Government aims at rehabilitating every prisoner - Aidoo
Ho (Volta Region) 27 November 2001- Mr Justice Richard Apaloo, a Ho High Court Judge, on Monday said pregnancy was a natural phenomenon and could not put any woman in any "special position" with regards to the application of the law.
He said he might give a pregnant convict a reprieve to enable her give birth at a hospital but not waive the sentence. Justice Apaloo was reacting to a contributor's query on imprisonment of pregnant women at a public lecture to mark this year's Prisons Week Celebration at Ho.
He said special dispensation for pregnant would not only be difficult to apply but was likely to be abused. "Let us keep justice in its purity and not allow emotions to overrun us, otherwise, we shall contaminate justice", Justice Apaloo stated.
Justice Apaloo, who presented a paper on: "The Role of Judges in the Criminal System in Ghana," advised serving convicts to acquire skills in readiness for self-employment.
He said the practice of barring ex-convicts from working in government institutions made it a fruitless venture to go chasing jobs in the public sector alongside others.
Justice Apaloo said laws guide judges when passing judgements so there could be nothing like unrealistic sentences. He said judges had to consider the retributive, deterrent and reformative objectives of law before handing down judgement.
Justice Apaloo said accused persons were sentenced according to the law as well as the manner in which the offence was committed and demeanour during trial.
He said sometimes the degree of sentence to impose was a greater task to him than writing the judgement. Justice Apaloo said the recovery of a stolen item was a weightier mitigating factor before a Judge than the cost of a stolen item, adding, "stealing is stealing".
The Judge said Ghana had not progressed much beyond the 18th century British consignment programme, which the British themselves had abandoned.
He said while it was difficult to justify spending scanty resources on supposed deviants, society should be mindful of the fact that it employed people to keep convicts so that they could have their peace of mind and live up to their duty of making the "Keeper" comfortable.
Mr Bernard Ampadu, Superintendent of Prison, speaking on: "The role of the Prisons Service in the Criminal Justice System" said the quest of officers to impact skills to inmates was being defeated by lack of materials and tools.
He called for the increase in the daily subvention for a prisoner and staff accommodation for Prison Officers.
Mr Ampadu said the fort and Castles being used as prisons were poorly ventilated thereby posing health hazards to both inmates and Warders.
Mr Justin Dorgu, Volta Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), speaking on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Treatment of Offenders, said all prisoners were to retain their rights under international conventions.
He said people were sent to jail "as punishment and not for punishment". Mr Robert Ayalingo, Superintendent of Police in- Charge of Anyirawase Police District, whose topic was on the role of the police in the criminal justice system, said the personnel of the service were being retrained and provided with logistics for optimal performance.
Mr Kofi Bansah, Deputy Director of Prisons and the Volta Regional Commander, said the week, which was the second to be observed in the entire history of the service was to demystify the operations of the service.
He said during the period misconceptions such as those, which tagged the service as a waste pipe and prisoners as incapable of participating in community activities again would be addressed.
Mr Bansah called for the review of policies, which prevented ex-convicts from working for government. He said in some developed countries ex-convicts could use good conduct at prisons as testimonial to secure jobs.
Mr Bansah announced that Kpando and Kete-Krachi Prisons cultivated 45 hectares of maize, 6.4 hectares and 2.6 hectares of yams and pepper, respectively, this year.
Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister said the government had charged major institutions involved in the administration of justice to work out ways of decongesting the prisons.
He recommended the employment of a psychologist to design a programme for inmates and the society towards the reformation of prisoners.
The Minister called on NGOs and individuals to provide seed money and equipment to ex-convicts to start businesses.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 November 2001-Workers combing through a muddy wood found the flight recorders from a Swiss airliner that crashed near Zurich, killing 24 people, including a Montrealer, officials said today. Nine people survived, two in critical condition. The four-engine Crossair Jumbolino Avro RJ-100 crashed a few kilometres short of the runway Saturday night after a flight from Berlin with 28 passengers - most of them foreigners - and five crew aboard.
Authorities said the bodies of all 24 victims were recovered by the evening. The survivors included two crew members, but the pilot and co-pilot were among the dead, they said.
A Zurich police statement said the passengers and crew included 10 Swiss, 13 Germans - including one who also had U.S. citizenship - three Israelis, two people from the Netherlands and one each from Austria, Canada, Ghana, Spain and Sweden.
Nii Sackey, a Ghanaian living in Bern, said the Ghana Embassy in Switzerland had confirmed that one Ghanaian was aboard the flight and that he had been killed.
Since the man's next of kin had no been notified, his name will not be released. Swiss authorities wound not release the names of those on board, however a source, who asked to remain unnamed, said the man was from Montreal, worked for Bombardier and was the father of a young family.
Before all 24 deaths were confirmed, Israeli officials said three prominent Israelis were among those missing and feared dead. They were the dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine, Yaakov Matzner, 54, another leading doctor, Amiram Eldor, 59, and Tel Aviv city official Avishai Berkman, 50.
A German record company said a singer with U.S. and German citizenship, Melanie Thornton, was on the passenger list. She was flying to Zurich for radio and television appearances to promote her new single, said Anja Scheding, a spokeswoman for the record company X-cell. She said Thornton was from Atlanta.
Three women from a German dance-music group, Passion Fruit, were also on board and at least one was believed to have survived, Scheding said.
Concerned callers are flooding phone lines at Crossair's press office in Basel, Switzerland, about 75 kilometres northwest of Zurich, said Patrick Jeandrain, spokesman for Crossair.
Several people were working the phones to answer queries from people seeking loved ones. Swiss authorities said the flight recorders were recovered from the partially destroyed cockpit and investigators would study them for clues to the cause of the crash, the second involving Crossair in two years. They said there was no reason to suspect terrorism.
The plane crashed as it approached a nighttime landing strip that began operating a month ago after the Swiss transport ministry agreed to limit airplane noise above nearby Germany. The runway is considered more difficult to approach than two others used previously, and the agreement with Germany allowed the use of those two runways in bad weather. Officials said the pilot did not request permission to switch runways.
Rain mixed with snow was falling and visibility was poor when the Jumbolino went down just after 10 p.m. Airport officials said communication was normal until the plane suddenly disappeared from radar.
"I was walking the dog when I saw the plane. It appeared to be flying low. Then the sky turned bright orange, as if there was a sudden ball of fire," Franz Brunner, a local government official, said on television.
The nine survivors walked from the wreckage and were met by rescue workers, said Zurich airport's chief medical officer, Remo Reichlin.
Guenther said four were "well, considering the circumstances," three were in stable condition and two in critical condition.
In TV interviews from their hospital beds, survivors said they climbed out of the tail section of the plane, which was severed but virtually intact. Most of the fuselage was completely burned. "It was like in a horror film, a nightmare," said Myriam
Wettstein.
Crossair, a subsidiary of financially troubled Swissair Group, said the plane was built in 1996. Britain's BAE Aircraft Services Group makes the 97-seat aircraft.
Crossair chief executive Andre Dose said the pilot was "very experienced" and had worked for the airline since shortly after it started operations in 1979.
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Ho (Volta Region) 27 November 2001-There were indications that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government would buy a new Presidential Jet with a capacity of 83 passengers next year, Mr Steve Akorli, Member of Parliament for Ho-East said at the weekend.
In addition the government would increase the daily allowance of officials, who travel outside the country, from 90 dollars to 250 dollars a day.
Mr Akorli, who was a former Minister of Roads and Transport in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, made this known at the 5th Bi-Annual Volta Regional Youth and Women's Wing Delegates' Conference at Ho.
He said the NDC's defeat in last year's election was an opportunity for Ghanaians to assess the NPP government to enable them to make informed choices in the 2004 elections.
Mr said the NPP was incapable of governing as expected because the Danquah-Busia Tradition had become rusty from the 30 years that it was out of power.
"Staying without an activity over the period was making them dormant and rusty... as reflected in the hasty and reckless manner, this country is being governed", he stressed.
The government's review of this year's budget in November at a time when it declared that the economy was on course, showed inconsistencies in its approach to the management of the economy.
Mr Akorli said the government was taking credit for the positive results of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the divestiture of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) initiated by the NDC, despite the fact that NPP resisted them when it was in opposition.
He noted that government was disbursing 180 billion cedis, accruing from the divestiture of SOEs and 500 million cedis, from VAT in spite of its condemnation of those measures.
The MP said the fall in inflation rate was unsustainable because it was dependent on the stable oil and commodity prices on the world market rather than the government's ability to manage the economy efficiently. He added that within 10 months of its administration, the government had borrowed 7.6 trillion cedis.
There were doubts about the sincerity of the government's reconciliation initiative as it tended to limit its scope to military regimes alone.
Mr Akorli said none of the governments, which ruled the country since independence could be absolved from human right abuses.
He suggested: "President Kufuor and ex-President Rawlings should publicly apologise for the excesses visited on some Ghanaians since independence, as a cost and time saving measure."
Members of the party should desist from petty squabbles and work hard to groom and market their candidates for the 2004 elections since the party would no longer enjoy the advantages of incumbency.
In an election supervised by Mr Robert Attamah, Ho District Electoral Officer, a six-member executive were elected unopposed.
Mr Anthony Davordzi-Klutsey replaces Mr John K. Gyapong as Regional Youth Organiser with Mr William Attipoe and Mr Maxwell Owusu-Siaw as first and second deputy Regional Youth Organisers, respectively.
The position of Regional Women's Organiser went to Madam Mercy Kuada, who would be assisted by Miss Jessie Ekumebu and Miss Grace Gbedege Zakli. Mr Gyapong observed that the time of name-calling has elapsed, adding: "What is needed now is to elect time tested and dynamic people to lead the party to victory".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 November 2001-Dr. Ben Asante, Director of Engineering at Enron's Headquarters in Houston has been selected as the Chairman's Award Winner for 2001 in Enron's 26,000 world-wide employee contest. The award honours the one employee who exemplifies Enron's core values of Excellence, Integrity, Respect and Communication. He is responsible for optimising the transport of natural gas and crude oil through Enron's 25,000 mile pipeline in North America valued at over $3 billion.
Dr. Asante was a student at Mfantsipim School and graduated
from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Kumasi in Chemical
Engineering in 1984. He holds a Ph.D. from University of Calgary in Canada.
Dr. Asante is active in community and political life in Houston. He is a mentor to a disadvantaged teenager in one of the handicapped areas of Houston, President of the Ghana Association of Houston and an active member of the African Community Organization of Houston. He was active in organizing for the re-election of Mayor Lee Brown in the recent mayoral elections in Houston."
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Breman Asikuma (Central Region) 27 November 2001- Members of the District Council of Labour for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa have appealed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to change its decision to sell its 10 unoccupied flats at Breman Asikuma outright for 45 million cedis each and rent them out to workers.
They said since their completion over 10 years ago, the flats had not been bought nor rented out to workers, adding that if SSNIT should respond to their request that could assist in solving the accommodation problem facing workers in the area.
This was contained in a resolution adopted at a day's seminar at Breman Asikuma organised by the District Council of Labour for workers at the weekend to discuss proposals to be submitted to the government for consideration.
They said since the Trades Union Congress (TUC) stood for the welfare of workers, it should get actively involved in the administration of SSNIT, in order to protect their interest.
They said: "SSNIT activities should be monitored by the TUC leadership and not the government since SSNIT is an establishment belonging to workers. The TUC Leadership should appoint the SSNIT Board Members."
The workers also warned against government raising funds from the SSNIT scheme for political activities and said salaries of workers must be determined before budgets were read.
The resolution stated: " Granting of loans to students of tertiary institution by SSNIT should be made from government fund and not the contribution of workers."
It said the End of Service Benefit (ESB), leave allowance and the other packages should be de-frozen. Later a seven-member executive of the council was inaugurated, with Mr G. A. Otoo as Chairman and Dennis Eyiah as Secretary.
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Sekondi (Western Region) 27 November 2001- Mr Joseph Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, on Monday said that it was the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government's policy to ensure that every prisoner was rehabilitated and fully integrated into the society.
In this regard, he said government would work to ensure that Prison Farm Camps were opened to expose prisoners to modern agricultural methods and skills.
Mr Aidoo was launching the Second Ghana Prison Service Week celebration under the theme: "Rehabilitation of the Prison Inmates in the new dawn," at Sekondi.
He said effort would be made to revamp workshops in prisons and establish new ones to train inmates in income-generating activities so that when they were discharged they could fit into the new job.
Mr Addo expressed concern about reports of maltreatment of inmates in some prisons and the connivance of officers thus allowing some of them to commit more crimes in prison.
Mr Aidoo said such behaviour was against the rights of prisoners and the fundamental principles upon which the Prison Service was established.
He appealed to the prison authorities to put measures in place to prevent such behaviour that was not only tarnishing the image of the Service but also eroding public confidence in the Prisons.
Mr Alexander Osei-Bonsu, Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons service called on the society not to abandon inmates to enable the service to successfully rehabilitate them.
If inmates were treated humanely it would break the cycle where some of them did not feel wanted and, therefore, committed new crimes so that they could be returned to the Prison.
Mr Osei-Bonsu, who is a Deputy Director of Prisons, appealed to the public to award contracts on construction, carpentry, tailoring and dressmaking to workshops of the prisons. Mr Aidoo later opened an exhibition of products manufactured by prisoners and inspected the Sekondi Central Prisons.
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Ghana Prisons to be enlarged for effective
rehabilitation - J.H.
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 November 2001- Mr J. H. Mensah, Senior Minister, on Monday said the government would soon construct a bigger prison camp at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region to create enough space for the rehabilitation of prisoners and to decongest the prisons.
He said the Winneba and Kumasi rehabilitation camps would be expanded to accommodate the over 10,000 prisoners and ex-convicts stashed in small cells.
Mr Mensah, who also Chairman of the Economic Management Team, was speaking at the opening of this year's Prisons Week celebration under the theme: "Rehabilitation of Prisoners In The New Dawn."
Activities for the week include an open day and exhibition of handicrafts by prisoners, games and a symposium under the topic "Establishing linkages in the criminal justice system for effective handling of criminal."
He said government would demand of the prison service prudent use of resources. Mr Mensah said the prosecution process for prisoners on remand would have to be hastened to help decongest the prisons.
One priority of the government, he said, was to ensure that prisoners were well rehabilitated to contribute towards national development but stressed that the community could play a crucial role by accepting reformed prisoners. He said an increase of the daily feeding fee of 2,500 cedis per prisoner was being considered.
Mr Richard Kuuire, Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service, said some prisoners and ex-convicts became hardened because they were treated with scorn, rejected and virtually abandoned.
"This negative attitude towards prisoners should become a thing of the past if we as a nation want to marshal the energies of all social groups to achieve the much needed accelerated growth and development."
Mr Kuuire said the wide range of beautiful products on exhibition was enough testimony of the ingenuity and enormous potential of prisoners and the prison service.
He appealed for the adoption of dormitories and cells in prisons and provision of resources to improve conditions of prisoners as was being done for hospitals and schools.
The Director General said the public could equip workshops and provide trade training for prisoners to give them employable skills or provide more drugs to meet their health needs.
He said to take care of prisoners some very hardened, was no mean task and called for public support and cooperation.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 November 2001- The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has asked the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to come out with utility tariffs that would meet the expectations of both consumers and the utility companies.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu noted that the realities on the ground required that any tariff increases should match with a high quality service delivery.
The Asantehene made these remarks when the Chairman and other members of PURC paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia palace as part of a programme to open PURC's first regional office in Kumasi. The office will serve the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.
The Asantehene also asked the PURC to examine the area of private participation in the utilities and advise on how best the issue could be tackled.
He urged the consuming public, especially those in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions to take advantage of the opening of the regional office to speak out against the low level of service delivery of the utility service companies.
Briefing the Otumfuo on the commission's operations, Nana (Dr) S.K.B. Asante, Chairman, explained that the PURC set the broad framework for the operations of the utility companies, but was not legally competent to hire and fire or discipline executives of the companies.
He said the most PURC could do was to deny an application for increased tariff to an incompetent company or to impose sanctions against a service provider for proven wrongdoing.
Nana Dr Asante said PURC had come out with guidelines for setting and adjusting rates, which contained operational benchmarks and performance targets.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 November 2001- Mrs Eveline Herfkens, the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, on Monday said it was important for developing countries to be assisted to avoid donor-driven initiatives and conditionalities and donor-managed projects.
"Assistance should not be micro-managed by the donors," she said at a press conference to round off her five-day tour of Ghana. "Only home-grown plans and poverty reducing strategies will result in sustainable overall development and direct poverty alleviation. Only then can donor support be effective," she said.
The visit coincided with tercentenary celebration of relations between Ghana and the Netherlands. The Dutch Prime Minister who was to visit Ghana from Sunday as part of the celebration has postponed the visit.
Mrs Herfkens said her country was committed to a development partnership with
Ghana not built on historical relations but on appreciation of quality governance and policies of the government.
She commended the government on its consultative process and poverty reduction strategy paper, which she hoped would be translated into a transparent and targeted pro-poor budget with clear indicators for poverty reduction.
Mrs Herfkens said the value of development cooperation between the two countries this year was equivalent to 100 million dollars, adding that Ghana would receive an extra 25 million Euros from the Netherlands to stem the impact of the world economic recession following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The Minister stressed the need for the business community to form partnership with the private and public sectors to combat the effect of HIV/AIDS. Mrs Herfkens said the Netherlands would assist in the establishment of the Ghana National Post-Graduate Medical College.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 November 2001- Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo on Monday said the government was in serious discussions with the Department of International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom for technical assistance to find a lasting solution to the problem of "ghost" names on public service payroll.
He said a series of measures aimed at ensuring a sound public financial management of the economy were put in place to eliminate "ghost" names about three months ago.
"In a country where unemployment is one of the many socio-economic problems facing the managers of the economy, a national canker such as the incidence of "ghost" names on the payroll is a major issue which has to be tackled seriously," he said in a statement issued in Accra.
The minister said "ghost" names came as a result of delay in deleting the names of workers who had resigned, been dismissed, retired, vacated their post or were dead.
"Thus the period between the reporting and deletion of the record could still lead to the presence of 'ghosts'".
Mr Osafo-Maafo said an audit review had found out that it took an average of about 54 months to delete the name of a retired person from the payroll.
He said when someone was first appointed; it took a long time for the salary to be paid. "If such a person who decides not to take an appointment but does not inform the department, it leads to a 'ghost' name on the payroll by the time the system starts paying." He said study leave without pay and employee sanctions also affected employee status and remuneration.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said the modus operandi of the perpetrators of these economic crimes in certain cases involved deliberately inserting names of non-existing workers on payrolls and salaries, which illegally accrued and diverted to specific bank accounts for accomplices to share.
One other way, he said, was to deliberately inflate salaries or overtime allowances of some officers or faking higher grades for them on input forms. The difference in pay was then shared with account officers.
Such monies were siphoned by officials who were responsible for managing payrolls with active assistance of treasury officers in the districts, regional offices and Head Office at the Controller and Accountant-General's department responsible for the preparation and processing of the payrolls.
"It is the intention of the Ministry of Finance to completely eliminate this phenomenon from the public payroll system."
The Minister said all heads of departments had been charged to be personally responsible to thoroughly scrutinise all payrolls under their charge and certify the existence of all workers listed as well as the genuineness of their grades, salaries and levels in their respective departments and agencies.
"The Auditor-general has been requested to start auditing every payroll beginning with the last three months (August, September, October) so that the 'ghost' names syndrome with its attendant adverse effect on unemployment, over-expenditure, waste and unbridled stealing from the national coffers will be completely eliminated."
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