KEY flour milling companies in the country have expressed worry about the influx of cheap substandard imported flour from neighbouring countries through illegal means.
The manufacturers said they had taken samples of the said imported flour for laboratory analysis and that the result was below the standard of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB).
Some of the said brands imported flour had Ivorian trade marks which were allegedly smuggled into the country.
The Public Relations Officer of the Takoradi Flour Mills, Mr Percy Botchway told the Daily Graphic that they had submitted the results and additional samples and brand names to the FDB for their own analysis.
He said a tour of various end users of the flour in Accra, Takoradi, Kumasi and other regions of the country indicated that bakeries now mixed the cheap imported brand with those manufactured by Takoradi Flour and Irani Brothers.
“We are in Ghana trying to do everything possible to ensure that our set standards were maintained but interestingly, the market has been diluted with sub standard, he said.
“In the bid to cut cost, some bakers have actually resorted to the mixture of our products with the cheap imported ones to produce and sell it to unsuspecting members of the general public,” the PRO added.
According to Mr Botchway, if the influx was not checked, it would create problems for the local flour industry.
He expressed the hope that the sector ministry would take the necessary steps to ensure that the right thing was done to protect the interest of the local manufacturers and the health of the people.
A drive through various shops in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis has actually revealed the display of some imported flour and the dealers could not tell who the suppliers were.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
FOREIGN VESSEL ARRESTED FOR ILLEGAL FISHING (BACK PAGE, FEB 16, 2010)
A FOREIGN vessel with four Chinese and 25 Ghanaians on board has been seized by the Ghana Navy for illegally fishing in restricted Ghanaian waters.
The vessel, Awo Yaa 2, was intercepted at Elmina last Friday and is currently detained at the Home Port of the Western Naval Command in Sekondi.
According to Commodore Tim Appiah of the Western Naval Command, the vessel would be handed over to the Western Regional Fisheries Commission for the next line of action.
Commodore Appiah said the command would do everything possible to ensure that foreign vessels complied with the law forbidding fishing in the restricted areas of Ghana’s waters.
He recalled that a few weeks ago, a vessel belonging to the same fishing company was arrested committing the same offence.
That case, he said, was still pending at the Fisheries Commission.
Commodore Appiah said the 30-metre contour was a reserved zone for local canoe fishermen and a “no go area” for foreign industrial vessels, which cause serious damage to small canoes.
To check the foreign vessels, the command has launched “Operation Stock Control”, which is targeted at the bigger vessels and those practising pair trawling.
The vessel, Awo Yaa 2, was intercepted at Elmina last Friday and is currently detained at the Home Port of the Western Naval Command in Sekondi.
According to Commodore Tim Appiah of the Western Naval Command, the vessel would be handed over to the Western Regional Fisheries Commission for the next line of action.
Commodore Appiah said the command would do everything possible to ensure that foreign vessels complied with the law forbidding fishing in the restricted areas of Ghana’s waters.
He recalled that a few weeks ago, a vessel belonging to the same fishing company was arrested committing the same offence.
That case, he said, was still pending at the Fisheries Commission.
Commodore Appiah said the 30-metre contour was a reserved zone for local canoe fishermen and a “no go area” for foreign industrial vessels, which cause serious damage to small canoes.
To check the foreign vessels, the command has launched “Operation Stock Control”, which is targeted at the bigger vessels and those practising pair trawling.
TWO KILLED IN TOLL BOOTH ACCIDENT (PAGE 3, FEB 15, 2010)
AN articulated truck early yesterday morning rammed into the toll booth at Beposo in the Shama District of the Western Region, killing two persons and injuring another.
The deceased were the driver of the truck, with registration number GR 2301 J, and a toll booth attendant, while another toll booth attendant sustained serious injuries.
The driver, Imoro Tanko, 52, and Thomas Opoku, 38, died instantly, while Fred Kurankyie sustained serious injuries. The dead and the injured were later conveyed to the Effia-Nkwantah Regional Hospital in Sekondi.
The incident, which occurred around 3:15 a.m., destroyed the toll booth, impeding traffic on the Accra-Takoradi Highway for many hours until the police managed to clear the wreckage.
The Western Regional Commander of the MTTU, DSP Dan Dzakah, told the Daily Graphic that the driver of the truck was returning from Tarkwa where he had delivered a consignment to a mining firm.
He said information at various checkpoints at Inchaban, Assoko and Assaman indicated that the officers on duty at that time of the night had tried to stop the truck, which was said to be travelling at unacceptable speed, but the driver refused to stop.
He said another piece of information gathered by the police indicated that the driver had been told to stop over in Takoradi to rest but he was said to have ignored the advice in his quest to get back to Tema before the following day.
DSP Dzakah said before the police could send a signal to Beposo, the driver had already rammed the truck into the structure, destroying it and causing the deaths and the injuries in the process.
He said the police were yet to locate the owner of the truck.
The Deputy Western Regional Crime Officer, Mr Dan Dartey, said even after ignoring the police early on, there were many road signs about 600 metres before the toll bridge that should have alerted the driver that there was a mandatory stop ahead.
Some eyewitnesses said the driver had been driving at top speed and that before he could hear the shouts of caution from the onlookers, it was too late.
The deceased were the driver of the truck, with registration number GR 2301 J, and a toll booth attendant, while another toll booth attendant sustained serious injuries.
The driver, Imoro Tanko, 52, and Thomas Opoku, 38, died instantly, while Fred Kurankyie sustained serious injuries. The dead and the injured were later conveyed to the Effia-Nkwantah Regional Hospital in Sekondi.
The incident, which occurred around 3:15 a.m., destroyed the toll booth, impeding traffic on the Accra-Takoradi Highway for many hours until the police managed to clear the wreckage.
The Western Regional Commander of the MTTU, DSP Dan Dzakah, told the Daily Graphic that the driver of the truck was returning from Tarkwa where he had delivered a consignment to a mining firm.
He said information at various checkpoints at Inchaban, Assoko and Assaman indicated that the officers on duty at that time of the night had tried to stop the truck, which was said to be travelling at unacceptable speed, but the driver refused to stop.
He said another piece of information gathered by the police indicated that the driver had been told to stop over in Takoradi to rest but he was said to have ignored the advice in his quest to get back to Tema before the following day.
DSP Dzakah said before the police could send a signal to Beposo, the driver had already rammed the truck into the structure, destroying it and causing the deaths and the injuries in the process.
He said the police were yet to locate the owner of the truck.
The Deputy Western Regional Crime Officer, Mr Dan Dartey, said even after ignoring the police early on, there were many road signs about 600 metres before the toll bridge that should have alerted the driver that there was a mandatory stop ahead.
Some eyewitnesses said the driver had been driving at top speed and that before he could hear the shouts of caution from the onlookers, it was too late.
POASE RESIDENTS SHARE SPACE WITH FUEL TANKS (BACK PAGE, FEB 11, 2010)
Residents of Poase, a fishing community in New Takoradi, are having sleepless nights because of the fear of explosion from fuel storage tanks which have been installed in the middle of the town.
The tanks of the company is located in the area without the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the town planning department of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
The residents are kept awake in the night as the heavy duty trucks keep disturbing them, always in fear that if what happened at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) should occur, they would be the victims.
The company has connected its pipeline to that of TOR and currently has two vessels docked at the Takoradi Port with imported petroleum to be offloaded through TOR pipelines to its facility when the current stock runs out.
The company, Cyrus Petroleum, according to the officials of the EPA, was not supposed to start operating, as there are many questions to be answered concerning its application.
The EPA explained that the company had submitted a report and its drawings and that the agency had not yet approved its request, for which reason it was illegal for it to start operations.
When the Daily Graphic got to Poase, it was seen that residential facilities were about 10 metres away from the storage facility containing fuel and marked ‘highly inflammable’.
The tanks of the company is located in the area without the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the town planning department of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
The residents are kept awake in the night as the heavy duty trucks keep disturbing them, always in fear that if what happened at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) should occur, they would be the victims.
The company has connected its pipeline to that of TOR and currently has two vessels docked at the Takoradi Port with imported petroleum to be offloaded through TOR pipelines to its facility when the current stock runs out.
The company, Cyrus Petroleum, according to the officials of the EPA, was not supposed to start operating, as there are many questions to be answered concerning its application.
The EPA explained that the company had submitted a report and its drawings and that the agency had not yet approved its request, for which reason it was illegal for it to start operations.
When the Daily Graphic got to Poase, it was seen that residential facilities were about 10 metres away from the storage facility containing fuel and marked ‘highly inflammable’.
Friday, February 26, 2010
SEAWELD HOUSES THE HOMELESS (PAGE 18, FEB 6, 2010)
Seaweld Engineering, an oil service company in Sekondi/Takoradi, has channelled its corporate social responsibility towards the underprivileged in the metropolis.
The company has built a home for the homeless with facilities that would not push them back to the streets. The home has electricity, water supply, toilets and a bath house and fitted with a sound system, television set and other items that are needed to create a perfect environment for the inmates.
Members of the home are mostly mentally challenged and the destitute who have been cured, and their children have been sponsored by the company to go back to school.
A pregnant woman who was picked on the street and happily settled in the home gave birth a few days after she arrived in the house. To make the inmates feel at home, the company is providing a three square meal for them.
The company has also employed the services of a caretaker and a psychiatric nurse who see to the health needs of the inmates.
The Operations Manager of Seaweld Engineering, Mr Alfred Fafali Adagbedu, said it was the focus of the company to ensure that its support for society was directed at the disadvantaged who really needed help.
Asked what motivated them to resettle the destitute, he said it was sad to see them, some of who were pregnant, in the open with their children.
“We were left with no option but to settle them to make them feel part of society, initially they were settled in a tent, but later we had a place to build the three-room apartment for them to feel at home.”
Mr Adagbedu expressed the hope that the home would one day develop into a good health facility for public good.
He said there were many of the destitute on the street who would contribute to the development of the country, if they had the support and better environment.
Mr Adagbedu said the company would not put any cost to what it gave to society but would ensure that society became the winner in the country’s oil find.
He said there were other areas that the company would work to ensure that they created and shared with the communities in which they operated.
“We all look up to the government for every basic thing, but if we could invest little of what we gain from society back into it the world would be better than this.”
He said the building was on one side of the land and the rest was being used for farming by some of the inmates to keep them busy.
The company has built a home for the homeless with facilities that would not push them back to the streets. The home has electricity, water supply, toilets and a bath house and fitted with a sound system, television set and other items that are needed to create a perfect environment for the inmates.
Members of the home are mostly mentally challenged and the destitute who have been cured, and their children have been sponsored by the company to go back to school.
A pregnant woman who was picked on the street and happily settled in the home gave birth a few days after she arrived in the house. To make the inmates feel at home, the company is providing a three square meal for them.
The company has also employed the services of a caretaker and a psychiatric nurse who see to the health needs of the inmates.
The Operations Manager of Seaweld Engineering, Mr Alfred Fafali Adagbedu, said it was the focus of the company to ensure that its support for society was directed at the disadvantaged who really needed help.
Asked what motivated them to resettle the destitute, he said it was sad to see them, some of who were pregnant, in the open with their children.
“We were left with no option but to settle them to make them feel part of society, initially they were settled in a tent, but later we had a place to build the three-room apartment for them to feel at home.”
Mr Adagbedu expressed the hope that the home would one day develop into a good health facility for public good.
He said there were many of the destitute on the street who would contribute to the development of the country, if they had the support and better environment.
Mr Adagbedu said the company would not put any cost to what it gave to society but would ensure that society became the winner in the country’s oil find.
He said there were other areas that the company would work to ensure that they created and shared with the communities in which they operated.
“We all look up to the government for every basic thing, but if we could invest little of what we gain from society back into it the world would be better than this.”
He said the building was on one side of the land and the rest was being used for farming by some of the inmates to keep them busy.
EU SUPPORTS COMMUNITY WATER PROJECT (PAGE 22, FEB 6, 2010)
THE European Union (EU) has presented 27 motorbikes worth GH¢137,000 to all the 17 districts in the Western Region.
The gesture, which is under the EU Small Towns Water and Sanitation Project, is to facilitate effective monitoring and management of the project in the beneficiary communities.
Ten districts under the project would receive two bikes each, while the other seven receive one each to facilitate their work.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, commended the EU for its commitment to the government’s poverty reduction strategy.
He said water was the basic necessity of life, which people should not be denied, so it was incumbent upon the government to strife for the provision of potable water for the citizenry, and also welcome support in that direction.
“The government is aware that the very survival of the people to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country hinges on the availability of potable water for all,” he said.
The minister said the challenge of national development and the government’s desire to meet the Millennium Development Goal of 85 per cent water coverage to the people by 2015 was being pursued seriously.
Mr Aidoo said the project, which started in the late 1990s to provide 27 communities in 10 beneficiary districts with potable water, was on course, with support from the government and the EU.
He said the purpose of the project was to improve access to safe water and sanitation in a sustainable manner to more than 157,000 people who live in rural communities.
Mr Aidoo said water supply to the people in those communities, where a chunk of the country’s food is produced to feed those in the cities, was very important.
He assured the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and the EU of support of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC).
The Regional Director of CWSA, Mr Kwesi Brown, said the presentation of the bikes was part of the capacity building to ensure that water and sanitation was improved.
The EU Team Leader for Western and Central regions, Mr Joseph De-Bats, called for co-operation from all stakeholders to ensure that people in the beneficiary communities got potable water.
The gesture, which is under the EU Small Towns Water and Sanitation Project, is to facilitate effective monitoring and management of the project in the beneficiary communities.
Ten districts under the project would receive two bikes each, while the other seven receive one each to facilitate their work.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, commended the EU for its commitment to the government’s poverty reduction strategy.
He said water was the basic necessity of life, which people should not be denied, so it was incumbent upon the government to strife for the provision of potable water for the citizenry, and also welcome support in that direction.
“The government is aware that the very survival of the people to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country hinges on the availability of potable water for all,” he said.
The minister said the challenge of national development and the government’s desire to meet the Millennium Development Goal of 85 per cent water coverage to the people by 2015 was being pursued seriously.
Mr Aidoo said the project, which started in the late 1990s to provide 27 communities in 10 beneficiary districts with potable water, was on course, with support from the government and the EU.
He said the purpose of the project was to improve access to safe water and sanitation in a sustainable manner to more than 157,000 people who live in rural communities.
Mr Aidoo said water supply to the people in those communities, where a chunk of the country’s food is produced to feed those in the cities, was very important.
He assured the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and the EU of support of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC).
The Regional Director of CWSA, Mr Kwesi Brown, said the presentation of the bikes was part of the capacity building to ensure that water and sanitation was improved.
The EU Team Leader for Western and Central regions, Mr Joseph De-Bats, called for co-operation from all stakeholders to ensure that people in the beneficiary communities got potable water.
WISE BEAT CHELSEA 2-1 (BACK PAGE, FEB 4, 2010)
Sekondi Eleven Wise yesterday beat Bechem Chelsea 2-1 at the Sekondi Sports Stadium, Essipon amidst jubilations by their teeming supporters.
Striker William Owusu put the homesters ahead on the 47th minute.
Chelsea pulled the equaliser on the 82nd minute by substitute Ibrahim Isaka but substitute Prince Appiah restored the homesters’ lead.
Striker William Owusu put the homesters ahead on the 47th minute.
Chelsea pulled the equaliser on the 82nd minute by substitute Ibrahim Isaka but substitute Prince Appiah restored the homesters’ lead.
AOWIN-SUAMAN TO SET UP INDUSTRIAL SITE FOR ARTISANS (PAGE 20, FEB 2, 2010)
THE Aowin-Suaman District in the Western Region has acquired 26 acres for use as an industrial site for artisans and other professionals in the informal sector.
The land, which was acquired with the support of the chiefs, is located along the main Enchi-Kumasi road.
According to the district assembly, the aim of the project is to create jobs for the youth to help solve the unemployment problem in the area and also support the government’s investment drive, which would eventually go a long way to transform the national economy.
According to the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, if the large number of young people who had learnt various trades and were currently unemployed were made to work in the industrial site, it would not only create jobs for them, but would also improve their standard of living.
The DCE said one of the main focus of the assembly was to ensure that local resources were tapped to the advantage of the local people and to improve on social infrastructure.
He added that since there had been increase in population, there was the need to provide employment avenues for the people and also develop the communities in which they lived.
He said the industrial site was being set up because some parts of the district, especially the area where the artisans and others in the informal sector were located, were always flooded during the wet season.
“Therefore, there could be no more opportune time to relocate the artisans than now once as the rains destroy the people’s property every year,” he said.
Mr Larbi commended the chiefs and the traditional council for the support, stressing, “your action has given me the assurance that together we would make headway in our development efforts”.
The District Business Advisory Director, Mr Godwin Amoako-Hene, said one of the problems facing the local economy was the creation of a perfect environment for business to triumph.
He said it had always been the dream of the advisory centre to create the congenial environment for the people in order to save them from the perennial flooding and other natural disasters.
The director said 10 acres of the land had already been cleared and feverish preparations were being made by the garages in the district to relocate and operate in a more acceptable manner.
Mr Amoako-Hene said working together, the artisans would enhance the transfer of skills and also form recognisable groups to enable them to assess credit facilities easily for the expansion of their businesses.
He said everything possible was being done to ensure that the best environment was created for them.
According to Mr Amoaku-Hene, a German non-governmental organisation (NGO), which has expressed interest in the district, had promised to assist in extending electricity to the site.
The land, which was acquired with the support of the chiefs, is located along the main Enchi-Kumasi road.
According to the district assembly, the aim of the project is to create jobs for the youth to help solve the unemployment problem in the area and also support the government’s investment drive, which would eventually go a long way to transform the national economy.
According to the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, if the large number of young people who had learnt various trades and were currently unemployed were made to work in the industrial site, it would not only create jobs for them, but would also improve their standard of living.
The DCE said one of the main focus of the assembly was to ensure that local resources were tapped to the advantage of the local people and to improve on social infrastructure.
He added that since there had been increase in population, there was the need to provide employment avenues for the people and also develop the communities in which they lived.
He said the industrial site was being set up because some parts of the district, especially the area where the artisans and others in the informal sector were located, were always flooded during the wet season.
“Therefore, there could be no more opportune time to relocate the artisans than now once as the rains destroy the people’s property every year,” he said.
Mr Larbi commended the chiefs and the traditional council for the support, stressing, “your action has given me the assurance that together we would make headway in our development efforts”.
The District Business Advisory Director, Mr Godwin Amoako-Hene, said one of the problems facing the local economy was the creation of a perfect environment for business to triumph.
He said it had always been the dream of the advisory centre to create the congenial environment for the people in order to save them from the perennial flooding and other natural disasters.
The director said 10 acres of the land had already been cleared and feverish preparations were being made by the garages in the district to relocate and operate in a more acceptable manner.
Mr Amoako-Hene said working together, the artisans would enhance the transfer of skills and also form recognisable groups to enable them to assess credit facilities easily for the expansion of their businesses.
He said everything possible was being done to ensure that the best environment was created for them.
According to Mr Amoaku-Hene, a German non-governmental organisation (NGO), which has expressed interest in the district, had promised to assist in extending electricity to the site.
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IN WR SCHOOLS DEPLORABLE (PAGE 20, FEB 2, 2010)
EDUCATIONAL facilities in most districts of the Western Region are in a deplorable state. The situation discourages children from patronising the schools.
The poor school structures, coupled with the unpredictable rain patterns of the region, disrupt academic activities in a number of communities on many occasions.
In some remote parts of the region, school buildings are constructed with clay, grass and bamboo roofs.
Most of the teachers in these communities are either volunteers who are not trained, but motivated to do the job or those from the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
This is because the conditions for teachers in these communities are not conducive to attract the trained ones to those places to work even for a week.
The roads to these communities are bad, no vehicles, water, electricity, teaching materials and decent accommodation for those who have accepted the challenge to teach in schools.
Both pupils and teachers are left with no option than to travel miles on foot, arriving in the classrooms very tired and not ready to learn.
Primary school pupils who are normally forced by their parents to go to school have to dodge classes to engage in odd jobs for money.
At Adjeikrom in the Ellembelle District, part of the structures built with clay and grass have collapsed and the floor of the school buildings are not cemented.
Sometimes, animals and reptiles enter the classrooms during lesson hours.
The same could be said of Kroboline, New Adiembra and Asomase. School structures in 13 communities in the Ellembelle District could be compared to market sheds, instead of educational facilities.
In the Jomoro District, especially Elubo, the border town, pupils in the school near the border is share their classrooms with animals.
Children have to report early to school to clean the droppings of animals before classes begin.
In other parts of the same district, pupils loiter around town instead of being in the classrooms because the structures are very deplorable.
On market days, some schools do not function because no children go to the classrooms.
Apart from few private and well-endowed schools in the regional and district capitals, the performances of the pupils in the rest of the schools are very bad.
Some schools always score between 80 and 98 per cent fail in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
As a measure of arresting the situation, the various district assemblies have initiated plans to ensure that they benefit from the government’s proposed provision of modern classroom blocks for districts with schools under trees.
According to some opinion leaders, the problems are beyond the mere provision of classrooms, stressing that a complete package of school blocks, libraries, accommodation for teachers, good roads, and other utilities must be provided.
But some District Chief Executives promise to do something different this time around. That should be done as early as possible because with the weak foundation of the children, the future is very bleak.
It is sad to note that these are the areas where the chunk of the nation’s natural resources is derived.
The poor school structures, coupled with the unpredictable rain patterns of the region, disrupt academic activities in a number of communities on many occasions.
In some remote parts of the region, school buildings are constructed with clay, grass and bamboo roofs.
Most of the teachers in these communities are either volunteers who are not trained, but motivated to do the job or those from the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
This is because the conditions for teachers in these communities are not conducive to attract the trained ones to those places to work even for a week.
The roads to these communities are bad, no vehicles, water, electricity, teaching materials and decent accommodation for those who have accepted the challenge to teach in schools.
Both pupils and teachers are left with no option than to travel miles on foot, arriving in the classrooms very tired and not ready to learn.
Primary school pupils who are normally forced by their parents to go to school have to dodge classes to engage in odd jobs for money.
At Adjeikrom in the Ellembelle District, part of the structures built with clay and grass have collapsed and the floor of the school buildings are not cemented.
Sometimes, animals and reptiles enter the classrooms during lesson hours.
The same could be said of Kroboline, New Adiembra and Asomase. School structures in 13 communities in the Ellembelle District could be compared to market sheds, instead of educational facilities.
In the Jomoro District, especially Elubo, the border town, pupils in the school near the border is share their classrooms with animals.
Children have to report early to school to clean the droppings of animals before classes begin.
In other parts of the same district, pupils loiter around town instead of being in the classrooms because the structures are very deplorable.
On market days, some schools do not function because no children go to the classrooms.
Apart from few private and well-endowed schools in the regional and district capitals, the performances of the pupils in the rest of the schools are very bad.
Some schools always score between 80 and 98 per cent fail in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
As a measure of arresting the situation, the various district assemblies have initiated plans to ensure that they benefit from the government’s proposed provision of modern classroom blocks for districts with schools under trees.
According to some opinion leaders, the problems are beyond the mere provision of classrooms, stressing that a complete package of school blocks, libraries, accommodation for teachers, good roads, and other utilities must be provided.
But some District Chief Executives promise to do something different this time around. That should be done as early as possible because with the weak foundation of the children, the future is very bleak.
It is sad to note that these are the areas where the chunk of the nation’s natural resources is derived.
HALT THE CARNAGE ON THE ROADS — BUAH (PAGE 20, FEB 2, 2010)
THE Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah Buah, has urged commercial drivers and other road users to launch a crusade to prevent road accidents in the country.
He said most of the contributory factors for the fatalities on the roads were human errors, which were known to all drivers, both private and commercial.
Mr Buah made the call when he met members of the Aiyinasi branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to discuss their problems and how to enhance their operations.
The MP noted that accidents on the roads were a drain on the country’s resources.
Mr Buah said, “we are all aware of these factors; therefore, if we pause for a moment to reflect on our actions and consider our personal safety and its effects on our families, we will appreciate the need to halt the carnage on the roads”.
“I want you to remember that the best driver is not the one who can speed but the one who arrives at his destination alive,” he said.
The deputy minister reminded the GPRTU and other transport unions that they played very important roles in the country’s development so they should exhibit high level of professionalism in their work to avoid accidents.
“Ensure that your vehicles are well maintained, take good rest, no alcohol while on duty and travel at acceptable speed limit that will enable you to respond to any possible unexpected occurrences,” he stressed.
Mr Buah said the government was committed to the well-being of drivers and would support them by addressing their concerns to ensure safety on the roads.
For his part, the District Chief Executive, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, said the district assembly would do its best to support the drivers in all their activities.
He revealed that after the district assembly elections this year, one nominee from the GPRTU would be requested to represent drivers at the assembly to relay their concerns at assembly meetings.
The Aiyinasi branch Chairman of the GPRTU, Mr Emmanuel Good-Frankton, thanked the drivers of the branch for their co-operation which helped immensely in reducing accidents in the area last year, and urged them to strive in maintaining the achievement.
He attributed the success story to the fact that the drivers were disciplined and refrained from drunkenness during working hours.
Mr Good-Frankton thanked the MP and the DCE for their visit and called on them to use their good offices to impress upon the police to deal leniently with drivers at all times.
He said most of the contributory factors for the fatalities on the roads were human errors, which were known to all drivers, both private and commercial.
Mr Buah made the call when he met members of the Aiyinasi branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to discuss their problems and how to enhance their operations.
The MP noted that accidents on the roads were a drain on the country’s resources.
Mr Buah said, “we are all aware of these factors; therefore, if we pause for a moment to reflect on our actions and consider our personal safety and its effects on our families, we will appreciate the need to halt the carnage on the roads”.
“I want you to remember that the best driver is not the one who can speed but the one who arrives at his destination alive,” he said.
The deputy minister reminded the GPRTU and other transport unions that they played very important roles in the country’s development so they should exhibit high level of professionalism in their work to avoid accidents.
“Ensure that your vehicles are well maintained, take good rest, no alcohol while on duty and travel at acceptable speed limit that will enable you to respond to any possible unexpected occurrences,” he stressed.
Mr Buah said the government was committed to the well-being of drivers and would support them by addressing their concerns to ensure safety on the roads.
For his part, the District Chief Executive, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, said the district assembly would do its best to support the drivers in all their activities.
He revealed that after the district assembly elections this year, one nominee from the GPRTU would be requested to represent drivers at the assembly to relay their concerns at assembly meetings.
The Aiyinasi branch Chairman of the GPRTU, Mr Emmanuel Good-Frankton, thanked the drivers of the branch for their co-operation which helped immensely in reducing accidents in the area last year, and urged them to strive in maintaining the achievement.
He attributed the success story to the fact that the drivers were disciplined and refrained from drunkenness during working hours.
Mr Good-Frankton thanked the MP and the DCE for their visit and called on them to use their good offices to impress upon the police to deal leniently with drivers at all times.
HAITI TRAGEDY SHOULD ALERT TAWKWA RESIDENTS (PAGE 20, FEB 2, 2010)
THE recent sad news from Haiti in the North Atlantic Sea should signal residents in the Tarkwa Nsuayem Municipality in the Western Region that they must be relocated as they are not safe in case of the slightest earth tremor.
The municipality is said to be sitting on a time bomb. The reason is that hollow lands with more than 100 underground abandoned mine shafts dating back to 1839 have had their surface turned into commercial and residential facilities.
With the elevation of Tarkwa from district to municipality, the population is now very large, compelling the people to turn every available space into human settlement.
It is likely that the slightest blast by galamsey operators would be very dangerous to the residents.
Currently, many private buildings, fuel stations, school buildings and market structures have developed deep cracks from the blasting by illegal miners operating in the shafts beneath the grounds on which the municipality is located.
In the Tarkwa town centre, the ground in the middle of a market caved in and the building housing the Ghana National Fire Service was completely destroyed. A private fuel station was also affected.
According the experts, the colonial gold explorers had designed the shafts to stand the test of time, with some shafts stretching about 14 levels, which measure about 2,240 metres underground.
The danger is that the illegal miners have dug the pillars that are holding the earth at each level through unguided blasting at levels three and four, which are holding the municipality.
Each shaft employs about 1,000 people. For this reason, in case of any disaster, apart from the threat to lives and property on the surface, the lives of thousands underground would be at stake.
Realising the looming danger after the tour of the area with media practitioners, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Collins Dauda, ordered the immediate halt of the mining operations and sealing of some of the shafts that posed danger to the lives of schoolchildren.
But few days after the minister’s visit, it was clear that his order had not been followed, as brisk galamsey business was being carried out in the abandoned pits in more vigorous and dangerous manner.
That aside, the experts were of the view that due to the layout of the shafts, the current development of Tarkwa Municipality should not have been permitted.
They warned that if care was not taken or nothing was done to halt the blasting that shakes the ground in the area, the country should expect an imminent tragedy.
The municipality is said to be sitting on a time bomb. The reason is that hollow lands with more than 100 underground abandoned mine shafts dating back to 1839 have had their surface turned into commercial and residential facilities.
With the elevation of Tarkwa from district to municipality, the population is now very large, compelling the people to turn every available space into human settlement.
It is likely that the slightest blast by galamsey operators would be very dangerous to the residents.
Currently, many private buildings, fuel stations, school buildings and market structures have developed deep cracks from the blasting by illegal miners operating in the shafts beneath the grounds on which the municipality is located.
In the Tarkwa town centre, the ground in the middle of a market caved in and the building housing the Ghana National Fire Service was completely destroyed. A private fuel station was also affected.
According the experts, the colonial gold explorers had designed the shafts to stand the test of time, with some shafts stretching about 14 levels, which measure about 2,240 metres underground.
The danger is that the illegal miners have dug the pillars that are holding the earth at each level through unguided blasting at levels three and four, which are holding the municipality.
Each shaft employs about 1,000 people. For this reason, in case of any disaster, apart from the threat to lives and property on the surface, the lives of thousands underground would be at stake.
Realising the looming danger after the tour of the area with media practitioners, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Collins Dauda, ordered the immediate halt of the mining operations and sealing of some of the shafts that posed danger to the lives of schoolchildren.
But few days after the minister’s visit, it was clear that his order had not been followed, as brisk galamsey business was being carried out in the abandoned pits in more vigorous and dangerous manner.
That aside, the experts were of the view that due to the layout of the shafts, the current development of Tarkwa Municipality should not have been permitted.
They warned that if care was not taken or nothing was done to halt the blasting that shakes the ground in the area, the country should expect an imminent tragedy.
CHECK RECKLESS USE OF THE TITLE DR (PAGE 31, FEB 2, 2010)
THE Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has expressed concern over the reckless use of the title “Dr” by some individuals who make dubious claims through medical and drug advertisements.
The association has, therefore, called on the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and the National Media Commission (NMC) to work together to enforce laws regulating the use of the title and also ban the unregulated advertisement of medicines and drugs in the print and electronic media.
At its National Executive Council meeting held in Takoradi from January 29 to 31, 2010, the GMA President, Dr Emmanuel Adom A. Winful, said the practice was causing grave health problems and must be stopped.
He called on the general public to be alert and mindful of some of the false claims contained in some of those advertisements and not fall victim to them.
Dr Winful said the problems emanated from the use of the title and the advertisements which some members of the public usually fell victim to.
He also called on the media to save the country by making sure that the kind of information passing through their mode of transmission would serve the interest of the public.
Some of the advertisements, according to the GMA President, were just to satisfy the profit motive of whoever put them out, not the interest of the public, as the claims were false and dubious.
He pointed out that the GMA acknowledged the fact that the title “Dr” could be used in the field of academia, not for herbalists to become medical doctors just because they had put some herbs together to cure diseases.
“If one uses herbs to cure an ailment, it is fine with the GMA. That person qualifies as a herbalist but not a medical doctor,” he stressed.
He said to be a doctor, one had to go through the requisite training and certification and be properly inducted.
He said it was worrying for people providing herbal service to call themselves “Dr”, adding that the practice was misleading and unacceptable.
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting, the GMA touched on the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), saying that it endorsed the decision of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to roll out a public education programme to serve as a means to facilitate the implementation of the policy.
“There is generally limited public education with regard to the SSPP, as a result of which much of the public discourse exposes serious misconceptions and sometimes unrealistic expectations about the SSPP,” the GMA stressed.
The association touched on gross distortions in the existing relativities in the health sector in the draft consultant’s document on the SSPP which it said had been acknowledged by both the MoH and the Fair Wages Commission and, therefore, needed to be corrected before its implementation.
In addition, the GMA reminded the MoH that it was more than a year since an agreement was signed between the ministry and the association in which the ministry agreed to pay 10 per cent on Call Duty Facilitation Allowance to medical practitioners but the agreement was yet to be fulfilled.
The association, therefore, called on the MoH to provide the Ministry of Finance with all the needed data, as a matter of urgency, to avoid further delay in the implementation of the agreement.
In the statement, the GMA complained about the undue delay in the reconstitution of the dissolved Medical and Dental Council (MDC) and called on the government to reconstitute and inaugurate a new council as soon as possible.
The association has, therefore, called on the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and the National Media Commission (NMC) to work together to enforce laws regulating the use of the title and also ban the unregulated advertisement of medicines and drugs in the print and electronic media.
At its National Executive Council meeting held in Takoradi from January 29 to 31, 2010, the GMA President, Dr Emmanuel Adom A. Winful, said the practice was causing grave health problems and must be stopped.
He called on the general public to be alert and mindful of some of the false claims contained in some of those advertisements and not fall victim to them.
Dr Winful said the problems emanated from the use of the title and the advertisements which some members of the public usually fell victim to.
He also called on the media to save the country by making sure that the kind of information passing through their mode of transmission would serve the interest of the public.
Some of the advertisements, according to the GMA President, were just to satisfy the profit motive of whoever put them out, not the interest of the public, as the claims were false and dubious.
He pointed out that the GMA acknowledged the fact that the title “Dr” could be used in the field of academia, not for herbalists to become medical doctors just because they had put some herbs together to cure diseases.
“If one uses herbs to cure an ailment, it is fine with the GMA. That person qualifies as a herbalist but not a medical doctor,” he stressed.
He said to be a doctor, one had to go through the requisite training and certification and be properly inducted.
He said it was worrying for people providing herbal service to call themselves “Dr”, adding that the practice was misleading and unacceptable.
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting, the GMA touched on the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP), saying that it endorsed the decision of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to roll out a public education programme to serve as a means to facilitate the implementation of the policy.
“There is generally limited public education with regard to the SSPP, as a result of which much of the public discourse exposes serious misconceptions and sometimes unrealistic expectations about the SSPP,” the GMA stressed.
The association touched on gross distortions in the existing relativities in the health sector in the draft consultant’s document on the SSPP which it said had been acknowledged by both the MoH and the Fair Wages Commission and, therefore, needed to be corrected before its implementation.
In addition, the GMA reminded the MoH that it was more than a year since an agreement was signed between the ministry and the association in which the ministry agreed to pay 10 per cent on Call Duty Facilitation Allowance to medical practitioners but the agreement was yet to be fulfilled.
The association, therefore, called on the MoH to provide the Ministry of Finance with all the needed data, as a matter of urgency, to avoid further delay in the implementation of the agreement.
In the statement, the GMA complained about the undue delay in the reconstitution of the dissolved Medical and Dental Council (MDC) and called on the government to reconstitute and inaugurate a new council as soon as possible.
COLLAPSED BUILDING KILLS THREE (PAGE 3, FEB 2, 2010)
THREE persons were killed when part of a five-storey hotel building under construction collapsed on some workers in Tarkwa last Sunday.
Six other persons were rescued from the rubble by some galamsey operators after a seven-hour operation, as personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Police Service were late in arriving at the scene of the accident.
The collapsed building was situated near an abandoned mine shaft.
The body of one of the deceased is still under the collapsed building, as equipment to remove the heavy concrete is not available.
The Tarkwa Divisional Police Commander, Mr Antwi Tabi, told the Daily Graphic that every effort was being made to remove the body from under the heavy concrete.
He said nine workers were in the uncompleted building at the time it collapsed at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
He said the weak nature of the uncompleted building was creating more problems for the rescue team because of fears that it might sink further.
Six other persons were rescued from the rubble by some galamsey operators after a seven-hour operation, as personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Police Service were late in arriving at the scene of the accident.
The collapsed building was situated near an abandoned mine shaft.
The body of one of the deceased is still under the collapsed building, as equipment to remove the heavy concrete is not available.
The Tarkwa Divisional Police Commander, Mr Antwi Tabi, told the Daily Graphic that every effort was being made to remove the body from under the heavy concrete.
He said nine workers were in the uncompleted building at the time it collapsed at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
He said the weak nature of the uncompleted building was creating more problems for the rescue team because of fears that it might sink further.
T'POLY STUDENT DROWNS (SPREAD, FEB 1, 2010)
A 22-year-old first-year student of the Takoradi Polytechnic lost his life when he was drowned at the Last Hour Beach in Takoradi in the Western Region.
The student, Prince Agyekum, a first-year Textile student, was said to have had little knowledge about swimming and was using a wooden board to float until he met a strong tide which threw him off the board.
According to his friends, the incident occurred last Saturday at about 4p.m. after they left their hostels to the beach for fun. “We played football for some time and the victim and a friend entered the sea using a wooden board to surf.”
The students, numbering about 10, trooped to the Takoradi Central Police Station, where they narrated what had happened to the District Police Commander, DSP Dela K. Dzansi.
In their statements, they claimed they were all engaged in one game or another and after a few minutes of playing soccer, Agyekum and his friend started swimming.
“We saw them just at the shore and we did not pay much attention to them until one of them started shouting for help from a distance we did not expect them to go,” the said
According to Richard, the friend of Agyekum who survived the tidal waves, they had not intended to go very far from the shore.
“We did not realise it; suddenly my feet could not touch the seabed again. Therefore, I started shouting and raising my hands for help, but Agyekum could not reach me,” he said in tears.
At the time of going to press yesterday, information reached the Daily Graphic that the body of Agyekum had been washed ashore.
The student, Prince Agyekum, a first-year Textile student, was said to have had little knowledge about swimming and was using a wooden board to float until he met a strong tide which threw him off the board.
According to his friends, the incident occurred last Saturday at about 4p.m. after they left their hostels to the beach for fun. “We played football for some time and the victim and a friend entered the sea using a wooden board to surf.”
The students, numbering about 10, trooped to the Takoradi Central Police Station, where they narrated what had happened to the District Police Commander, DSP Dela K. Dzansi.
In their statements, they claimed they were all engaged in one game or another and after a few minutes of playing soccer, Agyekum and his friend started swimming.
“We saw them just at the shore and we did not pay much attention to them until one of them started shouting for help from a distance we did not expect them to go,” the said
According to Richard, the friend of Agyekum who survived the tidal waves, they had not intended to go very far from the shore.
“We did not realise it; suddenly my feet could not touch the seabed again. Therefore, I started shouting and raising my hands for help, but Agyekum could not reach me,” he said in tears.
At the time of going to press yesterday, information reached the Daily Graphic that the body of Agyekum had been washed ashore.
ADB PLEDGES TO MAINTAIN FOCUS (PAGE 49, FEB 1, 2010)
THE Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to meet all the demands of the banking industry and still maintain agricultural financing as its prime focus.
It said the demands of the ever-changing needs of contemporary banking and the emerging oil and gas sectors of the economy would be met through its well-researched expansion and modernisation drive.
This was made known when the Managing Director of ADB, Mr Stephen Kpordzih, interacted with customers in the Western Region at a reception organised for the clients of the bank.
The customers asked for an increase in the bank’s branches in the Twin-City of Sekondi/Takoradi saying, “since the inception of the bank in the Western Region many years ago, it is still operating with only one branch.”
The customers complained about the inadequate ATM facility and congestion in the banking hall due to the inability of the bank to increase its number of branches to meet growing demands.
The managing director said the bank had started implementing a new business model with the rollout of retail and corporate banking, vigorous expansion as well as maintaining its lead in agricultural financing.
He said these moves were not to shift focus from its core agricultural financing, but to rise up to the demands of other areas that its teeming customers were looking for.
The director said ADB would champion the expansion drive and at the same time deepen its role as a one-stop shop for contemporary banking services. It would also send banking to the doorsteps of those in the agricultural sector in the rural communities.
Mr Kpordzih said the bank presently had a Development Finance Unit (DFU) which was dedicated to agricultural financing. It would therefore be working closely with the Strategic Policy Coordination Unit (SPCU) which has agriculture and agro-based businesses as its core mission.
He said it was important to note that agriculture, which employed the chunk of the country’s population and was very vital to the development of the country would be given the needed attention.
Mr Koprdzih assured the customers that the expansion drive by the bank would position it to meet their needs and ensure that they had better services.
He commended the customers for their comments and said the modern-day customer had become sophisticated and had to be heard as well as involved in every decision that would make services better for them.
It said the demands of the ever-changing needs of contemporary banking and the emerging oil and gas sectors of the economy would be met through its well-researched expansion and modernisation drive.
This was made known when the Managing Director of ADB, Mr Stephen Kpordzih, interacted with customers in the Western Region at a reception organised for the clients of the bank.
The customers asked for an increase in the bank’s branches in the Twin-City of Sekondi/Takoradi saying, “since the inception of the bank in the Western Region many years ago, it is still operating with only one branch.”
The customers complained about the inadequate ATM facility and congestion in the banking hall due to the inability of the bank to increase its number of branches to meet growing demands.
The managing director said the bank had started implementing a new business model with the rollout of retail and corporate banking, vigorous expansion as well as maintaining its lead in agricultural financing.
He said these moves were not to shift focus from its core agricultural financing, but to rise up to the demands of other areas that its teeming customers were looking for.
The director said ADB would champion the expansion drive and at the same time deepen its role as a one-stop shop for contemporary banking services. It would also send banking to the doorsteps of those in the agricultural sector in the rural communities.
Mr Kpordzih said the bank presently had a Development Finance Unit (DFU) which was dedicated to agricultural financing. It would therefore be working closely with the Strategic Policy Coordination Unit (SPCU) which has agriculture and agro-based businesses as its core mission.
He said it was important to note that agriculture, which employed the chunk of the country’s population and was very vital to the development of the country would be given the needed attention.
Mr Koprdzih assured the customers that the expansion drive by the bank would position it to meet their needs and ensure that they had better services.
He commended the customers for their comments and said the modern-day customer had become sophisticated and had to be heard as well as involved in every decision that would make services better for them.
SEKONDI PRISON OFFICERS REFUSE TO ACCEPT REMAND PRISIONERS (PAGE 3, JAN 28, 2010)
OFFICERS at the Sekondi Prison are refusing to accept remand and convicted prisoners from the various courts in the metropolis in reaction to alleged police manhandling of a pregnant woman said to be the wife of a prison officer, resulting in the loss of the baby after delivery.
The Western Regional Police Command, led by DCOP Hamidu Mahama, is holding talks with the Regional Prisons Command to resolve the matter, since the refusal to admit remand prisoners to the prison can pose a security threat.
As of the time of filing this report, remand and convicted prisoners scheduled to be admitted to prison custody had been sent to the Sekondi Police Station.
The issue has generated concern among the public, some of whom questioned the motive of the prisons authorities.
They said even if there was a problem between the two security institutions, it should not warrant refusal by the prison authorities to admit prisoners who had been lawfully referred to their facility.
In another development, in the early hours of yesterday, the wives of prison officers besieged the entrance of the prison, preventing the police from entering the prison yard with their prisoners.
The women, who were dressed in red, drummed and chanted war songs, while carrying placards without inscriptions to register their protest against the police.
According to them, the police should not have arrested the wife of the prison officer, knowing very well that she was pregnant.
A police source told the Daily Graphic that a female community security officer had gone to the Sekondi Police Station to report a quarrel between her and the prison officer’s wife.
The wife of the prison officer was then arrested and sent to the Sekondi Police Station, where she was said to have been detained.
When contacted, the Western Regional Police Commander said his outfit was working to resolve the impasse to enable the Sekondi Prison to admit the prisoners.
DCOP Hamidu said full investigations would be launched into the matter to establish what exactly happened at the police station.
The Western Regional Police Command, led by DCOP Hamidu Mahama, is holding talks with the Regional Prisons Command to resolve the matter, since the refusal to admit remand prisoners to the prison can pose a security threat.
As of the time of filing this report, remand and convicted prisoners scheduled to be admitted to prison custody had been sent to the Sekondi Police Station.
The issue has generated concern among the public, some of whom questioned the motive of the prisons authorities.
They said even if there was a problem between the two security institutions, it should not warrant refusal by the prison authorities to admit prisoners who had been lawfully referred to their facility.
In another development, in the early hours of yesterday, the wives of prison officers besieged the entrance of the prison, preventing the police from entering the prison yard with their prisoners.
The women, who were dressed in red, drummed and chanted war songs, while carrying placards without inscriptions to register their protest against the police.
According to them, the police should not have arrested the wife of the prison officer, knowing very well that she was pregnant.
A police source told the Daily Graphic that a female community security officer had gone to the Sekondi Police Station to report a quarrel between her and the prison officer’s wife.
The wife of the prison officer was then arrested and sent to the Sekondi Police Station, where she was said to have been detained.
When contacted, the Western Regional Police Commander said his outfit was working to resolve the impasse to enable the Sekondi Prison to admit the prisoners.
DCOP Hamidu said full investigations would be launched into the matter to establish what exactly happened at the police station.
BUAH PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR HEALTH, EDUCATION (PAGE 16, JAN 27, 2010)
THE Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, has pledged his continuous support for health and education in his constituency.
This, he explained, would ensure that preventable health issues were not a problem in the constituency and that children were also in the classroom.
He also said that if the constituents were healthy, they would contribute to the socio-economic development of the country while the children positioned themselves well to take up future roles of leadership of the country.
The MP said this when he donated a 42-inch LG Plasma television set to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the St Martins De-Pores Hospital at Eikwe in the Western Region.
The MP, who is also the Deputy Minister for Energy, said in order to make daily activities at the hospital more effective and efficient, an electricity facility had been extended from Esiama substation to the hospital in order to put an end to erratic power interruption.
He described Eikwe Hospital as very important and strategically located to serve travellers passing through the region to Elubo and other communities outside the constituency.
Mr Buah said early next month, the Ellembelle District would get its own National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) office to cater for the district, to avoid the setback in processing claims which normally interruptsed healthcare delivery.
He, therefore, urged the constituents, especially pregnant women, to make use of the facility at Eikwe, instead of resorting to unrothordox ways of medication.
The Government, he said, was aware of the plight of the people living in areas that were not close to the hospital, and gave an assurance that he would do everything possible to ensure that their needs were met.
He called for a collaborative effort to address issues of education, health and community development, saying, “Let us go back to the days of the communal spirit where initiatives were taken to ensure that communities were kept clean.”
“As your Member of Parliament, I will not wait for you to see me only when I am seeking for another term of office; we will work and deliberate on issues together to ensure that we get to the expected end as the Government is working hard to ensure that we deliver on the “Better Ghana” Agenda.”
“We will continue to create the enabling environment for the people to have self-confidence in the fortunes of the country,” he said.
The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Gabi Koethe thanked the MP for the kind gestures, adding that the TV would enable them to do their work without interruption.
Dr Koethe thanked the Government, the MP and the Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana for providing electricity to the hospital.
The provision of dedicated line will not only keep the hospital running, but also save most of the expensive hospital equipment which mostly get damaged during power interruptions.
She also expressed her gratitude to the Government for tarring the road from Krisan to Baku, and asked that it should be extended to Atuabo.
The DCE for Ellembelle, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, thanked the MP for his efforts at helping the development of the district and Eikwe Hospital in particular.
He said in the absence of a district hospital the district recognised St Martins De-pores as its district hospital, and would support it in every means possible to ensure that the needs of the hospital was catered for.
Mr Eshun explained that the assembly was aware of the difficulties people in the community were giving the hospital and, therefore, appealed to them to accommodate it and also continue to render quality services.
This, he explained, would ensure that preventable health issues were not a problem in the constituency and that children were also in the classroom.
He also said that if the constituents were healthy, they would contribute to the socio-economic development of the country while the children positioned themselves well to take up future roles of leadership of the country.
The MP said this when he donated a 42-inch LG Plasma television set to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the St Martins De-Pores Hospital at Eikwe in the Western Region.
The MP, who is also the Deputy Minister for Energy, said in order to make daily activities at the hospital more effective and efficient, an electricity facility had been extended from Esiama substation to the hospital in order to put an end to erratic power interruption.
He described Eikwe Hospital as very important and strategically located to serve travellers passing through the region to Elubo and other communities outside the constituency.
Mr Buah said early next month, the Ellembelle District would get its own National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) office to cater for the district, to avoid the setback in processing claims which normally interruptsed healthcare delivery.
He, therefore, urged the constituents, especially pregnant women, to make use of the facility at Eikwe, instead of resorting to unrothordox ways of medication.
The Government, he said, was aware of the plight of the people living in areas that were not close to the hospital, and gave an assurance that he would do everything possible to ensure that their needs were met.
He called for a collaborative effort to address issues of education, health and community development, saying, “Let us go back to the days of the communal spirit where initiatives were taken to ensure that communities were kept clean.”
“As your Member of Parliament, I will not wait for you to see me only when I am seeking for another term of office; we will work and deliberate on issues together to ensure that we get to the expected end as the Government is working hard to ensure that we deliver on the “Better Ghana” Agenda.”
“We will continue to create the enabling environment for the people to have self-confidence in the fortunes of the country,” he said.
The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Gabi Koethe thanked the MP for the kind gestures, adding that the TV would enable them to do their work without interruption.
Dr Koethe thanked the Government, the MP and the Regional Office of the Electricity Company of Ghana for providing electricity to the hospital.
The provision of dedicated line will not only keep the hospital running, but also save most of the expensive hospital equipment which mostly get damaged during power interruptions.
She also expressed her gratitude to the Government for tarring the road from Krisan to Baku, and asked that it should be extended to Atuabo.
The DCE for Ellembelle, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, thanked the MP for his efforts at helping the development of the district and Eikwe Hospital in particular.
He said in the absence of a district hospital the district recognised St Martins De-pores as its district hospital, and would support it in every means possible to ensure that the needs of the hospital was catered for.
Mr Eshun explained that the assembly was aware of the difficulties people in the community were giving the hospital and, therefore, appealed to them to accommodate it and also continue to render quality services.
SHAMA RESIDENTS TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE (PAGE 20, JAN 26, 2010)
THE people of the Shama Traditional Area in the Western Region have decided to contribute GH¢1 per head annually to support the provision of educational infrastructure in the Shama District.
The decision followed the poor academic performance of junior high school (JHS) pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the last three years.
It was realised at a stakeholders’ meeting at Shama that poor school infrastructure and lack of parental control were among the major problems that had contributed to the abysmal performance of pupils in basic schools in the district.
To reverse the trend, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Ms Emelia Arthur, convened an emergency meeting to create a platform for the people to discuss ways of improving academic standards.
It came to light that 1,116 candidates out of the total of 1,689 the district presented for the BECE in 2009 failed.
A total of 573 candidates passed the examination with most of them securing very poor grades that would make it difficult for them to enter senior high schools (SHS).
According to the stakeholders, if nothing concrete was done about it schools in the area would see 100 per cent failures.
Most of the participants were of the view that discipline had broken down as schoolchildren were always seen along the beaches, playing until late in the evening instead of studying.
It also came to light that a large number of the schoolchildren were left in the care of their grandparents who had little control over what their adolescent children did, especially at night.
The DCE said such unhealthy developments were an affront to the better Ghana agenda of the government.
She said her outfit would do everything possible to ensure that the schoolchildren were in the classrooms at the times they were expected to be there and also offered quality education by the teachers.
Ms Arthur stated that even though the task seemed to be an arduous one, with the support of the chiefs and opinion leaders, the assembly would reverse the trend.
The decision followed the poor academic performance of junior high school (JHS) pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the last three years.
It was realised at a stakeholders’ meeting at Shama that poor school infrastructure and lack of parental control were among the major problems that had contributed to the abysmal performance of pupils in basic schools in the district.
To reverse the trend, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Ms Emelia Arthur, convened an emergency meeting to create a platform for the people to discuss ways of improving academic standards.
It came to light that 1,116 candidates out of the total of 1,689 the district presented for the BECE in 2009 failed.
A total of 573 candidates passed the examination with most of them securing very poor grades that would make it difficult for them to enter senior high schools (SHS).
According to the stakeholders, if nothing concrete was done about it schools in the area would see 100 per cent failures.
Most of the participants were of the view that discipline had broken down as schoolchildren were always seen along the beaches, playing until late in the evening instead of studying.
It also came to light that a large number of the schoolchildren were left in the care of their grandparents who had little control over what their adolescent children did, especially at night.
The DCE said such unhealthy developments were an affront to the better Ghana agenda of the government.
She said her outfit would do everything possible to ensure that the schoolchildren were in the classrooms at the times they were expected to be there and also offered quality education by the teachers.
Ms Arthur stated that even though the task seemed to be an arduous one, with the support of the chiefs and opinion leaders, the assembly would reverse the trend.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
CENTRAL FINANCIAL CONSULT CUSTOMERS SMELL RAT (PAGE 19, JAN 23, 2010)
CUSTOMERS of a financial institution, Central Financial Consult (CFC), who are mainly farmers from the Western, Central and Ashanti regions, last Wednesday besieged the Western Regional Police Command to demand the arrest of directors of the company for allegedly defrauding them of huge sums of money.
Some of the customers told the police that they did not have financial institutions where they lived in the regions and, therefore, found it prudent to deposit their money at CFC for safe keeping till the next farming season.
Contributions from 60 of the angry farmers which were collated by the police amounted to more than GH¢380,000.
The Regional Police Command has, meanwhile, arrested one Reynolds Addo, the internal auditor, while it has mounted a search for the company’s chief executive, who was said to have bolted after he had appeared before a court some weeks ago on similar charges.
Some of the customers told the police that they had been asked to contribute in order to have access to soft loans.
They also alleged that they had been told they could earn interest on any balance in their accounts, secure loans even if they had no money in their account, be provided with financial assistance for funerals and charged only 8.5 per cent interest per annum on their farm projects.
In an attempt to retrieve their money, the affected customers from the company’s 18 branches in the three regions arrived in Sekondi-Takoradi in chartered buses to seek the assistance of the police.
They were said to have travelled from Sefwi Dwenase, Sefwi Akontonbra, Sefwi Bekwai, Sefwi Juaboso, Dunkwa, Bonsu Nkwanta, Mpohor, Asante Bekwai, Sankore, Agona Nkwanta, Adumfa, Oppong Valley, Prestea, Enchi and Sameraboi.
The CFC, which was allegedly registered to operate as a door-to-door ‘susu’ collection unit, transformed itself into a financial institution and opened branches in the Western and Central regions and parts of the Ashanti Region, with its headquarters in Takoradi.
When contacted, the Western Regional Crime Officer, Mr Victor Agbetornyo, said in the early hours of Wednesday, the affected farmers started arriving in buses from parts of the region to lodge the complaint.
The crime officer said the company had established offices in plush buildings in the regional capital, a practice which gave the company credibility in the eyes of the unsuspecting customers.
He said the company was registered but not permitted to operate as a financial institution and advised the public to check the backgrounds of financial institutions before dealing with them.
The crime officer assured the customers that the police would do everything to apprehend the other officers behind the company.
Some of the customers told the police that they did not have financial institutions where they lived in the regions and, therefore, found it prudent to deposit their money at CFC for safe keeping till the next farming season.
Contributions from 60 of the angry farmers which were collated by the police amounted to more than GH¢380,000.
The Regional Police Command has, meanwhile, arrested one Reynolds Addo, the internal auditor, while it has mounted a search for the company’s chief executive, who was said to have bolted after he had appeared before a court some weeks ago on similar charges.
Some of the customers told the police that they had been asked to contribute in order to have access to soft loans.
They also alleged that they had been told they could earn interest on any balance in their accounts, secure loans even if they had no money in their account, be provided with financial assistance for funerals and charged only 8.5 per cent interest per annum on their farm projects.
In an attempt to retrieve their money, the affected customers from the company’s 18 branches in the three regions arrived in Sekondi-Takoradi in chartered buses to seek the assistance of the police.
They were said to have travelled from Sefwi Dwenase, Sefwi Akontonbra, Sefwi Bekwai, Sefwi Juaboso, Dunkwa, Bonsu Nkwanta, Mpohor, Asante Bekwai, Sankore, Agona Nkwanta, Adumfa, Oppong Valley, Prestea, Enchi and Sameraboi.
The CFC, which was allegedly registered to operate as a door-to-door ‘susu’ collection unit, transformed itself into a financial institution and opened branches in the Western and Central regions and parts of the Ashanti Region, with its headquarters in Takoradi.
When contacted, the Western Regional Crime Officer, Mr Victor Agbetornyo, said in the early hours of Wednesday, the affected farmers started arriving in buses from parts of the region to lodge the complaint.
The crime officer said the company had established offices in plush buildings in the regional capital, a practice which gave the company credibility in the eyes of the unsuspecting customers.
He said the company was registered but not permitted to operate as a financial institution and advised the public to check the backgrounds of financial institutions before dealing with them.
The crime officer assured the customers that the police would do everything to apprehend the other officers behind the company.
PROSTITUTES INVADE SEKONDI-TAKORADI (PAGE 11, JAN 23, 2010)
Commercial sex workers from other regions and neighbouring countries have thronged the Western Regional Capital of Sekondi/Takoradi, and intensifed their activities.
Some bar and hotel operators have to forcibly drive some of the prostitutes out of their business premises to stop them from harassing and embarrassing their clients, who include expatriates and other visitors to the metropolis.
While some get the attention of the expatriates whom they charge between GH¢150 for a “short-time” and GH¢200 for the full night, others actually have permanent places in various hotels and bars where the customers themselves move to solicit their services.
Some hotel managers accused some expatriate guests of bringing in the sex workers to their rooms late in the night and then reporting of stolen items such as phones, money and other valuables in the morning when the prostitutes had left.
On a visit to various bars in the metropolis, one would find some of the prostitutes walking around and asking male guests at these places if they want company for the night.
They themselves have acquired rooms in various low-standard hotels at a rate of GH¢15 a night, where they operate from.
The Western Regional Police Command told the Daily Graphic that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service had received complaints and also gathered some useful information from its intelligence sources.
According the Regional Crime Officer, Mr Victor Agbetornyo, it was expected that the oil find would bring both genuine and unscrupulous people into the city. He warned that openly soliciting sex was a crime in the country.
Some of the hotels and drinking bar operators the Daily Graphic spoke to said the prostitutes openly come and sit among the customers and try to catch their attention to the displeasure of some of their customers.
At one of the bars, the operator asked this reporter to stay and witness the operations of the sex workers.
A man who claimed to be a ‘victim’ of the activities of sex workers said he and his colleagues went to a hotel at the beach to relax after a hectic day and were approached by two young ladies who engaged them in a conversation.
He said after they finished drinking, they moved into their vehicle to drive to another location in Sekondi and their ‘guests’ decided to follow them.
He said their managed to extort GH¢100 from them after “they had accused us of wasting their time”.
Another person said he actually went for a prostitute who said she had a place they could use for a short time.
He said he was taken to a dilapidated hotel near a military installation in Takoradi, where, to his surprise, there were five other ladies in a queue for the two rooms where they were supposed to use.
“I told her that I cannot join that queue and she told me to pay her GH¢50 for no work done.
“I refused to pay and she picked a stone and she warned me that if I dared moving the vehicle, she would smash my windscreen and so I had to pay GH¢50 for no work done,” he said with much regret.
The police has, however, assured the public that they would work hard to clamp down the activities of the sex workers, and also advised the public to be wary of their operations.
Some bar and hotel operators have to forcibly drive some of the prostitutes out of their business premises to stop them from harassing and embarrassing their clients, who include expatriates and other visitors to the metropolis.
While some get the attention of the expatriates whom they charge between GH¢150 for a “short-time” and GH¢200 for the full night, others actually have permanent places in various hotels and bars where the customers themselves move to solicit their services.
Some hotel managers accused some expatriate guests of bringing in the sex workers to their rooms late in the night and then reporting of stolen items such as phones, money and other valuables in the morning when the prostitutes had left.
On a visit to various bars in the metropolis, one would find some of the prostitutes walking around and asking male guests at these places if they want company for the night.
They themselves have acquired rooms in various low-standard hotels at a rate of GH¢15 a night, where they operate from.
The Western Regional Police Command told the Daily Graphic that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service had received complaints and also gathered some useful information from its intelligence sources.
According the Regional Crime Officer, Mr Victor Agbetornyo, it was expected that the oil find would bring both genuine and unscrupulous people into the city. He warned that openly soliciting sex was a crime in the country.
Some of the hotels and drinking bar operators the Daily Graphic spoke to said the prostitutes openly come and sit among the customers and try to catch their attention to the displeasure of some of their customers.
At one of the bars, the operator asked this reporter to stay and witness the operations of the sex workers.
A man who claimed to be a ‘victim’ of the activities of sex workers said he and his colleagues went to a hotel at the beach to relax after a hectic day and were approached by two young ladies who engaged them in a conversation.
He said after they finished drinking, they moved into their vehicle to drive to another location in Sekondi and their ‘guests’ decided to follow them.
He said their managed to extort GH¢100 from them after “they had accused us of wasting their time”.
Another person said he actually went for a prostitute who said she had a place they could use for a short time.
He said he was taken to a dilapidated hotel near a military installation in Takoradi, where, to his surprise, there were five other ladies in a queue for the two rooms where they were supposed to use.
“I told her that I cannot join that queue and she told me to pay her GH¢50 for no work done.
“I refused to pay and she picked a stone and she warned me that if I dared moving the vehicle, she would smash my windscreen and so I had to pay GH¢50 for no work done,” he said with much regret.
The police has, however, assured the public that they would work hard to clamp down the activities of the sex workers, and also advised the public to be wary of their operations.
NO GAS FLARING AT JUBILEE FIELDS — TULLOW (PAGE 3, JAN 23, 2010)
Tullow Oil and its partners operating at the Jubilee Oil Fields in the Western Region has stated that there will be no flaring of gas, even if the intended gas factory onshore was not ready before oil production begins.
The company further announced that at the end of December 2009, the Mahogany Deep-2 appraisal well confirmed good quality of light oil accumulation.
It said Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel which would be positioned offshore, was very sophisticated and could receive gas and re-inject it into the well until the factory onshore was ready.
Responding to the question if the delay in the setting up of the gas processing factory in the Jomoro District will not delay the protection date, as well as force them to flair the gas, Mr Kofi Esson, Tullow Government and External Relations Officer, said this would not happen.
He said apart from the fact that the laws of the country did not allow the flaring of gas, Tullow was committed to good environmental practices, hence the designing of the FPSO to receive and re-inject the gas into the wells.
He called for support to ensure that the needed skills were transferred to Ghanaians when production gets underway.
He said the two light oil reservoirs in the Mahogany Deep section were of very good quality and stated that a new reservoir had also been encountered in a deeper stratigraphic level beneath the Mahogany Deep section.
The new accumulations discovered by the well would now be evaluated, using the recently reprocessed high resolution 3D seismic data and may be the target of future drilling.
Mr Esson said potential extensions of the Jubilee Field and associated prospectivity would be drilled in the course of the year.
Tullow has a 22.896 per cent interest in the West Cape Three Points licence and its partners are Kosmos Energy (Operator) and a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, (30.875 per cent each), the E.O. Group (3.5 per cent), Sabre Oil & Gas (1.854 per cent) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) 10 per cent carried interest.
The company further announced that at the end of December 2009, the Mahogany Deep-2 appraisal well confirmed good quality of light oil accumulation.
It said Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel which would be positioned offshore, was very sophisticated and could receive gas and re-inject it into the well until the factory onshore was ready.
Responding to the question if the delay in the setting up of the gas processing factory in the Jomoro District will not delay the protection date, as well as force them to flair the gas, Mr Kofi Esson, Tullow Government and External Relations Officer, said this would not happen.
He said apart from the fact that the laws of the country did not allow the flaring of gas, Tullow was committed to good environmental practices, hence the designing of the FPSO to receive and re-inject the gas into the wells.
He called for support to ensure that the needed skills were transferred to Ghanaians when production gets underway.
He said the two light oil reservoirs in the Mahogany Deep section were of very good quality and stated that a new reservoir had also been encountered in a deeper stratigraphic level beneath the Mahogany Deep section.
The new accumulations discovered by the well would now be evaluated, using the recently reprocessed high resolution 3D seismic data and may be the target of future drilling.
Mr Esson said potential extensions of the Jubilee Field and associated prospectivity would be drilled in the course of the year.
Tullow has a 22.896 per cent interest in the West Cape Three Points licence and its partners are Kosmos Energy (Operator) and a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, (30.875 per cent each), the E.O. Group (3.5 per cent), Sabre Oil & Gas (1.854 per cent) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) 10 per cent carried interest.
MAHAMA CUTS SOD FOR EXPANSION OF THERMAL PLANT (SPREAD, JAN 19, 2010)
THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, yesterday cut the sod for the commencement of the expansion of the Takoradi Thermal Power Plant at Aboadze in the Shama District of the Western Region.
The 132-megawatt capacity combined cycle plant will consist of four gas turbines, four heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbines. The gas turbines will run on light oil, diesel oil and natural gas.
The project is being financed with a loan from the Canadian government, the Societe General of Canada and the Investment Bank at a cost of US$185,358,651, with the main contractors for the project being the Canadian Commercial Corporation.
With regard to power generation, Ghana’s power supply sources are mainly from hydro-electricity, thermal from light crude oil and a small percentage of photo-voltaic solar.
At present, the country has an installed generation capacity of about 2,000MW, with the Akosombo Dam generating 1,020MW, while the Kpong Dam produces 160MW.
In the case of thermal power generation, TAPCO (VRA) produces 330MW; TAQA, 220MW; the Mines Reserve Plant, 80MW and the Tema Thermal Power Plant, 126MW, while the Emergency Power Plant generates 126MW.
Currently, the country’s peak demand for power is about 1,350MW.
At the ceremony, Mr Mahama said the government had committed itself to increasing the current installed power generation capacity of about 2,000MW to 5,000MW by 2015.
That, he explained, was to make energy available for industrial, and domestic use.
“The vision of the energy sector is to provide adequate and reliable energy supplies for all sectors of the economy to support socio-economic development, poverty reduction and also for export,” he added.
He said the country's vision was to become a net exporter of power and the government was undertaking the construction of some power plants to achieve that objective.
Notable among them, he said, was the Bui Hydro-electric Power Project that sought to add 400MW to the existing power generation capacity in the country.
The Vice-President said in addition to the Bui Project, the government would develop smaller hydro-power plant on the River Oti, which was expected to produce 90MW, and also at Heman, to produce 95MW, and at Awisam to generate about 50MW.
He said the Brazilian government had also provided a loan of US$250 million for the construction of the Juale Plant.
Mr Mahama said the government would continue with the implementation of the National Electrification Programme (NEP), which was started in 1990, under which about 478 communities were connected to the national grid.
Since then, he said, about 4,000 communities had been connected to the grid.
For his part, a Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, said the country’s power generation challenge had been aggravated by the use of obsolete transmission and distribution infrastructure.
“It is sad to note that transformers and their associated equipment manufactured and installed in the early 1960s still form the backbone of our transmission and distribution infrastructure. As a nation, we have collectively under-invested in the power sector after the 1960s,” he said.
Dr Donkor said the government was aware that driving an energy-based economy would require the effective management of the power system and the fullest support of the citizenry to ensure adequate, reliable and cost-effective power supply.
He said the government was aware of the difficulties in the chain of distribution and acknowledged its responsibilities in that direction to ensure adequate energy supply to commerce and industry needed for the creation of a buoyant economy.
Dr Donkor said the government would support the Ghana Grid Company (GRICO) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to improve their status, as the transmission system presently was undergoing reinforcement to improve reliability and reduce vulnerability of the network.
He said the government would also support the expansion capacity of the network, which would carry load growth and modernise the entire transmission system to meet internationally acceptable standards.
The minister said in returning to international standards of excellence in service delivery, “we will have to collectively confront the high commercial losses experienced in the distribution chain”.
He said while an increase in investment would significantly reduce technical losses, the theft of power through illegal connections, culminating in commercial losses, must be addressed.
“We, therefore, call on the security agencies, community groups and patriotic-minded individuals to help the ECG and the VRA to bring this under control by arresting and reporting the perpetrators who live in our communities to the authorities,” he said.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Darren Schemmer, said Ghana and Canada had been partners in development for more than a century.
He said Canada used its natural resources as a springboard to develop, just as Ghana had started doing today, noting, “We expect to see more collaboration between the two countries in the years ahead.”
The Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, called on the contractors to consider employing some of the local residents.
The 132-megawatt capacity combined cycle plant will consist of four gas turbines, four heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbines. The gas turbines will run on light oil, diesel oil and natural gas.
The project is being financed with a loan from the Canadian government, the Societe General of Canada and the Investment Bank at a cost of US$185,358,651, with the main contractors for the project being the Canadian Commercial Corporation.
With regard to power generation, Ghana’s power supply sources are mainly from hydro-electricity, thermal from light crude oil and a small percentage of photo-voltaic solar.
At present, the country has an installed generation capacity of about 2,000MW, with the Akosombo Dam generating 1,020MW, while the Kpong Dam produces 160MW.
In the case of thermal power generation, TAPCO (VRA) produces 330MW; TAQA, 220MW; the Mines Reserve Plant, 80MW and the Tema Thermal Power Plant, 126MW, while the Emergency Power Plant generates 126MW.
Currently, the country’s peak demand for power is about 1,350MW.
At the ceremony, Mr Mahama said the government had committed itself to increasing the current installed power generation capacity of about 2,000MW to 5,000MW by 2015.
That, he explained, was to make energy available for industrial, and domestic use.
“The vision of the energy sector is to provide adequate and reliable energy supplies for all sectors of the economy to support socio-economic development, poverty reduction and also for export,” he added.
He said the country's vision was to become a net exporter of power and the government was undertaking the construction of some power plants to achieve that objective.
Notable among them, he said, was the Bui Hydro-electric Power Project that sought to add 400MW to the existing power generation capacity in the country.
The Vice-President said in addition to the Bui Project, the government would develop smaller hydro-power plant on the River Oti, which was expected to produce 90MW, and also at Heman, to produce 95MW, and at Awisam to generate about 50MW.
He said the Brazilian government had also provided a loan of US$250 million for the construction of the Juale Plant.
Mr Mahama said the government would continue with the implementation of the National Electrification Programme (NEP), which was started in 1990, under which about 478 communities were connected to the national grid.
Since then, he said, about 4,000 communities had been connected to the grid.
For his part, a Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr Kwabena Donkor, said the country’s power generation challenge had been aggravated by the use of obsolete transmission and distribution infrastructure.
“It is sad to note that transformers and their associated equipment manufactured and installed in the early 1960s still form the backbone of our transmission and distribution infrastructure. As a nation, we have collectively under-invested in the power sector after the 1960s,” he said.
Dr Donkor said the government was aware that driving an energy-based economy would require the effective management of the power system and the fullest support of the citizenry to ensure adequate, reliable and cost-effective power supply.
He said the government was aware of the difficulties in the chain of distribution and acknowledged its responsibilities in that direction to ensure adequate energy supply to commerce and industry needed for the creation of a buoyant economy.
Dr Donkor said the government would support the Ghana Grid Company (GRICO) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to improve their status, as the transmission system presently was undergoing reinforcement to improve reliability and reduce vulnerability of the network.
He said the government would also support the expansion capacity of the network, which would carry load growth and modernise the entire transmission system to meet internationally acceptable standards.
The minister said in returning to international standards of excellence in service delivery, “we will have to collectively confront the high commercial losses experienced in the distribution chain”.
He said while an increase in investment would significantly reduce technical losses, the theft of power through illegal connections, culminating in commercial losses, must be addressed.
“We, therefore, call on the security agencies, community groups and patriotic-minded individuals to help the ECG and the VRA to bring this under control by arresting and reporting the perpetrators who live in our communities to the authorities,” he said.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Darren Schemmer, said Ghana and Canada had been partners in development for more than a century.
He said Canada used its natural resources as a springboard to develop, just as Ghana had started doing today, noting, “We expect to see more collaboration between the two countries in the years ahead.”
The Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, called on the contractors to consider employing some of the local residents.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
ABIDE BY ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATIONS — ELLEMBELLE MP (PAGE 13, JAN 16, 2010)
The Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has urged commercial drivers and other road users to abide by road safety regulations to prevent accidents in the country.
He said many of the factors contributing to fatalities on the road were human errors known to all drivers.
The MP gave the advice when he met members of the Aiyinasi branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to discuss problems facing them and how to enhance their operations.
Mr Buah, who is also a Deputy Minister of Energy, said accidents on the road were a drain on the country’s resources and accounted for the dwindling human resources.
The MP advised drivers to always pause and reflect on their actions and personal safety to enable them to appreciate the need to be careful when they were driving.
He reminded members of the GPRTU and other transport groups that they were a very important part of the country’s development and, therefore, asked them to exhibit a high level of professionalism to avoid accidents.
Mr Buah asked them to ensure that their vehicles were well maintained, and they travelled at acceptable speed limits to enable them to respond to any possible emergencies.
He said the NDC government was committed to the well-being of drivers and would support them by addressing their concerns to ensure safety on the roads.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Good-Frankton, Cchairman of the Aiyinasi branch of the GPRTU, commended members for their co-operation, which enabled the branch to record no accident last year, and called on them to work hard to maintain that record.
He said many of the factors contributing to fatalities on the road were human errors known to all drivers.
The MP gave the advice when he met members of the Aiyinasi branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to discuss problems facing them and how to enhance their operations.
Mr Buah, who is also a Deputy Minister of Energy, said accidents on the road were a drain on the country’s resources and accounted for the dwindling human resources.
The MP advised drivers to always pause and reflect on their actions and personal safety to enable them to appreciate the need to be careful when they were driving.
He reminded members of the GPRTU and other transport groups that they were a very important part of the country’s development and, therefore, asked them to exhibit a high level of professionalism to avoid accidents.
Mr Buah asked them to ensure that their vehicles were well maintained, and they travelled at acceptable speed limits to enable them to respond to any possible emergencies.
He said the NDC government was committed to the well-being of drivers and would support them by addressing their concerns to ensure safety on the roads.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Good-Frankton, Cchairman of the Aiyinasi branch of the GPRTU, commended members for their co-operation, which enabled the branch to record no accident last year, and called on them to work hard to maintain that record.
CAR THIEF NABBED (PAGE 21, JAN 16, 2010)
A young man who has allegedly been snatching cars in Accra and selling them in the Western Region with the connivance of officials of the Driver and Vehicle Licence Authority (DVLA), has been busted by the police at Axim.
At the time of his arrest at Mile 32 barrier in the Axim municipality, the suspect, Solomon Kwakyi, 24, had allegedly stolen four vehicles from Accra and managed to sell three of them.
Some of the stolen vehicles were a KIA Pride with registration number GR1007Y, which was stolen at Achimota; Nissan Premerra with registration number GE7584 V, which was stolen at Kotobabi, and a Toyota Corolla, which was stolen in front of Papaye Fast Food, Osu in Accra.
The registration number of the Toyota Corolla is yet to be known.
According to the police, the suspect claimed that after stealing the vehicles, his collaborators at the DVLA helped him to secure road worthiness certificates and fake duplicates of documents of similar brand of the vehicles he had stolen.
The vehicles are then transported to other parts of the country, sold and the booty shared.
According to the Axim District Commander, DSP Lovelace Tefutor, the suspect had managed to sell three of the stolen vehicles and was on his way to Axim to negotiate with a prospective buyer.
On reaching Mile 32 Barrier near Axim, the police demanded to examine the papers covering his vehicle but before they could say jack, the suspect had run into the bush but was arrested after a hot chase.
He told the police that he had realised substantial resources from the sale of the vehicles.
from the sales of the vehicles and the money deposited in his bank account in Accra.
At the time of his arrest at Mile 32 barrier in the Axim municipality, the suspect, Solomon Kwakyi, 24, had allegedly stolen four vehicles from Accra and managed to sell three of them.
Some of the stolen vehicles were a KIA Pride with registration number GR1007Y, which was stolen at Achimota; Nissan Premerra with registration number GE7584 V, which was stolen at Kotobabi, and a Toyota Corolla, which was stolen in front of Papaye Fast Food, Osu in Accra.
The registration number of the Toyota Corolla is yet to be known.
According to the police, the suspect claimed that after stealing the vehicles, his collaborators at the DVLA helped him to secure road worthiness certificates and fake duplicates of documents of similar brand of the vehicles he had stolen.
The vehicles are then transported to other parts of the country, sold and the booty shared.
According to the Axim District Commander, DSP Lovelace Tefutor, the suspect had managed to sell three of the stolen vehicles and was on his way to Axim to negotiate with a prospective buyer.
On reaching Mile 32 Barrier near Axim, the police demanded to examine the papers covering his vehicle but before they could say jack, the suspect had run into the bush but was arrested after a hot chase.
He told the police that he had realised substantial resources from the sale of the vehicles.
from the sales of the vehicles and the money deposited in his bank account in Accra.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
BE ASSERTIVE, DCE TELLS UNIT C'TTEE MEMBERS (PAGE 16, JAN 15, 2010)
UNIT committee and area council members of district assemblies have been urged to be assertive in order to hold the assemblies accountable to the people.
The District Chief Executive for Shama, Ms Emelia Arthur, who made the call at a training programme organised for the unit committee and council members, said area council members played an important role in the country’s decentralisation process.
She said without them, the assembly would not effectively liaise with people in the electoral areas.
The assembly, she said, needed active unit committee and area council members to ensure that people in the communities were always updated on what the assembly was doing.
She said the training was to ensure that council members acquainted themselves with their roles and responsibilities.
The DCE said under the Local Government Act 1993 (Act 462) and Legislative Instrument (LI) 1614, district assemblies were required to initiate and implement their programmes through the area councils.
That, she said, would enable the councils to play watchful roles and serve as mini governments at the local level.
Ms Arthur, therefore, asked the members to be alive to their responsibilities to keep records of all rateable persons and properties, as well as assist the assembly to collect more revenue.
The DCE noted that an important area of the unit committee system was the monitoring and inspection of government projects in communities to ensure accountability and transparency.
The committees and the area councils also had the powers to take lawful steps to abate any nuisance to ensure that the right things were done.
“I want you to know that the non-function of the area councils had adversely affected the effective delivery of the assembly to the extent of denying the people access to participate in decisions that affect their own lives,” she added.
She said it was, therefore, important to reverse the unfortunate situation through collaboration with the relevant stakeholders when the unit committee and area council members were successfully inaugurated.
The District Planning Officer, Mr Isaac B. Ankomah, said the training programme was very important, as most of the members were not aware of the powers they had.
Development issues, he said, needed to be discussed and the people in the communities made aware of what was happening at the assembly level.
He said it was within the functions of the area councils to organise the people in their areas with relevant stakeholders to discuss development issues and make suggestions to the assembly.
The participants were taken through the formulation and preparation of community action plans, area action plans, project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, resource identification for development, record keeping, team building, among others.
The District Chief Executive for Shama, Ms Emelia Arthur, who made the call at a training programme organised for the unit committee and council members, said area council members played an important role in the country’s decentralisation process.
She said without them, the assembly would not effectively liaise with people in the electoral areas.
The assembly, she said, needed active unit committee and area council members to ensure that people in the communities were always updated on what the assembly was doing.
She said the training was to ensure that council members acquainted themselves with their roles and responsibilities.
The DCE said under the Local Government Act 1993 (Act 462) and Legislative Instrument (LI) 1614, district assemblies were required to initiate and implement their programmes through the area councils.
That, she said, would enable the councils to play watchful roles and serve as mini governments at the local level.
Ms Arthur, therefore, asked the members to be alive to their responsibilities to keep records of all rateable persons and properties, as well as assist the assembly to collect more revenue.
The DCE noted that an important area of the unit committee system was the monitoring and inspection of government projects in communities to ensure accountability and transparency.
The committees and the area councils also had the powers to take lawful steps to abate any nuisance to ensure that the right things were done.
“I want you to know that the non-function of the area councils had adversely affected the effective delivery of the assembly to the extent of denying the people access to participate in decisions that affect their own lives,” she added.
She said it was, therefore, important to reverse the unfortunate situation through collaboration with the relevant stakeholders when the unit committee and area council members were successfully inaugurated.
The District Planning Officer, Mr Isaac B. Ankomah, said the training programme was very important, as most of the members were not aware of the powers they had.
Development issues, he said, needed to be discussed and the people in the communities made aware of what was happening at the assembly level.
He said it was within the functions of the area councils to organise the people in their areas with relevant stakeholders to discuss development issues and make suggestions to the assembly.
The participants were taken through the formulation and preparation of community action plans, area action plans, project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, resource identification for development, record keeping, team building, among others.
HALF ASSINI SHS IN DEPLORABLE STATE (PAGE 35, JAN 14, 2010)
Facilities at the Half-Assini Senior High School in the Jomoro District in the Western Region, have become a death trap and unsuitable for academic work.
The school was established in 1960 with less than 60 students, and the student population now is more than 1,000, but there has not been any additional infrastructure neither have any rehabilitation works taken place there.
Currently, only the Administration and Science blocks are in good shape.
The school, which was selected for development into a model one, is yet to see its facilities upgraded to that status.
The assembly hall, which is used for entertainment and other school functions, can collapse at anytime if no urgent measures are taken to save the situation.
The ceiling of the hall of the 50-year-old structure has fallen off, the roof leaks and the electric cables are dangerously exposed.
The school looks like an abandoned premises even though some of its facilities are still in use.
The girls’ dormitory, which was designed to take 15 girls and their belongings, is currently accommodating about 90 girls.
Some of them do not have access to beds, and therefore sleep on their student mattresses which they place on the floor.
The Arts theatre has been converted into a classroom, and the furniture in the classrooms are so closely packed that there is little space for the students to move about.
This is as a result of the increase in the intake of the students without the corresponding expansion in infrastructure.
At the moment, the top floor of one of the boy’s dormitories is being used as a classroom for first year students.
It is a long hall that has been partitioned with plywood but without windows and so whenever it rains or the sun is too hot, academic work is either suspended or the students have to shift to where they can reduce the discomfort.
Most endowed schools have a good library, a sick bay and toilet facilities, but HASCO has none of such facilities.
If a student is sick at night, he or she has to be rushed to the government facility, which is a distance from the school. Sadly enough the road to the school is also very bad.
According to the headmaster of the school, Mr Kojo Egya, it was only the hand of God that had prevented any disaster during functions at the assembly hall.
At present, the pressing needs of students are classrooms, a well equipped library and good furniture to enhance their academic work.
In spite of all these difficulties, the students are said to be disciplined and perform well in final examinations.
The school was established in 1960 with less than 60 students, and the student population now is more than 1,000, but there has not been any additional infrastructure neither have any rehabilitation works taken place there.
Currently, only the Administration and Science blocks are in good shape.
The school, which was selected for development into a model one, is yet to see its facilities upgraded to that status.
The assembly hall, which is used for entertainment and other school functions, can collapse at anytime if no urgent measures are taken to save the situation.
The ceiling of the hall of the 50-year-old structure has fallen off, the roof leaks and the electric cables are dangerously exposed.
The school looks like an abandoned premises even though some of its facilities are still in use.
The girls’ dormitory, which was designed to take 15 girls and their belongings, is currently accommodating about 90 girls.
Some of them do not have access to beds, and therefore sleep on their student mattresses which they place on the floor.
The Arts theatre has been converted into a classroom, and the furniture in the classrooms are so closely packed that there is little space for the students to move about.
This is as a result of the increase in the intake of the students without the corresponding expansion in infrastructure.
At the moment, the top floor of one of the boy’s dormitories is being used as a classroom for first year students.
It is a long hall that has been partitioned with plywood but without windows and so whenever it rains or the sun is too hot, academic work is either suspended or the students have to shift to where they can reduce the discomfort.
Most endowed schools have a good library, a sick bay and toilet facilities, but HASCO has none of such facilities.
If a student is sick at night, he or she has to be rushed to the government facility, which is a distance from the school. Sadly enough the road to the school is also very bad.
According to the headmaster of the school, Mr Kojo Egya, it was only the hand of God that had prevented any disaster during functions at the assembly hall.
At present, the pressing needs of students are classrooms, a well equipped library and good furniture to enhance their academic work.
In spite of all these difficulties, the students are said to be disciplined and perform well in final examinations.
STORAGE FACILTY EASES STORAGE AT TDI PORT (PAGE 20, JAN 12)
THE Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) has constructed a new cocoa storage facility to help improve the storage and haulage of cocoa in the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi.
The facility has reduced the turnaround time of cargo vessels and enhanced the fumigation of cocoa beans for onward shipment to the international market.
The 120,000-tonne capacity warehouse also has space for more than 80 haulage trucks at a time, a canteen, weighing bridge, security, electricity, water supply, garages for auto mechanics, vulcanising shop, a hostel and other social amenities that would make life comfortable for the drivers of the haulage trucks.
The CMC officials say they can now load the bags of cocoa onto containers from the warehouse straight to the ship and thereby decongest the port and limit the time cargo vessels spend at the port.
According to the Regional Co-ordinator, Mr Samuel Oduro-Asare, who conducted the media round the facility at Apowa, apart from the cocoa produced in the Western Region, the facility also takes care of the produce from the Central and Ashanti regions.
At the moment, about 90 per cent of cocoa meant for export is packed at the warehouse under the watchful eyes of customs and other officials of relevant institutions.
The coordinator said under the new arrangements, when the trucks arrive from upcountry, the CMC takes over the waybills and issues parking chits to the drivers after being processed to await their turn to offload their cargo into the warehouse.
“Before the facility was provided, it took us days to process a tonne of cocoa, but the facility has made the job so easy, thereby making the well-handled Ghana cocoa more competitive in the international market,” he said.
Mr Oduro-Asare said one of the main focuses of the company was to ensure that cocoa was handled in a manner that could generate more demand for the country’s produce.
He said the Quality Control Unit of the company applied the best fumigation methods and other forms of handling that ensures quality, created safety and provided the enabling environment for hundreds of people who have found employment at the facility, including the drivers.
Mr Oduro-Asare said prior to the building of the facility, cocoa trucks also parked anywhere in the metropolis, which, in many cases, resulted in accidents while drivers slept in the streets.
He said it was important to acknowledge that cocoa was the lifeblood of the country’s economy, and, therefore, needed to be handled well for shipment.
“I am personally happy with the fact that after the removal of the trucks from the streets of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis, the constant reports of collision and crashes have ceased.
“That aside, it has also created hundreds of jobs for people, including women who sell cooked food, causal workers and drivers,” he said.
The facility has reduced the turnaround time of cargo vessels and enhanced the fumigation of cocoa beans for onward shipment to the international market.
The 120,000-tonne capacity warehouse also has space for more than 80 haulage trucks at a time, a canteen, weighing bridge, security, electricity, water supply, garages for auto mechanics, vulcanising shop, a hostel and other social amenities that would make life comfortable for the drivers of the haulage trucks.
The CMC officials say they can now load the bags of cocoa onto containers from the warehouse straight to the ship and thereby decongest the port and limit the time cargo vessels spend at the port.
According to the Regional Co-ordinator, Mr Samuel Oduro-Asare, who conducted the media round the facility at Apowa, apart from the cocoa produced in the Western Region, the facility also takes care of the produce from the Central and Ashanti regions.
At the moment, about 90 per cent of cocoa meant for export is packed at the warehouse under the watchful eyes of customs and other officials of relevant institutions.
The coordinator said under the new arrangements, when the trucks arrive from upcountry, the CMC takes over the waybills and issues parking chits to the drivers after being processed to await their turn to offload their cargo into the warehouse.
“Before the facility was provided, it took us days to process a tonne of cocoa, but the facility has made the job so easy, thereby making the well-handled Ghana cocoa more competitive in the international market,” he said.
Mr Oduro-Asare said one of the main focuses of the company was to ensure that cocoa was handled in a manner that could generate more demand for the country’s produce.
He said the Quality Control Unit of the company applied the best fumigation methods and other forms of handling that ensures quality, created safety and provided the enabling environment for hundreds of people who have found employment at the facility, including the drivers.
Mr Oduro-Asare said prior to the building of the facility, cocoa trucks also parked anywhere in the metropolis, which, in many cases, resulted in accidents while drivers slept in the streets.
He said it was important to acknowledge that cocoa was the lifeblood of the country’s economy, and, therefore, needed to be handled well for shipment.
“I am personally happy with the fact that after the removal of the trucks from the streets of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis, the constant reports of collision and crashes have ceased.
“That aside, it has also created hundreds of jobs for people, including women who sell cooked food, causal workers and drivers,” he said.
EDUCATION, HEALTH FACILITIES LACK QUALIFIES PERSONNEL (PAGE 20, JAN 12, 2010)
Most educational and health facilities in various districts in the Western Region, especially the Aowin Suaman District, lack teachers and nurses.
Some districts are so deprived that some health and educational professionals consider posting to these communities as a punishment when they assess the comfort their colleagues enjoy elsewhere, particularly in the cities.
However, the Aowin Suaman District Chief Executive, Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, has vowed to reverse the trend by offering opportunities to qualified citizens to be trained with sponsership from the assembly.
The DCE made this known when he toured various communities and said “students who have passed their Mathematics, General Science and English Language and were interested in those professions should not hesitate to apply for sponsorship”.
Various communities in the districts lack access roads, electricity, water, decent accommodation, transportation and other poor social infrastructure such as telephone reception.
Members of the deprived communities, especially women and children, thirst for quality education and healthcare services.
These communities produce the country’s chunk of cocoa, timber, gold, bauxite and manganese, as well as foodstuffs, to feed the well-endowed minority in the cities and towns.
Pregnant women in some of these communities die on their way to health facilities, their children have to walk miles across weak bridges and streams before getting to school.
In some of the communities, the people have to walk more than seven hours to access education and health care services.
Children in the deprived communities are used to seeing people waking up in the morning and going to farm instead of school, as it pertains in the cities.
The DCE said since it was difficult to get the professionals to work in the district, it was best for the assembly to train its own professionals.
Mr Larbi said the people from the area were the last hope of the people, and therefore, “if the assembly trains them, they are expected to come back to serve their people. The assembly will counsel the beneficiaries on the need to return to their communities to serve their people,” he said.
He said it was important to let those who would be interested in the package to know that the district would need them after their training.
The DCE said many of these young people qualified for further studies and training but due to financial constraints, they were not able to take advantage of existing opportunities for self-development.
Mr Larbi expressed the hope that chiefs, parents and other stakeholders in the district would take advantage of the offer.
When contacted, the Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Linda Vanotoo, acknowledged the problem and said it was the case everywhere but were doing everything possible to save the situation.
Some districts are so deprived that some health and educational professionals consider posting to these communities as a punishment when they assess the comfort their colleagues enjoy elsewhere, particularly in the cities.
However, the Aowin Suaman District Chief Executive, Mr Oscar Ofori Larbi, has vowed to reverse the trend by offering opportunities to qualified citizens to be trained with sponsership from the assembly.
The DCE made this known when he toured various communities and said “students who have passed their Mathematics, General Science and English Language and were interested in those professions should not hesitate to apply for sponsorship”.
Various communities in the districts lack access roads, electricity, water, decent accommodation, transportation and other poor social infrastructure such as telephone reception.
Members of the deprived communities, especially women and children, thirst for quality education and healthcare services.
These communities produce the country’s chunk of cocoa, timber, gold, bauxite and manganese, as well as foodstuffs, to feed the well-endowed minority in the cities and towns.
Pregnant women in some of these communities die on their way to health facilities, their children have to walk miles across weak bridges and streams before getting to school.
In some of the communities, the people have to walk more than seven hours to access education and health care services.
Children in the deprived communities are used to seeing people waking up in the morning and going to farm instead of school, as it pertains in the cities.
The DCE said since it was difficult to get the professionals to work in the district, it was best for the assembly to train its own professionals.
Mr Larbi said the people from the area were the last hope of the people, and therefore, “if the assembly trains them, they are expected to come back to serve their people. The assembly will counsel the beneficiaries on the need to return to their communities to serve their people,” he said.
He said it was important to let those who would be interested in the package to know that the district would need them after their training.
The DCE said many of these young people qualified for further studies and training but due to financial constraints, they were not able to take advantage of existing opportunities for self-development.
Mr Larbi expressed the hope that chiefs, parents and other stakeholders in the district would take advantage of the offer.
When contacted, the Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Linda Vanotoo, acknowledged the problem and said it was the case everywhere but were doing everything possible to save the situation.
JOMORO DISTRICT MAKES GAINS IN REVENUE MOBILISATION (PAGE 20, JAN 12, 2010)
THE Jomoro District Assembly has registered positive gains in its revenue mobilisation drive.
Last year, the assembly collected GH¢190,546 from January to October 2009, representing 83 per cent of its set target for the year.
The assembly said the amount collected was able to finance about 81 per cent of its expenditure and called on all to ensure that they worked hard to ensure that more revenue was generated to meet future development needs.
The Jomoro District Chief Executive, Mr Victor Nyanyi Kablan, announced this at the last general meeting of the assembly and said the assembly had made strides in its income generation and expenditure.
He said in future the assembly would ensure the generation of enough revenue to meet the needs of the communities within its jurisdiction.
He said the massive deduction made from the assembly’s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) made it impossible for it to depend solely on the DACF and so required strenuous efforts to generate more revenue internally to meet its expenditure targets.
“As of now, the assembly has not received its third and fourth quarter allocations of the DACF. The late release of the funds affects our development plans,” he said.
Mr Kablan stressed ,however, that the situation would not prevent the assembly from meeting the needs of people.
The DCE said the assembly had generated a comprehensive revenue data to help in revenue mobilisation.
He said the data would not only help in setting realistic targets but also boost actual revenue collection and help to plug some of the loopholes in the system.
Last year, the assembly collected GH¢190,546 from January to October 2009, representing 83 per cent of its set target for the year.
The assembly said the amount collected was able to finance about 81 per cent of its expenditure and called on all to ensure that they worked hard to ensure that more revenue was generated to meet future development needs.
The Jomoro District Chief Executive, Mr Victor Nyanyi Kablan, announced this at the last general meeting of the assembly and said the assembly had made strides in its income generation and expenditure.
He said in future the assembly would ensure the generation of enough revenue to meet the needs of the communities within its jurisdiction.
He said the massive deduction made from the assembly’s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) made it impossible for it to depend solely on the DACF and so required strenuous efforts to generate more revenue internally to meet its expenditure targets.
“As of now, the assembly has not received its third and fourth quarter allocations of the DACF. The late release of the funds affects our development plans,” he said.
Mr Kablan stressed ,however, that the situation would not prevent the assembly from meeting the needs of people.
The DCE said the assembly had generated a comprehensive revenue data to help in revenue mobilisation.
He said the data would not only help in setting realistic targets but also boost actual revenue collection and help to plug some of the loopholes in the system.
ELLEMBELLE TAKES STEPS TO CHECK FLOODING (PAGE 20, JAN 12, 2010)
THE Ellembelle District is one of the worst affected districts in the Western Region so far as flooding is concerned. In view of this, it has adopted proactive measures to ensure that the people do not suffer undue hardship during the next rainy season.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, and his team have started a tour of the 13 communities within the district to educate the people and seek their opinions on the way forward before the rains set in.
The assembly is also in the process of securing a grader to improve the roads that were affected in the last floods and also provide drains for the anticipated heavy flood waters and the run-off.
Mr Eshun said last year’s rains traumatised the people, halted economic activities for months and destroyed property and farm produce worth thousands of Ghana Cedis.
“It is just right that before the Government advertises for bids, the assembly has decided to start work on some of the badly affected areas,” the DCE.
He said due to the nature of the roads, cocoa farmers at Aiyinase North had to go through a lot of difficulty to get their produce to the buying centres.
Given the current state of the roads, he said, the people of Aiyinase had to travel through Tarkwa and Asankragwa for about eight hours to get to the district capital.
This, he said, did not augur well for the development of the district and must be reversed through self-help and governmental support.
Mr Eshun said the Aiyinase-Nyamebekyere-Asomase roads were very important for people in those areas and that “when constructed, it could take the inhabitants less than two hours to get to Aiyinase North. It would also facilitate the carting of produce to the buying centres in the district to enable the district to earn revenue”.
At New Adiembra, the people said their main concern was the road and appealed to the government, through the assembly, to solve their problem. They described the current situation as sad, since they had been cut off from the rest of the country.
The bad nature of the road, according the people, also prevented agricultural extension officers from visiting and educating them on modern farming practices.
The three-day tour also took the DCE and his team, made up of the district engineer, town and country planning, agricultural and education officers and some members of the assembly, to New Adiembra, Ananekrom, Dadwen, Kroboline, Asomase, Bonsukrom and Basake.
Other places visited include Kwasikrom, Adjeikrom, Santaso, Mondumgbane, Aidoo Suazo and Ewerekosuazo.
The District Chief Executive, Mr Daniel K. Eshun, and his team have started a tour of the 13 communities within the district to educate the people and seek their opinions on the way forward before the rains set in.
The assembly is also in the process of securing a grader to improve the roads that were affected in the last floods and also provide drains for the anticipated heavy flood waters and the run-off.
Mr Eshun said last year’s rains traumatised the people, halted economic activities for months and destroyed property and farm produce worth thousands of Ghana Cedis.
“It is just right that before the Government advertises for bids, the assembly has decided to start work on some of the badly affected areas,” the DCE.
He said due to the nature of the roads, cocoa farmers at Aiyinase North had to go through a lot of difficulty to get their produce to the buying centres.
Given the current state of the roads, he said, the people of Aiyinase had to travel through Tarkwa and Asankragwa for about eight hours to get to the district capital.
This, he said, did not augur well for the development of the district and must be reversed through self-help and governmental support.
Mr Eshun said the Aiyinase-Nyamebekyere-Asomase roads were very important for people in those areas and that “when constructed, it could take the inhabitants less than two hours to get to Aiyinase North. It would also facilitate the carting of produce to the buying centres in the district to enable the district to earn revenue”.
At New Adiembra, the people said their main concern was the road and appealed to the government, through the assembly, to solve their problem. They described the current situation as sad, since they had been cut off from the rest of the country.
The bad nature of the road, according the people, also prevented agricultural extension officers from visiting and educating them on modern farming practices.
The three-day tour also took the DCE and his team, made up of the district engineer, town and country planning, agricultural and education officers and some members of the assembly, to New Adiembra, Ananekrom, Dadwen, Kroboline, Asomase, Bonsukrom and Basake.
Other places visited include Kwasikrom, Adjeikrom, Santaso, Mondumgbane, Aidoo Suazo and Ewerekosuazo.
ELLEBELLE MP GIVES TO CHILDREN (PAGE 14, JAN 9, 2010)
The Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has organised a party and presented Christmas gifts to thousands of children in more than 40 communities in the constituency.
The move, which was the maiden edition of an annual children’s programme instituted by the MP, dubbed “Help the child with a toy, build the future with joy”, was to whip up the interest of the children in education.
The items, which included toys, Teddy Bears, bicycles and other educational materials, were distributed to all communities in the constituency.
He said the future of the country would only be secured if children were encouraged to take their education seriously.
“My main aim of organising this programme is to empower, inspire and motivate the children of my constituency as part of the Better Ghana agenda of our government”.
“If these children are happy, the future of this country will obviously look more brighter as the children are the future of the country," he said.
He said from time to time, he would be visiting schools to ensure that the children had a feel of his presence and to encourage them to aspire for higher ground than him.
Mr Buah, who is also a Deputy Minister for Energy, urged parents to ensure that they invested in the education of their children.
He said “those in the helm of affairs today would do their best to transform the country and its constituencies purely based on the needs of today, but the future lies in the hands of the children”.
The MP said “we will fail them if we ignore their educational needs today”, adding, “Irrespective of biological relations to these children, we have to ensure that they get the best of parental care, quality education, good health and discipline,”
He said about GH¢40,000 of his share of the Common Fund had been directed to the health sector to support the district health programmes to tackle the major debilitating diseases that his people had over the years been confronted with.
In the field of education, Mr Kofi-Buah said his office was still open to all his constituents for suggestions, solutions and information on the development of the sector, which he described as the pillar to the development process of the area.
That aside, several scholarships had also been offered to needy brilliant students in the constituency from the basic level through to the tertiary level.
The parents expressed their gratitude to the MP for the support and promised to ensure that the children were encouraged to take their studies seriously.
They urged him to continue to be humble and to make himself available to them.
The move, which was the maiden edition of an annual children’s programme instituted by the MP, dubbed “Help the child with a toy, build the future with joy”, was to whip up the interest of the children in education.
The items, which included toys, Teddy Bears, bicycles and other educational materials, were distributed to all communities in the constituency.
He said the future of the country would only be secured if children were encouraged to take their education seriously.
“My main aim of organising this programme is to empower, inspire and motivate the children of my constituency as part of the Better Ghana agenda of our government”.
“If these children are happy, the future of this country will obviously look more brighter as the children are the future of the country," he said.
He said from time to time, he would be visiting schools to ensure that the children had a feel of his presence and to encourage them to aspire for higher ground than him.
Mr Buah, who is also a Deputy Minister for Energy, urged parents to ensure that they invested in the education of their children.
He said “those in the helm of affairs today would do their best to transform the country and its constituencies purely based on the needs of today, but the future lies in the hands of the children”.
The MP said “we will fail them if we ignore their educational needs today”, adding, “Irrespective of biological relations to these children, we have to ensure that they get the best of parental care, quality education, good health and discipline,”
He said about GH¢40,000 of his share of the Common Fund had been directed to the health sector to support the district health programmes to tackle the major debilitating diseases that his people had over the years been confronted with.
In the field of education, Mr Kofi-Buah said his office was still open to all his constituents for suggestions, solutions and information on the development of the sector, which he described as the pillar to the development process of the area.
That aside, several scholarships had also been offered to needy brilliant students in the constituency from the basic level through to the tertiary level.
The parents expressed their gratitude to the MP for the support and promised to ensure that the children were encouraged to take their studies seriously.
They urged him to continue to be humble and to make himself available to them.
Monday, February 22, 2010
SUSPENDED CABLE THIEF ELECTROCUTED (BACK PAGE, JAN 8, 2010)
A young man was last Wednesday electrocuted at Inchaban in the Shama District, when he attempted stealing high tension overhead electrical cables carrying 11,000 volts.
The alleged thief was found dead with a huge cutter beside him in the bush behind the Inchaban Police Checkpoint.
When the news team got to the scene of the incident, the young man, who is yet to be identified, had placed a long ladder against one of the poles and successfully cut the cable.
According to the engineers, it was clear that after cutting the cable, the thief was not able to collect them before the system restored itself, thereby killing him instantly.
According to the Regional Engineer of the company, Mr Dan Acquah-Larbi, customers in the affected areas had been in darkness for about a day.
He said the activities of these cable thieves did not only affect the company financially, but also slowed the wheels of industry and created social discomfort.
Explaining how the thieves operate, he said they faulted the lines by throwing wire on the overhead cables to form ‘bridge’.
“If that happens, the system will trip and the lines go off to protect itself”. He said by the time the system could be restored, the thieves would have cut the cables and carried them away.
He said in the case of the young man who was electrocuted, it was likely he was not able to cut the cables before the system restored itself, thereby killing him instantly.
He said considering the implements and weight of the ladder that was used, it was clear that there were others with him and that they might have bolted after realising that their colleague was dead.
Mr Acquah-Larbi urged members of the public to volunteer information on the operations of such people.
The regional engineer reminded the public that the lines carried more than 11,000 volts and should not be tampered with.
The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital morgue pending identification and autopsy.
The alleged thief was found dead with a huge cutter beside him in the bush behind the Inchaban Police Checkpoint.
When the news team got to the scene of the incident, the young man, who is yet to be identified, had placed a long ladder against one of the poles and successfully cut the cable.
According to the engineers, it was clear that after cutting the cable, the thief was not able to collect them before the system restored itself, thereby killing him instantly.
According to the Regional Engineer of the company, Mr Dan Acquah-Larbi, customers in the affected areas had been in darkness for about a day.
He said the activities of these cable thieves did not only affect the company financially, but also slowed the wheels of industry and created social discomfort.
Explaining how the thieves operate, he said they faulted the lines by throwing wire on the overhead cables to form ‘bridge’.
“If that happens, the system will trip and the lines go off to protect itself”. He said by the time the system could be restored, the thieves would have cut the cables and carried them away.
He said in the case of the young man who was electrocuted, it was likely he was not able to cut the cables before the system restored itself, thereby killing him instantly.
He said considering the implements and weight of the ladder that was used, it was clear that there were others with him and that they might have bolted after realising that their colleague was dead.
Mr Acquah-Larbi urged members of the public to volunteer information on the operations of such people.
The regional engineer reminded the public that the lines carried more than 11,000 volts and should not be tampered with.
The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital morgue pending identification and autopsy.
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