Labour unrest, indiscipline
threaten Golden Age of Business - Aliu
Cape Coast (Central Region) 20 September
2002- The University of Cape Coast (UCC) branches of the Federation of
University Senior Staff Association (FUSSAG) and the Teachers and Educational
Workers Union (TEWU) on Thursday said they have temporarily called off their
industrial action, which began on Monday pending the outcome of negotiations in
Kumasi on Friday.
This came to light when the GNA visited the
UCC to ascertain the situation on the campus. Although the leadership of the
two bodies were not available at the time the GNA went there, a cross -section
of the workers it spoke to indicated that they had decided to call off their
action because of information they had received that the Committee of
Vice-Chancellors and Principals (CVCP) was preparing to meet their leaders.
They however, cautioned that "if nothing
good" comes from the meeting, they would embark on a "full-scale
demonstration" to back their demand for pay raise. Later during a tour of
the campus the GNA saw the workers at their various posts. Some students were
unhappy about the situation and called on the government and the CVCP to
respond "positively" to the demands of the two bodies.
The students said if the strike continued it
would affect academic work, since they have just returned from holidays. They
however commended the two groups for calling off their action.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 20 September 2002 -
The Federation of University Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG) and the
Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) have resolved to carry on with
their strike action till they see an upward adjustment of their salaries.
The strike, which took effect last Tuesday,
attracted about 2,500 members of TEWU and FUSSAG in Kumasi demonstrated through
the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for
about an hour. They hope to go into negotiations with the Committee of
Vice-Chancellors and Principals (CVCP) before the close of work.
Briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in
Kumasi after Thursday's demonstration, Mr. Micheal Nyame, National Chairman of
TEWU, said that somewhere in May, they made a submission to the CVCP. In the
submission, they proposed 60 percent salary increase for workers at the
Universities under its Wage Opener clause (WOC) but the CVCP promised meeting
them after going into consultation with the government.
This, Mr Nyame said the CVCP did by meeting
them in Accra on 13 August, but the meeting ended abruptly since they could not
fathom why the 60 percent increment could be slashed to 10 percent. According
to the National Chairman, at TEWU's meeting on 13 September at Winneba with the
CVCP, the meeting was again postponed because the latter claim they have not
got any mandate from the government as to how and when the increment was to be
effected.
In the view of TEWU, this “dilly-dally”
attempt by the CVCP is to frustrate both TEWU and FUSSAG as to matters more
important to them and has vehemently affirmed its decision not to work till
their demands are met.
As at the time of filing this report, an
emergency meeting was in progress between the CVCP and the University Teachers
Association of Ghana (UTAG) as to how best they could adjust their salaries
upwardly before the universities open next week.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- Dr
Audrey Gadzekpo, Lecturer, School of Communications, Legon, has called on the
government to provide resources to enable information sources, particularly the
state owned media, to gather and disseminate information throughout the
country.
She said the government should regard the
Ghana News Agency as a strategic national resource as was contained in
consultant's report on the restructuring of the Agency. Dr Gadzekpo was
presenting a paper on: "The Role Of The Print Media" at a day's
workshop for media practitioners in Accra.
She said: "The work of the GNA enables a
valuable national information and public awareness link with rural areas and
communities that, in turn, contributes to nation building, good governance,
unity and integration and the growth of the democratic culture. "As such,
the GNA can be viewed as a socio-cultural institution providing a benefit that,
though difficult to measure in financial terms contributes to the Agency's
inherent value.
"Without the GNA and other state owned
media, certain towns and communities would never be heard of in any
decision-making forum", she said, adding, "the goal of development
must be that the citizens, no matter their economic conditions or their state
of depravation are adequately informed about government policies, development
goals and democratic imperatives that will enable them to exercise their
responsibilities and protect the country's transitional democracy."
Dr Gadzekpo said the vision of setting up the
GNA forty-five years ago was even more relevant in today's global environment.
The vision then was that Ghana and African countries must counteract the
domination and bias implicit in news flowing from Western information sources
by setting up and controlling their own news.
"After 11 September, The West Africa
Magazine recently asked if Africa had it own mouthpiece. The August Edition of
the Magazine said Africa's voice was continually being marginalised unlike the
Arab Satellite Television Station Al Jazeera, which was able to articulate a
position outside the one being articulated by the dominant news organisations
such as Reuters and CNN," she said.
"The real indication of what policy
framework government intends to develop, in the absence of a cohesive document
could only be ascertain in its relationship with the media so far, its actions
and pronouncement it has made on the media," the Communications Lecturer
said.
She commended the government for the repeal
of the Criminal Libel Law and said: " One of the more dramatic policy
actions of the government was to repeal the Criminal Libel Law and by so doing
a strong commitment to promoting a free media environment that was unencumbered
by unnecessary legal restrictions."
Government policy, Dr Gadzekpo said, had been
illustrated by the respect shown to constitutional provision regarding the
non-licensing of media and the insulation of state owned media from state
interference. She, however, said: "The real task still lies ahead. Beyond
what the Constitution says, what should the national policy be regarding the
press?"
Government had expressed a national vision of
socio-economic development in a free market environment and a strong focus on
poverty reduction, she said and added that Ghana, while not one of the
architects of the New Partnership of African Development (NEPAD), had also
expressed a strong commitment to NEPAD. "But in order to promote and
achieve these goals the right environment must be created and the press allowed
to play those roles that complement the national development agenda," she
said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002-
Broussonetia papyrifera, an invasive alien plant, locally known as York,
introduced into the country for the purposes of research, has now been
identified as reducing the quantity of the multiple use of the forest altering
the indigenous flora and fauna.
"The York plant may tremendously
increase the cost of natural and artificial forest regeneration if the current
stages of invasion were not disrupted in anyway, Mr Obed Komla Kass-Yerenchi, Assistant
Regional Manager of the Forest Services Division, Ministry of Lands and
Forestry, warned on Thursday.
He was presenting a paper at a two-day
stakeholders' workshop in Accra on invasive alien species on the theme:
"Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa." The
workshop is being organised by the Ministry of Environment and Science (MES),
Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Centre for Applied
Bioscience (CAB) International, Africa Regional Centre.
Twenty-six participants from Ghana and Kenya
are attending the workshop, which is a joint project organised for Ghana,
Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia. The participants are to come up with a
well-researched document on the alien species for funding to be sought for their
eradication from Africa.
Mr Kass-Yerenchi said the York plant named
after one Mr York, a researcher and a native of Tarkwa, originated from India
and was first planted in 1974 at Ghaha or Wuake in the Ashanti Region and its
English name is Paper Mulberry. The York is light and easily floats on water
and burns very fast.
Mr Kass-Yerenchi explained that, Mr York
brought the plant for possible use as raw material and for the manufacture of
pulp and paper but the rate at which it was spreading was very alarming due to
the numerous agents of dispersal, ease of propagation and attraction.
He said, the plant, which has invaded the
forest reserves and adjoining farmlands in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern
Regions together with parts of the Western and Central Regions, has aggressive
root system, quickly closes its canopy, inhibits natural regeneration of other
plant species and dwarfs any existing plants. He, therefore, recommended that,
the workshop should develop and sponsor a project for scientific study and
collection of information on proximate threat of the York plant to the
biodiversity in Ghana.
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Wa (Upper West) 20 September 2002- Mr Asher
Nkegbe, Upper West Regional Programme Officer of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has called for a joint effort between Ghana and Burkina Faso to
combat the spread of Water Hyacinth across their common border.
Mr Nkegbe said the infestation of sections of
River Mon in Burkina Faso, a tributary of the Black Volta, makes the river
potentially vulnerable to the plant. He made the call at Wa as part of EPA awareness
creation programme to enable the people to identify the weed and prevent its
proliferation in water bodies in the Region.
He said the adverse impact of Water Hyacinth
to any growing economy was enormous and EPA and other relevant stakeholders were
making efforts to control it. Some of the common adverse impact of the growth
of the weed included, reduction in the volume of water in streams, rivers,
lagoons, degradation of water quality through additions of taints and odour,
while a mass of it blocks waterways, thereby damaging boats.
Mr Nkegbe appealed to surveillance groups
within the communities living along the Black Volta to continue to monitor the
possible emergence of the weed and report to the respective District
Assemblies, EPA or the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services of the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- Ms
Rosemary Ardayfio, acting Women's Page Editor of the Daily Graphic, has won a
World Health Organisation (WHO) Journalism Fellowship programme. A statement
issued on Thursday said she is among seven successful candidates selected from
more than 200 applicants for the Media Fellowship Programme.
The statement said the Fellowship, which was
the first to be organised by the WHO covers a two-week attachment in the WHO
headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and a third week of the experience in
Cameroon.
It said a letter nominating Miss Ardayfio
stated: " you had an enormous competition but the Fellowship's Board
thought your background and references were exceptional". The fellowship
is made up of two components aimed at giving the journalist a broad and deep
understanding of the forces shaping global public health.
Ms Ardayfio whose topic for the fellowship
was "Buruli Ulcer" would spend the last week of the programme to
study the Buruli ulcer situation in Cameroon. Other Journalism Fellows include
Christy Fieg, a senior producer for CNN, Loh Foon Fong, a reporter for the
Publications, Malaysia, Naimul Haq, a staff reporter for the Daily Star in
Dhaka.
The rest are: Bangladesh, Felix Amaefule,
News Director for the Nigeria Television Authority, Claudia Elena Laslo, a
senior editor for Radio Romania, Lisandra Braga Paraguassu, a reporter for
Brazil's largest daily newpaper, O Globo Newspaper.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 20 September 2002-
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Mr Thomas Broni said that government
is considering the best approach towards the creation of land banks to
facilitate and ensure orderly socio-economic development of the country. He
said the envisaged banks would make land readily available with secured title
for the investor community and also for emergency situations.
This was contained in an address read on
behalf of the Deputy Minister at the opening session of the annual seminar of
the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (General Practice Division) in Kumasi on
Thursday. Under the theme: "The land market and the growth of the private
sector", the two-day seminar attracted about 250 participants.
Among topics to be discussed are performance
of the land market, public sector perspective, impact of development on the
environment, development of land banks as means of sustaining orderly
development and performance of the land market private sector perspective.
Mr Broni said, "where it is practical to
convert some lands into land banks, this will be done and full compensation
paid". However, government would require that customary owners of land
demarcate and map their boundaries, settle all their boundary disputes before
land could be ceded to them. He said government is equally aware of the huge
amounts outstanding as compensation due to customary landowners for compulsory
acquired lands in the past, and was working to seek a permanent solution to the
problem.
"Where it is necessary or practical to
cede land for which compensation has already been paid to the original owners,
this will also be done", he added. Mr Broni said government would not only
pay compensation, but would also ensure that customary owners apply such funds
to develop their communities to help reduce poverty and the tension associated
with such unaccountable land proceeds.
Mr B.A. Neequaye, President of the Ghana
Institution of Surveyors, expressed dissatisfaction with reports that a digital
mapping of Accra was being undertaken without involving the Survey Department
or the Institution of Surveyors. He said since the Survey Department had the
mandate to supervise all such government projects, it was unfair to carry out
such a project without involving it.
Another issue of grave concern to the
Institution is land zoning for the social services such as police station, fire
station, hospitals and schools at newly developing areas such as East Legon.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- The
National Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Lord Commey has
said that the outcome of the Kumawu bye-election on 01 October would be a
barometer to measure the chances of the NPP retaining power in the 2004 general
election.
A statement faxed to the GNA on Thursday
quoted Mr Commey to have made the observation when addressing a rally at
Dadieso, where he launched the party's campaign for the Kumawu bye-election.
Introducing the Party's candidate, Mr Yaw
Baah to the electorate, Mr Commey called on the people to come out and vote
massively for the NPP candidate to reaffirm their loyalty and commitment to the
President John Agyekum Kufuor's administration.
Mr Commey stressed that although the economic
legacy bequeathed to the NPP was not favourable, but the government would not
shirk its responsibility in fulfilling its campaign promises. He urged the party
members to shy away from complacency and rather to work harder to ensure a
resounding victory for the party and the people of the Ashanti Region.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samson
Kwaku Boafo told the people that the government would continue to pursue
policies and programmes that would improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.
He described the provision of electricity to some communities in the area and
the market complex at Dadiese as part of the government's on-going
developmental projects.
Mr Yaw Baah, the candidate for the Kumawu
seat, thanked the people for the support they showed to elect him to contest
the seat and promised that he would not do anything to betray the trust that
would be reposed in him if elected. He, therefore, called on the people to vote
massively for him, come Tuesday, 1 October.
"I am not going to lord it over you but
rather submit to you as your humble servant" he stressed, adding that, he
was going to do the job together with the people and listen to the advice of
the opinion leaders in the various communities for progress and development.
Others who spoke at the rally included, Mr F. F. Anto and Hajia Aisha, Regional
Chairman and Women Organiser, respectively.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- The
People's National Convention (PNC) on Thursday said its refusal to merge with
the Convention People's Party (CPP) was because CPP did not have the political
strength to capture power now. "The main reason why we in PNC would not
join hands with the CPP is that it is not prepared for political power
now" Mr David Nibi, Publicity Chairman of the PNC, told GNA in Accra.
Mr Nibi said CPP was on record for having
said that it wanted to assist the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to increase its
(CPP) numerical strength in Parliament. That measure the CPP believed would
pave the way for it in the 2008 general election to capture power.
"The PNC need power to salvage the
suffering of Ghanaians now, not to think of 2008 when most Ghanaians would
become more frustrated and poorer under this HIPC hard conditions," he
said. He said the PNC would welcome any political party that has the nation at
heart to join hands with it to end NPP's rule in 2004.
He said it was not ideology or finance that
was holding back the “Nkrumaist Parties” from merging but the political will to
work hard to unseat NPP now. Mr Nibi said Nkrumah was never thinking of
redeeming the country in future, he needed redemption now as he did in 1957 and
asked why should true Nkrumaists be thinking of power in the future.
Mr Nibi said at the moment there was so much
confusion within the CPP and that the party only existed in name, adding that
PNC would not be proud to be associated with such a party. He called on
Ghanaians to have faith in the PNC and that the electorate should galvanise
countrywide support for it to win power in the next elections.
President John Agyekum Kufuor's frequent
travels abroad, the Publicity Chairman said, he had the right and liberty to
travel but not as frequent as he was doing at the expense of the taxpayer. He
said the President would have to listen to the people, who voted him into power
and minimise the rate at which he traveled "under HIPC conditions".
Mr Nibi said the President's initiatives in
salt and cassava production were laudable but added that Ghanaians would hold
him responsible if he failed to let Ghana to benefit from his travels.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- A
five-member Russian Parliamentary delegation is due to visit Ghana in the later
part of this year on a fact-finding mission. The delegation, to be led by the
Deputy Speaker, would be accompanied by business and cultural groups to forge
bilateral relationship with their Ghanaian counterparts.
Dr Valery Orloy, Ambassador of the Russian
Federation, said this on Thursday when he led a two-man team to pay a courtesy
call on the Majority Leader, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, at his office in Accra. The
Ambassador said it was the wish of the Russian government to link Russian
Business Organisations with their counterparts in Ghana to cement the existing
cordial relations and strengthen cultural ties between the two countries.
Dr Orloy said their visit was also to learn
at first hand the Parliamentary proceedings so as to exchange ideas adding that
since the world was now a global village, there was the need for countries with
longstanding bi-lateral relation to concretise such ties.
He said though the Russian Parliament was
young, it was developing quickly and was currently working on economic and
judicial reforms. Papa Owusu-Ankomah thanked the team for the visit and
expressed the hope that the forthcoming delegation would pave the way for
increased Russian-Ghana relationship at the parliamentary level.
He told the team that the Parliament of Ghana
was a representative one with the two hundred members each representing the
interest of their Constituencies while various select committees have been
formed to handle national and constitutional issues. Papa Owusu-Ankomah said
Parliament had established ties with parliaments not only in the Africa but
with other countries like China, Britain and America.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002- Vice
President Aliu Mahama on Thursday expressed concern about the disregard for
work ethics and labour unrest, which, he said, undermined productivity and the
government's programme to achieve a Golden Age of Business.
He, therefore, urged the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) to assist trades unions to train their members with good
negotiation skills so that they could resolve their problems through dialogue
without resorting to unruly behaviour.
Vice President Mahama was speaking at a
meeting with Mr Cornelius Dzakpasu, an ILO Director, who called on him at the
Castle, Osu, to discuss the world labour body's programmes in Ghana. The ILO is
implementing four key programmes on Labour Standards; Social Security; Tripartite
and Social Dialogue; and Fundamental Human Rights.
Vice President Mahama said it was critical
for the representatives of workers to promote high productivity and industrial
harmony at the enterprise level, adding that they should not encourage indiscipline.
"Strike actions and destruction of property to settle disputes at our work
places discourage investors and affect the flow of Foreign Direct Investments,
which we need for economic growth," he said.
He said it was essential for workers to consider
themselves as partners of their employers, who had a stake in the success or
demise of their enterprises. The Vice President said Ghana believed in the
principles of the ILO and would welcome its advice and support to improve
industrial harmony.
Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, Minister of Employment
and Manpower Development, announced that the Ministry had formed a committee to
develop a productivity promotion programme that would test international best
practices in selected enterprises.
She said when the programme, which would soon
be placed before the Cabinet, would be replicated in both the formal and
informal sectors at the national level should it become successful. Mr Dzakpasu
underscored the importance of productivity, saying it was a crucial ingredient
for enterprises that wanted to successfully compete at the global level.
He praised the Vice President's Campaign for
Greater Discipline, saying the call for productivity was in the right direction
and should go beyond the workplace to the domestic level. He said: "It
would not be enough to invite investors when productivity levels are low. In
international business competition, the winners are those, who have high
productivity levels."
Mr Dzakpasu said the ILO had initiated a
programme with EMPRETEC Ghana to raise the output levels of those in the
garment and furniture businesses. On Labour Standards, Mr Dzakpasu said the ILO
contributed to the formulation of the Draft Labour Bill and incorporated its
principles so that it would meet international standards.
He said the organisation would spend two
million dollars to prepare its social partners to meet the challenges of the
Bill when it is signed into law. Before the Bill is passed, Mr Dzakpasu said
the ILO would set up a National Labour Commission to address labour disputes in
support of the Golden Age of Business agenda.
On its Social Security Programme, he said the
ILO was extending health care protection to cover workers, who were poor and
vulnerable, including those in the informal sector. "In collaboration with
Ghana Health Care Company under SSNIT, we have started a scheme for workers at
Dodowa on a pilot scheme," he said.
Mr Dzakpasu said ILO's Employment Programme
supported the creation of jobs and promotions, adding that the unemployment
situation was bad. To remedy the situation, he called for a review of the
education curricula to focus on skill training to generate employment in the
agricultural and industrial sectors.
He commended the government for the cordial
relations it has forged with employers and organised labour, saying although
there were some disputes the situation was better than that of many countries.
Mrs Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, Programme Manager of the International Programme on
the Elimination of Child Labour, who accompanied Mr Dzakpasu, urged the
government to encourage the enrolment of children of school-going age in
schools.
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Clinton and Dr Hernato de
Soto arrive on Sunday
Accra (Greater Accra) 20 September 2002-
Former US President Bill Clinton would on Monday be the Guest of Honour at the
launch of the Foundation for the Building of Capital of the Poor, a programme
devised to assist in mobilising the assets held by the poor to facilitate their
economic development.
President John Agyekum Kufuor would launch
the Foundation, which would also establish a regional training institute in
Accra for the benefit of other African countries interested in property reform
programmes.
A release from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
in Accra, signed by Ms Ursula Owusu, Governance Co-ordinator, said the
Foundation, which was supported by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNPD) was developed jointly through the MOJ and the Peru Institute for Liberty
and Democracy (ILD).
A Peruvian Economist and Author Dr Hernando
Soto, who founded the ILD, and former US President Clinton, the Patron of the
Foundation, would both arrive in the country on Sunday, 22 September to the
attend the launching.
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