Transparency International steps up repatriation campaign
Ghanaian arrest 195 South Africa passports
Minister for education calls for more trained accountants
President Kufuor urges prisons administrators to be innovative
Census for Liberian refugees in Ghana next month
Australian wins top commonwealth writers award
Bawku Naba pledges to work for peace
Korle Bu, Vancouver Hospital in sister relationship
Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - Africa Affiliates of Transparency International
(TI), the global non-governmental organisation (NGO) devoted to curbing
corruption world-wide, has stepped up its campaign for the repatriation of
Africa's stolen wealth, estimated between 20 to 40 billion dollars.
Africa
Affiliates of TI would, therefore, meet in Accra this weekend for a three-day
conference to evolve strategies for the repatriation of funds looted from
Africa. The meeting would also develop mechanisms to ensure that repatriated
funds are not misapplied and make recommendations to forestall further
plundering of Africa's wealth.
A
statement signed by Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Executive Secretary of the Ghana
Integrity Initiative said the forthcoming event would be a follow up to an
earlier one held in Zimbabwe, during which delegates resolved to spearhead an
international campaign for the tracing, recovery and repatriation of Africa's
stolen wealth.
The
statement recalled a statement by Swiss authorities last week that Nigeria was
to receive one billion dollars looted by Sani Abacha, Nigeria's former Head of
State. This was as a result of an out of court settlement with the family of
Abacha in return for the dropping of money laundering and theft charges against
Abacha's son and his father's business associates, it said.
The
conference, which is expected to bring together TI Africa Affiliates from more
than 35 countries is under the theme, "Deepening and Sustaining the
African Anti-Corruption Agenda: Implementing the Nyanga Declaration." A
number of high-ranking personalities in government, private sector, civil
society and the diplomatic community would make presentations.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - A 34 year-old Ghanaian based in South Africa,
Daniel Adjetey Adjei, was on Wednesday arrested at the Kotoka International
Airport for attempting to smuggle 195 South African and 29 passports of the
Kingdom of Swaziland into the country.
A source
close to the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) told newsmen that
one Adjei Ocloo, 29, who managed to enter the arrival hall to assist Adjei, was
also arrested. The source said Adjetey arrived on a flight from South Africa
and after picking up his luggage went through the green tunnel indicating that
he had nothing to declare.
When Adjei
and his brother got to the enforcement point, a CEPS official requested to
examine Adjei's luggage but Adjei Ocloo flared up and challenged the officer
saying that, since his brother had passed through the green tunnel the officer
had no right to check his luggage. This raised the suspicion of the officer and
after thorough examination found the passports concealed in a plastic
container.
Adjetey,
who claimed to be a cobbler and had been living in South Africa since 1996,
told newsmen that the passports were given to him by a man at the airport to be
given to someone in Ghana but could not remember his name. The police are
conducting further investigation
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Wa (Upper
West) 25 April 2002 - The Ministry of Women's Affairs would assist 1000 women
farmers in the Upper West Region to cultivate food crops, mainly maize and
cassava this year, Mr. Sahanun Mogtari, the Regional Minister announced at Wa
on Wednesday.
The
minister explained that the programme was part of the government's efforts at
reducing poverty through income-generating schemes established for women, who
according to him were worse hit by harsh economic conditions.
Reacting
to sentiments expressed by heads of department that the ministry could not
decentralise its work at a meeting of district chief executives and heads of
department in the region at Wa, Mr. Mogtari said the ministry would soon
recruit personnel to man the zonal, districts and regional offices yet to be
established.
He noted
that decentralisation was necessary for ensuring good governance and said
setbacks to the process resulted in the ineffective functioning of sub-district
structures and sub-committees of the district assemblies.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - The Minister of Education, Prof Christopher
Ameyaw-Ekumfi, on Wednesday called for the training of more accountants to meet
the needs of the country. He said though the country requires about 200
qualified accountants per year, less than 60 are trained annually. "This
deficiency would have a negative impact on the economy if it is not corrected."
Prof.
Ameyaw-Ekumfi said this in a speech read for him at the opening of a two-day
accountants conference in Accra under the theme; "strategic corporate
planning".
Organised
by the Chartered Institute of Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), participants are
discussing topics including, strategic financial planning and national
development, developing a strategic corporate plan, performance measurement and
the accountant as a strategic planner.
The
conference is to provide the 1500 members with proper tools to work with as
managers. The minister said the ministry is negotiating with the Chartered
Institute
of Accountants (CIA) to assist in the training of all intermediate accounting
staff to upgrade their skills and acquire the Ghana Accounting Technicians
certificate.
He also
urged the ICAG to join hands with the universities, particularly the School of
Administration, University of Ghana, to help increase training of chartered
accountants. Prof. Ameyaw-Ekumfi said the Ministry would provide support for
ICA G's accountancy village project to make it a reality by providing seed
money through the Ghana Education Trust Fund and hoped the institute would
explore avenues to raise more funds for the project.
Miss.
Aurore Lokko, President of ICAG, who opened the conference expressed regret
that the traditional role of the accountant has changed over the past few
years. She said, in the past, activities of chartered accountants had been
shrouded in relative aloofness, making it difficult for members to be proactive
in making pronouncements on issues, which are pertinent to the profession.
Mr. Lokko
added that with the organisation's renewed vision and determination to achieve
excellence, it has placed itself in a position to offer to government, all
stakeholders, and the media its unfailing support.
Mrs. Lokko
said, in addition to supporting the Ghana Journalists Association and the
Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists to improve upon their financial
awareness through seminars, the organisation is planning to endow an
accountancy chair at the School of Administration, to facilitate research into
the subject of accounting and the preparation of technical materials for the
profession. She appealed to all corporate bodies, donor agencies and the general
public for funding for the association's building project.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday
asked administrators in the country's prisons to be innovative and employ the
resources at their disposal to improve conditions while the government sought
the necessary funds for major rehabilitation works.
He said,
often among the inmates in the prisons were professionals, lecturers and
artisans with all the skills required to run an institution, but these were not
utilised for effective and efficient operations.
President
Kufuor made the call when he swore into office 12 out of the 13 members of the
Ghana Prisons Service Council in Accra. He administered the official oath and
oath of secrecy. The Reverend Professor Seth Ayettey of the Presbyterian Church
of Ghana is Chairman of the Council.
President
Kufuor said the country's resources were stretched and the prisons did not rank
very high in the order of budgetary priorities. This therefore, required some
imagination to use the same resources to improve conditions in the prisons.
He said
some past governments had tended to use the prisons as convenient dumping
grounds for their political opponents and those who disagreed with them and
this had tended to put pressure on the running of the prisons.
President
Kufuor said the prison officers either felt they had to please the government
of the day by being cruel to these "political" prisoners or else they
looked the other way and these category of prisoners broke the rules in the
prisons.
"Whichever
way, this is bad for the system and detracts from the sense of revulsion that
would otherwise come to be associated with going to prison. Indeed it almost
became a badge of honour to have gone to prison, albeit for political reasons.
"Prison
should be reserved only for those who have been convicted for breaking well
defined laws and should retain the aura of reproach to ensure that it serves as
a deterrent." President Kufuor pledged government's resolve not to
continue with this practice but make the prisons a place for only convicted
prisoners and not a place for people who had not passed through the due process
of the law.
President
Kufuor asked members of the Council to be motivated by the sense of humanity to
ensure that the prisons were modernised in terms of the physical conditions and
the treatment meted out to prisoners.
He said
people should come out of prison and become useful citizen to the society,
adding, "it must be made possible for prisoners to either learn some skill
or use whatever skill they had before entering the prison for the betterment of
society".
President
Kufuor said the Council had an onerous task to upgrade the country's prisons
and modernise them to the standard of the 21st Century because their state were
a disgrace. They are overcrowded, filthy and not fit for human habitation.
He said
the fact that someone had broken the laws of society did not mean he was not
entitled to humane treatment. President Kufuor said it was important that
conditions were such that the prisons did not become breeding grounds for
hardened criminals who lost their humanity because of the crude conditions they
had to survive in.
"The
reform of prisoners should be given a bigger profile and the prisons run in a
manner that would ensure human rights and people are assisted to mend their
ways to emerge from the prisons better human beings," he added. Reverend
Ayettey the Council would work in partnership with all institutions concerned
in the reformation of prisoners to modernise the prisons.
Rev.
Ayettey, who is also the Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the
University of Ghana, Legon, said they would work with a humane heart to the
welfare of the inmates and the officers and ensure others did not enter the
prisons.
Other
members of the Council are Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Minister of Defence and
Acting Minister of the Interior, Mr. Richard Kuurie, Director-General of the
Prisons, Mr. Jonathan Kwabena Ampratwum, Assistant Director of Prisons
in-charge of Training and representing the Senior Staff and Chief Officer Miss
Grace Armah, representing the Junior Staff.
The rest
are Mr. Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Nana Kwadwo
Nyarko III, Pranghene, Alhaji Bawah Wemah, a retired educationist, Mrs. Mary
Emelda Amadu, Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr. Peter
Dei-Kwateng, a legal practitioner, Mr. Dan Botwe, General Secretary of the NPP
and Mr Kwadwo A.A. Brempong, Managing Director of Super Paper Products Company Limited
(SPPC). Professor A.B. Akosa, a medical practitioner was absent from the
swearing-in.
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Kasoa
(Central Region) 25 April 2002 - The Government would organise a census of
Liberian refugees in the country next month to enable it to have adequate and
meaningful data for their budgetary assistance, Nana Owusu-Nsiah, Director of
the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), announced on Wednesday.
Currently,
there are 4,000 duly registered refugees with the Ghana Refugee Board and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, there are an
estimated 22,000 stationed at the Buduburam Camp, near Kasoa in the Central
Region.
Nana
Owusu-Nsiah, who was speaking at a meeting with residents of the Camp said the
decision was reached to carry out the census because of the high rate of
procreation and influx of Liberian refugees in the country as well as reported
criminal activities by some of them over the past 12 years since the camp was
established.
"Those
who will refuse to be counted and registered will be considered as illegal
residents and appropriate action will be taken against them," he said.
"Government is not in any way against your stay in Ghana. It generously
welcomed your stay in the country as refugees so I expect that you will
reciprocate this gesture by abiding by the laws and regulations of the land.
Nana
Owusu-Nsiah charged residents to liaise with the police and the watchdog
committee formed in the area to weed out criminals saying, "I expect you
yourselves get the bad ones out of this place. If the place (Ghana) were to be
unsafe, you wouldn't have come. Why then even some of you sometimes join armed robbers
in the country to engage in criminal activities?"
He said
the Buduburam Camp currently comes nowhere near the status of a refugee camp
because they were living as people who were building a town. Most of them are
engaging in all kinds of business activities and building families, Nana
Owusu-Nsiah said.
He
rejected the notion that ECOWAS nationals could go to any West African country
without passport and said they could move freely but must be identified with a
passport indicating which ECOWAS country they came from.
Mr Peter
Trotter, Acting Officer UNHCR, announced that negotiations were currently
underway with ECOWAS countries to resume the refugee assistance, which was
withdrawn in June 2000.
He said
the UNHCR would now be looking at the assistance in groups or communities. Mr
Trotter told the residents that the basis for creating a refugee camp rests
solely on respect on their part.
Mr John
Thompson, Camp Manager, said the recent influx of about 1,800 refugees between
January and March this year had made monitoring of movement very difficult,
giving criminals the advantage to carry out their activities. He said so far,
114 cases of criminal activities had been recorded at the place including armed
robbery and defilement.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - Australian novelist Richard Flanagan has won the
Commonwealth Writers Prize 2002 for his book "Gould's Book of Fish",
a statement issued in Accra on Wednesday said. The Princess Royal presented the
prize worth 10,000 pounds to him on Wednesday at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in
Edinburgh.
Ghanaian-based
Manu Herbstein was awarded 3,000 pounds in the Best First Book category for his
book "Ama, a story of the Atlantic slave trade." Richard Flanagan
lives in Tasmania while Manu was born and educated in South Africa and has
lived in Ghana since 1970.
The
statement quoted the chairman for the Pan-Commonwealth judging panel, the Right
Reverend Bishop Holloway, author and former Bishop of Edinburgh, as saying of
Flanagan's novel:"By a majority, we chose the most controversially
difficult and demanding of the four books that were before us, because we
detected in it a touch of genius that, we believe, will give it enduring
significance...This is a baggy monster of a book that does literary cartwheels
on a tightrope!"
Rt. Rev.
Holloway, commenting on Manu Herbstein's success, said: "We were surprised
ourselves by the choice of the First Best Book. After a long and intricate
discussion, we chose a historical epic. It's a book written with tremendous
moral passion about a monstrous episode in human history."
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Bawku
(Upper East) 25 April 2002 - The Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area,
Naba Abugrago Asigri Azoka II, has given the assurance that he would strive to
consolidate the peace that has returned to Bawku in order to promote its
development.
He
admitted that without peace, no meaningful development could take place in any
community and therefore, urged all people, irrespective of their tribe or
political affiliations to assist him in that effort.
The Bawku
Naba gave the assurance on Tuesday when the Public Relations' Committee of the
District Assembly led by the Presiding Member, Dr Soyir Yariga went to the
palace to welcome the chief formally from Accra.
A couple
of weeks ago, the Bawku Naba, who is also the President of the Upper East
Regional House of Chiefs led a delegation of chiefs and members of Parliament from
the district to pay a courtesy call on President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Naba Azoka
said they had a wide range of discussions with the President during their
meeting, which was held behind closed doors but the issues of unity and peace
in Bawku were given prominence. Naba Azoka hinted that as a move towards the
promotion of peace and unity among the people, he intends mobilising all ethnic
groups in the Traditional Council for its reconstitution.
Mr.
Ibrahim Alhassan, the District Co-ordinating Director on his part contended
that poverty, disease and ignorance are the common enemies of the people in the
area. He therefore, called on the people to co-exist peacefully and unite to
fight these common enemies, which for a very long time militated against their
ability to develop as a people.
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Sunyani
(Brong Ahafo) 25 April 2002 - Kwame Appiah, a 32-year-old trader charged for
assaulting his 27 year-old wife, Doris Asamoah, on Tuesday wept before the
Sunyani Community Tribunal.
He pleaded
guilty and was convicted on his own plea and sentenced to a day's imprisonment.
The tribunal ordered him to sign a bond to be of good behaviour for one year or
in default, three months imprisonment and to pay 150,000 cedis to the wife to
cover her medical expenses.
The court,
presided over by Mr Charles Adjei Wilson, heard that Appiah, who lived in Kumasi
with the wife, had been assaulting her for a while now. On 17 April he severely
assaulted the wife and threw her belongings and that of their three children
out of the house.
Doris
travelled to Sunyani to inform her parents about the incident but the accused
followed her there and subjected the wife to severe beating in the presence of
the parents, inflicting a wound on her left eye.
The
parents together with Doris reported the matter to the police and the accused
was arrested and the victim issued with a medical form to attend hospital. The
accused admitted the offence during interrogation and begged for forgiveness
because he was drunk.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - The
Permanent Conflict Resolution and Management Committee on Wednesday set
guidelines under which the ban on drumming in the Ga Traditional should be observed
in the interest of peace, harmony and national security.
A
statement from the Office of the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council
said the Committee at its final meeting recommended that the usual form of
worship should be confined to church premises and noise level be minimised to
prescribed decibels during the period of the of ban. "The positioning of
loud speakers outside the church should be discouraged," the statement
added.
It called
on Christians and traditional authorities to respect one another and restrain
their followers from making derogatory and inflammatory remarks about beliefs
and practices of one another's religion.
The press,
especially radio and TV stations were urged to desist from holding talk-shows
and programmes that would inflame passions and should be circumspect in their
pronouncement so that their programmes do not contribute to breach of peace.
The Police
and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have been instructed to be proactive
and ensure that laws on public nuisance in the statute books are enforced
throughout the year and not just during the period of the ban, the statement
said. It cautioned all persons to restrain from taking the law into their own
hands by entering churches and other premises to enforce the law on
noisemaking.
Planning
authorities have been instructed to ensure that licenses and permits are issued
for the building of churches and mosques only at places designated and also to
ensure they are not sited too close to residential areas, traditional shrines
and sacred groves.
It
encouraged the National Commission for Civic Education to intensified education
on religious tolerance, social harmony, and plurality of culture for a peaceful
co-existence in the country.
The
statement asked all persons to report all misunderstandings and problems
relating to the ban to the Task Force on noise and nuisance control of the AMA
or call the following hotlines- 662441, 662290, 227979, 712492, 672308, 303772
and 666859 or to the nearest police station for prompt and effective
action.
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Kumasi
(Ashanti Region) 25 April 2002 - Mr Andy Osei-Krah, Project Co-ordinator of the
Friends of Rivers and Water Bodies, an environmental NGO, has commended the
Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin for his commitment to the fight against
environmental degradation.
Mr
Osei-Krah noted that in recognition of his immense contribution towards
environmental protection, the NGO gave him the title "Environmental
King". The Okyehene initiated "Operation Bush Cut" to halt the
activities of chain saw operators in the Atiwa Forest and its environs and to
impound illegally sawn timber. The operation involved the police, the Forestry
Service, the Okyehene Environmental Brigade and the East-Akim District
Assembly.
The
Okyehene and the people of Okyeman must be highly commended for the exercise,
he said, adding that, those who took part in the operation must be rewarded to
serve as a moral booster.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 April 2002 - The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the
Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre in Canada are to establish a
"friendship/sister"
relationship to develop and expand a wide range of exchanges to promote
educational and technological programmes at the centre.
A Canadian
health team on Wednesday presented the Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Afriyie
with a certificate of Agreement of Co-operation on the project. "These two
hospitals agree that wide ranging exchanges and co-operation of various forms
would be undertaken to promote and further educational and technological
programmes", the agreement said.
The
agreement also calls for "co-operation in investigational programmes,
evaluation and transfer of technological equipment for the benefits of the two
hospitals, as well as other forms of co-operation and undertakings, which would
enhance and contribute to the mutual benefit and friendship of the people of
Ghana and Canada".
It was
signed in November last year by Mr Oliver Lawluvi and Dr Herbert Allssop,
Ghana's High Commissioner to Canada and Consul General for Ghana in Vancouver,
respectively, on one side and Mr Phil Hassen Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
the Vancouver Hospital and Dr David Fairholm of the Division of Neurosurgery,
Vancouver on the other side.
The
Canadian team led by Miss Marjorie Datel, Canadian chairperson for the Korle-Bu
Neuro-sciences Projects, also gave the Minister a feed back on the Project. Miss
Datel said under it, health experts from Vancouver would be visiting the centre
at Korle-Bu to assist with the operations while those of Korle-Bu would go to
Vancouver for training to effectively treat patients suffering from strokes,
head injuries and spinal cord disorders among other diseases.
Dr Kwaku
Afriyie said as the world was shrinking into a global village, there was the
need for such co-operation to make Korle-Bu Hospital a centre of excellence. He
said neuro-science was important and should not be limited to Korle-Bu but
taken to the district hospitals as well to meet the many health needs of the
rural people.
He urged
Canada to explore other health avenues in the country, especially the
post-graduate centre, which government was about to set up and channel some of
their assistance there.
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