Journalists implored to be circumspect in reportage

THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on journalists to be circumspect in their reportage and presentations to keep the nation united as it cruises towards the 2012 general election.

He reminded journalists and the media houses of their role as gatekeepers and advised them to filter statements made by politicians which were likely to inflame passions and cause disaffection among the people.

Making the call at a soiree for media practitioners in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Mahama said although the media had made remarkable progress in content and technology over the last two decades, it behoved practitioners to ensure their democratic pursuits were devoid of acts that might heighten political tensions in the country.

The programme, which was organised by the Ministry of Information, was attended by ministers of state and senior journalists from both the print and electronic media.

“People would make extremely unpleasant statements that could create problems, but you as practitioners ought to let the people know that governments would come and go, but Ghana would remain,” Mr Mahama said.

The Vice-President said the digital terrestial migration process currently underway might even see more proliferation of radio and television stations, thus increasing competition on the media landscape.

Mr Mahama expressed regret at the continued low educational competence of some practitioners, saying “the media profession is so tied to human rights that, it has made it impossible to enforce stringent regulations against persons who claimed to be practitioners, because it is a profession that is based on freedom of expression, which in itself is a basic human rights requirement”.

Media owners and operators, he said, had taken advantage of the situation by engaging less qualified people as a cost-cutting measure, in the belief that “the less qualified the person, the less you can pay him”.

That, he said, informed the government’s decision to set up the media fund to help build capacity of trained and untrained practitioners meant to aid professionalism.
Mr Mahama announced that the composition of an independent Board of Trustees (BOT) was underway with an accompanying legislation to supervise the disbursement of the fund.

While commending practitioners for continually being an ally of government in spite of their political persuasions, Mr Mahama charged them to even monitor the government appropriately by engaging officials in useful measures in the ensuing year.

He expressed the hope that the 2012 general election would be a successful one and counted on the media to make sure the feat was achievable.

The Vice-President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Affail Monney, said the media, to a large extent, had lived up to the task by contributing to the growth of the country’s democracy.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, who described 2011 as an eventful year for the media in the dissemination of government policies and programmes, also called for accurate reportage of information as Ghana continued to lead as pacesetters of democracy on the continent.

SOURCE: Mary Mensah & Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Fri Dec 23, 2011

GCGL WILL REMAIN LEADING NEWSPAPER HOUSE - ASHIGBEY

THE Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ken Ashigbey, has expressed the commitment of the company to entrench its position as the leading newspaper house in the country.

He also reiterated the resolve of the company to explore the West African market in the short to medium term to reflect its vision.

He, therefore, advised the members of staff of the company to strive for excellence in the pursuit of that dream.

Addressing a staff durbar in Accra yesterday, Mr Ashigbey said the GCGL was expected to play the lead role in the provision of first-hand, timely, accurate and reliable information for the Ghanaian populace in 2012, being especially an election year.

Mr Ashigbey reminded the workers that the vision of the company was to be the biggest, most influential and reliable multi-media organisation in the West African sub-region and, therefore, urged them to work harder to attain that goal.

He indicated that management was aware of the challenges faced by the company and which required sacrifice on the part of workers to ensure that its titles maintained their leading role on the market.

Mr Ashigbey said the challenges were over and assured the workers that they would never happen again.

He underscored the need for the management and the leadership of the union to work together and ensure that the GCGL provided very high quality products and services.
The managing director also called on the government to give the company a reprieve whenever there were challenges.

He gave the assurance that he would pursue an open-door policy and called on the workers to offer pieces of advice as and when necessary.

An executive member of the union, Mr Charles Benoni Okine, who read a speech on behalf of the union, said the union was grateful that management had listened to the views of workers and complied to its decision to give staff a token for the Yuletide, bearing in mind the suspension of the 13th-month salary.

He expressed concern over the structural defects in the new press house building which, he said, had developed serious cracks in some areas.

Performance awards were given to 19 members of staff drawn from the various departments and the regions for distinguishing themselves in their various disciplines, while journalists who also distinguished themselves in their various disciplines and were honoured by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) were also honoured at the durbar.

SOURCE: Mary Mensah & Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Thur Dec 22, 2011

HUNDRED YOUTH ACQUIRE SKILLS

ONE hundred youth engaged under the National Youth Authority’s (NYA)’s range poultry project have graduated after undergoing a four-week intensive training in free range broiler poultry production.

The youth, drawn from the 10 regions, also underwent tutorials in housing management, disease and pest control and marketing at the Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institute at Afienya in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region.

According to the National Co-ordinator of the NYA, Ms Sedina Tamakloe-Ationu, the programme, a joint partnership between the NYA and Tycriss Livestock Farms, was targeted at meeting the increasing annual poultry supply deficit.

It was also intended to equip the youth with entrepreneurial skills, while recognising the government’s desire to increase private sector participation in its development agenda.

According to Ms Tamakloe-Ationu, the project was informed by the increasing joblessness and deprivation that had continued to plague the youth across the African continent, with Ghana not being an exception.

That, she said, had become the prime concern expressed by the youth and community leaders who had called for an economic policy focus that could generate employment and assuage the despondency of rural youths.

“It is in this light that the NYA, on refocusing its mandate and service delivery, has chosen to shore up impetus for employment generation, with emphasis on transforming the agricultural sector which has become an area of stagnation among the youth,” she said.

She further explained that the primary focus for the introduction of the project was to raise the status of agriculture as a national priority geared towards overcoming the youth unemployment menace.

Ms Tamakloe-Ationu announced that the NYA intended to extend the project to four regions by the first quarter of 2012, in line with its strategy to achieve the one million-bird target in the next three years.

She gave an indication that the authority was determined to re-engineer the curricula of the Western and Volta Regional Youth Leadership Training centres through the provision of machinery and equipment in order to feed into the oil industry and called for financial support from the public and private sectors towards the achievement of the set goals.

The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, who delivered the keynote address on behalf of the Minister of Youth and Sports, indicated that officials were not oblivious of the consequences of the failure to secure satisfactory employment on completion of school or acquiring skill training.

“The intense frustration, despair and alienation are enough to trigger problems of physical and mental health and may also lead to social ills, including drug and substance abuse, violence, robbery, among others,” Mr Amenowode said.

While lauding the NYA and Tycriss Farms for the initiative, the minister called for collaboration to move beyond training to youth wealth creation in agri-business and its related opportunities.

The Chief Executive Officer of Tycriss Livestock Farms, Mr Nicholas Attiogbe, for his part, noted that his outfit decided to partner the NYA in line with its objective to assist institutions and individuals, with a precise focus on the youth, in poultry production as a means to increase economic activities in the country.

“We believe the partnership provides a valuable opportunity for the youth to be self-sufficient, economically stable and trained in a particular field that can become a main source of employment,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the graduands would go out to create opportunities for themselves from the knowledge and skills acquired from their training.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Dec 20, 2011

AFRICAN GOVERNMENT'S URGED TO PROMOTE INTERNAL TRADE

THE outgoing Resident Representative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Sierra Leone, Dr Samuel Ofori Onwona, has called on African leaders to learn a lesson from the recent positions taken by the United Kingdom and other European nations in the heat of the Euro Zone crisis.

According to him, there was the need for African nations to look within by utilising natural resources in order to maximise developmental benefits.

“It is unacceptable to look outside when trade protocols need to be ratified and ensure they function appropriately as a way of incorporating industrialisation into the continent’s growth,” he said.

Dr Onwona made the call at a business development workshop for exporters on the side lines of the Ghana International Export Fair held in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The 10-day solo exhibition was put together by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA) and the Ghana High Commission in Sierra Leone, with sponsorship from the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF).

According to Dr Onwona, Africa’s failure to identify its own prospects had weakened its growth potential, thereby giving undue advantage to Chinese imports which were virtually collapsing the few industries that were still in operation across the continent.

The Minister of Trade and Industry for Sierra Leone, Dr Richard Konteh, who chaired the function, expressed regret that although Africa produced the chunk of the raw materials the world needed, it continued to depend more on imports from other countries than African countries exchanged among themselves.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Dec 20, 2011

SMALL AND MEDUIM ENTERPRISES ADVISED TO MAKE USE OF FAIRS

THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Kwadwo Owusu Agyemang, has urged small and medium-scale enterprises to take advantage of the authority’s sub-regional export trade fairs to boost the growth of smaller entities into multinational corporations.

He similarly called on the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and stakeholder bodies trading in non-traditional products to partner the authority to effectively advance the frontiers of their businesses across the sub-region as they strove to attain non-traditional exports (NTEs) revenue growth targets by 2015.

According to him, multinational business entities began on a minimal scale and they had stood the test of time in contributing immensely to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the Ghana Business Forum organised by GEPA, under the auspices of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA) in Banjul, The Gambia, Dr Owusu-Agyemang said the participation of smaller businesses would not only go to increase exports from Ghana but also serve as a motivation for job creation and reduce poverty.

“Every economy depends on medium-scale enterprises to advance economic development, thus their participation is key to the attainment of our medium-term strategy,” he said.

Dr Owusu-Agyemang further said the focus on small-scale enterprises was to make sure they fed into bigger ones to facilitate their autonomy.

Citing the example of Bomart Farms, producers and exporters of fresh and dry fruits, he said the company had since grown to become a major supplier to European countries such as Spain and Germany following the exposure gained through participating in international export trade fairs across the sub-region.

The wholly owned Ghanaian company, which he described as being among the leading producers of pineapple and mango fruits, after Golden Exotics, had since diversified its market routes to the West African sub-region.

“The success story of Bomart Farms, Reroy Cables and Kinapharma across Europe and sub-Saharan Africa is what we want to attain with small and medium- scale enterprises working to promote NTEs,” he said.

He paid glowing tribute to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) for the relentless support they had given to export fairs organised by the association and pledged GEPA’s commitment to effectively ensure the fulfilment of its mandate.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Mon Dec 19, 2011

110 COMMUNITIES IN ASHANTI, BRONG AHAFO REGIONS TO GET ELECTRICITY

THE Ministry of Energy has signed a joint agreement with MBH Power and Shreem Electrical Limited for the provision of electricity to 110 communities in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.

The project, estimated to cost $18 million, is expected to increase electricity access rate in the two regions under the government’s Self Help Electrification Programme (SHEP), a complementary programme under the National Electrification Scheme (NES).

The project is expected to be completed within 18 months.

Under the project, a non-congested transmission system would be developed to sustain power generation capacity in the communities.

Similarly, rehabilitation works would be carried out on distribution infrastructure aimed at meeting the 10 per cent projected growth in power demand as part of the government’s medium-term goals.

The Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, signed on behalf of the ministry, while the Managing Director of MBH Power, Mr Bagu Mukhi, initialled for his organisation.
The minister indicated that the project’s objectives were in furtherance to increasing the national average access to 80 per cent by 2015 and universal access by 2020.

“It was for this reason that the government obtained a loan facility to the tune of $30 million from the ECOWAS Bank of Investment and Development (EBID) for the NES, from which the project is being funded,” Dr Oteng-Adjei said.

Similarly, he said, the government would apply the EBID facility to cover cost associated with the project.

While commending the two entities for the professionalism exhibited so far, Dr Oteng-Adjei emphasised that the ministry would not compromise on its effort to incorporate local content into the project, and that informed the government’s decision to include the 30 percentage local content in the agreement.

“We don’t expect you to bring in a ship full of Indians to climb poles, when we have more qualified people here who could as well perform to the task,” he stated.

He warned that the government would not hesitate to recall the company and its people should they engage in acts of derogatory remarks and actions aimed at dehumanising indigenes in the beneficiary communities.

“My advice, therefore, to you as contractors is to ensure that Ghanaians, particularly indigenes in the beneficiary communities, become involved in the execution of the project,” the minister counselled.

The Managing Director of MBH Power, Mr Bagu Mukhi, commended the transparent process in which government officials awarded the project.

He indicated that Ghana had consistently remained the most potential country in Africa that had adequately ensured the integration of the power sector into the country’s economic growth.

While pledging the two companies’ commitment to assiduously work to meet the deadline of the project, Mr Bagu gave an assurance that the contractors would work within the framework of the country’s regulations.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Thur Dec 8, 2011

MECHANICS TAKE OVER AWUDOME CEMETERY

SQUATTERS and mechanics have virtually taken over the frontage of the Awudome Cemetery in Accra, turning it into a place for business activities.

The serenity associated with cemeteries is absent at Awudome as the activities of auto-mechanics, car sprayers, motor cycle repairers have become sources of noise, disturbing the souls of the mortals buried at the place.

Lack of space for business and high rents within Accra are partly responsible for the action of sellers of sachet water, roasted plantain and other basic commodities and food items and mechanics to turn the vast space at the cemetery into other uses.

A visit to the cemetery by the Daily Graphic in Accra today revealed vigorous business activity at the frontage of the cemetery while portions of the the inside looked unkept and overgrown with weeds.

What is more disturbing is that portions of the cemetery have been turned into refuse dumps and heaps of rubbish was mounting along some sections of the walls fencing the facility.

While mechanics and sellers have turned the place into a market, others use the graves as places for relaxation and some criminals use the place a safe haven.

A mechanic, who gave his name only as David said he had been operating at the site for more than a decade since he could not afford exorbitant rent charges at various locations.

According to him although he and others operating from the area had no permit from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), officials often made frequent visits to the place to demand payments from them.

Similarly, people who claimed to be members of the Ga Traditional Council, he said also frequented the place to demand payments between GH¢30 to GH¢100 for occupying the frontage of the cemetry.

Producing a letter to substantiate his claims, David said the Ga Mantse Ankrah Family who had also laid claim to the portion of the cemetery, had tasked the leadership of the operators at the cemetry, to produce documents to validate their stay there or quit the property in seven days.

The Chief Executive of AMA, Mr Alfred Varderpuije, however, said the AMA had issued several quit notices to the squatters and was, therefore, surprise they still occupied the place.

He also denied that the site occupied by the squatters belong to the traditional council and said the assembly would as a matter of urgency moved in to eject them.


SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Tue Dec 6, 2011

CRC WARNS AGAINST SPECULATION OF FINAL REPORT

THE Constitution Review Commission (CRC) has expressed appreciation to the Daily Graphic and all others for the high interest shown in its work.

It has similarly cautioned against unncessary speculation about the content of its final report which is yet to be presented to the President.

A press release signed by the Chairman of CRC, Professor (Emeritus), Albert Kodzo Fiadjoe said “while thanking the Daily Graphic, it must be pointed out that the full report of the commission’s findings would be presented to the President as stipulated in Article 280 of the 1992 Constitution as soon as arrangements are finalised.

“lt is the clear intention of the commission that the full contents of its report would be shared with the people of Ghana in its entirety.

The statement said “the commission hopes and expects that a full dispassionate national discourse may be conducted on its wide-ranging recommendations as a way of deepening national cohesion and concensus on the numerous issues placed before it.

“The commission believes that the nation would benefit from an honest and fair consideration of the report rather than dissipate its energy on speculations at this stage”, it said.


SOURCE: Daily Graphic, Thur Dec 1, 2011

CHIRANO GOLD MINE SACKS WORKERS FOR ILLEGAL DEMONSTRATION

A Number of workers of the African Mining Services (AMS) stationed at the Chiranoo Gold Mine at in the Western Region have been dismissed by the management of the company for demonstrating in solidarity with a dismissed colleague.

The workers embarked on the demonstration when management terminated the appointment of Mr John Etsebah, a siren operator, on November 6, 2011, for sounding a siren to mobilise workers against an earlier decision taken by the leadership of the company.

The company took a decision to offload four other employees to the Golden Star Resources at Bogoso, a relatively new project which was still under development, in an attempt to avoid the payment of their severance packages.

Thirty four of the workers who complied with a directive to sign an undertaking not to embark on similar actions in future have been reinstated. The rest remain dismissed but have been asked to reapply.

The dismissed workers have not been paid any money accruing to them.

Company officials have, however, discounted the claims of the number of people dismissed, saying, “they terminated the appointment of some 190 employees for embarking on an illegal strike in breach of the collective bargaining agreement contracted between the company and the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union (GMWU).

The workers’ trouble began when officials decided to offload about four workers to another mining company which is yet to start operation but failed to pay the workers severance awards as stipulated by the company’s collective bargaining agreement(CBA).

That decision was opposed by a cross section of the workers who expressed their displeasure, and the sounding of the siren by Etsebah was interpreted as a move to mobilise the workers to agitate.

His dismissal angered some of the workforce who expressed their disapproval by demonstrating in solidarity with him.

The management of the company, in a move to deny the four offloaded workers their packages, allegedly issued directives on Oct 31, 2011 transfering them to Golden Star Resources at Bogoso, a relatively new project which is still under development.

The four, according to some workers who spoke to the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity, however, opted to be made redundant in accordance with the CBA between the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) of the Trades Union Congress ( TUC) and the AMS.

Clause four of article 12 of the collective bargaining agreement states that “an employee being considered for reassignment as a consequence of a reduction in the number of people performing a particular job function in the operation of the company, that employee may choose to either accept the reassignment or be made redundant”.

Management has since withheld the salaries of the four transferred employees and has also deleted their names from the employee list for failing to comply with the transfer notice.

The dismissed workers have also accused company officials of gross disrespect, abuse of human rights, and racism against the workforce.

According to them, inhumane treatment of workers had led to a douzer operator suffering from severe injuries as a result of his falling into a pit.

The injured employee, Mr Paul Gregory Coffie , it is alleged, has been crippled by the accident and has since remained bedridden since he could not afford GH¢6,000 being demanded for surgical operations on his spinal cord which was badly affected as a result of the accident with management saying they could only reimburse him after he had treated himself and provided receipts to justify his claims.

In like manner, they claimed a machine operator, Mr Samuel Owusu Antwi, also suffered a grease injection injury in December 2010, resulting from high accumulation of pressure on the grease pump and was also recuperating at home, since he could not afford payment for an operation to remove the grease from his veins.

The operations manager of the AMS, Mr Eric Paddy, when contacted declined to comment on the issues raised and referred this reporter to the general manager of the company, Mr John Kavanagh, who similarly declined to comment on the issue.

However, he said in a press statement sent to the Daily Graphic that the termination of the appointment of the 190 workers was firmly grounded on the laws of Ghana.

The release said to the knowledge of the GMWU, AMS was offering to re-employ workers who wished to return to work and abide by the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

It further indicated that some 120 employees who had chosen to return to work with the company would be re-employed in accordance with the company’s contract code.

Mr Kavanagh gave the assurance that the AMS would continue to collaborate with the GMWU as the recognised representative of the employees to ensure workplace harmony through the fair and reasonable application of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement and the laws of Ghana.


SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Tue Dec 6, 2011

ENERGY MINISTRY, JICA SIGNS MOU ON SOLAR SYSTEMS

THE Ministry of Energy and the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to effectively accelerate rural electrification with the use of photovoltaics (PV) solar systems as part of the ministry’s renewable energy programme.

Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct electrical current using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect.

It employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing photovoltaic materials in power generation.

The Chief Representative of JICA, Mr Jiro Inamura, initialled the MoU for his agency, while the Director of Renewable Energy at the Ministry of Energy, Mr Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, signed for the ministry.

The signing of the MoU formed part of the implementation of a human resource development programme for disseminating solar PVs in the country.

At the ceremony, JICA also handed over training materials for the dissemination process to the ministry.

The implementation process, which began in February 2008, has seen the Energy Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Tamale Polytechnic being provided with basic teaching equipment for testing and certification of solar PV components.

Stakeholder institutions, such as the Energy Commission, the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), the Koforidua Polytechnic and some selected district assemblies, have all benefited from the project.

Speaking at a capacity workshop to herald the MoU, Mr Inamura indicated that the co-operation and relationship among stakeholder institutions had impacted fruitfully on the project since its inception.

He indicated that 24 districts in the country had so far benefited from the project, which began on a pilot basis, with selected people in beneficiary communities being introduced to business schemes as a way for ensuring an overall maintenance of the solar PV systems.

Mr Inamura called on beneficiary communities to better maintain the systems using business modules as a way of elongating their lifespan.

He also charged the ministry to intensify its monitoring over performance of the sites and expressed the hope that beneficiaries would effectively make strides in contributing to a successful PV industry in the country.

Mr Ahiataku-Togobo, for his part, indicated that some 36 solar PV agents had been trained nation-wide, in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Solar Industries(AGSI), to consolidate gains in the sector.

According to him, the training materials presented by JICA were, therefore, to complement the ministry’s efforts at building the capacity of students in their field of study.

He announced that communities that were not likely to be connected to the national electricity grid would be provided with the solar PV and other alternative energy sources until such a time when power would be supplied from the national grid .

“The materials will be useful for the PV solar industry, the Energy Commission and the GSB to ensure adherence to regulations and standards in order to minimise the influx of inferior products into the country,” he said.

He gave the assurance that the ministry was committed to ensuring access to modern energy services for every community nation-wide by 2020.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Sat Dec 3, 2011

LOTTO RECEIVERS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST NLA

HUNDREDS of lotto receivers, agents and marketers on Thursday took to the streets of Accra in protest against the National Lottery Authority (NLA) for reducing their commission from 25 to 20 per cent.

The protest, organised by the National Lotto Receivers Union (NLRU), followed the breakdown in negotiations between the union and the authority which has been protracted for several months.

The NLRU, in July this year, declared a nationwide strike to press home its demands on the percentage reduction.

They carried placards with inscriptions such as “Government must listen to lotto receivers”, “Government must act now in the interest of better Ghana”, and “Kojo Andah, after collapsing Ghana Airways and Ashanti Goldfields, is now supervising a virtual collapse of NLA”.

The demonstrators, who marched through some principal streets of Accra, also called for the removal of the Director-General of the NLA, Mr Kojo Andah, and the entire board of directors for what they described as attempts to run down the lotto industry.

The three-hour demonstration, led by the National Chairman of the NLRU, Mr Daniel Mensah, and other executives, saw some regional executives from the Eastern, Volta and Central regions participating.

Among other things, the union sought government’s assistance to coerce the NLA management to stop the undue delay in the payment of winnings to the general public which had seen members of the public looking on receivers with contempt.

Similarly, the leadership said the new PADPM machines introduced by the NLA as a way of phasing out the manual system of lotto writing had worsened the plight of members, as the machines, apart from the unreasonable monthly deductions made on their GPRS account which were never refunded, also experienced daily network breakdowns, particularly at weekends when the lotto business reached its peak.

The situation, they said, had seen members posting huge losses.

They also accused the NLA of disclaiming the NLRU, while compelling newly applied receivers to sign an undertaking to accept lower commissions.

At the Finance Ministry, where the leadership of the NLRU presented a petition to the Finance Minister, which was received by the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Enoch Cobbinah, the National Secretary of the union, Mr Kofi Frimpong, told officials that the NLA had imported some 10,000 substandard lottery terminals through sole sourcing, in contravention of the Public Procurement Law, at a cost of eight million euros and tasked officials to investigate the claims and bring to book the director-general and his operations manager.

The machines, which he described as irreparable, had ceased to function since October this year, a few months after they had been imported.

He further said the NLA management, in an attempt to break the front of the union, had disconnected electricity supply to the union offices and locked up lavatories, thereby forcing members of both sexes to resort to the use of a cabin plastic mobile lavatory.

The action, he said, came on the heels of the NLA’s recent claims that it had no symbolic labour relationship with the NLRU, despite the union having been certified and licensed as a lotto marketing company (LMC) and making it the biggest marketer of the NLA’s products.

The protestors later converged on the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park, where a Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Alex Segbefia, received their petition on behalf of the government.

He told the demonstrators that since the protest had been carried out on a legitimate basis, the government would, as a matter of urgency, take appropriate actions to resolve the impasse between the NLA and the NLRU.

He urged the leadership of the union to exercise restraint while the government addressed its concerns.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Fri Dec 2, 2011

OKYENHENE SPEAKS AT LAST

THE Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II, has publicly denied his involvement in illegal mining within the Akyem Abuakwa area.

According to him, recent allegations by a member of the Asona Royal Family were born out of parochial interest.

“I do not think anyone can refuse me if I want to go into mining, so why do I have to hide and steal my own property?” he queried.

The Okyenhene recently came under attack from Odehye Nana Kwame Adjei Boateng of the Asona Royal Family, who publicly accused the Okyenhene of clandestinely sponsoring the operations of illegal miners in his jurisdiction.

The accusation saw the Okyeman Council imposing a fine of 72 sheep and 36 crates of Schnapps on Odehye Boateng after he had failed to appear before the council to substantiate the allegations.

However, in a counter move, Odehye Boateng stormed the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi last Saturday to slaughter a sheep to signify the Okyenhene’s destoolment.

Speaking publicly for the first time on the issue at the first annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) conference in Accra Wednesday, the Okyenhene blamed the security agencies and the judiciary for the escalating illegal mining in his jurisdiction.

“When I personally led a team of security personnel to arrest some 60 people for illegally mining in the area which had vastly contributed to the destruction of farm lands, the environment and water bodies, lack of the interest in the case by investigators and prosecutors saw the people being released without any charges, thus paving way for continuous illegal operations.”

According to him, the Minerals Commission, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources or the Chamber of Mines could refuse him permit in the event that he decided to venture in that direction.

Citing the recent occurrence at the Elmina beach where scores of miners had thronged scavenging for gold, the Okyenhene said it clearly showed the citizenry’s disregard for rule of law and the protection of the environment.

He stated that reports of gold dealers invading the beach area with luxurious vehicles to purchase gold from the locals and information that people were clandestinely mining in the Benya Lagoon ought to be halted immediately.

He said his desire to ensure environmental sustainability and the protection of natural resources had seen him wage a relentless war against such illegalities that tended to totally deplete the country’s natural resources.


SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo & Betty Agu, Daily Graphic, Dec 1, 2011