Sixty thousand land cases choke our courts
TUC accuse NDC
Who owns TV3?
Sixty thousand land cases choke our courts
It is estimated that more than 60,000 land
related litigations are pending before the various courts in the country.
Greater Accra Region tops the list with over 20,000 cases, the Daily Graphic
reports Professor Kasim Kasanga, Minister of Lands and Forestry, as saying.
Prof Kasanga, disclosing this in an interview
attributed the problem to the absence of effective regulations, non-payment of
compensations, abuse of existing laws and cumbersome procedures for land
acquisition and documentation.
He has, therefore, advocated alternative
conflict resolution in land matters in order to minimize land disputes and
associated problems.
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Four civil society groups have called for an
independent investigation into the frequent cyanide spillage in the Tarkwa
area. They also said the investigations should look into the pollution of the
Asuman and Huni rivers.
The groups are the Third World Network Africa,
Centre for Public Interest Law, Wassaw Association of Communities Affected by
Mining and the League of Environmental Journalists.
In an official statement, the groups said they
were disappointed by the pronouncements attitudes of the Minister of
Environment and Science, Professor Dominic Fobih; the Environmental Protection
Agency, Water Resource Commission and Goldfields Ghana Limited, on the issue.
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The Greater Accra Council of Labour has called
on its members to remove the red flags hoisted at workplaces to press home
workers' demand for the restoration of the end-of-service benefits (ESB).
In an official statement, the council said it
had taken note of the serious attention being given to the issue by the
government and the emergency National Tripartite Committee meeting held this week
to address the issue.
The council said it took the decision to show
maturity and commitment to the discussions among representatives of the
tripartite committee by creating an enabling environment for resolving the
issue.
It also re-affirmed its support to the Trades
Union Congress (TUC) "in the struggle to restore the ESB."
The Greater Accra Regional Council of Labour
earlier this week directed all its affiliate bodies to hoist red flags at their
workplaces to press home their demand for the restoration of the ESB to
workers.
On Tuesday, the government took a bold
initiative to hold a 45-minute frank and open discussions with its social
partners to work out plans to tackle the issue in earnest.
GRi…/
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The government has replaced the "Vision
2020 Document," structured by the past administration, with a "Ghana Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRS), The Ghanaian Times reports.
Consequently, the business community has been
advised to refer to the document in all their transactions, especially with
their foreign partners. The GPRS is being finalised as the official policy
framework for poverty reduction between the year 2002 and 2004. Already, a
review of the draft document has been completed at the national level.
Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic
Planning and Regional Cooperation, announced these in Accra on Thursday at a
Greater Accra Regional Consultation Seminar on the GPRS. According to him, the
Vision 2020 document lacked linkages between its target and the national
budget.
GRi../
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TUC accuse NDC
The Trades Union Congress says its decision to
revisit the issue of the End-of-Service Benefits (ESB) for workers is informed
by the decision of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to pay ESB to
government and party functionaries from state funds, at a time worker’s own was
frozen.
"Congress is aware that government paid
End-of-Service-Benefits to some privileged workers of state such as ACDRs,
Ministers of State, Parliamentarians etc., after it had been frozen. The TUC,
therefore in the spirit of equity, calls on government to defreeze
End-of-Service-Benefits as a matter of urgency" says the union’s document
- Policies of the Trades Union Congress - adopted at the Quadrennial Delegates
congress in Kumasi last year.
The Weekend Agenda, says acting on their
resolution, various Regional Councils of Labour, a powerful autonomous body
within the TUC structure, instructed workers throughout the country beginning
Monday November 12, to hoist red flags in their various workplaces serving
notice of impending confrontation.
The action, according to TUC officials was to
send signal to employers and indeed the government that workers were prepared
to take the fight to the streets if their issue was not properly addressed.
The action drew a response from the Ministry of
Employment and Social Welfare, which have initiated series of meetings at
tripartite level - with the ministry, the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC),
and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA).
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While workers base their claims for the payment
of End-of-Service Benefits (ESB), on the fact that the NDC government paid ESB to some privileged workers of state such
as the ACDRs, Minister of State and Parliamentarians after it was frozen, the
Member of Parliament for Kmbungu, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni shrugs off these
claims.
Alhaji Mumuni, a Minister of Employment and
Social Welfare in the past NDC government, says the linkage the workers were
making was unfortunate and has the tendency of diverting the debate on the real
issues. "It is a red herring being thrown into the debate for
effect," he said.
Mumuni said the politicians were not paid ESBs
but rather ex-gratia awards. According to him, ESBs are a product of negotiated
agreement between the workers and the employers.
The ESB is a measure of income security for
workers, an amount set aside by the employer to be paid at the end of the
service of the worker. On the other hand, the ex-gratia award is not negotiated
and paid out of the largesse of the employee.
Mumuni said the ESB is a workplace issue and
should be discussed in the contest of the tripartite. He said the freezing of
the ESB was at the instance of the tripartite and not by the government.
GRi…/
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Who owns TV3?
The Weekend Statesman carries that the General
Manager of TV3, Mr Kofi Nyantakyi took an unusual step last month by sending a
memo to other senior managers of the TV station explaining why special
treatment was given to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, President of the 31st
December Women's Movement (DWM) when she appeared on “Time with David”, an
interview programme of the station.
Coming on
top of a two-week prime-time slot given to the former First Lady on TV3's own
in-house flagship current affairs programme “Hot Issues”, and allegations of
attempts by some NDC handlers of Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings to prevent the programme
from being aired, doubts have been raised as to whether some NDC big shots may
be behind the ownership of the independent television station.
According
to the paper, on Saturday October 20, viewers were treated to what turned out
to be the beginning of an unprecedented 3-slots in seven days air time given to
the President of the 31st DWM to respond to charges by the Deputy
Minister for Local Government that her NGO benefited improperly from the
disbursement of the District Assemblies Common Fund to the tune of over ¢400m,
as indicated by an audit report.
Unusually, the interview with the former First
Lady was allowed to overrun for fifteen minutes on this occasion. Sources at TV
3 said the Malaysian Managing director was furious about this as the overrun,
naturally, had an adverse effect on other scheduled programmes.
But, the General Manager then took an unusual
step by explaining in a memo, described by a person privy to it, as oddly
apologetically-sounding, alluded to the possibility that he might have been
pressurised by certain persons in the NDC to carry the interview that way.
But the Public Relations Officer for TV 3,
Leonita Carboo-Danquah rebuts this saying that the unusual format of the memo,
which in any case should have been written by the producers of the programme, was
just the style Nyantakyi chose to write it.
She affirms that the memo pointed to the fact
that the General Manager "consulted" Edward Addo, a major
shareholders, before allowing the programme to overrun.
Suggestions that Addo, owner of Winmet company
with 30 per cent shares in the Ghana Films Industry Corporation, now TV3, is
fronting for Mr Totobi Quakyi, a Minister in the NDC regime, who oversaw the
divestiture of GFIC was dismissed by Mrs Carboo-Danquah. She said Addo is
hardworking man and could not be a front or poodle of Totobi Quakyi.
GRi…/
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The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has
delegated some of its powers to a new private agency to check vehicles that
violate traffic regulations by parking in the central business sections of the
city.
The company, according to The Ghanaian
Chronicle, named ‘24-Hour Recovery and Mobile Mechanical Service Limited’, has
been empowered to embark on a serious operation of towing vehicles that break
this rule and slapping them with large sum of fines.
The Chronicle says in an interview granted it
by the Mayor of Accra, Mr Solomon Ofei Darko this week, he indicated that the
enforcement of the assembly’s bye-law calls for the support and collaboration
of civil law enforcement bodies as well as private agencies commissioned by the
assembly.
He explained that this is expressed in Claus
9-10 of the AMA Bye-laws on vehicles parking of 1995, adding that in enforcing
of the byelaws, AMA exacts penalties.
GRi…/
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Henry Adjei-Darko has been named for an
International Tennis Federation Junior Tournament (ITF) team to compete in a
series of junior tournaments during November and December in the USA, the
Graphic Sports reports.
The team is being financed by the ITF Grand
Slam Development Fund. This Fund was first established in 1985 by a donation of
100,000 pounds received from the Championships at Wimbledon to assist with the
development of competitive opportunities for younger players worldwide.
Further contributions from the French, US Open
and Australian Championships, together with continued support from Wimbledon
created the reality of the Grand Slam Development Fund.
Administered by the ITF, the Fund awards grants
to help member nations with the final phase of tennis development, which is the
participation of talented athletes in international competition.
The inaugural Compaq Grand Slam Cup (now the
Tennis Masters Cup), which was held in Munich, Germany at the end of 1990,
provided the Development Fund with US $2,000,000 per year through to 1998 and
$1,500,000 from 1999.
This tournament has already had significant
impact on the development of international competitive tennis. Since the
inception of the Grand Slam Development Fund, the ITF has been able to increase
substantially the number of nations whose players are competing in the
mainstream of international tennis.
In addition to travel grants, the Grand Slam
Development Fund also supports the formation of entry-level professional events
for women and men to help players progress from the junior game, achieve an
international computer ranking and gain valuable match experience that will
lead some to the higher professional game.
GRi…/
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Osei Kufour, C.K. Akunnor call for focus on
Mali 2002
Sports bi-weekly, Africa Sports carries that the
skipper of the national soccer team, the Black Stars, C.K. Akonnor and his
deputy Samuel Osei Kufuor are unamused that instead of concentrating on the
upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Mali which is only some seven weeks away,
most Ghanaians appear to be focusing on issues which only tend to distract the
team’s preparation and focus.
Speaking to the paper from Wolfsbourg, C.K.
Akonnor who said he was looking forward to his fifth Africa Nations tourney
after outings in Tunisia ‘94, South Africa ‘96, Burkina Faso ‘98, and Ghana
2000, emphasised that the nation cannot afford to send an ill-prepared team.
“That’s where the real discussion should focus,
rather than the much talked-about $25,000 which appears to be sapping all our
energies. Others can talk about it all day, but we ought to be focusing on our
preparations since Ghanaians will not accept excuses after the tournament”,
C.K. said.
Sammy Kuffuor, his deputy couldn’t be more emphatic.
“I have known coach Osam Duodo since my days as a young footballer and can
vouch for his honesty and integrity. He would not do anything sinister or
clandestine, and I personally don’t think the allegations against him and the
boys are true. If we want him to do a good job, then we need to give him the
peace of mind and total support,” Kuffuor said.
GRi…/
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