GRi Press Review Ghana 17 - 09 - 2001

If you have an engaged tone right before you press the buttons on your phone, or voice chirps at you: The number you have dialed does not exist," or browsing on the Web is frustratingly slow, then your tribulation with phone service, is just starting, reports The Public Agenda, which tried to picture the scenario engulfing the telecommunication system in the country.

The paper says some telecommunication engineers that it spoke to were blunt: "Your trouble is going to get worse if the telephone infrastructure is not modernised and improved quickly," they predicted.

The telecommunication industry in this country is heading for collapse if the present infrastructure of the main operator, the Ghana Telecomm (GT), is not upgraded as soon as possible, the expert warned.

"It is going to be horrendous by mid next year, if steps are not being taken to avert the situation," says Philip Engmann, a telecommunications engineer and a member of the Ghana Institute of Information Technologies.

Engmann explains that the present telephone infrastructure were designed for telephony, but over time, the users of the infrastructure have been changing from telephone users to Internet users.

Engmann illustrates his explanation with what they term the "call holding time". The "call holding time" is the average minutes a caller is expected to stay on a phone for a single call.

The telecom engineer says a component in the telephone infrastructure, the switch, is normally designed for 20-minutes call holding time, unlike the Internet, which takes a much longer time. This creates congestion, particular on very limited lines.

Presently, Ghana Telecom, the hub of the country's telephone industry, has only 200,000 lines for a population of 18.5 million.

"People everywhere are demanding Internet access, new cafés are springing up everywhere. The system will jam. It has started already." Engmann said.

According Engmann, the telephone policy of the country has also somewhat contributed to the situation. The preoccupation to that policy is the provision of telephone lines, regardless of the type of equipment the operators bring in.

The Public Agenda says when it sought the reaction of Ghana Telecom, an official had this to say: "This is the first time I am speaking to you, so I can't grant you an interview." GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Independent

Nduom to act as Finance minister

The Independent says unless the unexpected happens, the Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom will from Tuesday, 19^th September to Saturday 6^th October 2001, act as the Minister of Finance.

According to the paper, an official statement it intercepted at the Presidency states that the Economic Planning Minister will again pick the Finance portfolio in an acting capacity from 14^th October to 28^th 2001 when the Finance Minister would be out on another official visit abroad.

The paper quotes the statement as saying, in the absence of the Finance Minister, the President has asked Dr Nduom to act in his stead while Mr. Osafo Marfo will also act in Dr Ndoum’s ministerial capacity during the absence of the latter.

Since the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, the conventional practice has always been Ministers of cabinet ranking, acting for colleagues of the same status.

More…/

“Rawlings’ mouth no be gun”-Spio

Mr Spio-Garbrah, former Minister of Education has told the NPP not to panic at the utterances of ex-president J.J Rawlings because his mouth is neither a gun nor a knife, reports the Independent.

He referred to the June 4 anniversary “boom boom” address by the former President and his subsequent BBC interview and reiterated that ex-President Rawlings did not mean any harm with these statements.

According to Mr Spio-Garbrah the NDC does not believe in coups, claiming that the country has reached a stage where no political party can withstand it.

Spio-Garbrah, who is currently the chairman of the NDC Media Committee, was addressing a meeting of the party’s constituencies in the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Area at Sekondi recently.

More…/

Police chain suspect to bed

The Independent writes that the death of police sergeant E.K. Owusu, a.k.a. Burger, the Presidential motorcade rider, and the arrest of Vincent Gbewornyo, the sixty three-year old suspect, is beginning to turn a new phase, as the family of the suspect have express fear for his life.

Mrs Cicilia Gbewornyo, the wife of the suspect, has expressed total shock at the way her husband who is presently on admission at the Police hospital is being handled by the police.

According to Radio news reports monitored by the paper last, she narrated how her husband whose blood pressure increased at an alarming rate is chained to his bed. She added that his blood pressure keeps rising, despite all efforts to stabilize it.

Mrs. Gbewornyo noted that the handcuff and other inhuman events being meted to her dear one ever since he was arrested, indicates that the police wants justice by fair or foul means and said "I feel the police wants to take justice into their own hands".

She seriously expressed the misgivings at how prisoners who were brought to the hospital are rather not in chain. "We were in the hospital and prisoners brought there were not in chain. Mr. Gbewornyo was not misbehaving in the ward, so I don't see the reason why somebody with high blood pressure should be chained to his bed" Mrs. Cecilia Gbewornyo was reported as saying.

She also denied the claim that her husband caused another accident in January this year near Apam and said he was only playing the role of a Good Samaritan and they were made to bear all the expenses.

"The police themselves presented us with telephone bill, transportation bill, mortuary, post-mortem and even we pay all the medical bills for the deceased and have been reporting to police"

She added; "we were in link with them (police). I am very surprised for them to have linked that incident to this one".

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Daily Guide

Sherry storms court

The Daily Guide says information reaching it indicates that a group of Kpanlogo and brass band youth will be organized to shake the foundation of an Accra Circuit Tribunal next week.

The Kpanlogo youth are being mobilized by the NDC as a way of solidarity and raising the psyche of Ms Sherry Ayittey, the Treasurer of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM), when she makes her second appearance at an Accra Circuit on September 27, 2001.

Miss Sherry Ayittey who is also the immediate past Managing Director of the GIHOC Distilleries Ltd and a former board member of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) is on trial for allegedly receiving bribes to influence the divestiture of the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL), a Takoradi-based firm.

The Daily Guide says it learnt of the planned mobilization at a reception hosted by Prof John Evans Attah Mills last Thursday on the eve of his departure to take up a one-year visiting professorship appointment at the British Columbia University, in Canada.

According to Ms Sherry Ayittey, “the work of the brass band is to hoot at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government so that they (NPP) will stop harassing the NDC members”.

More…/

Kumasi Airport goes International

The intention to use the Kumasi Airport as a sub-West African regional center is reported to be in the advanced stages of preparation, according to the Daily Guide.

If completed, aircrafts from various countries in the sub-region will use Kumasi for landing and departure purposes, Captain Joseph A. Boachie, Acting Director-General of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is said to have dropped the hint in an interview with the paper at his office in Accra last Thursday September 13, 2001.

Captain Boachie said as a start, Air Burkina has already applied for the use of the Airport, adding that the large number of Mossis who hail from Burkina Faso but are currently residing in and around Kumasi in particular and the Ahsanti Region in general, have motivated the Airline to start flights from there.

According to him, all necessary measures are being put in place to ensure that available flights from countries like Burkina Faso, La Cote d’Ivoire and Mali can be air-routed to the Kumasi Airport.

He said concerted efforts will be made to connect the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to ensure effective and potential benefit of the Kumasi airport.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

Daily Graphic

Trades union supports poverty alleviation effort

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has reaffirmed its support for the government’s initiative that will help reduce poverty and promote development, reports the Daily Graphic.

It, however, cautioned that since similar programmes in the past failed because of the lack of political will, the government should address the factors, which militate against the success of such programmes.

According to the TUC, if these concerns are addressed, poverty reduction efforts and the development process will be accelerated.

These concerns were contained in a 10-page document signed by K. Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of the TUC.

The statement said although the TUC, has noted the efforts of the government to consult with civil society on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) for 2002-2004, the GPRS has been presented as a home-grown government policy but has become integral part of government’s economic arrangement with the Paris Club, the IMF and the World Bank.

It stated that this can be linked to the government’s policy of accessing the HIPC initiative and its debts relief benefit by developing the GPRS similar to the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

This, the TUC said, suggests that the much criticized conditionalities of the SAP and Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) have been replaced by the GPRS, a product of broad consultation between government and civil society.

It said there have been no consultation between government and civil society with respect to the former’s letter of intent, dated June 11, and signed by the Minister of Finance, which forms the basis of the IMF short to medium term economic programme and this raises questions about consultations that have any real chance of leading to significant review of the poverty reduction strategy.

More…/

Alhaji Banda returns allowances

The Executive Chairman of Antrak Group of Companies, Alhaji Asoma Banda, has returned a cheque for ¢1,278,750 which is his monthly allowance as a member of the board of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.

He has, therefore, renewed his appeal to other members of boards of state-owned enterprises to forgo their allowances and other perks as their support for efforts to bring the country out of its current financial and economic predicament.

He said the financial constraints being faced by the NPP Administration are very herculean and every Ghanaian placed in a responsible position must contribute a little to get the country’s economy out of the woods.

In a statement issued in Accra at the weekend, he pointed out that the global economy is very gloomy and all Ghanaians must demonstrate to the international donor community their preparedness to help the government resuscitate the economy.

Alhaji Banda revealed that from his own personal research and calculations, the government pays a huge amount of about $7 million annually as allowances to board members.

In four years, that is, at the end of Kufuor’s Administration, the government would have paid a colossal sum of nearly $30 million to the board members as allowances.

More…/

Former Sekyere East chief executive quits politics

The former District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sekyere East, Mr de Graft Agyei, has quit politics to pursue a part-time Diploma in Theology course at the Christian Service College in Kumasi, reports the Daily Graphic.

Mr Agyei told pressmen in Kumasi just after his matriculation at the weekend. Asked whether he would return to politics and to the NDC should it return to power in 2004, Mr Agyei said, “I am quitting active politics to devote the rest of my life to the service of the Lord.”

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Ghanaian Times

Immigration service to improve passport issuance

The Ghanaian Times quotes the Ghana Immigration Service as saying that the over 1,000 passport application forms it receives nationwide weekly is one of the causes of delays in the processing of passports within the stipulated four-week period.

The Director of Immigration, Nana Owusu Nsiah, says as a step towards solving the problem, the service has directed that all application forms received be sent to the Passport Office within a day or two of receipt for their processing.

Nana Nsiah gave the directive at his maiden meeting with members of staff at the Head Office in Accra last Friday and explained that processing of passports took time.

“I have given them a register to record the time and dates that forms are received and when they are sent to the passport office to enable us to check delays,” he said.

More…/

Cocoa purchasing liberalization promotes smuggling

The Cocoa Purchasing Liberalisation Policy has created an avenue for the smuggling of cocoa out of the country, according to Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Debrah.

The policy allowing licensed agents to buy cocoa directly from farmers, is also affecting the quality of the country’s cocoa at the export market as the agents buy them irrespective of their quality.

“The government is therefore studying the policy and will act swiftly to deal with bottlenecks as the country’s image, as a result of the practice, is at stake”, Debrah told a cocoa farmers’ rally organised at Sunyani at the weekend by the Produce Buying Company (PBC) to award some farmers.

More…/

Kotoko fans give thanks for victory

Hundreds of fans of Kumasi Asante Kotoko on Sunday poured into some principal streets of Accra to celebrate their 2-0 sweet victory over arch rivals, Accra Hearts of Oak, after their titanic league clash at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, reports the “Times”.

From Adabraka, Kokomlemle, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Accra New Town and surrounding areas, the fans, clad in the club’s colours of red and white, sang and danced to rhythms of improvised drums.

The scene, captivating as it was, got off moments after the grudge exchanges between the nation’s two giants. The atmosphere was electrifying and exciting as though Kotoko had lifted the league title.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Dispatch

Family wants lands from Tsikata, NDC Gurus

The Dispatch says the law courts would soon be the battleground over the ownership of some of the choicest pieces of land in Accra. These involve all the lands behind Achimota School and Forest, from the former Dimples Inn and half way towards the Tetteh-Quarshie roundabout.

The claim of ownership, the paper says, would be an issue of an Owoo Family against Achimota School, many leading members of the NDC and a few NPP members. Until now, the battle had been between the School and the former NDC government, on how they shared out those lands among some of their top functionaries.

The tussle was first revealed by the Dispatch in August 1999, when some buyers started developing their lands but were asked to stop work because those plots belonged to certain individuals.

Achimota’s Board of Directors, which authorised the sale, was accordingly informed and land searches were conducted giving them a shocking revelation.

The government had illegally leased those plots to several high-ranking state officials and one of them whose documents were made available was Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

Other officials, including former ministers, also had plots, which they paid minimal amounts for but re-sold at over 1,200% says the paper.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Chronicle

Sex for jobs in Takoradi timber firm

The Western Regional branch of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) are investigating allegations of persistent sexual harassment brought against two Lebanese nationals working with Metro Star Wood Processing Company, a Takoradi-based timber firm, by Ghanaian female employees of the company.

The Ghanaian Chronicle says it gathered that harassment of the girls for sexual favours has become so unbearable that some of them, with their ages ranged between 18 and 24, have been compelled to tender in their resignation and left.

Those who refused to give in to the sexual demands of the Lebanese but insisted on working with the company were given dismissal letters without tangible reasons, according to the paper.

Those girls, who had nowhere to go if sacked, were however said to have yielded to the demands of their Lebanese bosses to keep their jobs.

Contacted, the managing director of the company, Isam Backly, vehemently denied the allegation against his employees claiming it was a conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of his employees and that of the company.

The paper says however, that the allegation has been brought to the attention of both the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) who have begun the investigations.

More…/

Editor challenges Mills’ denial

The Regional Editor of the Ghanaian Chronicle, Emmanuel Akli, says he is surprised that Prof. Atta Mills and his party are denying a story he filed last week titled ‘Mills sees no witch-hunting.’

Mr Akli insisted in an interview that every word in the story is true and he stands by it because he captured the former Presidential candidate on tape. “I am really surprised at this denial, he is on tape.”

More…/

Tsikata’s single 280,000billion cedis debt pile-up

It is emerging that Tsatsu Tsikata offered to throw in another rig belonging to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to another international bank, apart from Societe Generale, for debts he had piled up in some of his bizarre schemes that has laddered the state with over 500 billion cedis debts.

A significant percentage of his debts had sovereign guarantees. He offered the rig, Asterix, a semi-submersible drillship to Societe Generale as collateral/security, including the more popular drillship Discover 511, and to the London office of the giant Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, a financial institution he was dealing with.

According to the Chronicle, it gathered that Tsatsu had mortgaged one part of the rig to the French bank (Societe Generale) because he had committed part of the equity on that particular rig somewhere else.

Because of the insufficiency of liquidity on that, he was required by the Trade and Commodity Department of SG to find more cash to retire his indebtedness or add more assets.

After negotiations with SG, he gave up the rig Asterix as additional security/collateral to the bank.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com0

Return to top

The Ghanaian Democrat

31^st DWM Day Care project halted

Construction work, which was due to begin on the Ho Market Day Care Centre, which was under the sponsorship of the 31^st December Women’s Movement, has been halted by the Ho District Chief Executive, reports The Ghanaian Democrat.

The Volta Regional Organiser of the 31^st DWM, Ms Rejoice Kasu said, an amount of 70 million cedis was released by the Movement for the project in 1998.

A land was said to have been acquired for the commencement of the project and the foundation had also been laid, but the project has been stopped by the present Chief Executive and the Omnibus Service Authority (OSA) with the excuse of expanding the Ho market.

She said due to the stoppage order, funds for the project are still lodged at the bank awaiting the green light to be given.

Miss Kasu has appealed to the authorities involved to remove any stumbling blocks in the way of the project because it is part of the development programme for the region.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Accra Mail

Soldier drowns

The Accra Mail writes that the joy and happiness which usually herald the arrival of returning troops from UN peace-keeping operations were absent when the vessel, GNS Achimota docked at the Tema Naval Base from Freetown.

The naval vessel brought back the troops, but also a puzzle: one of the soldiers on board was feared to have jumped into the shark infested sea along the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire coastline on Saturday September 8, 2001 during the long voyage back home, and his body is yet to be recovered.

The paper reports a source close to the contingent as saying that the victim, Corporal Awuku of MT Defence Battalion woke up at 2am and told his cabin mate that it seemed someone was calling him. He then walked onto the deck of the cruising vessel and after standing close to the rails in the dark for a while he dived into the sea.

His grief-stricken mate is said to have informed his other colleagues six hours after the incident, when it was detected that Awuku had not shown up for meals.

Obviously alarmed, the captain of the crew ordered for a search, which yielded no results. The Captain reportedly advised that the vessel sail back to the place where the incident occurred so the body could be retrieved. The idea was not accepted because it was agreed that the body would not surface until after a day or two.

The paper says Corporal Awuku did not leave a suicide note behind, leaving many colleagues wondering what could have spurred him on to dive into the sea.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

High Street Journal

Ghana records moderate growth rate

A UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Report published by The High Street Journal (HSJ) has it that Ghana is among five African countries where accelerated growth is quite significant, exceeding two percentage points per annum.

The others are Uganda, Mozambique, Mali and Nigeria. A further group, consisting of Madagascar, Central African Republic and Benin, also falls into this category, but with moderate improvements in growth.

In the majority of countries in this group the recovery in investment rates exceeds the increases in savings rates, implying using external deficits and increased dependence on external financing, according to UNTAD’s findings released in Accra last week.

Titled “Economic Development in Africa: Performance, prospects and policy Issues”, the report suggests that declining aid terms of trade, mounting debt and ineffective adjustment policies have left sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) poorer than two decades ago.

The report says bolstering growth and halving poverty in Africa over the next 15 years will require a dramatic increase in aid and trade for the continent.

More…/

Ghana’s Cocoa output increases

Ghana produced a total of 436,634 metric tonnes of cocoa in the 1999/2000 crop year, as against 397, 675 metric tonnes the previous crop year, according to a report released by the Statistics Research and Information Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Accra.

The report said coffee, which is another export crop, recorded a total of 3, 965 metric tonnes for the 1998/99 year. The year 1999/2000 recorded a 50 per cent fall in production after recording 1,956 metric tonnes.

Seed cotton had a fall in production for the 1999/2000 crop year, recording 35, 503 metric tonnes.

On sheanut and oil palm tabulated, the report indicates increases for the two industrial crops. While sheanut had a large increase of 17, 463 metric tonnes for 1998/99 crop year and 30, 771 metric tonnes for the 1999/2000 crop year, oil palm only recorded a small increase in posting 1, 031, 919 metric tonnes for 1999/2000 against 1, 022,010 metric tonnes for 1999.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Ghanaian Voice

Bartels' 150,000 houses can't take off

The 150,000 high-rise-low cost apartment housing which the Hon. Kwamena Bartels, Minister of works and Housing dreams about may not become a reality, according to The Ghanaian Voice.

For now, the dream has been put on hold as Parliament under promptings from the IMF has deferred the loan.

Another loan agreements between the Republic and Messrs Hydro consult Bartislava for an amount of US$102 million to finance Housing and Water delivery in Ghana have also been rejected or in Parliamentary parlance deferred.

The Voice says it was told by Parliamentary sources that the agreement could not cross the finishing line because of certain question marks on the loans, which the IMF was not satisfied with.

These deferments were done against the backdrop of other loan agreements being granted by Parliament for some other ministries.

More…/

I have responded to all issues-Tsatsu Tsikata

Tsatsu Tsikata the former chief executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) says his press conference two weeks ago and subsequent interview answer all false allegations leveled against him by the Minister for Energy Hon. Kan-Dapaah and Kwabena Agyepong.

He said in as much as he is not prepared to attack the government, he would not sit down to see his name being soiled by the traders of falsehood.

Tsikata, whom the paper said has no house of his own in Ghana, was speaking in an interview at his modest residence at Madina on Wednesday morning.

"I hear Mr. Kwabena Agyepong the Deputy government spokesperson said when Hon. Kan- Dapaah arrives he would produce documents proving that I have been paid $ 8 million. I am waiting for him. I am waiting for the evidence. You are likely to get angry when such mud is thrown at you but me I won't get angry because I know I did no wrong”, he said.

GRi…/

Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com

Return to top