo monopoly
The
national carrier, Ghana Airways and a coalition of indigenous private airline
operators are the front-line organisations being considered to perform
cargo-handing services at the Accra International airport, firming up the government's
decision to liberalise that sector.
The
decision is expected to crystalise this week when the government moves to
abrogate the six-year-old contract existing between the Ghana Civil Aviation
Authority (GCAA) and the African Ground Handling Operations (AFGO).
The
contract, which was expected to end in 2004, made AFGO the sole cargo-handling
operator in Ghana for ten years.
This is
part of the government's decision at reviewing the monopoly being enjoyed by
AFGO, a government sources confirmed to the Chronicle a week after Minister of
Transport and Communication, Felix Agyepong dropped the hint.
The six odd
years of monopoly has virtually killed the once fledgling local industry
pioneered by Mr Safo of Combined Farms Limited fame.
The
septuagenarian farmer raised a $5 million World Bank loan in the late 80's to
build a warehouse to perform cargo services but his dream became short-lived.
A
contingent of armed hot-headed revolutionary soldiers led by ex-President Jerry
Rawlings stormed the airport and forcibly closed down the warehouse.
Unconfirmed
reports indicate, that the intervention of Rawlings was contrived, ostensibly
to pave the way for AFGO, said to belong to a Syrian national Marwan Traboulosi
(MD of Air Ghana), who is a close buddy of the Rawlings.
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Gov't calls
Rawlings to order
The
President’s Office has issued a stern call-to-order to the office of the former
President Jerry Rawlings regarding how they have been ignoring State Protocol
and purporting to issue instruction to Ghana's foreign mission, writes The
Statesman.
Sources
close to the State House have disclosed that emphatic and specific instructions
were issued from the Office of the President to the office of the former
President to submit himself to the disciplined life of state protocol and stop
behaving like a President.
The wrath
of the State House was provoked by a call from Ghana's mission in Washington
that the office of the former President had called to ask for protocol
arrangements for his recent trip to Japan through the US.
The normal
practice was for the former President to notify State Protocol, which would
have in turn instruct the relevant mission to make the necessary arrangements.
Finding the
break in protocol unbearable, the Office of the president called former
President Rawlings's office, which confirmed it had sent the message to the
mission in Washington.
"You
have no right to call any of Ghana's missions abroad directly and issue such
instructions. You already know the practice and it is for you to first contact
State Protocol, OK? Please stop
behaving as if Rawlings is still President and respect the present order,"
was the clear message to one officer at the former President's Office.
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Passport
Office Issues 45000 Passports in 3 Months
Ghana's
Passport Office has in the last three months issued 45,000 passports
applicants, according to The Daily Guide.
A statement
from the passport office said out of this number, 12,785 have been delivered
through the Ghana Immigration Service for distribution to applicants in the
regions and districts of the country, while the rest have been collected by
protocol officers and officials from institutions of state that submitted
applications directly to the passport office under certificates of emergency.
The
institutions are the ministries, departments, agencies, organisations,
corporation, churches and the various traditional councils. The statement
further said that the backlog of applications have been cleared, except for
applications that might have been queried and resubmitted.
It noted
that the bulk of current applications yet to be processed are for the months of
April and May this year, which are receiving due attention and would be issued
shortly.
The passport
office has assured Ghanaians that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking
immediate and appropriate measures to resolve the problems associated with
passport processing in the country.
The
announcement follows promises made by Ghana's Foreign Minister, Hackman Owusu
Agyemang that the delay in issuing passports is over.
Previously,
applicants who applied for Ghanaian passports had to wait for months before
they are issued with one and some immigration officials took advantage of the
situation and charged as much as 700,000 cedis ($100) for the issuance of one
passport, which is supposed to cost 50,000 cedis ($7).
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June 4th
'Yaamutu'
The
Independent says one of the key issues that Parliament will decide on when it
meets on Tuesday and the next few days is whether this country should continue
to celebrate June 4 as a public holiday or not.
The Kufuor
government believes that Ghana should not celebrate June 4 as a holiday,
although the New Patriotic Party is not unaware of the significance of events
of June 4, 1979.
In the
famous case brought by the NPP against the celebration of the December 31 coup
d'etat against the Third Republic by Jerry John Rawlings, the party and its
counsels led by the current Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey singled
out the fact that June 4 was not against constitutional rule.
But the NPP
then and now holds the view that in so far as June 4 was a military
intervention it should not be celebrated as a public holiday to preserve the
sacredness of constitutional rule.
It was in
the same spirit that the NPP would not like to celebrate as public holidays
other dates with military reverberations.
Jerry John
Rawlings who had no hand in the success of June 4, as a military ruler passed a
decree to celebrate the date.
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Inusah is a
good man! - J.J.
Ex-President
Jerry John Rawlings has described Alhaji Inusah, the man who left his mother
party (New Patriotic Party) to flirt with the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) as a good man who the NPP does not deserve, reports The Crusading Guide.
"I
still think he is a good man but it is rather unfortunate that he has made a
mistake of going back. Maybe it is because of the harassment exercise that is
going on and maybe he may have some other reasons for going back. But I still
think he is a good man, and they (NPP) don't deserve him", said
ex-President Rawlings on an Accra-based private radio station (Choice FM) last
Friday evening.
The
ex-President of Ghana submitted that the terror tactics being used by the NPP
is beginning to intimidate some people, adding that it might have been the
reason for Alhaji Inusah's dramatic move to the NPP.
"The
terror tactics I think is beginning to intimidate a few people, maybe that is
why he has gone back", Rawlings said.
On the
replacement of his Military Security Guards with Police Personnel, Rawlings
disclosed that his security guards know his preferences and needs because they
have lived with him for a long time. He added that they (Military Security
Guards) are able to walk freely into his bedroom.
"They
have taken away people who have been close to me, close enough where they can
walk into my bedroom," he said.
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Jerry now
with own Guards
The Ghana
Palaver carries that the ex-President J.J. Rawlings has not, in anyway,
accepted the replacement of his personal security guards with some unknown
policemen, as reported in an Accra newspaper on Monday.
Instead,
Ex-President is now being protected by private security personnel, according to
NDC sources.
As
indicated earlier, Flt.Lt Rawlings insists on not accepting any security men,
he does not know or can't trust.
The police
personnel sent to the house are still "parading" in the streets,
according to the party's mouthpiece.
Meanwhile,
as a humanitarian gesture, the ex-president's household has been offering free
meals to the guards outside.
The gesture
will also help allay the fears of observers, who are unhappy about the physical
appearance of the guards, who look "half-fed'.
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