¢300m blown at State Insurance Co
Forty-six
thousand to get AIDS by December 31
The Daily Graphic reports that outstanding
loans yet to be collected by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust
(SSNIT) from student beneficiaries stood at ¢180 billion at the beginning of
this academic year.
The Public Affairs Manager of SSNIT, Mr Osei
Bimpong, who disclosed this in an interview in Accra on Wednesday, said up to
date figures are currently being compiled. He could not immediately tell the
least or highest amount owed by a beneficiary, but sources quoted the least to
be around ¢310,000 and the highest at about ¢3.4 million.
Mr Bimpong said in spite of the difficulties in
retrieving the monies from the students, “the Trust will not write-off any of
the loans.”
On steps being taken by SSNIT to retrieve the
loans, he said the social security contributions of the beneficiaries are used
to settle the indebtedness on a gradual basis when they start work. Mr Bimpong
explained that the trust adopts other means as deductions from their
guarantors’ salaries as well as voluntary payment by some students after their
education.
Touching on the sustainability of the scheme,
he said the number of students keep rising year after year while the amounts
paid into their accounts also go up almost every year, adding that the
“situation is serious and a threat to the viability of the operations of the
trust.”
He welcomed the support from the Ghana
Education Trust Fund (GETFund) but added that in spite of the GETFund, the
trust will also welcome any other sources of funds to support the scheme in
order to keep it running.
In another development, Mr Bimpong said as of
Thursday, 10,068 students out of a total student population of 13,072 at the
University of Ghana, Legon, had submitted their loan forms to the Trust for
processing of the facility.
More…/
The Parliamentary Committee on Lands and
Forestry has begun public hearing on land administration and acquisition of
Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUC) in the country. A growing public outcry on
land administration and management of the nation’s forest had necessitated the
hearing.
In his inaugural speech to commence the
hearing, the Chairman of the Lands and Forestry Committee, Hon Agyare
Koi-Larbi, said the committee will focus on petitions affecting the conduct of
public institutions in charge of management of the country’s lands and forests.
“The hearing will not interfere or deal with
any case before the courts or anything in the nature of private conflicts. The
focus of the hearing will be on the public institutions and the extent to which
their acts and omissions constitute a burden on the people of Ghana,” Koi Larbi
stressed.
More…/
The General Secretary of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Mr Dan Botwe has said policies initiated by the Kufuor
administration to cure the ills of the nation are time-tested ones. He said all
the policies of the government are peculiar to local situations and
circumstances and therefore, bound to yield positive and tangible results before
the end of its term in 2004.
Mr Botwe, who was speaking to the Graphic in
Accra, pointed out that the policies of the Kufuor administration will continue
to stabilize the economy and give the necessary fillip to investors to commit
their capital to various ventures in the country.
According to him, the government will never
repeat the mistakes of the former government that led to the marked
deterioration of the economy and considerable decline in the living standards
of the people.
GRi…/
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¢300m blown at State Insurance Co
The Ghanaian Voice says its investigations into
operations of the Ashanti Regional branch of the State Insurance Corporation
(SIC) indicate that two top management officials of the corporation, Nana Oduro
Agyeman, area Manager and Mr Quayson, Administrative Manager, have blown an
amount of ¢300 million.
The amount, according to insiders represents
imprest released by the head office to meet miscellaneous among other expenses
at the Regional Office.
The paper’s probe has it that following the
detection of the alleged ¢300 million misappropriation, the two alleged
officers have been interdicted pending investigations to unearth how the deal
took place and the headoffice has dispatched a new acting Area Manager, Mr
Asamoah, to replace Nana Oduro Agyeman until further notice.
More…/
Hamid Odinga, the Belize national arrested on
June 9 by the security agencies at the precincts of ex-President Jerry
Rawlings’ Ridge residence is on hunger strike.
He started his hunger strike a few days ago and
is determined to continue or die unless he is freed from the Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) custody. Sources available to the paper say the Belize
national, an old pal of ex-president Rawlings and invited into the country by
him (Rawlings), was initially accused of planning an assassination of the
former President but was put before an Osu court in Accra for being an illegal
immigrant.
Odinga, according to sources, is on hunger
strike as a ‘prisoner of conscience’ because he considers all charges against
him as mere fabrications and ridiculous. The Osu court, reportedly does not
know what to charge him with. Sources said at a time, a deportation order was
slapped on him but since he has no document the authorities do not know where
to take him to.
GRi…/
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Concerned citizens of Cape Coast who can no
longer look on at the rate newly born babies die, either through normal
delivery or caesarean operation at the Central Regional hospital, have called
for a probe into the operations of both the maternity and delivery wards.
The Chronicle, reporting says the call came
barely two weeks after an Accra daily had published on its front page that the
region leads in infant mortality rate in the country.
The publication had indicated that about 84 of
every 1,000 children born in the region die before they attain the age of one.
According to Chronicle, citizens whose
relatives had lost their babies at the hospital, even though not knowing the
cause of the rampant deaths, allegedly accused the hospital’s midwives of
negligence of duty.
A 27-year-old victim of the syndrome was Mrs
Mavis Asare, a support staff of the hospital, who on October 23 went to the
hospital at about 10.00pm to deliver.
She told the paper that the midwives made her
lie down in one of the wards where she waited for about two hours because they
were watching an African movie.
Mavis said they made fun of her even though she
was in serious pain, and that it was when they realised she was in serious
trouble that they quickly called in a doctor who on arrival asked them to
prepare her for theatre.
More…/
In an attempt to neutralise the spread of the
HIV/AIDS menace in the country, especially in the educational institutions, the
Ministry of Education has adopted a plan of action which involves the inclusion
of the HIV/AIDS education in the school curriculum and examinable syllabuses
for Life Skills and the provision of HIV/AIDS counselling services for
teachers, learners and other educational personnel.
This hint was dropped by Professor Christopher
Ameyaw-Akumfi, the sector Minister at the launching of the education sector
HIV/AIDS education programme in Accra.
The Minister said the adopted plan has become
necessary because his ministry has a large population of youths under its care
who are vulnerable to the pandemic.
He, however, contended that the programme will
only succeed through total involvement and commitment of all teachers,
learners, parents as well as communities and all Ministry of Education
personnel.
GRi…/
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The Crusading Guide says its investigations
have established that the former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Victor Serlomey
caused to be transferred the sum of ¢500 million into two separate accounts of
Rural Sugar Promotion Company Limited (RUSUPCO).
The accounts, a source hinted, were at the
Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Cedi House, and Barclays Bank, High
Street, all in Accra. The transfers, which were made in two instalments of ¢250
million each on May 13, 1998 and September 22, 2000 respectively, were found to
bear some unusual characteristics.
The amount was transferred from a TIP account
out of which the first instalment of ¢250 million was to enable University of
Ghana Research Station (UGARS) in collaboration with Kpong Farms, to develop
sugarcane cultivars for out-growers in the non-traditional export sector.
The letter effecting that transfer, sources
disclosed, was approved by the then Acting Controller and Accountant General,
Mr R.K. Tufuor, on May 15, 1998 (with reference number 228/A5031).
A second letter dated September 8, 1999 and
signed by Victor Selormey authorized another transfer of ¢250 million to
RUSUPCO’s account number 2534153 with Barclays Bank. It was said to have been
approved by Mr E.V.A. Ofosuhene in a letter dated September 14, 1999.
GRi…/
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Where was Miss Ghana?
It has
almost become a refrain that soon after every Miss World event, people keep
asking, “Where was Miss Ghana?” “Well, I was there,” Miss Ghana, Selasi Kwaku,
reportedly told the Graphic Showbiz during her first interview on her return
after participating in the pageant held in Sun City, South Africa last week
Friday.
“I was there with all the 92 other contestants,
she said. “If I was not as visible as one may expect, it was because I was not
well marketed as other contestants were. “You see, at the Miss World Pageant
only about forty percent of the contest is what one watches on stage and on
television. Especially this year when half of the scores came from public
voting, a contestant’s chances of making it to the top ten depended on her
visibility on the internet and in newspapers.”
Selasi disclosed that unlike last year when
Miss Ghana had an active website, this year, there has not been anything like
that and therefore she could not give out website addresses as her colleagues
did during the one month that they were in camp.
She gave the example for her roommate Miss
Tanzania who had journalists in tow all the way from Dar es Salaam to interview
and take photos of their country’s representative for publicity purposes prior
to the show.
The lack of publicity for her notwithstanding,
Selasi said she did her best to project Ghana where there was an opportunity to
do so.
At the end of the pageant, 18-year-old
Nigerian, Agbani Darego, a computer science student was crowned Miss World, the
first black African to win the title in its 51-year history.
GRi…/
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Election victory was through planning - Kufuor
President John Kufuor has told a German
delegation, including some members from the main opposition, that patience and
strategic planning were his tools for winning last year’s general elections,
The Evening News reports.
The opposition MPs in the delegation wanted to
know how the President managed to win the election in spite of the existence of
a government, which had been in power for nearly 20 years.
The President stated, “Keep your eyes widely
open on the mood of the people and that at the right time, you can get them to
your side.” He said in spite of his party and its tradition being in opposition
for the major part of the years following Ghana’s independence, such position
never deterred the members and the supporters.
While they exercised extreme patience and
tolerance, as well as upholding the principles of rule of law, he said, the
numbers kept on increasing.
President Kufour hinted that his government is
working on a bill to allow the state to finance genuine political parties in
the country. He added that after being in operation for several years in the
country’s politics, he knew how frustrating it was when there is a repressive
incumbent government.
More…/
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has
fixed December 28 and 29 to hold its national delegates congress.
Mr Huudu Yahaya, general secretary of the DNC
who disclosed this in an interview said, this will afford them enough time to
organize from the grassroots and to “oil” their machinery to win back power in
2004 election. He however did not disclose the venue for the congress.
The
party’s constitution, according to him, demand that there must be a national
congress every two years, he added.
He said, since the NDC is a democratic party,
there is the need to consult and come out with credible candidates from the
regions latest by November 30, 2001 before the national congress which is
expected to have about 1,500 delegates and officials.
Mr Yahaya debunked the notion that the NDC is
having early elections because they are bankrupt, adding that, “no political
party can boast of adequate financial resources not even the NPP as the ruling
party.”
He said the funding of political parties should
be done by taking into consideration the government’s financial strength so
that, other important sectors of the economy like health and education are not
adversely affected.
More…/
Mr Joshua Alabi, Greater Accra Regional
Chairman of the NDC has stated that the movements of some of the party members
who held key positions in the previous government are restricted. “Many of us
had opportunity to go out and rest after long period of work, but people would
say that we are running away from our misdeeds,” he told a Ga South NDC
constituency executives at a function at Ayikai Dobro to elect new constituency
officers.
He observed that due to political intrigues of
the government, people now see NDC members as thieves. “We gave them handing
over notes to see what we did when we were in government, but they still went
ahead to paint us black,” he stated.
Mr Alabi said the government wants to
disintegrate the NDC and had started criminalizing its members.
He told the members that the defeat of the NDC
was purposely to allow Ghanaians to compare the reigns of the party and that of
the NPP and to determine which of them was the best to solve the nation’s
problems.
The regional chairman said current events in
the country indicate that the NDC has opportunity to capture power in the year
2004.
GRi…/
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The
Ghanaian Times reports that the Wenchi Divisional Police have preferred a
charge of second degree felony against a 70-year old woman who subjected four
teenage girls to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at Gbao, near Banda-Ahenkuro,
on October 25.
Nana
Yawa Bre, faces a possible 10-year-jail term if found guilty. She was arrested
together with others, on November 2, by the police. Meanwhile, the police have
granted her and the Odikro, Nana Kwadwo Bosomfo, 80, bail in the sum of ¢5
million with a surety each until Friday.
Nana
Bososmfo who is charged with abetment of FGM was said to have given orders for
the arrest of the victims aged between14 and 17. The girls were said to have
taken refuge at a local Presbyterian Church to avoid the circumcision. But on
the orders of the Odikro, a mob raided the manse and forced the girls out. They
also vandalised some item and allegedly stole ¢1.1 million cash.
Briefing
the Times on Wednesday, the Divisional Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of
police Jacob Yaw Attianah, said that three suspects who were arrested in
connection with raid were put before the community tribunal at Wenchi on
Wednesday.
The
three, Johnson Kofi Billy, 45 Ernest Gyabaa and Kofi Mensah were charged with
abetment of (FGM) unlawful entry, causing damage and stealing. Their plea was
not taken, and the tribunal chaired by Nana Supi Biadoo Ehuron, remanded them
in police custody until Friday.
More…/
Forty-six
thousand to get AIDS by December 31
It
is estimated that 46,000 Ghanaian would contract AIDS by the end of this year.
The figure is however suspected to be only 30 per cent of AIDS victims in the
country because most of the affected persons refuse to report the sickness for
fear of being stigmatized.
The
Presidential Adviser on HIV/AIDS and Population, Prof Fred Sai, stated these at
Presidential Charity Ball organised by the Rotaract Club of Ring Road Central
in Accra last weekend. Prof Sai pointed out that the rate of infection among
women is very alarming with a ratio of six women to one man.
“Women
represent almost three-quarters of deaths through AIDS in Ghana and with the
fact that 24 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with the disease
calls for immediate fight to halt it” he said. He identified poverty and
discrimination against women as the major factors compounding the situation.
Professor
pledged government commitment to give adequate attention to the development of
women in order to facilitate their understanding of their needs, problems and
opportunities in the communities and worldwide.
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