GRi Press Review 31 - 07 - 2003
Three Ice Plants breakdown at Tema Fishing Habour
Apraku bemoans disregard ff ECOWAS protocols
Commercial banks told to beware of internet fraud
Congestion at Tema port
Attoh's statement on prisons is malicious
I didn't 'Shit Bomb' Crusading Guide - E. T Mensah
'Bicameral Legislature not suitable now'
Three ice plants breakdown at Tema Fishing Habour
Tema (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - Three out of the six ice plants for the production of ice-blocks for fish preservation at the Tema Fishing Harbour have broken down. The remaining three are producing below capacity owing to the obsolete nature of the equipment.
The ice plants, which are all within the Fishing Harbour area, include Nova Complex, Kas Fisheries, Kalewo Fisheries, Co-operative Fisheries, Smart Fisheries and the former State Fishing plant.
The near absence of ice plants is, therefore, causing problems for fishermen in the preservation of their catches at sea, before they land them. In an interview, the President of the Ghana Inshore Fishermen Association(GHIFA), Victor Avokliyah, said the situation has forced the fishermen to travel all the way to Sekondi to buy ice- blocks.
He said when the blocks do not arrive on time, most fishermen are unable to go to sea. When they manage to go without the ice-blocks, they are forced to give away their fish at very reduced prices, lest it goes bad for lack of proper means of preservation.
The Chronicle issue of 29 July 2003 carried a story which reported a bumper harvest of fish at the Tema Fishing Harbour in the absence of preservation facilities, adding that fishermen sold fish for as low as ¢35,000 per crate, instead of the usual ¢150,000.
Avorkliyah said that GHIFA has already complained to the authorities at the fisheries sector but the response has not been very encouraging. - Graphic
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Apraku bemoans disregard ff ECOWAS protocols
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Regional Co-operation and NEPAD, has expressed concern about the blatant disregard of ECOWAS protocols relating to trade by member states.
He noted, for instance, how the trade liberalisation scheme (ETLS), which allows unprocessed goods, traditional handicraft and approved industrialised goods to circulate freely in member countries, without the payment of custom duties, is not being fully implemented.
Dr Apraku expressed these sentiments in Accra yesterday when he addressed the 8th Ghana Export Sector Development forum on the theme: "Regional Integration in West Africa: Implications for Export Development".
He cited how Nigeria has always insisted that specific approval and exemption have to be given by the Federal Ministry of Finance before goods which have been duly registered under the ETLS are allowed into that country and said, "This is against the ETLS provision."
He said Ghanaian exporters of pharmaceutical products also face the problem of disharmony in the acceptability and recognition of certificates given them by various ECOWAS states.
The minister said the situation will now compel exporters who want to export pharmaceutical products to a particular country, to obtain a special certificate from that country each time.
He mentioned other problems, which hamper the activities of exporters as the lack of transport infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods across the sub-region as well as poor telecommunication facilities, among other things.
He announced plans by the ministry to establish a West African Business Roundtable, which will seek to explore and identify problems that industrialists face, with a view to addressing them.
Dr Apraku said the ministry is also in the process of establishing an information and documentation centre in the ministry to serve as a reference centre on ECOWAS and matters relating to other regional economic groupings in Africa, the AU and NEPAD.
"We will support the formation of a West African Customs and Excise Association to enable customs officials to have constant interaction with one another and deal with complaints from member countries," he gave the assurance.
Dr Apraku commended ECOBANK for indicating various possibilities for exporters to source finance from its branches for their trading activities.
In a welcoming address, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof Edward Ofori-Sarpong, said in order to secure the establishment of a competitive economy that is export-oriented, there is the need for the export sector to sustain itself and be dynamic.
He said the provision of adequate infrastructure is one of the prerequisites for sustainable economic and social development and called on government to improvise ways to advance the process of systematic change and guide it through successive stages to completion. - Graphic
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Commercial banks told to beware of internet fraud
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - The Director General of the West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Dr. C. O. Itsede, has challenged commercial banks in the sub-region to look for ways to minimize risks posed by internet fraudsters and hackers for e-banking to take full advantage of the West African market.
He said "the spate of crime associated with the internet in terms of e-commerce and e-banking in the country and the sub-region as a whole, should not deter banks from shying away from this".
He explained that with the acquisition of modern machines (computers) and expertise, the country would overcome the problem. He advised the central banks in the sub region to open a new window of banking supervision in the area of fraud in the e-banking sector.
The director said this in an interview with The Chronicle after he addressed the opening session of a five-day regional workshop on advanced banking supervision organised by the WAIFEM in Accra on Monday.
He said that for the sub region to gain stability and a safe banking environment to help in the creation of a second monetary zone, an explicit deposit insurance scheme should be created to mitigate the deleterious consequences associated with bank failure. He noted that this would insure deposits at commercial banks against loss of deposits when banks fold up.
The director general further stated that banks in the sub region should apply risk-focused banking supervision to ensure availability of the required quantum and quality of information to help identify, measure, monitor and control risk exposures.
He suggested the adoption of harmonized banking regulations for the sub-region especially member countries of the West African Monetary Zone.
Dr. Itsede said the regional course was aimed at exposing participants to the new Basle Capital Accord and risk-based supervision. Some of the topics the workshop would cover are the problems of Bank and Financial restructuring, Implications of Monetary Integration for Deposit Insurance and the Implications of e-banking for Banking Supervision.
The Principal of the National Banking College Mrs. Adelaide M. Benneh reminded bank examiners to ensure that boards of directors and senior management take steps to review and modify existing risk management policies and processes to cover their current or planned e-banking activities in order to benefit from the rapid development of e-banking capabilities in the country. This she said would lead to a reduction in inherent risks.
She said the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision expects risks to be recognized, addressed and managed by banking institutions in a prudent manner according to the fundamental characteristics and challenges of e-banking.
The principal of the college noted that the Basel Committee believes that the integration of e-banking applications with legacy systems implies an integrated risk management approach for all banking activities of banking institutions. - Chronicle
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tema (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - The effort made by policy makers to decongest the Tema Port by allowing the construction of container terminals outside the harbour has been rendered useless.
The port, claiming to be the gateway to the sub region is reeling under severe pressure never witnessed before in its existence.
Unconfirmed reports made available to the Chronicle suggested that either a surcharge has been slapped on containers arriving at the port or it is in the making. It is an allegation yet to be proved.
Under the allegation, 20 foot containers for Tema port will attract $200 surcharge while 40-foot containers magnetize $400. The shipping companies are going to implement this for delays caused to their containers should the surcharge be slapped on the Tema Port.
The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) in an attempt to make its ports attractive for sub regional trade, created devanning areas outside the port and allowed private entrepreneurs to build and operate container terminals such as the Tema Container Terminal (TCT), ATLAS, SDV and Maersk.
The system introduced a container scanning, apart from being a demand for the Gateway concept, to facilitate fast movement of goods from the harbour and detecting of unmanifested items among others.
The Gateway Services Ltd (GSL) procures the facility and under its department SCANCO, positioned the equipment valued at about ¢10m at the Western gate of the Tema Port. Prior to this, the company on an experimental base performed mobile scanning of containers at the port, around the middle of 2000 and began full operation of the main scanner of the western gate in Febuary 2001, with state of the art equipment.
The gateway concept took off with land-locked countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger making use of the port for transit goods. Along the line, the Ivorian crisis cropped up and all goods for the land-locked counties, a greater portion of which had been going through the port at Abidjan were diverted to the Tema port.
Government soon came out to register two more inspection companies namely Ghana Link, Inspection and Control Services and the GSBY becomes BIVAC and have been given geographical allocations.
Information gathered has it that the companies, except GSL, are undertaking 100% physical examination of goods at the port, bringing back congestion.
Interestingly, the GSL scanner with a capacity to scan about 120 containers is now operating below capacity. It now scans between 30 and 40 containers a day at the time the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority releases at least 200 containers a day.
The rest of the containers go to Ghana Link and Inspection and Control Services who are not equipped to undertake scanning. As a result, congestion is witnessed everywhere at the port with heavy equipment movement becoming difficult.
Another aspect is the GPHA's inability to provide container-stacking equipment. Observation by the Chronicle is that pilferage at the port is becoming alarming. Recently, the GPHA had to pay several million cedis when the entire electronic dashboard was stolen.
Under investigation now by the GPHA security is how two empty containers got missing from the Tema port, found their way back and turned into offices by one of the newly registered inspection companies. As confusion rages at the port, people believe that to decongest the place, the new inspection companies must, as a matter of urgency, liaise with the GSL to make use of their scanning facility for a fee. - Chronicle
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Attoh's statement on prisons is malicious
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - An assistant government spokesman, Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, has described as malicious and unnecessary the suggestion by the Ho Central Member of Parliament (MP), Kofi Attoh, to the Interior Minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, to refurbish the country's prisons for use by NPP ministers and other officials when they lose power in the 2004 elections.
Speaking to The Chronicle in an interview in Accra yesterday, Amponsah-Bediako said the suggestion was malicious because it shows that the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) main motive for seeking to win back power is not to develop the country, but to seek revenge on its political opponents.
"The statement was unnecessary because it had the potential to generate political tension between the two parties. Such a development, Amponsah-Bediako said, will be unhealthy because "it will shift our focus from development and prevent us from utilizing our energy for the growth of the Nation" should the NDC's main motive be driven by revenge.
He explained that prisons are built or refurbished for lawbreakers or offenders who need to be kept away from the rest of society to reform.
"If this is the case," he went on, "it is wrong for anyone to seek election with the sole aim of causing the arrest of political opponents, even if justified, and jailing them by hook or crook as was the case in the past, when kangaroo courts were set up to try perceived enemies within five minutes and jailed for fifty years."
Amponsah-Bediako said the NDC appears not to have learnt their lessons from the public disapproval of the unjustified atrocities brought to bear on the people of this country during the days of the PNDC and NDC.
In his view, Attoh should not defend corruption, simply because some people who have been jailed by the law courts happen to come from his party, the NDC. The assistant government spokesman said that what is important is for everyone to go about his or her duties honestly, stressing that when this happens, there will be nothing to fear whether there is a change in government or not.
He noted that as a people, Ghanaians must move forward, not backwards and eschew what is wrong, irrespective of their political affiliation.
Last week, the MP for Ho Central, Kofi Attoh, suggested to the Minister of the Interior to provide sliding doors and carpets for the prisons for NPP ministers and officials who will be going there after the 2004 general elections. The call came as the NDC continued to criticize ministers and NPP officials for alleged corruption.
Moreover, almost there years after it handed power over to the NPP administration, three of its former ministers are currently serving various terms of imprisonment for corruption while some are still being tried. - Chronicle
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
I didn't 'Shit Bomb' Crusading Guide - E. T Mensah
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - A former Minister of Youth and Sports, E. T. Mensah has expressed dismay at allegations that he ordered human excreta to be spilt at the offices of the Crusading Guide newspaper on 2 October 2000. A former NDC Youth Activist, Sheikh Awal Larry at a press conference in Accra, made the allegation.
In a telephone conversation with the Crusading Guide, the ex-Minister said he did not know any NDC Youth Organiser called Sheikh Awal Larry. "Awal has never come to my office. It is not true that he was once an NDC Youth Organiser for Ayawaso. I never worked with him", ET contended.
Asked what step he was going to take to clear his name, E. T. Mensah said he has instructed his lawyers to institute legal action against Awal.
At a press conference last Monday, Sheikh Awal said he was in the office of E.T. Mensah at the Ministry of Youth and Sports when he (ET) asked two men to go and spill human excreta at the offices of the Crusading Guide. "Speaking in Ga, he asked them to 'open it all' when they go to Baako's office. Clearly, it was a human waste car that was used in that shameful operation", Awal said and dared E.T. Mensah to come out and challenge him.
Awal claimed that throughout his tenure as Youth organizer at Nima, a suburb of Accra, he used to organize young people at Nima to incite and even cause violence against their opponents. "I organized bus loads of my own people for NDC rallies, seminars and other operations", he added. - Myjoyonline
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
'Bicameral Legislature not suitable now'
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2003 - The Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni, has said bicameral legislature will not be suitable for the country at the moment, in view of its precarious economic situation.
He said instead of thinking of creating an Upper Chamber alongside Parliament, the latter should be adequately resourced to carry out the mandate the sovereign people of Ghana have entrusted it with.
Alhaji Mumuni was commenting on a front-page story published in the Graphic of Tuesday 29 July 2003 in which President John Kufuor was reported to have stated that the Council of State will serve a better purpose if it is upgraded to become the second chamber of Parliament.
Alhaji Mumuni is a ranking member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the Judicial Committee of Parliament.
"In my view, the cost of creating an Upper Chamber will be too enormous for the state to bear", he stated. He pointed out that Parliament, as it stands now, is under-resourced, such that a private member's bill cannot be laid because of the lack of support and parliamentary draft persons.
He contended that Parliament is an expression of the sovereign will of the people and that setting up an Upper Chamber using the present Council of State will be undermining the principle of representative government. "Until we are able to adequately support Parliament, the present moderating influence of the Council of State should be maintained", he stressed.
The MP further said raising the Council of State now will be a luxury we can ill-afford and said the issue can be looked at in the future "when the economy becomes good". At the moment, Ghana is operating a unitary system of government, which, he said, is more compact and advantageous.
Alhaji Mumuni noted that the National House of Chiefs, which is a recognised constitutional body, is also exerting a moderating influence on some aspects of the work of both the Executive and Parliament and said this is good for the promotion of democracy.
Giving a historical background to why a bicameral system has not been accepted in Ghana, the MP said since the 1969 Constitution was promulgated, the issue of having an Upper Chamber has been coming up but the matter has never received the support of the wider populace. - Graphic
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com