Killer drugs – 89 % pharmacist preparations
failed analysis, Board
Ghana Telecom goes finger pointing
Rawlings’ bodyguards arrested
World Bank President commends Rawlings
Sack
Education Service director - Ho teachers demand
Eight line up for Milo Youth Championship
Ashanti records over thirteen thousand HIV
cases last year
‘Ninja Boys’ on the rampage
Ministry forced to feed striking GNPC staff
Over three hundred thousand Ghanaians said “Yes
for Children”
Shipyard workers demand public apology
Danger! Do not arm 5,000 private security
guards
Mills failed to inform party about trip
Promiscuous men cannot donate blood
Veep calls for teamwork
NDC
holds congress in December
Ten
companies express interest in recycling waste
It's
normal for public servants to lose job
Stand firm behind NDC - Antwi
Government will not joke with private sector
Killer drugs – 89 % pharmacist preparations
failed analysis, Board
The Public Agenda, quoting from the September
edition of the Ghana Pharmaceutical Journal, says the quality assessment of
some drugs on the Ghanaian market by the Food and Drugs Board early this year
showed that most of the products were of poor quality.
The products involved, which were prepared by
pharmacies and meant for immediate use (extemporaneous preparations) included
Tri-silicate, Kaolin and Gentian violet. Others are Ferric Ammonium citrate,
Senna Co and Potassium citrate.
“The results indicated that out of 328 samples
analysed, 89.6 per cent failed analysis”, the journal said.
The Agenda reports the Registrar of the
Pharmacy Council, F. Awuku-Kwatia as saying that this implies that the diseases
could not be healed or they could be aggravated.
More…/
Ghana Telecom goes finger pointing
The Ghana Telecom has lay blame on some corporate
bodies and Internet Services Providers (ISP’s) for the pressure its
infrastructure is been put under.
In an official reaction to Public Agenda’s last
week front-page story: “Ghana Telecom heads for crash,” they accused the
corporate bodies who sometimes have their own intranet like the Ashanti
Gold-fields Corporation (AGC) and ISPs of ceasing their switching for
hours-on-end when they go online.
Ghana Telecom said some of their (GT) switches
have burnt out precisely because of the activities of the ISPs and these
companies.
There is an undue over dependency on the Ghana
Telecom from the ISPs and corporate bodies, they said and asked the corporate
bodies and the ISP’s to build their own lines to ease their system of some of
the stress.
Public Agenda’s front-pager story had stated
that the country’s communication industry was heading for a crash if the
present infrastructure of the main operator - Ghana Telecom was not upgraded as
soon as possible.
GRi…/
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Rawlings’ bodyguards arrested
Some trusted bodyguards of ex-president J.J.
Rawlings have been arrested and some of them are in custody, according to The
Ghanaian Voice.
The paper reports sources as disclosing that
W.O.I. Adottey Quarshie was arrested last Tuesday September 18 and W.O. I
Patrick Kuntoh who took over the ex-president’s protection following the demise
of W.O. I. Tetteh as the lead bodyguard of ex-president Rawlings was picked up
by the State Security on Thursday September 20 and was speedily sent to the BNI
in Accra.
The guards reportedly, are all close and
trusted bodyguards of the ex-president. No official announcement or reasons have
been made on these arrests.
W.O. I. Dan Budu who left the armed forces
about 4 months ago and established a bodybuilding gymnasium was also arrested
and incarcerated at the BNI sometime ago.
Sources said all these frantic arrests and
detentions of the “sandbags” of the president are seen as attempt at
witch-hunting and harassment.
The cycle of intimidation, harassment and
witch-hunting started when the ex-president’s residence at Ridge in Accra was
put under siege by General Hamidu’s hit-men, which saw the arrest of the Belize
national, Odinga on charges of plotting to assassinate Rawlings. He has been a
close pal of the ex-president who had given him accommodation opposite his
residence, The Voice alleges.
More.../
World Bank President commends Rawlings
Mr James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank
President who had solid relationship with the Rawlings’ regime, has praised
ex-President Jerry Rawlings for his handling of the affairs of the country and
also for setting the tone for peace and stability by making it clear that he
will respect and accept the decision of the people at the December 7, 2000
polls.
The World Bank President praised the former
President for the dignified acceptance of the results of the elections and that
of the NDC Presidential candidate, Prof. John Atta-Mills. “It was a great
victory for democracy in Africa”, he wrote.
Further Mr. Wolfensohn intimated that the World
Bank has been proud of the relationship, which the bank had with Ghana and that
ex-President Rawlings left office leaving behind a country with strong basis
for future growth. He said Ghanaians are enjoying a much higher level of income
than was the case when Rawlings assumed power on 31st December 1981.
The World Bank President is confident that
Rawlings will not only continue to contribute to the growth of Ghana but also
be making his services available to the development of the course of peace and
development in Africa to which Rawlings is fervently dedicated.
GRi…/
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Sack Education Service director - Ho teachers
demand
The Frees Press reports that teachers in the Ho
district of the Volta Region have threatened to take the law into their hands
if the Minister of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) fail to
remove the District Director of Education, Mrs Jane M.K. Aidam.
According to the paper, they have also called for
the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Serious Fraud Office
report on investigations into the allegation of financial malfeasance leveled
against her.
According to the report dated December 2000 and
forwarded to the GES on February 21, 2001, the SFO confirmed the allegations of
financial indiscipline leveled against Mrs Aidam and recommended that she
should be recalled to work to enable her respond to audit enquiries from the
regional auditor pending the final determination of the case by the Director
General of the GES.
But the teachers claim that since Mrs Aidam’s
return to post she had been vilifying and intimidating the teachers and
officers she believed to have exposed her dealings.
The paper says documents available to it indicate
that Mrs Aidam colluded with suppliers and contractors of the GES to dupe the
state through over invoicing of supplies and contract works. The difference,
amounting to several millions of cedis was shared between her and the other
parties.
GRi…/
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Eight line up for Milo Youth Championship
The Africa Sports writes that eight teams with
distinguished credentials in the lower rungs of Ghana football are scheduled to
engage in a battle for supremacy in the 3rd Millennium Youth
Championship scheduled for October, this year.
The competition, which is gradually becoming a
constant feature of the youth calendar is, according to the organizers, aimed
at providing the sort of exposure that most Ghanaian youth players lack.
Just as the second edition of the championship
saw Cameroon’s great Roger Milla who was in Ghana at the time for CAN 2000
competition, patronising the event, it is anticipated that this year’s edition
will attract great names.
Some European agents eager to make the most of
the wide pull of talents in Africa would be present.
Abedi Pele’s FC Nania has been mentioned as one
of the participating teams and it will play alongside such clubs as Mighty
Jets, Mamobi Youth, Tops International, Seven United and Budumbura Eleven.
GRi…/
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Ashanti records over thirteen thousand HIV
cases last year
A total of 13,023 people tested positive for
HIV/AIDS in the Ashanti Region alone last year, according to The Ghanaian
Times.
Mrs Hariet Adjapong-Avle, Programme Officer of
the Planned-Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), disclosing this at an AIDS
Awareness Programme organised in Accra at the weekend, said the Eastern Region,
followed with 6,939 representing 15.9 per cent and the Greater Accra Region,
6,416, accounting for 14.7 per cent.
The Western Region accounted for 3,969 (9.1 per
cent), while Brong Ahafo and Central Regions recorded 3,640 and 3,061
respectively. They had 8.1 per cent and 7.0 per cent.
The rest are Upper East, 2,247, (5.2 per cent),
Northern Region 1,889, (4.3 per cent), and Volta Regional 1,689 (3.9 per cent)
and Upper West Region, 719 (1.6 per cent) with 86 cases unstated.
More…/
‘Ninja Boys’ on the rampage
A group calling itself 'Ninja Boys' have
plunged the Berekum township in the Brong Ahafo Region, into a state of fear.
The members go about the town disrupting
funeral gatherings and vandalizing stores of targeted individuals.
Their action, follow the jailing of three
members of the group to a total of 34 years in prison with hard labour for
stealing, by a Circuit Court at Berekum presided over by Mr R.K. Asase.
They are Maxwell Kwasi Asare, Kennedy Yaw
Yeboah and Dennis Bannie also known as Nana Kwame.
Asare is serving 16 years for stealing ladies
underwear and other items on two different occasions while Kennedy and Bannie
are serving 10 years and eight years respectively for stealing
second-hand-shoes and a loud speaker.
A source told the paper that over the past two
weeks, the group who are said to be known drug peddlers, had broken into homes
and stores to steal, disrupted funeral gatherings and vandalised stores of
people they had targeted.
GRi…/
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Ministry forced to feed striking GNPC staff
The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that the
Ministry of Energy last Monday unwillingly bought lunch for a group of angry
GNPC workers contracted to work on the oilrigs in Angola and Gabon after they
besieged the premises of the Ministry of Energy to demand their salaries, which
had been in default for 14 months.
The workers, numbering over 33 and wearing red
bands, stormed the offices of the ministry in Accra, last Monday, demanded
their salaries totaling about nearly ¢827.5 million, saying they would not
leave the place until they were paid.
This compelled the ministry to provide food for
the group, as it was launch time, the Deputy Minister, Mr Kwabena T. Hammond,
told newsmen.
According to Daniel Koomson, a spokesman for
the group, the GNPC contracted workers to undertake some jobs on the said rigs
last year.
The jobs, mainly routine maintenance, painting
and mechanical works, among others, started in May, last year, expected to end
three months later.
However, the period elapsed with the workers
overstaying an additional 11 months on the high seas, until July 27, this year,
when the government finally evacuated the last batch home.
According to Koomson, the agreement was that
they would be paid their money when they disembark. However, this has not been
done.
More…/
Over three hundred thousand Ghanaians said “Yes
for Children”
“Say Yes for Children”, the global campaign
that mobilises people from all walks of life around issues that affect
children, collected 322,306 pledges in Ghana after a one-month countrywide
campaign.
The aim of the campaign was to send a message
to world leaders that too many of the world's children suffer from poverty,
sickness, discrimination, war or abuse and this is unacceptable.
People were asked to fill-out a pledge form
indicating which issues they find most urgent to be addressed in Ghana,
Education, the fight against HIV/AIDS and the care for every child were
mentioned as the top three concerns.
The Say Yes for Children campaign was carried
out with tremendous support from the media, the private and public sectors,
NGOs many volunteers and children.
The worldwide results of Say Yes would have
been presented at a ceremony in New York during the UN Special Session on
Children, which was supposed to take place from 19 to 21 September 2001 but
postponed due to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in the US.
More…/
Shipyard workers demand public apology
The Malaysian Managing Director of PSC Tema
Shipyard, Mr Raihan Omar, was forced by the Drydock workers to render public
apology for referring to them as 'thieves' says the Chronicle.
The workers' demand was the result of media
reports that the managing director said the company's reluctance to stock its
stores with materials stemmed from the fact that the workers have been stealing
them to undertake their private jobs.
Although Omar, in a letter dated 19th
September 2001, rendered apology to all the workers and promised that such a
thing will never occur again, the workers wanted him to address them in the
open and apologise.
The letter read in part, "I hereby offer
my unqualified apology to the entire workers at the Shipyard for any
embarrassment that the said publication might have caused you."
It would be recalled that workers of PSC Tema
Shipyard threatened to demonstrate against the Malaysian management for
performing rituals in the yard, which the Malaysians alleged was to exorcise
evil spirits that are responsible for poor performance of the Shipyard. The Malaysians
went to slaughter goats, ducks, etc.
Also to be demonstrated against was the
government's plan to off-load its 40% shares in the Shipyard to (BF-Malaysia).
GRi…/
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Danger! Do not arm 5,000 private security
guards
The Director of a private security company has
described as "ridiculous" and "dangerous", the call by the chairman
of Association of Private Security of Ghana (APSOG) that personnel of private
security companies should be armed.
Mr Peter Awoonor-Renner, Director of K9
Security Services, said the call by the APSOG chairman, Mr Kwadey was likely to
create private armies as such personnel have risen from 1,250 in 1990 to 5,000
by 2001.
The number of security companies has also risen
from 47 in December 2000 to 100 by August 2001.
Mr Awoonor-Renner rather advocated that private
security guards "be issued with stun guns, pepper sprays, etc."
GRi…/
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Mills failed to inform party about trip
The Independent reports that Professor John Evans
Atta Mills, Chairman of the Political Committee of the National Democratic
Congress (NDC), failed to inform the National Executive Committee of the Party
that he was to leave to British Columbia as a Resident Scholar.
Information available to the paper indicate
that the former Vice President act is creating a serious wedge within the
hierarchy of the main opposition group.
The information, which the paper says has been
corroborated by some top notch of the NDC, indicates that the former Vice
President and flagbearer for the 2000 elections did not disclose his new
appointment to the party until its last Executive Meeting last week where the
unofficial spokesman of the NDC, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, dropped the hint.
According to one source, "it was after the
meeting that Spio-Garbrah cheekily disclosed that Prof Mills was slated to
travel to Canada and was organizing a farewell party, so any member of the
executive who was interested could attend".
The sources said although many of the party
executives present at the said meeting did not show their shock and displeasure
at the piece of news openly their countenance and gestures betrayed their
dissatisfaction at the apparent show of disrespect towards the party’s
executive that once made him the number two man in the country.
More…/
Promiscuous men cannot donate blood
Men with jobs that take them away on trek for a
period of three months or more are not permitted to donate blood, as "men
with such jobs may be having other sexual partners."
This is to prevent the transmission of viruses
such as HIV, Hepatitis's B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) to the recipient of such
blood product.
However, officials in-charge of blood have no
way of guaranteeing that men in this category are prevented from donating
blood.
The Independent reports that the Director of
the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), Dr (Mrs) Justina Kordai Ansah as
saying that "The nurses who take potential donors through the health
check, depend largely on answers donors give."
"The health staff have no guarantee to
know who is telling a lie or truth," she added.
To counter this prevailing situation, Dr Kordai
Ansah suggested the encouragement of voluntarism in blood donation, as the
voluntary donor has nothing to lose if disqualified or deferred for any reason.
GRi…/
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Veep calls for teamwork
The Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has
called for partnership between local contractors and their foreign counterparts
to enable them share experiences and engender technology transfer.
"Our objective is to empower our local
contractors through capacity building programmes to enable them rise to the
growing task of the industry. We must nurture and groom our own into the giant
foreign construction firms that we so admire," the NPP News, mouthpiece of
the New Patriotic Party quotes him as saying.
Alhaji Aliu Mahama was speaking at the
inauguration of the 10-member Board of Directors of the Ghana Highway Authority
(GHA) in Accra last week.
GRi…/
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NDC
holds congress in December
The
Daily Graphic reports that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will be
holding its national delegates congress from the 21 to 23, December of this
year.
According
to the story, Dr. Obed Asamoah, who is the chairman of the NDC Reorganisation
Committee, revealed in an interview that the congress will be held to elect a
new national executive to prepare the party for the 2004 elections among other
things.
He
however, did not confirm the venue, which according to investigations will be
held in Accra.
About
1,000 delegates, comprising two delegates from each of the 200 constituency
branches of the party in the country as well as the national executive
committee, the youth and women's wings and other wings of the party would
attend the congress.
Representatives
of the alliance partners - EAGLE Party and the Democratic People's Party will
also attend while invitations will be extended to other political parties as
well as the diplomatic corps.
More.../
Ten
companies express interest in recycling waste
The
government in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is
reviewing proposals from nine foreign waste management companies, which have
expressed interest in recycling liquid and solid waste into energy and other
useful materials.
Solomon
Ofei Darko, Chief Executive of the AMA, is reported to have disclosed that one
of the companies has been approved by the government, which is currently
negotiating with the Volta River Authority (VRA) to recycle liquid waste.
He
also stated that the approval is imperative because the government spends so
much on sanitation and the provision of energy for productive ventures and
expressed the hope that if the other nine proposals are approved it will help
bring a lasting solution to the sanitation problems in the Accra Metropolis and
the country as a whole.
More.../
It's
normal for public servants to lose job
Mr
E A Sai, Chairman of the Public Services Commission, is quoted by the Graphic
as saying that there is nothing wrong with some public servants losing their
positions in the event of a change in government.
He
said that just as some governments would not like to work with some public
servants due to mistrust, there are equally some public servants who would not like
to work with some particular party when it assumes the reigns of government and
that the issue of mistrust between the politician and the public servant is
something that has been with us since the colonial era.
It
should therefore, not be seen as something new in the body-politics, he told
journalists after the opening of an induction workshop on 'the constitution,
administration reforms and public sector management', organised by the Ghana
Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in collaboration with the Public
Services Commission at Akosombo.
GRi…/
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Stand firm behind NDC - Antwi
The Akwatia Constituency NDC Reorganisation
Committee Chairman, Yaw Antwi, has called on members, supporters and
sympathisers of the party to close their ranks to the task of rebuilding the
party, reports The Ghanaian Democrat.
This, he said is vital for the party’s bid to
recapture power in the elections and complete its unfinished agenda.
Addressing a reorganisation meeting of the
party at Akwatia in the Eastern Region at the weekend, Mr Antwi called on
members to show dedication and absolute commitment to the party and said, “The
party needs this attitude more than ever in its current situation.”
He urged all members to be steadfast in their
faith in the NDC and work even harder to ensure victory for the party in the
2004 elections.
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Government will not joke with private sector
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. S. K. Boafo,
has reiterated that the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is committed
to the development of a healthy private financial sector in the country,
reports the Daily Guide.
He observed that the role of the sector could
not be over emphasized and if given the needed support, it would help Ghanaians
in their socio-economic integration.
Mr Boafo was speaking in Kumasi on Friday at a
foundation stone laying ceremony to commence the construction of a
multi-million cedi edifice for ECOBANK, Ghana Limited.
He said the government would pursue pragmatic
policies that will create the needed environment to enhance the financial
sector, adding that it will deliver according to its campaign promises to the
people of Ghana.
GRi…/
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