GRi Press Review
Ghana 30 - 05 - 2001
Bartels
lays facts before Parliament
Two B-A
Towns Beat War Drums (over President nominee for DCE)
2 Billion
cedis spent on motorbikes
Boakye Djan
wants June 4 outlawed
Kufuor
picks new Minister
Top Air
Force officer flees
GNAT
against using children in commercial activities
CPP wages
war on NPP
Bartels
lays facts before Parliament
The Daily
Graphic carries that the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Kwamena Bartels, on
Tuesday laid bare before Parliament the facts surrounding the renovation of the
Castle and the private residence of President Kufuor, at the Airport
Residential Area.
He said
whereas the previous NDC government was to have rehabilitated the Castle at an
estimated cost of ¢3.3 billion, the present government is doing the same job,
based on the advice of the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited
(AESL), at a cost of ¢1.5 billion.
Mr. Bartels
was answering an urgent question which stood in the name of Alhaji Amadu Sedu,
NDC Member for Yapei-Kusawgu, who wanted to know how much the state is spending
on the rehabilitation of both the Castle and the private residence of President
Kufuor.
The
minister disclosed that the government has so far paid 1,199,373,437 cedis to
six contractors working on the Castle.
The
contractors are M/S Axxess Limited, which has been paid 200,000,000 cedis; M/S
International Development Resources, 455,000,000 cedis; M/S Monarch Windows
Limited, 102,750,000; M/S Carpet House Limited, 114,623,423,437 cedis; M/S
Kay-Kool Industries 162,000,000 cedis and M/S Absolute Limited, 165,000,000
cedis.
The
minister said the government has an outstanding balance of 304,933,343 cedis to
pay the contractors.
Asked why
the renovation contract was not put on tender, the Minister said this was due
to the little time available to the government to effect the renovations to
enable the President to work in the Castle. The AESL, therefore, recommended
the six contractors to the ministry in view of the timeframe.
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Two B-A
Towns Beat War Drums (over President nominee for DCE)
The youth
of Atebubu and Amanten, and neighbouring towns in the Atebubu District are
moving towards a showdown over the President's nomination of Mr Cassius
Osei-Poku as the District Chief Executive, according to The Ghanaian Times.
On Monday,
the youth of Atebubu, numbering about 100 virtually beat the drum for battle
when they blocked the entrance to the Atebubu District Assembly to prevent the
members from entering to approve the appointment of Mr Osei-Poku, a native of
Amanten and Head teacher of Atebubu Anglican JSS.
They are
opposing his nomination based on allegations of malpractices such as
embezzlement when he was the NPP youth secretary.
In their
resolve to disrupt voting, they chased assembly members and officials of both
the Electoral Commission (EC) and the NPP who dared to make an entry into the
assembly hall.
In the
process, an official of the NPP, whose name was not immediately available, lost
some teeth from slaps he received, and was sent to the hospital. A vehicle of
the EC had its windows smashed.
According
to security sources, which disclosed these to the 'Times' on telephone, even
the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Akobuor Debrah, and his entourage
including security chiefs had to retreat for cover.
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2 Billion
cedis spent on motorbikes
Workers of
the Ghana Water Company Limited have listed a number of improprieties allegedly
committed under its former management and called on the committee currently
probing the activities of the company to look into them, reports The Evening
News.
In a
resolution adopted at a joint Consultative Committee meeting and signed by 54
of workers nationwide, they called on the probe committee to investigate the
bulk purchase of slow moving fittings for stocking at a cost of 5 billion cedis
from Western Casting.
According
to them, the purchase of 30,000 pieces of water meters at 41 dollars each and
the decision to engage in cash purchase of Water Treatment Chemicals should
also be investigated.
The workers
called on the committee to investigate "the phony and expensive attempt at
computerization of the Financial and Commercial operations at the cost of 1.6
billion cedis, the Abease Pipe laying project in the Brong Ahafo Region and the
privatisation of the revenue arrears collection.
They
further demanded a probe into the three million-pound sterling contracts for
the supply and installation of No. 10 Horsely Bridge Tanks in the ATMA and the
lease of the Company's Training School premises and facilities to third
parties.
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Boakye Djan
wants June 4 outlawed
The former
spokesman and deputy chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC)
has made a passionate appeal to Parliament to revise the Public Holidays Law
1989 (PNDCL 220), according to the Free Press.
In a message
faxed from his London base to the paper, Major Boakye Djan stated that a
revision of the law would outlaw and make unnecessary the celebration of the
forthcoming and any subsequent anniversary of June 4 as a public holiday in
Ghana.
Major
Boakye Djan, in the message, said he still maintains as he always had, that
June 4 should not be celebrated as a public holiday for purely military
reasons.
First, it
is not keeping with military tradition of not celebrating war or its outcome
even by the victorious, out of respect for all those killed in action or who
suffered on both sides. "At best we are only made to commemorate with a
service or wreaths the war dead," he said.
According
to the retired army major, the recurrent political celebration of June 4 as a
public holiday makes difficult both the ongoing healing process within the
military and the reorganization of the Ghana Armed Forces into an efficient
non-political professional body.
"These
are reasons compelling enough to be made to exclude June 4 as a public holiday.
I therefore urge parliament, in a truly non-partisan commitment to the national
interest, to move quickly to approve the bill before June 4, 2001.
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Kufuor
picks new Minister
The Daily
Guide says its investigations have revealed that the Sports Ministry, which has
been without a substantive minister, is soon to get one.
"Barring
any last minute changes, the man that has been penciled for the job is the NPP
firebrand and trained medical doctor, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe."
President
J.A. Kufuor, who is currently outside the country on an official trip to Spain,
is expected to make the announcement as soon as he flies back home.
The
searchlight, according to the Guide, has zeroed in on Dr Nyaho Tamakloe who
sources say was selected from a tall list of persons which included Dr Charles
Wereko Brobby, the Energy Policy Advisor and Mr Victor Newman, a veteran
political strategist and a presidential staffer.
The others
originally considered for the job are business tycoon and 'Nima Boy' Charles
Kofi Way and Moses Foh-Amoaning, an Accra based legal practitioner and sports
analyst.
The name of
Alhaji Mohammed Farl of the Convention People's Party (CPP) and an ardent
golfer and soccer enthusiast, has also come up for consideration.
The
Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) has remained for 18 weeks without a
substantive minister following the revocation on May 16, 2001 of the barely
two-month old appointment of 42-year old Mallam Ali Yusuf Isa who the
government considered an embarrassment following the alleged missing $46,000
episode in Omdurman, Sudan on February 24 this year.
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Top Air
Force officer flees
The
Ghanaian Chronicle says information reaching it indicates that Group Captain Richard
Fordwour, the man whose name evoked fear in the military brass during
ex-President Jerry Rawlings 20-year throttlehold on power has fled the country,
two weeks after officially resigning from the Ghana Air Force.
Sources
told the paper that he tendered in his resignation days into his leave period,
which he began barely a month ago.
The letter
was addressed to the Air Force Commander and copied to the Commander of Defence
Services (CDS), Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Minister Secretary (MS).
Until his
unannounced exit, 48-year-old Fordwour, known in close circles as
"Arekpo", and a close confidante of Rawlings, was the Deputy
Commander of the Air Force station, Accra International Airport.
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GNAT
against using children in commercial activities
The
involvement of schoolchildren in charcoal burning and vegetable farming as well
as their patronage of video shows and funerals are militating against the
promotion of education in the Dromankese circuit of the Nkoranza District,
reports The Accra Mail.
Mr Francis
Nkrumah, local Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT),
said at a forum that the practice, which is very common among junior secondary
school students, has resulted in their poor performance in the Basic Education
Certificate Examination (BECE).
The
district education directorate needs to liase with the Nkoranza District
Assembly to enact byelaws to check the activities of the schoolchildren, he
added.
Mr Nkrumah
called for additional teachers to certain schools in the district.
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CPP wages
war on NPP
The Weekly
Insight reports that the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) is in a no-nonsense
mood and has began distancing itself from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which
it helped to install in power.
The paper
says the first sign of trouble came when the CPP took a rather strong position
against the general tenor of the 2001 budget and the adoption of the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).
Over the
last three weeks, the CPP has also strongly opposed the government's decision
to privatize water and electricity supply and the attempt by Parliament to
outlaw solidarity strikes.
The CPP has
also urged the NPP to stick to its election promises of abolishing the
"Cash and carry" system, re-introducing subsidies on agricultural
inputs and expanding access to education at all levels.
In a
statement signed by its national chairman, Dr Abubakar Al-Hassan, the CPP said
that the conditions attached to the HIPC initiative are inconsistent with the
electoral promises made by the NPP.
The CPP
listed some of the conditions as, the withdrawal of subsidies on social
services such as education and health, the accelerated privatisation of State enterprises
including Ghana Water Company and the Electricity Company of Ghana.
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