Overtime allowance is abolished - Alhaji Mumuni
Ministry releases 250 million cedis for rice purchases
Torrential rains threaten dams in Tolon/Kumbungu
Naadu Mills visits Tema SOS Village
Abolish shift system in education - Headmistress
One hundred years old school block replaced
Medical team flees the wrath of church members
Parents of rape victims warned against collecting money
Government wage bill goes up after Price Waterhouse
Christian Council asks state to fund political parties
Overtime allowance is abolished - Alhaji Mumuni
Accra (Greater Accra ) 30 July ’99
Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, said on Thursday that government will no longer pay overtime allowance which is treated as a supplementary of salary.
However, he said that any extra duty hours done outside normal working period would be compensated in line with labour equity.
At a symposium organised by the Ghana Employers' Association in Accra, the Minister said overtime is not part of salary.
"Overtime is not salary supplement, therefore, the position of the Ministry is that we have abolished overtime payment."
He said Ghana's Universal Salary Policy, otherwise known as the "Price Water House" has come to abolish the old system of computing overtime allowance.
According to the Minister, there had been instances, where workers who were on study leave abroad benefited from overtime allowance because it was treated as salary supplement.
He said overtime, must be determined by job evaluation and relativity and where it is established that there has been an extra dimension of work, compensation would be paid.
Similar sentiments were expressed by the GEA at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.
It urged the government to reconsider the payment of overtime allowance stressing that the best form of remuneration package, is that which is performance related.
The health sector is currently faced with strike actions over the payment of overtime allowance.
Alhaji Mumuni said payment of overtime to nurses would not be on wholesale basis.
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Return to top Ministry releases 250 million cedis for rice purchases
Tamale (Northern Region) 30 July ’99
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has released 250 million cedis to purchase 4,000 bags of paddy rice locked up in the Northern Region.
The Nasia Rice Company in Tamale has also been given 800,000 cedis to rehabilitate its broken down mills.
This was contained in a statement by the Northern Region Rice Growers Association at a meeting with Mr Mike Acheampong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Tamale on Wednesday.
The statement, read by Alhaji S.Y. Imoro, interim Chairman, commended MOFA and the Regional Co-ordinating Council for their efforts to in getting the money and appealed for more funds.
Mr Acheampong said the ministry is producing improved seed rice at Dahwenya and Tono irrigation sites to meet production targets by next year and importing a number of combine harvesters.
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Return to top Torrential rains threaten dams in Tolon/Kumbungu
Tolon (Northern Region) 30 July ’99
Torrential rains in parts of the Northern Region have led to dams in the Tolon/Kumbungu District bursting their embankments with rivers over flowing their banks leading to floods in a number of communities.
Last week, the main Tali Dam destroyed six compound houses, grain, livestock and other property at Kurugu-Vuhiyayili while the Kasuyili Dam is on the verge of collapse.
The road network, a number of buildings and some social amenities are under serious threat.
Mr Sulley Alhassan, District Chief Executive, who conducted newsmen round some of the affected communities, said the situation is likely to get worse.
He said this may lead to water shortages during the dry season since there would not be enough water in the dams for both domestic and agricultural purposes.
The DCE appealed to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and charitable organisations for assistance.
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Return to top Naadu Mills visits Tema SOS Village
Tema (Greater Accra) 30 July ’99
Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, wife of the Vice President on Thursday visited the SOS Village at Tema and expressed satisfaction with the set up and the care given to the inmates.
Led by Dr Enchill Kofi Asare, National Co-ordinator of SOS Children's Village Association of Ghana, Mrs Mills toured the educational institutions- nursery, primary, junior secondary school, secretarial section, catering, and dressmaking departments.
Mrs Mills called for the establishment of more of such institutions by the private sector to help the youth, particularly the needy.
Seeing the quality of work at the dressmaking section, she advised the authorities to increase the output and consider exporting some to generate foreign exchange.
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Return to top Abolish shift system in education - Headmistress
Takoradi (Western Region) 30 July ’99
Madam Grace E. Essel, Headmistress of the Ashanti Road Basic School, on Wednesday called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) to abolish the shift system in education since it retards academic work.
She explained that children are exhausted at the time they come to school in the afternoon, thus making them sleep or not paying attention in class.
Madam Essel made these remarks at the school's open and prize giving day in Takoradi.
She noted that the school, since its establishment in the 1960s, had an impressive academic record but standards have fallen due to the introduction of the shift system.
Prizes were presented to teachers, parents and some of the pupils.
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Return to top One hundred years old school block replaced
Enyan Nkodwo (Central Region) 30 July ’99
The 100-year-old Enyan Nkodwo Methodist Primary School block has been replaced by a 75 million cedis building.
Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District Assembly constructed the six classrooms, an office and a store school block.
Commissioning it, Lt Col Charles Agbenaza (rtd), Central Regional Minister, noted that the provision of schools and other infrastructure cannot improve educational standards if other stakeholders in education fail to discharge their responsibilities.
He pointed out that the academic performance of pupils and students are bound to fall if parents fail to show interest in their education, teachers are "perpetually drunk" and school authorities also fail to supervise or monitor schools in their charge.
The Regional Minister, therefore, emphasised the need for these categories of people to show more interest and commitment in the education of the youth and also stressed the need for the regular maintenance of school buildings.
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Return to top Medical team flees the wrath of church members
Ekorsu (Eastern Region) 30 July ’99
A branch of the First Century Gospel Church last Tuesday prevented a medical team from attending to its members at Ekorsu near Asamankese.
A team of Ministry of Health workers from the Eastern Regional Disease Control Unit and the West Akim District Health Management Team had to flee for fear of being assaulted.
A meeting for the team to find out if the outbreak of yaws among the members has been cured ended in confusion.
The confusion erupted, when Dr Joseph K. Opare, the West Akim District Director of Health Services, called the attention of Miss Emelia Okai, acting regional head of the Disease Control Unit, to examine a yaws lesion on the foot of one of the female members of the church.
The lady, who was holding a child during the examination, adjusted her skirt to enable her see what was being examined on her foot and in the process exposed her calf.
Members of the church, who claimed that by their doctrine, married women were not supposed to show their calf, charged on the medical staff accusing them of indecent exposure of a member of their church.
The members of the church at the meeting became more furious as the medical team tried to explain their position and at a point, the team had to flee the meeting out of fear.
The medical team was at the community under an agreement between the leadership of the Church and the Eastern Regional Security Council to ascertain the claim by the leadership of the church that a yaws outbreak among the members had been cured through prayers.
Later in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Pastor Peter J. A. Asae of the Akim Kwamang branch of the church, who was at Ekorsu because of the scheduled meeting, explained that, by the doctrine of the church, no member of the church seeks medical treatment.
He said when any member of the church was sick, the church members fast and pray and the sickness is healed.
Pastor Asae claimed that, even pregnant members of the church do not attend any antenatal or post-natal clinics yet they deliver healthy children and do not have any health problem.
Dr Opare also explained that earlier in the year, there was yaws outbreak in the Ekorsu community but the members of the church, who were affected refused medical treatment.
He said the issue was reported to the West Akim District Security Council, which ordered police protection to enable the District Medical Team to inject 15 members of the church out of the total of 68 people treated in the community against yaws.
Dr Opare said the leadership of the church later refused to allow the medical team to see the effect of the earlier injection and the case was reported to the Regional Security Council.
The leadership of the church claimed that they have managed to cure the affected members of the church through prayers, he said.
Upon that claim, the Regional Security Council, therefore, tasked the medical team to re-examine the members of the church, who were affected with the disease to find out if they had been cured.
Miss Okai, who led the team, later said that, out of the people she examined before the confusion, three children and two adults showed signs of primary and secondary levels of the disease.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July ’99
Dr Gamel Nkrumah, son of Ghana's first President, will arrive in Accra on Monday, September 13, to deliver a series of lectures being organised by the Pan Africanists Forum in honour of his father.
Dr Nkrumah is the Foreign Editor of Al-Ahram, Egypt's biggest-selling newspaper.
He would join other Pan Africanists to deliver the lectures in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Cape Coast to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
According to a statement signed by Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr on behalf of the Forum, the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures would be held under the broad theme "Nkrumahism: a legacy for African unity and development".
It would be under the auspices of the Convention Party.
He would be accompanied by Madam June Milne, Literary Executive of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Nuhusi Kimani, Director of the African Studies Centre of University of East London and Prince Ntum ba Azah, Leader of the Black Peoples Association of Hackney, England.
The lectures would seek to contribute to the revival of Nkrumahism and the search for solutions to the social, political and economic problems confronting the African people.
The Kwame Nkrumah memorial lectures were instituted as an annual event by the Pan African Grassroots Educational Network (PAGEN) and the African Studies Department of the University of East London in the United Kingdom.
According to the statement in April this year, both bodies decided to internationalise it and mandated the Forum to host the first lectures in Ghana.
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Parents of rape victims warned against collecting money
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July ’99
The Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Ghana Police Service on Thursday warned parents and guardians against collecting money from those who rape their children or wards.
DSP Angwubutoge Awuni, Director of the Police Public Relations Unit, said settlement by payment of such monies, sometimes as low as 200,000 cedis, cannot compensate for the physical injuries, mental and emotional trauma of victims.
He warned that parents who indulge in the practice could be charged with concealment or abetment of crime.
Cases involving rape and other child abuse are settled without reference to the unitThis, he said, prevents the unit from working out appropriate solutions that take the long-term interest of the victims and their families into account.
Mr Awuni appealed to parents and guardians that in all such situations, they should seek the assistance of appropriate agencies like Federation of Women Lawyers and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice for better solution.
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Return to top Government wage bill goes up after Price Waterhouse
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July ’99
Government's budget for workers' salaries has increased from 60 billion cedis to 70 billion cedis after the implementation of the Universal Salaries and Wages Policy (Price Waterhouse) in June.
Mr R.K. Tuffour, Acting Controller and Accountant-General, said this at a day's workshop to deepen the understanding of heads of accounts departments of government agencies on the new payroll slip due to a change in the levels based on the Price Waterhouse report in Accra on Thursday.
It was organised by the Controller and Accountant-Generals Department for about 100 participants drawn from the Greater Accra region. A similar workshop was held in Kumasi recently.
Mr Tuffour said the fact that there was an increment of 10 billion cedis meant that the implementation of the policy does not make workers worse off.
"Some actually are being made better off under the policy but are quiet over it allowing those adversely affected to make the noise."
He said all technical errors made in the June, 1999 pay slip were detected and corrected adding that everything would be normal after September.
Mr Tuffour said workers on whose pay slips errors were detected, which were no fault of theirs have been given some advances so that it would not affect their family life.
He appealed to all heads of account departments to compile such names and submit them for necessary action.
The Accountant-General explained that the new salary structure does not seek to "put more money into the pockets of all workers, but to remove distortions that characterised the old salary where people doing the same job were receiving different salaries".
In line with this, the government introduced the "Grandfather Concept".
This states that, "a total pay of a worker should not be reduced after the implementation of the new salary and wages policy and that if the implementation will cause a reduction in the total pay of a worker, then the amount of reduction should be grand-fathered."
However, he said, "if a worker's total pay is not going to be worse off, then no grandfather allowance should be paid".
Mr Tuffour said the department had made corrections and individuals, who were underpaid, had had their accounts credited.
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Christian Council asks state to fund political parties
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July ’99
The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) on Thursday re-launched its campaign for state funding of political parties to make multi-partism flourish in Ghana.
The Reverend (Dr) Robert Aboagye-Mensah, Secretary-General, said although the council came up with the recommendation after the 1996 elections, it believes that it is still relevant today.
He was addressing a four-day mid-year seminar attended by over 120 church leaders under the theme: "Democracy and Good Governance in the Next Millennium" in Accra.
CCG has since 1993 organised forums to allow the leadership of its affiliate churches to share ideas on how they can contribute to the sustenance of democracy and good governance.
Reverend Aboagye-Mensah, who titled his script "Democracy - An African Surprise", said the council remains a non-partisan and honest broker of peace.
He said the Council believes that "the nation will be endangering its democracy if state resources are not made available to all who have the genuine intention of seeking the mandate of the people."
Professor K.E. de Graft Johnson, an executive member of CCG, called on all to help the continent out of its problems, so that it could seek prosperity, peace and dignity in the next century.
He said the church finds itself in a situation where it cannot just behave as if everything is okay.
"We have to find answers, we have to start doing what needs to be done, we have to respond to this call for action."
Mrs Joyce Wereko-Brobbey, Executive Director, Salt and Pepper Ministries, asked Christians to take a second look at the world, because "it now seems that some of us are so eager to go to heaven that we do not want to have anything to do with things going on around us."
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