Punish the "ghosts" - financial expert tells govt
Minimum Wage is not negotiable...Chigabatia
Don't intimidate witnesses - Judge warns public
Women’s Ministry embarks on programme to help rural children
Remand prisoner gets three years for escaping
Junior Doctors resume work after a five- day strike action
Security agents avert religious clash
Ghana lacks skills to manage water - Director
Tourism to be boosted in Ghana
Put the bitterness behind and rally behind elected officers
Addo-Akins advocates pragmatic revision of constitution
Judiciary urged to give judgement based on evidence
Absence of clergy creates political vacuum - Adams
NDC salutes workers on May Day
Trans-shipment on high seas is illegal - Ashitey
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - Professor John Aheto of the School of Administration, University of Ghana, Legon, on Tuesday called on the government to move beyond the identification of "ghost names" from payrolls and mete out stiff and prompt punishments to officials and workers found to be involved in the dishonest act.
Citing media reports of the state losing a whopping sum of 300 billion cedis annually in the payment of salaries and wages to "ghosts" and the rising numbers of names on government payrolls, Prof. Aheto wondered why no culprit had been prosecuted to date in view of the government's policy of "zero tolerance for corruption".
Contributing to a panel discussion organised by the Ghana Institute of Management and Productivity Institute in Accra to examine critical issues of national development, Professor Aheto said the issue of ghost names went beyond insertion of names of people, who did not work for an outfit, and included, absenteeism, late report to work and leaving office before the closing time, under utilisation of employees and an unnecessary high number of workers in an organisation.
He blamed the situation on over centralised and lousy payment system, lack of job analysis, standards for performance, personal planning, oversight and responsibility and the centralisation in the payment of salaries.
These negative situations, Prof. Aheto said, had been heightened by a culture that glorified fraud in the country, a culture of silence, nepotism and corruption in high places and added that catch-phrases coined to deal with corruption should not be mere slogans but must be enforced and perpetrators punished.
Prof. Aheto said the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must have their own payrolls, apart from that of the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) and also called for proper organisational structure with sound managerial philosophies and tight internal audit committees.
Mr Daniel Demelivo, an official from the CAGD, said names of staff, who had been dismissed or resigned, died, gone on voluntary retirement constituted more than 90 per cent of "ghost names and their being on the payroll could have been used to steal public funds.
Other types of ghost names came from insertion of fictitious names on payrolls, fraudulent payments outside the payroll vouchers, usually to consultants and officials, which were not due or overstated.
On the way forward, Mr Demelivo called for budget ceilings to be put in place for the number of staff of the various MDAs, saying' "if budget ceilings were set for the staff of the Management Units, there is no way that a "ghost" can be put on that voucher if the maximum number already exists."
Prof. Stephen Adei, Rector and Director General of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), who chaired the discussion, said head of institutions must be held accountable for any ghost name and further stressed the need for a national identity and social security cards to check the ghost name syndrome.
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Sunyani (Western Region) 01 May 2002 - Professor Agyewodin Adu Gyamfi Ampem II, Omanhene of Achirensua on Monday denied killing one Nii Atoquaye Quansah by a gunshot in Achirensua.
Opening his defence in his trial of intentionally killing the deceased who was among a group of youth that allegedly attacked him at his residence on 17 April 2001, the Omanhene led in evidence by the leader of the defence team, Mr K. F. Otu-Essel, a Sunyani-based Lawyer, told the Sunyani High Court Two, presided over by Mr Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie that he had no intention of killing the deceased or anybody else.
"I did not intentionally aim at shooting to kill anybody. I only fired to enable me to flee for my life because if I had intended to kill I would have killed more than one person," he said. Agyewodin Ampem narrated events, circumstances and death threats on his life by his opponents since November 2000 to the day of the shooting incident.
He said on that day, he sent Nana Yaw Bonsu, Benkumhene of Achirensua with an SOS message to the Regional Crime Officer, Police Superintendent Amadu Salifu in Sunyani, for the assistance and intervention of the Police in view of the volatile, tense and dangerous situation in Achirensua.
The Omanhene said following an earlier complaint about the insults and threats on his life, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Akubuor Debrah instructed Superintendent Salifu to visit Achirensua on 17 April, last year, to advise the youth.
He said notwithstanding the precarious situation, he did not leave Achirensua for Kumasi that day, as he had an appointment with the Regional Minister as well as one Mr Amoako Mensah, a tutor at Achirensua Secondary School and also an elder of the local Methodist Church.
He said those appointments were about how to find an amicable solution to the problem or feud existing between him and one Kwasi Sarpong, ex-Benkumhene of the town.
He told the court that he had been the Omanhene of Achirensua for the past 32 years and that for 25 years Sarpong, who was destooled for gross misconduct, had been worrying him with threats of attack, destoolment and death. The Omanhene added that he stayed in Achirensua on the day of the shooting incident because he was expecting a prompt response from the Regional Crime Officer.
In a sober and reflective mood, he said the youth had removed a culvert on which he drove to his house and coupled with the fact that they (youth) had passed by his house singing and beating gong-gong, "I was afraid to leave the house through a bush path for fear of my life."
Agyewodin Ampem said on the day of the incident at about 1700 hours, he was in the house with the Benkumhene, Gyaasehene Nana Agyei Sarpong and another man from the Achirensua Zongo community when a group of youth were heard singing amidst the beating of gong-gong and advancing towards his house.
Besides heaping unprintable and insulting words on me, the youth also used threatening words like "today blood will flow. You will see blood and so on." Many of them carried clubs, sticks, cudgels, machetes and a gun, whilst others threw stones at my house, he added.
He said as the intensity of the songs and shouting increased, the house-help, Mariama Bukari, who was washing outside, came running into the house shouting "Nana rise up, the youth are coming to the house, I have even been hit by a stone.
"When I went to the front door, I saw a big group of youth rushing towards my house and I heard some of them saying, 'let us go and catch him alive and behead him just like the chief of Offuman was beheaded'".
Offuman is in the Techiman District of Brong Ahafo Region and in 1982 the chief, Nana Kwasi Duah was caught, beheaded and his body burnt by his opponents in his palace. "I realised that the situation was tense and needed not to be toyed with, so I returned to the room to pick a gun and to prevent them from advancing further I fired a warning shot inside the house to scare them away."
Agyewodin Ampem told the court that when he appeared in front of the door to verify if they had been scared away he heard a gun shot. "I did not aim at any specific person or anyone of them, rather I fired just to scare them off."
Agyewodin Ampem said that due to the tension and charged atmosphere, "I could not identify anyone specifically. I never knew that somebody had been hit. "After firing the third shot, they dispersed and I managed to sneak out through the back door under the cover of darkness and the ensuing confusion," he said.
Agyewodin Ampem said some residents of Zongo accompanied him and kept him in somebody's room for a while. "Around 2300 hours I managed to arrive at Kokotriso, a village, near Achirensua, through a bush path, where I saw my wife in the company of some Policemen waiting for me," he said.
He added that at about 0100 hours the next day, "I was brought to the Police headquarters in Sunyani where I was told somebody died through a gun shot in the incident."
The Omanhene said he could not tell which gun killed the deceased. "I cannot tell because I did not aim at anybody when I fired and again somebody else fired a gun shot." The Omanhene said he fired three gun shots but he was distressed and confused when writing his statement to the Police, hence, he stated that he fired two.
He said it was later that he remembered that he fired three times. Citing the fate of the late chiefs of Offuman, Apowa and Juma in the Western Region, who lost their lives through similar situations and circumstances, Agyewodin Ampem said, he would have been killed if he had not fired.
"I don't think I would have been alive by now. They would have beheaded me just like it happened to those late chiefs." The court adjourned to Tuesday April 30 for cross-examination by the Prosecutor, Chief State Attorney in Sunyani, Mr Betuuriseeh Cab-Bayuo.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - Mr Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association, said labour must now set a target period to work to attain a living wage.
He said the minimum wage is not the same as a living wage because it does not take into account indices for a living wage and above all, it is just a criteria to determine a level of a wage to be paid.
In an interview on Tuesday in Accra, Mr Chigabatia said the government duty is to set standard in the gamut of areas such as health and education. He said the government determines the minimum wage in its capacity as the authority to ensure social justice.
He said those representing labour at the tripartite committee had to accept what government could offer for strategic reasons so that workers do not suffer but to keep them in employment. Recently the government raised the Minimum Wage to 7,150,000 Cedis, a level, which many workers said, was not realistic.
Mr. Chigabatia said minimum wage could not be enforced because of scarcity of jobs but every sector employees have the ability to negotiate for higher wages depending on the financial standing of their employers or Organisations.
As at now, he said, majority of workers are earning more than the minimum wage because of their negotiation power, but "calling it realistic or not, we have to set our priorities when considering our developmental areas".
In doing so, higher productivity should be related to greater motivation in terms of better remuneration, "because a certain action carries along with it what could achieve results". Mr Chigabatia called on the government, as an employer to summon negotiations immediately to determine salary of Civil Servants for the year 2002 because the delay was causing embarrassment.
He was not happy about the publicity that goes with yearly determination of the minimum wage because it paves the way for unrestrained increases in prices. He said minimum wage should be "affordable, sustainable and enforceable but the way things are, the increases rather erode earnings.
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Sunyani (Western Region) 01 May 2002 - Mr Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie, Sunyani High Court Two Judge, on Monday warned that whoever threatened or intimidated anybody connected with the murder trial of Professor Agyewodin Adu Gyamfi Ampem II, Acherensua Omanhene, would first go to jail.
The Judge issued the warning following a complaint by the leading Defence Counsel, Mr K. F. Otu Essel, that opponents of the Omanhene in Achirensua were threatening some of the witnesses for his client with death.
Mr Otu Essel, who made the complaint before the actual proceedings of the trial began, stressed that they (the witnesses) have been threatened that "if they came to testify on behalf of Nana, they will be killed". The Judge intimated that nobody had the right to threaten or prevent anyone from coming to testify in the case since that amounted to obstruction of justice.
Mr Baffoe Bonnie warned those issuing the threats and intimidation to desist from that so as not to impede a fair trial of the case. He, however, advised the defence witnesses to comport themselves and exercise restraint in the face of any provocation.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs has embarked on a programme to collect storybooks and sporting equipment for religious organisations to distribute to children in the rural areas.
Under the programme, called the "Children's leisure boxes", boxes of reading books and other playful items are given to rural children on holidays for them to read and develop their sporting potentials.
"We want to get our future Abedi Peles and scholars out of the programme", Mrs Gladys Asmah, the sector Minister, told the press on Tuesday after receiving sporting equipment worth 50 million cedis from the Indian High Commission in Accra.
The donation, which included footballs, table tennis rackets and balls, ludos and playing cards, were in response to an appeal made by the Ministry to the Commission to assist in the programme. Mr Kaikhosrou K. Framji, the Indian High Commissioner, who presented the items, said the commission would continue to assist the Ministry.
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Ho (Volta Region) 01 May 2002 - A Ho circuit tribunal on Tuesday sentenced a remand prisoner to three years imprisonment in hard labour for escaping from the Ho Prisons last Friday.
Dzifa Abusah, 31, an ex-soldier, pleaded guilty with explanation. The Tribunal Chairman, Mr Lawrence L. Mensah dismissed the accused person's explanation that he was an informant to the Prison authorities and a decoy.
He cautioned the Prison authorities to be vigilant about the movement of Abusah and not to loose guard of him. Three other remand prisoners; Thomas Datsomor, Alhassan Emmanuel Anane and Felix Aziedu, who also escaped with Abusah pleaded not guilty and were remanded to re-appear on 2 May.
The tribunal also remanded Abusah in Prison custody to re-appear on Thursday May 2, this year for another offence of escaping from lawful custody at Dzodze on 23 November 2000. He pleaded not guilty.
The Tribunal heard that on Friday 26 April while Prison Officers at the Ho Prisons were having morning devotion, Abusah and his accomplices went to the Prison bath house, turned on the showers to give the impression they were bathing and escaped by scaling the 18-foot prison wall.
Some prisoners alerted some officers and a siren was sounded and the four accused persons were arrested. On 21 November 2000, Abusah, who was remanded in police custody at Dzodze with five other suspects managed to break the bar in the cell gate and together with the five escaped from custody.
The others were however, arrested, tried and sentenced. However, Abusah, who could not be arrested resurfaced at Dzodze on 21 February 2002 and shot dead the Police Investigator, who was handling his case and escaped to Tema.
According to the prosecution, Abusah on 31 March this year got involved in an incident at Tema, was arrested by the Tema Police and handed over to the Keta
Divisional Police.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - Junior Doctors at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Tuesday resumed work after a five-day strike action to back their demand for a quicker process of mechanisation of their salaries.
They have, however, resolved to take further action if their salaries were not paid by the end of May 2002. Mr Fred Dugbaza, Public Relations Officer, Korle-Bu, said that plans were far advanced to ensure that the salaries of the Doctors were paid on time.
He said the hospital used to give all new doctors some salary advances till they were fully mechanised, but said this batch of doctors refused the offer on the grounds that they wanted a change in the system.
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Bawku (Upper East) 01 May 2002 - The timely intervention of the Military and Police averted a clash between the Tijaniya and Ahlu-Suna Muslim sects at Mognori, near Bawku in the Upper East Region at the weekend.
A source close to the Bawku East District Police Command told the Ghana News Agency, on Tuesday, that Mallam Abdulai Shaiba, of Tijaniya and the Imam of the Mosque, where the incident took place, rushed to Bawku to report to the Police at 1930 hours on Saturday that the two sects were fighting at Mognori.
Mallam Shaiba alleged that while Tijaniya were in their mosque when the Ahlu-Suna group from Bawku entered and started preaching without seeking permission. The source said the Tijaniya sect objected because they had doctrinal differences with the Ahlu-Suna group. The Ahlu-Suna group took offence at the objection and in the heat of the misunderstanding they assaulted one Bawa and Salam Usman, both farmers belonging to the Tijaniya sect.
The source said the combatants on seeing the Military and Police personnel arriving stopped fighting and took to their heels thereby avoiding what could probably have been a bloody conflict.
It said that a Yamaha motorcycle with registration number UE 9652 D, which one of the fanatics left behind, was currently in the custody of the Police. The source hinted that the leaders of both sects would soon be arraigned for offensive conduct likely to lead to the breach of the peace.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - The Director of Water Research Institute, Mr. Charles Biney said on Tuesday that Ghana is endowed with a lot of water resources but managerial problems have made its supply insufficient.
There is therefore, the need for a water policy that would assist in the planning ahead of time, the different uses of water as well as knowing the places where it is most needed.
The GNA reports Mr. Biney as saying in an interview in Accra that people are normally satisfied with short-term plans and forget about the future. He attributed the insufficient supply of water to environmental hazards created by human activities such as the throwing of waste into the rivers and dams that reduces the volume of water.
The problem is aggravated by the movement of people from the rural areas to the urban centres thereby, creating a lot of pressure on the few water sources available. Mr Biney said the capacity of the Waste Management Department needs to be strengthened and the skills of personnel upgraded.
The Director said it is to address some of these problems that a water Commission was established which also created the Densu Management Board to manage the Densu River Basin because it is the most urbanised and problematic.
He said the solution is an integrated system and people's minds need to be changed, otherwise nothing would be achieved. Mr. Biney said a number of educational programmes such as world environment day, have been organised to sensitise the people to appreciate their role in the preservation of the environment.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - The Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday said it was taking measures to make Ghana the number one tourism destination in West Africa by rejuvenating its ecological structures.
"Ghana's forest was a thing of beauty in the past, yet we are gradually losing all this beauty to those who are fast depleting the forest and its resources", Nana Akomea, Deputy Minister of Tourism said.
The ministry would, therefore, invest about three billion cedis to build 13 ecotourism receptive sites all over the country as a way of boasting the tourism sector this year, Nana Akomea disclosed when he launched Eco-Fest 2002, an ecological festival in Accra.
He said eco-tourism was currently the fastest growing aspect of tourism in the whole world. He said the measures have become necessary because some very important tourist sites have no receptive centres for tourist to rest, have lunch or even visit the washroom. Nana Akomea said the establishment of the receptive centres was also a way of inviting private sector participation in those areas.
He congratulated all the non-governmental organisations such as Conservation International and Wildlife Society for their efforts in conservation programmes in the various communities and urged the civil society to join hands in the replanting and reforestation programmes being carried out all over the country.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 01 May 2002 - Alhaji Sulemana Gado, Asokwa East Constituency Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on all members of the party to put the bitterness and acrimony that characterised the just ended national congress of the party behind them and support the newly elected executive.
With the congress over, it is important for us to show complete loyalty to the leadership and submerge individual political ambitions for the general good of the party, Alhaji Gado said in a press statement he issued in Kumasi, on Monday.
He said: "Let us ensure that we present an impregnable front and remain focused on strengthening the party's organisational structures towards the real battle of wresting political power in 2004."
"The demand on every genuine member of the NDC family now, is hard work, dedication and total devotion to the cause of the party." Alhaji Gado congratulated the delegates, who attended the congress, for their conduct and sense of maturity, saying; "the Congress was a victory for democracy".
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Suhum (Eastern Region) 01 May 2002 - Nana Addo Aikins, a legal practitioner, has said Ghana was at the crossroads and needed a pragmatic and guided revision of the Constitution and its integration with traditional values in line with modernisation. This, he said, would ensure that the principles of good governance were upheld in order to propel the nation forward.
Nana Aikins launching the Suhum-Kraboa Coaltar District Second National Constitution Week at Suhum on Monday, said what the Constitution in essence had offered was the creation of conditions for dictatorship and corruption thereby contradicting the principles of good governance. Nana Aikins said there was the need to consider traditional values, modernisation and the principles of good governance to uphold democratic rule.
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Dormaa-Ahenkro (Brong Ahafo) 01 May 2002 - Nana Agyei Ampofo, a Sunyani based private legal practitioner, has urged the judiciary to ensure that judgement is given, based on evidence and not on relationship with the accused.
Speaking on "cultural values and good governance" at the Brong Ahafo Regional Launch of the Constitution Week of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Dormaa-Akenkro, the private legal practitioner said that the rule of law was one of the attributes of good governance and that "all are equal before the law."
Nana Ampofo, one-time Omanhene of Goaso in the Asunafo District of Brong Ahafo, noted that cultural values in the country showed several attributes of good governance but expressed regret that "though these are well embedded in our speeches we pay very little or no heed to them in practice".
Justice must be seen to be free in addition to being fair, when it comes to interpretation of good governance, he said. Nana Ampofo emphasised that the efficient management of a nation's economy to promote development and provide the basic necessities for the people could also bring about good governance.
He lauded President John Agyekum Kufuor's launch of zero tolerance for corruption, but said; "if by any means the idea is not working to satisfaction, then it is because people who must help to fight corruption are those practising it".
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Tamale (Northern Region) 01 May 2002 - Alhaji Iddrisu Adams, Tamale Municipal District Chief Executive, has decried the non-participation of the clergy in active politics.
"The continuous absence of the clergy from the country's political scene, especially at the district level, has created a moral vacuum on the country's political landscape and denied Ghanaians of a useful service," Alhaji Adam said in Tamale at a two-day workshop themed: "The social teachings of the Catholic Church," which was designed to create awareness amongst Catholic district assembly members and Catholics aspiring to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections on their social responsibilities towards the country.
Forty-five participants attended the workshop, which was organised and funded by the Tamale Ecclesiastical Provincial Conference (TEPPCON) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) respectively.
Its main objective was to disabuse the minds of Catholics on the belief that participation in active politics was irreligious and rather to welcome it as one of the vehicles through which they could initiate social reforms to transform society.
Alhaji Adams said politics and religion are not incompatible and until the last century, political science formed part of "moral philosophy" which is not far removed from theology.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday called on the government, employers and workers to fashion out a policy that would ensure a realistic wage structure for working people and create levels of productivity acceptable to all stakeholders.
A statement signed by Dr. N. Josiah Aryeh, General Secretary of the Party on the occasion of the May Day celebrations, called on policy makers to seriously consider the plight of the working classes of Ghana. It said policy makers must initiate actions to guarantee justice, social equity and fair play for all workers through a sustained promotion of their interests.
The statement also called for a review of policies affecting pricing of utilities and the fixing of tariffs as well as the costs of education, medical care, transportation, food and other basic necessities of life impinging directly on the welfare of workers.
It said workers especially women, whose contribution to the national development is currently seldom recognised must be rewarded equitably. "As we express solidarity with workers gathered in parades throughout a wide variety of countries, it is in our view that fight for workers rights in the world, and especially in Ghana must be consonant with development across the world." it added.
Currently, the acceptable global position on the rights of workers was found in the proceedings of the UN conference at Monterray, Mexico where it was agreed that poverty is the root cause of political and social upheavals in the vast majority of countries.
Consequently, it has been recognised that the surest way to attaining peace and development in the modern world is to give back to workers their due share of wealth.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 01 May 2002 - Mr Ishmael Ashitey, Minister of State in charge of Fisheries, on Tuesday stated that trans-shipment of fish on the high seas was illegal and urged fishermen to comply with the law.
Mr Ashitey stated at a forum for fishermen in Accra on the topic: "The Constitution, the Fisherman and National Productivity," as part of activities for the Second Constitutional Week cerebration, organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
Mr Ashitey urged fishermen to study the Constitution especially issues that concerned their operations and the fisheries laws, "as ignorance of the law is no plea." The Week, under the theme: "The Constitution, Cultural Values and Good Governance," is focusing on traditional authority in the contemporary democratic dispensation.
Ms Emelia Annang, Director of Marine Fisheries, who spoke on: The Constitution and the Fisherman", deplored the use of chemicals, dynamites, un-approved fishing nets and fish aggregation device for fishing.
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