Friday, July 31, 2009

SPEED UP LAND DISPUTE CASES (PAGE 47)

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has appealed to the law courts to speed up land dispute cases before them to help restore sanity in land ownership in the country.
According to him, the delay by the courts in dealing with land cases had led to an upsurge in land guards created by factions involved in the various land disputes to protect their lands till the final determination of the cases.
The situation, he said, had eroded investor confidence in the country.
He, therefore, appealed to judges sitting on land cases in the country to dispose of them as quickly as possible to bring law and order into the sector.
Alhaji Dauda made the appeal when he inaugurated the 29-member Brong Ahafo Regional Lands Commission, under the chairmanship of the Omanhene of the Sunyani Traditional Area, Nana Bosoma Asor Nkrawiri II, in Sunyani last Tuesday.
Other members of the commission are the Omanhene of the Techiman Traditional Area, Oseadeeyo Akumfi Ameyaw IV, and the Omanhene of the Sankore Traditional Area, Nana Yaw Adusei II. They were sworn into office by the Supervising High Court Judge in Sunyani, Mr Justice Francis Opoku.
Alhaji Dauda called for attitudinal change on the part of the staff of the Lands Commission to ensure the successful implementation of the new land reforms aimed at making the process of registering land and other related issues stress-free for all Ghanaians.
He said with the new land administration reforms in place, it was expected that the commission would reduce the bureaucracy, inefficiencies and frustrations in land administration, adding that anything short of that would defeat the good intentions of the reform.
He announced that the new Lands Commission Act, 2008 (Act 767) passed by Parliament in 2008 mandated the commission to oversee all matters relating to land administration and management in the country.
He added that with the new reforms, the Survey Department, the Land Valuation Board, the Land Title Registry and the Lands Commission Secretariat had been merged and a new Lands Commission with four functional divisions, namely, Survey and Mapping, Land Registration, Land Valuation and Public and Vested Lands Management, had been created.
He, therefore, tasked the commission to work hard to complement the efforts of the government to deliver on its mandate to the people as well as help remove all the bottlenecks associated with land administration in the country that had impeded national development.
Alhaji Dauda announced that the government was considering de-vesting some of the vested lands in the Brong Ahafo Region to the various stools and, therefore, called for the collaboration of the commission.
He gave the assurance that if the reasons for vesting were no longer valid, the government would not hesitate to de-vest the lands.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo in his address, expressed the hope that with the inauguration of the Regional Lands Commission, all matters relating to land disputes in the region would be resolved amicably to ensure the orderly development of the region.
Nana Nkrawiri, on behalf of the members, thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged to live up to expectation.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

RCC MUST SUPPORT INFANTRY BATTALIONS (PAGE 15)

THE Chief of Army Staff, Major General J.N. Adinkrah, has appealed to the various regional co-ordinating councils (RCCs) to support the infantry battalions (troops) in their respective regions to enable them to discharge their duties efficiently and help maintain the relative peace the people are enjoying.
He also called for co-operation from the public for the military to enable it to discharge its constitutionally mandated duties efficiently without trampling on the rights of any citizen.
Maj Gen Adinkrah made the appeal when he called on the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, at his office as part of his maiden visit as the Chief of Army Staff to the 3 Garrison (3 Infantry Battalion) at the Liberation Barracks in Sunyani.
The Chief of Army Staff, who had toured the barracks and interacted with the officers and men of the Garrison earlier in the day, said he had paid a similar visit to Tamale and Kumasi to interact with the troops there.
The Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and the three Northern regions form the Northern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces.
He also visited the conflict areas in the three northern regions, particularly Bawku, to access the situation on the ground.
Maj Gen Adinkrah, who was accompanied by Brigadier Gen C.K. Ocran, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Northern Command, and Lt Colonel Amoah Ayisi, the Commanding Officer of the 3 Garrison in Sunyani, said the troops were always ready to support the various RCCs to help maintain law and order in their various regions to create a congenial environment for all to go about their activities peacefully.
He thanked the Brong Ahafo RCC for the support it had been providing the troops in Sunyani to enhance their performance during operations and called for more assistance from the various RCCs to the barracks to make living conditions there better for the troops.
Mr Opoku, in his response, thanked the Chief of Army Staff and his entourage for the visit and pledged the RCC’s continuous support to the 3 Garrison to enable the troops to assist in the maintenance of peace in the region.
He disclosed that the government would soon come up with a policy that would provide the military and all other security agencies with the necessary logistics and support for them to effectively maintain of law and order, saying without peace there would not be development.
He added that the first pillar of the Better Ghana agenda was the maintenance of peace, which was a pre-requisite for the rapid socio-economic development of the nation.
Maj Gen Adinkrah’s tour at the Liberation Barracks took him to the Medical Centre which caters for the officers and men of the 3 Garrison and their families, as well as the surrounding communities, and gave the assurance that it would be renovated soon to enable it to deliver quality health care.
Other problems that came to the fore during the Chief of Army Staff’s visit were the water supply to homes, sewerage treatment plant and bad roads at the barracks.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

FACILITATE SMOOTH, SAFE TRANSPORTATION ON VOLTA LAKE (PAGE 17)

THE chiefs and people of the Pru District in the Brong Ahafo Region have appealed to President J.E.A. Mills to use his good offices to provide them with a ferry on the Volta Lake at Yeji to facilitate the smooth and safe transportation of passengers and goods on the lake.
According to them, the ferry, when provided, would replace the rickety one currently on the lake which had one of its engines damaged beyond repair.
Mr Masawud Mohammed, the District Chief Executive (DCE), made the appeal in a statement he read on behalf of the chiefs and people of the district just before the start of the first ordinary meeting of the assembly at Yeji, the district capital, at the weekend.
Mr Mohammed said the request was in line with the NDC manifesto, which states on page 90 that “an NDC government will establish two more landing sites on either side of the lake to reduce travelling distance between settlements and existing landing sites. The necessary support would be given to companies removing tree stumps in the Lake to complete the exercise quickly to improve navigation and reduce boat accidents on the Lake”.
“Additional ferry would be installed for more frequent and reliable crossing on the Volta Lake at Yeji to redistribute road transport services more competitively among the Western, Central and Eastern corridors,” it goes on.
He said the ferry carted people, vehicles, trucks loaded with yams, cattle and other foodstuffs from the northern part of the country to the south and vice versa.
The Pru DCE stated that currently there was a high demand for the services of the ferry but due to its slowness and obsolescence, it moved only once a day.
Mr Mohammed said the Pru District had no government hospital to cater for the health needs of the people and, therefore, called on the government to consider establishing a district hospital, which, he said, was in line with the NDC manifesto provision to provide a hospital in each district capital.
He commended the Mathias Hospital at Yeji which currently served not only the people in the district but also neighbouring districts such as East Gonja and Atebubu/Amantin.
The DCE and hispeople further appealed to the government to upgrade at least one of the two senior high schools in the district into a model one to provide quality secondary education for the people.
On electricity, they requested the government to extend electricity to Abease and its environs to enable them to benefit from the small town water supply system project.
They also appealed to the government to rehabilitate some feeder roads in the district, to enable farmers to cart their farm produce to the marketing centres. They particularly wanted the Yeji-Kadue road which was constructed during Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s era but had since not seen any maintenance to be rehabilitated as soon as practicable.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

ASUTIFI ASSEMBLY ESTABLISHES EDUCATIONAL FUND (PAGE 17)

THE Asutifi District Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region, is to establish an Educational Endowment Fund by the close of the year to cater for needy students in the district.
The fund, to be known as “Asutifi Educational Endowment Fund”, would be managed by a Board of Directors, with two representatives from the management and members of the assembly.
The Asutifi District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Eric Addae, said this at the first ordinary meeting of the assembly at Kenyasi, the district capital.
He said the assembly would provide the seed money to set up the fund, while contractors working in the district would also be required to pay 0.5 per cent of their contract sum into the fund.
Besides, development partners such as Nananom, the Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL), operators of the Ahafo Mine at Kenyasi, organisations and philanthropists would also be made to contribute to the fund.
Mr Addae noted that the establishment of the fund had been necessitated by the numerous appeals for support from students in the district to the assembly to enable them to further their education.
“Since my assumption of duty, my office has been flooded with personal appeals and formal application for support of some kind from students to pursue further education and having critically, examined the situation, there is a need to set up the fund,” he stressed.
Mr Addae said there were three schools in the district that were benefitting from the School Feeding Programme, namely Muoho Anglican, Nkrankrom Methodist and Manhyia Primary schools.
He said the assembly was working assiduously for the programme to be extended to more schools .
He announced that the assembly, generated a total of GH¢224,376.23 internally from property rates, fees, fines, among others, at the end of June 2009, and added that plans were afoot to rake in more revenue locally to help the assembly to meet its development agenda.
Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister in his address, commended the assembly for taking the decision to establish an educational fund to support students from the district to pursue higher education.
He noted that 10, 751 teachers, out of the total of 21, 554 from the kindergarten up to teacher training college in the region are untrained.
This, he said, had been a major contributory factor to the poor performance of students at the basic levels of education, thereby denying many of them entry into tertiary institutions across the country; it also accounted for the low population of students from the region in these schools .
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo therefore called on the various municipal and district assemblies in the region to sponsor more students to teacher training colleges to come back to take up teaching appointments at the basic levels of education across the region to help reverse the trend and also help get more students from the region into the tertiary institutions.
He added that the assemblies which would sponsor students from their various areas of jurisdiction to the teacher training colleges should bond the beneficiaries, so that they would come back to serve in their communities after completion.

PROJECTS ABANDONED IN PRU DISTRICT — DCE (PAGE 17)

OVER 90 per cent of development projects initiated by the Pru District Assembly during the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) regime have either been uncompleted and abandoned or were not started at all, the Pru District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Masawud Mohammed, has said.
According to him, huge sums of money were also paid to the contractors who were awarded these contracts and efforts by the assembly to get the contractors to complete or begin them had proved futile.
Addressing the first assembly meeting at Yeji, the district capital, over the weekend, Mr Mohammed mentioned some of the projects that had been abandoned as school projects at the Abease area while work on the district assembly administration block has not started yet.
He mentioned that work on the new staff and district chief executive’s residences had stopped while the site for the proposed district jubilee school could not be traced.
Beside, Mr Mohammed said, the assembly also failed to contribute its 10 per cent counterpart funding for the Development Partners Projects such as the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Social Investment Fund (SIF), and the Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) but rather withdrew huge sums of money from those donor funded accounts.
“We had the unpleasant duty to refund an amount of GH¢15,000 into the CBRDP accounts which was wrongly withdrawn and used for operational activities, before an additional grant of GH¢105,000 was approved to implement new projects for the year,” the Pru DCE added.
Also, Mr Mohammed said, withdrawals were made from the Common Fund accounts. He gave the breakdown of the withdrawals as GH¢18,000.00 from the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), GH¢13,663.52 from the CBRDP, GH¢3,980.00 from the CWSA and GH¢7,000.00 from the M-SHAP accounts bringing the total to GH¢42,643.52.
The Pru DCE also said the assembly inherited a debt of GH¢1,175,920.02 (¢11.75billion) and gave the breakdown of the indebtedness as GH¢ 1,035,023.04 being outstanding balances on on-going projects, GH¢54,495.63 as outstanding balances on certificates of contractors not paid, GH¢42,643.52 as outstanding on borrowings from development partners accounts and GH¢43,757.53 as outstanding bills payable.
Notwithstanding this huge debt owed, Mr Mohammed said the assembly was committed to ensuring that work on all the ongoing projects was completed by the end of the year.
He said some of the projects earmarked for completion before the end of the year were the new staff and DCE bungalows, two were three-unit classroom blocks with ancillary facilities at Ajaraja Beposo and the Yeji Methodist Primary School, a new district health insurance office complex, provision of security lights at the Yeji market and the facelift of the Yeji township and lorry park.
The Pru DCE said under the CWSA project, Prang would benefit from the Small Town Water Supply System while 32 boreholes would also be constructed district-wide and about 12 kilometres of the Yeji township roads would be tarred.
Mr Mohammed said the assembly would also formulate policies to manage solid and liquid waste in the district and clear garbage that was gradually swallowing the inhabitants up, which had made the district one of the filthiest in the country.
On revenue generation, he said, the Pru District was next to Techiman, which had been rated as the highest local revenue generating area in the region, and urged the Finance and Administration Subcommittee of the assembly to assist by monitoring revenue mobilisation activities and utilisation for the benefit of the people.
On health, Mr Mohammed said the district lacked professional health personnel and appealed to the government to consider establishing a health training institute in the district to help train health personnel for the district to ensure quality healthcare service delivery.
He expressed his gratitude to the assembly members for confirming him as the DCE and urged them to bury their ideological and political differences and forge ahead in pursuance of a common goal aimed at improving the living conditions of the people.

NDC WILL DELIVER BETTER GHANA AGENDA...B. A. Regional Minister declares (PAGE 16)

The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, has given the assurance that the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will deliver on its campaign promise of a “Better Ghana”.
He said the government had therefore put in place pragmatic policies and programmes at all levels to enable it to bring to fruition the “Better Ghana” agenda, and therefore urged Ghanaians to exercise restraint as the signs would become visible in a short time.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo gave the assurance when he addressed the first ordinary meeting of the Kintampo South District Assembly held at Jema, the district capital. This was against the background that many of the electorate are complaining that six months into the NDC administration, they are not seeing any visible signs on the ground.
He noted that the strategy to achieve the “Better Ghana” for all was on course and Ghanaians would begin to enjoy the fruits soon.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo called on the assembly members to put all that happened during the election behind them.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister also urged indebted municipal and district assemblies in the region, as a result of development projects begun by the previous administration, not to initiate new ones.
According to him, those assemblies must ensure the completion of all those projects, especially the ones that impacted on the living conditions of the people, and review the ones that were yet to commence before initiating new ones.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo disclosed that the amount owed by those assemblies in the region ranged from GH¢1million to GH¢1.9 million saying it would therefore not be prudent for those assemblies to initiate new projects.
He, however, commended the Kintampo Assembly for not incurring any debt, and therefore urged the assembly to use its share of the common fund to initiate new development projects that would enhance the living conditions of the people.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo urged the assembly members and staff not to allow their political ideology and affiliation to cloud their sense of judgement.
Mr Kojo Nyame Datiakwa, the Kintampo South District Chief Executive (DCE), in his address said the assembly received GH¢754,842.15 from the District Assemblies Common Fund Secretariat.
He mentioned some of the projects that would be undertaken with the money from the common fund as construction of a three-bedroom bungalow for the District Police Commander, creation of access roads in the Jema Township, drilling and mechanisation of eight boreholes, rehabilitation of the DCE’s residence, construction of a three-unit classroom block at Jema-Nkwanta, construction of security fence for the DCE’s bungalow, construction of a three-unit one-bedroom staff quarters at Jema and mechanisation of boreholes at Pamdu.
Mr Datiakwa said the assembly had so far disbursed GH¢18,014.84 as financial support to the various categories of students in the district, and gave the breakdown as GH¢7,576.55 to nursing students, GH¢2,436.29 to students in second-cycle schools, GH¢3,552.00 to teacher trainees and GH¢4,450.00 to students in tertiary institutions.
He said the assembly had completed the construction of the duty post bungalow for the medical superintendent of the district hospital while plans were far advanced to drill two mechanised boreholes for the doctor’s bungalow and the hospital to provide potable water for the health facility.
Mr Datiakwa said the assembly had also put in place measures to improve on its internal revenue mobilisation, and urged assembly members to help educate their people on the need to honour their tax obligations to the assembly.
The Kintampo South DCE also expressed concerns about the undue delay in the completion of the district assembly’s administration block and the district police headquarters, saying that the landlord had asked the assembly to leave the building, which served as the offices of the assembly, by the end of August.
Mr Datiakwa said the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme had made progress since its establishment in 2006, and so far had registered 49,890 people, representing 61.09 per cent of the population.
He, however, appealed to the assembly members to educate their electorate on the benefits of the scheme in order to get more people to register.

Monday, July 20, 2009

GOVT TO EMBARK ON RURAL ELETRIFICATION PROJECT (PAGE 35)

THE Jaman North District Chief Executive (DCE), Hajia Amina Amadu, has stated that the government will embark on massive rural electrification project to ensure that all rural communities are connected to the national grid.
She said the move was among measures being adopted by the government to promote the establishment of cottage industries and woo investors into the agricultural processing sector of the economy
According to her, the rural electrification project was also to enhance other socio-economic activities to create jobs for the people towards poverty reduction in rural areas.
Hajia Amadu gave the assurance at the inauguration of an electrification project at the Sampa market.
The Jaman North District Assembly financed the project.
Hajia Amadu stated that electricity was a necessity and not a luxury, since it would go a long way to open up the rural communities and help check the rural-urban drift of the youth.
She, therefore, gave the assurance that the assembly would ensure that all communities in the district without electricity would benefit from the project as their share of the national cake.
The DCE said as much as electricity was necessary to bring about development, it also had its bad side.
Therefore, she called on the market women who wanted to tap power to their various shops not to compromise on safety and standards, so as to prevent fire outbreaks at the market.
Hajia Amadu further implored the market women to collaborate with the various tax agencies in order for the district to mobilise the needed internally generated funds to speed up the development of the district.
In a speech read on behalf of the chiefs of Sampa, the Akyeamehene of the town, Nana Takyi Poku II expressed the gratitude to the government for fulfilling its promise of bringing development to every community.
A member of the market women association, Madam Yaa Grace, on behalf of her colleagues, thanked the district assembly and the government for extending electricity to the market, which was long overdue.
She urged the market women to always honour their tax obligations for the assembly and the government to generate more revenue to develop the area.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

NKORANZA NORTH ASSEMBLY TO UNDERTAKE BLOCK FARMING (PAGE 39)

THE Nkoranza North District Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region has decided to go into block farming annuallyto increase maize production as a measure of generating additional revenue to finance its development projects.
The move has become necessary as the district needs more revenue to undertake development projects to raise the quality of life of the people.
In this regard, the assembly is to acquire a 200-acre farmland to start the venture beginning from the next major farming season.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Kwadwo Adjei–Dwomoh, made this known just after the assembly’s first ordinary meeting this year at Busunya, the district capital.
He stated that the assembly had already conducted a study on the economic and social benefits of the project which was carried out by a committee comprising the District Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the District Agricultural Extension Officer, among others.
Mr Adjei-Dwomoh said the assembly would rely on its six tractors for the project and also provide the needed logistics.
He said apart from generating additional revenue to support the assembly’s development agenda, the project would also provide jobs for the unemployed youth in the area.
Mr Adjei-Dwomoh stated further that the assembly would also put to use the silos in the district to store the maize.
The DCE expressed concern about the limited sources of funds for the assembly and urged the assembly members to educate their people to honour their tax obligation to increase the assembly’s revenue generation.
He disclosed that the assembly was able to generate GH¢86,114.84 out of the estimated figure of GH¢98,951.79 last year, representing 87 per cent of the revenue.
He urged the assembly members to bury their political differences and forge ahead in unity to move the district forward.
Mr Adjei-Dwomoh stressed that since they were the pioneers of the district assembly, they were expected to work hard and bring remarkable changes in their communities.
He was grateful to them for confirming his nomination as the DCE and enjoined them to sustain the unity and co-operative spirit towards the development of the area.
The DCE announced that the national launch of this year’s greening Ghana project had been scheduled to take place at Yefri in the district on July 24, and therefore called on the assembly members to mobilise the opinion leaders in their communities to attend the programme and to make it a grand one.
The Presiding Member of the assembly, Mr Benjamin Adu–Darko, commended the members for attending the meeting in their numbers and to share views towards the development of the district.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

YOUTH TO JUSTIFY ENGAGEMENT (PAGE 3, JULY 7)

Those engaged under the teaching assistance module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) in the Tain District in the Brong Ahafo Region are to write examinations to justify their continuous engagement under the programme.
This examination has become necessary because of the consistent fall in the standard of education in the district and the realisation that majority of the beneficiaries of the module in the district are junior high school (JHS) graduates.
The Tain District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Samuel Jones Tawiah, who said this at the launch of a programme dubbed, ‘Child right to education’ organised by the Banda Literacy Project at Banda Ahenkro, said only those who would pass the examinations would continue to benefit from the programme.
According to him, people had taken undue advantage of the programme in the district to engage JHS graduates to teach in several schools in the district and this had hindered the delivery of efficient teaching in the district.
Mr Tawiah stated that education would be his priority in his effort to develop the Tain District, saying that “education is a key area which will not be compromised under any circumstances”.
He, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders in education in the district to come together to help address the poor standard of education in the district.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Tain District Director of Education, Mr Francis Dongbetir, said his outfit had constituted a committee to investigate the poor performance of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in the district and it had since submitted its report.
He said the committee identified, among other things, attendance at wake by pupils, teachers not accepting posting to the district, lack of trained teachers and indiscipline as the causes of the falling standards of education in the district.