Sunday, September 21, 2008

NO NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNS

THE Immediate Past Chairman of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Dr Michael K. Ntumy, has asked the leadership of political parties and their supporters to emphasise their own strengths if elected to govern, instead of the shortcomings of their political opponents.
“Political parties must deal truthfully with the electorate in the country and tell us frankly what they hope to do for the people when elected,” he told the Daily Graphic after his graduation from the Northwestern Christian University (NCU), Florida, USA, from where he has earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Applied Theology and Organisational Governance.
He said the politics of the pre-independence and independence era that was characterised by rancour and divisiveness had no place in the country now, saying decency and circumspection in political campaigning and activities would end in a peaceful country for all.
Apostle Dr Ntumy reminded all that at the end of the day, Ghana was the country and home to all, while constituencies were the villages and home towns to all.
“If we destroy that, where can we call home?” he queried.
Apostle Dr Ntumy, whose dissertation for the programme was titled, “An examination of Apostolic Governance in the Church of Pentecost and its Contribution to the Church’s Phenomenal Growth”, analysed the church governance of the COP and concluded that it was an Apostolic governance that was similar to Biblical examples of the early church in the New Testament.
The other graduates were Apostle M. M. Kopah, Rev Samuel Amponsah-Frimpong, Rev Mrs Theresa Nana Sesuwa Addai and Dr Seth Nii Addy.
All the graduates received PhDs in Applied Theology and Organisational Governance.
In keeping with the goals of helping in the constant self development of individuals, the NCU had instituted the mobile executive programme and a mobile campus where anyone at all could participate in the programmes offered, at his or her convenience, without necessarily making a physical appearance.
Since it started running programmes in the country in 2001, the NCU has trained over 3,000 people from different backgrounds.
The Rector of the NCU, Dr Edward Ade, said at the graduation ceremony that there were no limiting factors when it came to educating and developing oneself.
He said the complacent attitude among most people in Africa in not allowing further development of their mental capacities after acquiring a profession or basic academic programme was alarming.
“Anyone at all can still study and change titles and academic positions, irrespective of his or her busy schedules, which are not a barrier to self development,” he intimated.
“Everyone can study, everyone should study and every one must study,” he proposed as the way forward from a complacent life with no self development.
Dr Ade said while time was the same for all, anyone could “play time, spend time, waste time or use time wisely”.
He said with time, anyone could be wise, skilful or foolish in his or her choice of the use of time.
He said the NCU had decided to offer the opportunity to all to acquire the requisite knowledge, not only on the Bible but also contemporary issues and science.
In a graduation sermon, Rev Mrs Queronica Q said the family was the first social unit established by God, while the second was the church.
She said the issue of balancing the demands of the family and work was an important area in which the church needed to take leadership and show the way.
She said while the family was the centre of development, work also kept the economy going and that was the reason the church needed to show how people could keep the balance in their family life and their work.
Rev Mrs Q was of the view that the programmes undertaken by the graduates would enable them to lead the way in that endeavour.
SUBMITTED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
PUBLISHED DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008, PG 1

UNPUBLISHED, SUBMITTED SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

THE Madina Divisional Police Command has said it will not compromise on security during or after the elections.
It has, therefore, asked all political parties in the district to submit their campaign activities to enable the police better prepare in providing security and ensuring peace during the period.
The Divisional Commander, Chief Superintedent Paul Ayitey, said this at a forum for political parties in the Ga East and Adenta Municipal assemblies.
“The police affirm its position to be neutral, but will stand fair and firm in enforcing the laws,” he told participants at the meeting.
Chief Superintendent Ayitey asked the parties to be guided by the Political Parties Act and their Code of Conduct, while using appropriate means to settle differences.
The Municipal Director of the National Commission of Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Kwao Sackey, in advising all partners in the election process, charged leadership of political parties to sensitise their followers to the fact that political leadership could not rule over the dead but the living, hence the need for peace.
He urged that once political leadership had chosen to lead, a characteristic that qualified it for the position was its obedience to the rules and laws of the communities.
Mr Sackey advised political parties to come together and plan joint activities of sensitisation for the electorate in the district to show to their supporters the importance of unity and peace in the election process.
He said while all political party leaders told their supporters to vote for them, they did not, however, teach them how to vote, resulting in spoilt ballots and wrong perceptions of vote rigging.
The Municipal Electoral Officer, Mr Michael Boadu, expressed the commitment of the Electoral Commission (EC) to conducting a credible election, but asked political parties to play their part in the process.
The Chief Imam at Madina, Sheikh Abdallah Shaibu, said the EC had organised four elections, therefore, the lapses encountered in the recent voter registration exercise was shameful.
He asked the EC to ensure that all materials had reached polling centres on time on the election day, while charging all Ghanaians to use the voting process as a show of patriotism and not of violence.
Other speakers at the forum were executive members, aspiring parliamentary candidates and sitting Members of Parliament in the area.
Nii Afutu Brempong III, the Chief of Danfa, chaired the functions.

RINGWAY TRADERS BRIEFED ON FLAT RATE SCHEME

The Ringway Estate Local Value Added Tax (VAT) Service has held a seminar for registered traders of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Flat Rate Scheme (VFRS), a year after its introduction.
The Head of the Ringway Estate Local VAT Service, Mr Ackah Mensah, said it was only right for the service to meet with the implementers of the scheme a year after its introduction to get to know the challenges and concerns.
The VFRS is a simplified method of collecting and accounting for the VAT and the National Health Insurance Law (NHIL) tax.
Designed for the retail sector, a marginal rate of three per cent on the value of each taxable item sold is charged.
This implies the calculation of the tax and reduces the burden of compliance among retailers.
The system was developed a year ago by the VAT Service in collaboration with traders’ unions and associations, as a result of computational difficulties in the calculation of the VAT payable under the invoice–credit method.
Mr Mensah told journalists that with the introduction of the system, the administration of the tax had improved although some challenges persisted, hence the meeting with the retailers.
Two officials of the Ringway Estate Local VAT Service, Messrs Tony Dekagbe and Joseph Fiadzo, took participating traders through the basics of the VFRS, and how to file returns under the scheme.
SUBMITTED WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
PUBLISHED MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

UNPUBLISHED, SUBMITTED SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

Two authorities on the media have described the concerns raised by the police and the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on radio phone-in programmes and use of non experts in the discussion of security issues as misplaced.
Prof Kwame Karikari, the Executive Director of the West Africa Media Foundation (WAMF) and Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, the acting Director of the School of Communications were both of the view that the police and GAF were too general in the concerns regarding phone in programmes and the lack of experts on issues pertaining to security on some programmes aired.
For Prof Karikari said it was the right of the security agencies to express concerns about anything they considered a threat to the peace and security of citizens particularly in an election period.
However, the most important and primary issue of concern, that the security personnel had to take action on was the arrest and prosecution of suspects in the disturbances of the year 2000 that led to the killing some people and the chief of Tamale as well as the disturbances that led to the killing of a Convention People’s PArty (CPP) member, Issah Mobila, he said.
He said media work and the publishing of angry words and sentiments were not carried out in a vacuum, but within political campaigning and activities characterised by acrimony.
“All these have been done under the banner of politics,” he pointed out.
He said it was the politicians who were inciting the some sections of the public to engage in violence, and that had to be the focus of the security agencies not a few angry voices on the airwaves.
He said most media institutions had the technology to delay or stop provocative language and they were doing that.
The security agencies could not therefore divert the attention of the public on the real issues at stake, he added.
Dr Gadzekpo for her part said it was understandable that the security agencies were irritated by the dearth of experts on discussion panels on security on radio, however, there were also a lot of issues discussed on radio that did not have experts commenting.
She said in some cases, people invited to comment on other issues made the wrong imput, misrepresented fats and exaggerated, “but that is the price we pay for democracy.”
“The security agencies are right to ask the media to be circumspect, but their concerns are usual as we are in a political season and we are all nervous,” Dr Gadzekpo said.
There are different standards in language and what they could call intemperate language might be temperate to others, their concerns do not carry an specific allegations and are just like all other complaints about the media.

GHANA CANNOT MAR ELECTIONS

GHANA cannot afford to mar its preparations for the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary election in December, the Executive Director of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Mr Emmanuel Bombande, has said.
He added that Ghana could not afford to disgrace itself by unrestrained actions, accusations, violence and tension that would mar the elections.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview, he said all eyes in the global community were fixed on the country, observing what the country would make of its elections,
Already, against a backdrop of tension in some places within the country, there was genuine global concern for the country as it prepares for the elections, he stated.
These concerns he said had been expressed by participants attending the Ministerial Summit on the Geneva Convention on Armed Violence and Development in Geneva.
Mr Bombande, who is among some selected civil society organisations (CSO), invited by the Swiss government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told the Daily Graphic from Geneva that Ghana could not afford to disgrace itself by unrestrained actions.
For that reason, he passionately pleaded with all political parties to restrain themselves and help defuse tension in the country.
“Everyone you meet here is talking about the country and how it is preparing for its elections. The political parties must, therefore, mount the moral ground and make a decision to stop the trading of accusations at each other and help not to throw the country into chaos, otherwise all will be lost,” he said.
While frowning on news reports of separate fact-finding missions by the NDC and the NPP to Gushiegu and the resultant trading of accusations as to who caused the fighting there, Mr Bombande also blamed the police for their seeming inaction at certain critical times.
He conceded that although the police, sometimes, had to go through periods of investigations to come out with the facts of a case, it was imperative for them, while doing so, to give statements to the communities to assuage their anger and enable them give them (the police) the co-operation needed for their work.
He said the seeming inaction of the police in ensuring speedy investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators of the violence in Gushiegu had created a vacuum that the political parties were capitalising on to undertake their own fact-finding missions and the resultant trading of accusations and exacerbation of tension in conflict areas.
“For the sake of the national interest, let us all restrain ourselves and prove to the world we are capable,” Mr Bombande said.
Two years ago, 92 countries, including Ghana, signed the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development.
The Ministerial Summit is to review actions by the signatories to the declaration in the promotion of peace for development.

Submitted September 12, 2008
Published Daily Graphic, Wednesday, September 17, 2008 PG 17

Friday, September 12, 2008

GHANA JOINS FRENCH ORGANISATION

THE International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF) has given Ghana an associate membership status.
This implies that Ghana will be given special attention in the study of the French language and the promotion of democratic values.
Ghana is among six other countries, namely Burundi, Greece, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique and Romania, which are to benefit from the initiative from the OIF.
OIF is an association of about 56 countries that adhere to democratic values, cultural diversity through co-operation and the use of the French language.
In line with this, the Secretary General of OIF, Mr Abdou Diouf, has sent special representatives to these countries to access their priorities and challenges as members of the community.
The Special representative to Ghana, Mrs Brigitte Girardin, was a former French Minister for Cooperation, Development and Francophonie.
She advocated for Ghana to be granted an associate membership at the organisation during the 2006 OIF summit in Bucharest.
At a press conference, she said her visit was to interact with the appropriate Ghanaian authorities on the teaching of French and find out where the main challenges were as well as opportunities for improvement.
These would be discussed at the Heads of State and Governments Summit of the Organisation in Quebec, Canada.
For Ghana, MRs Girardin said four proposals were being firmed up to be tabled at the Summit.
These were the strengthening of French language skills for Ghanaian diplomats and public officers with international responsibilities and engagements and increasing the number of teachers of French at the secondary and tertiary levels.
The third proposal was developing partnership with the private sector for the teaching of the language in private companies and associations and creating a bilingual sign system for tourist sites and international areas.
Mr Girardan said with the teaching of the language, there was a shortage of about 4000 teachers at the secondary level that had to be filled with the co-operation of the OIF.
She added that these proposals that were being discussed with the appropriate Ghanaian authorities would help strengthen the desire of the country to speak the French language.
She commended the country for making a voluntary choice to belong to the OIF and identify with its values.

SUBMITTED TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2008
PUBLISHED, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008, PG 44

ASSEMBLIES BEGIN IMPLEMENTING URBAN TRANSPORTATION PROJECT

A year after the launch of the Urban Transport Project (UPT), some metropolitan and municipal assemblies have begun its implementation at the local levels.
Personnel have been employed who will administer the Urban Passenger Transportation Units (UPTU) in the participating assemblies, which include the Accra, Tema and Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies, as well as the Ga East, Ga West, and Ejisu Juabeng Municipal Assemblies.
The 18 personnel on Monday began a 10-day induction training in Accra.
After the training, they will begin putting in place the systems and regulations necessary for an efficient urban transportation system at their various assemblies.
These will include the registration of vehicles engaged in commercial transportation, and the licensing of vehicles to ply particular routes in the metropolis and municipalities.
They will also set up a database for the transportation services.
Two ministries — the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE) — are collaborating in the implementation of the project.
Opening the induction training in Accra on Monday, a Deputy Minister of the MLGRDE, Alhaji Ahmed Yiremeah Awudu, said the training signified the commencement of real work for the Urban Transport Project at the assembly levels.
He commended the Project Advisory Office and the development partners for their tireless efforts and emphasised the changes that the project would bring about in the way urban transportation would be run in the country.
These changes would include the assemblies taking up the creation of bus stops and terminals, as well as their operation and management.
They will also set standards in the type of licensed vehicles to run particular routes and ensure proper regulation.
Alhaji Awudu said the Urban Transportation Project would introduce an urban regulatory regime that would ensure that the operators in the sector were guided and enabled to provide decent and efficient services to passengers.
A Deputy Minister of Transportation, Mr Magnus Opare Asamoah, who chaired the programme, said the UPT was part of the national transportation policy geared towards the provision of good services.
With funding secured, all was set to improve urban transportation services through the appropriate policy framework and legislation, and that would also attract investors into the sector for further growth and development, he added.
A Director of the Department of Urban Roads, Mr Isaac K. Mensah, said a key issue in the project was the reduction in the cost of transporting people.
He said in the past the practice was to use a vehicle as the unit measure in finding solutions to congestion and transportation challenges, which led to the expansion of roads, but no lasting solutions were found.
According to him, currently emphasis was being placed on the individual and how he/she could commute from one end of the city to the other as against a vehicle.
SUBMITTED MONDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
PUBLISHED, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 2008, PG 18

UPUBLISHED, SUBMITTED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

The country’s Borstal Institute has won the admiration of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), which said it would recommend it to other African countries to emulate in setting up similar institutions.
A commissioner of the ACHPR, Mr Musa Ngary Bitaye, who was fascinated by the absence of a fence enclosing the buildings, described it as a laudable practice, which needed to be emulated.
He, therefore, told participants in a public lecture in Accra that he was going to include what he had seen in his report for other countries to emulate.
The public lecture was organised by the Third World Network, Africa, in collaboration with the ACHPR as part of a five-day promotional mission of the ACHPR to the country.
Mr Bitaye underscored the fact that an insistence on the promotion of human rights on the continent was based on the fact that if people were not aware of their rights, they were most likely not able to ensure its protection.
He said his tour of Ghana was one of the ways by which the ACHPR gave expression to its mandate to promote human rights on the continent.
He said since the inception of the ACHPR about 26 years ago, the innovation of the commissioners in giving expression to the mandate of the commission, had resulted in several proactive measures by which the work of the commission had become more relevant to individuals in countries.
For instance, the complaints and communication procedure of the Commission, by which states, non governmental organisations and individuals could draw the attention of the Commission to the violation of rights or freedoms under the African Charter, had been actively interpreted.
That, according to Mr Bitaye, had enabled the consideration of inter-state as well as non-state communications.
Mr Bitaye mentioned that by setting standards in their activities, the commissioners were able to align the African Charter with other international human rights principles while putting in place a system that encouraged significantly the wide access by all to the protective procedures of the Commission.
He said each of the eleven commissioners, to ensure the effective discharge of their promotional mandate, had been assigned a number of countries to maximise individual and personal oversight of the promotion of rights.
Moreover, the commissioners had also created special mechanisms to address specific human rights issues identified as challenges on the continent, such as the death penalty, rights of indigenous populations and communities, the prohibition of torture and the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, and recently, the rights of the aged.
Mr Bitaye said whereas the directives of the ACPHR were merely recommendations in the past, the establishment of a special court under a protocol of the African Charter would now make them enforceable.
The only challenge, he said, was a prior declaration of consent states had to make to allow their individual citizens to bring complaints against them.
Mr Bitaye said without that declaration, individuals from states seeking redress at the Commission could not have it enforced and urged all member countries to make the declaration.
The Co-ordinator of TWN, Africa, Dr Yao Graham, said TWN had taken the opportunity to collaborate with the ACHPR to organise the public lecture as part of their contribution in promoting the work of the Commission.

UPUBLISHED, SUBMITTED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, has expressed the need for mining communities to live in harmony with mining companies and not to let mining become another catalyst for conflict in the country.
He was speaking at the launch of “The State of Human Rights in Mining Communities in Ghana,” a publication by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on human rights in mining communities in the country.
The publication, which is the result of almost two years of research by CHRAJ, compiles trends of human rights in mining communities nationwide and the underlying causes of the phenomenon.
Mr Ghartey described the launch of the publication as an important event and process that had to lead to the peaceful co-existence of people living in mining communities with the companies that were engaged in mining.
He commended CHRAJ for the innovative way of expressing its mandate and taking the lead to ensure a common platform for redressing challenges in the sector.
The commitment of the government, he said, was also shown by the initiation of a process by the Law Reform Commission to review the mining law to redress some of the challenges.
A commissioner of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), Mr Musa Ngary Bitaye, who is in the country for a five-day sensitisation tour, said social, economic and cultural rights were areas of focus of the commission because they were linked to all other rights.
He said it was because of the violation of such rights on the continent that had prompted a study by the commission to investigate acts of non-state actors and governments in the abuse of the rights of people in the extractive sector.
The Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, Mr Ben Laryee, who represented the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, said the ministry was committed to ensuring that mining was engaged in peacefully in the country.
To that end, he noted that the drafting of regulations on compensation and resettlement was almost complete to ensure prompt payment of a fair compensation.
He said the issue of resettlement and compensation had been some of the issues that had brought about confusion in mining areas and the regulations would ensure predictability and clearness on the matter.
The Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Richard Quayson, said the pledge by all partners in December 2006, to work to unearth trends of abuses and their causes had been redeemed with the launch of the publication.
He said the report was not a material that cast blame on any partner but was a genuine attempt to enlist the help of all partners to collaborate on the matter.

UPUBLISHED, SUBMITTED FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

A constitutional lawyer, Prof Kofi Quashigah, has said the postponement of nominations by the Electoral Commission (EC) is within their legal mandate and regulatory framework.
He said by the regulations of the commission, the indefinite postponement would not affect the electoral calendar of the commission.
Prof Quashigah, who is also the acting Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, said going by the Public Elections Regulations, 1996 (C.I. 15) of the EC, nominations for all the presidential and parliamentary aspirants could be opened anytime from September 8, 2008.
However, nominations had to close by November 7, 2008, in accordance with Regulation 2 subsection 3, which states that “the day on which the poll is to be taken shall not be less than thirty days or more than ninety days after the last day appointed for the nomination of candidates in the case of a general election.”
He said that meant nomination of candidates had to be anytime between September 8, and November 7, 2008.
Prof Quashigah affirmed the statement of the EC Chairman that all the people vying for presidential and parliamentary positions were not yet candidates but still aspiring for that position.
“Under regulation 4 and 5, there are specific processes that these aspirants must go through to become nominated as presidential or parliamentary candidates, and until this process of nomination is gone through, technically no one is a candidate but all are still aspiring.
Responding to what options political parties had if at the last minute some aspirants did not meet all the processes to be nominated, Prof Quashigah pointed out that the regulations made provision for an extension of the nomination day by another 10 days under Regulation 11 (2), only in the situation where due to unforeseen circumstances, only one candidate remained in the contest prior to the election.
That meant that if a day to the elections several of the nominated candidates could not contest, but only one candidate could, then a further 10 days had to be given for the nomination of their replacements to context.
However, the inability of a single aspirant to successful go through the nomination process would not stall the EC’s schedule, he said, and gave the example of Mr Ward Brew of the Democratic Freedom Party (DPP), who could not successfully go through the nomination in 2004.
Furthermore, under Regulation 11 (3), if after the ten-day extension period for nominations there was still only one nominated candidate in the contest, then there would be no election and that candidate would be declared elected, he said.
On the other hand, however, if only one duly nominated candidate fell out of the context prior to election, and a majority were still in the context, the election would go.
He explained that this was in keeping with the promotion of mullet party spirit under the constitution.
Prof Quashigah said it was clear that the EC was clearly within the permitted schedule for elections, however, in view of the limited time available to parties from the time of nominations to the polling day, it was important for parties to work hard and deal with all the wrangling that had characterised some of the primaries.
He said all had to be done to strengthen the electoral process and inter-party wrangling or pockets of confusion could impact on the process and the main polling day.
He said if parties did not deal quickly with their differences, the peace and serenity expected to characterise the election process would be absent and that would not augur well for the country.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

ACHIEVING EDUCATION FOR ALL, $8.3 BILLION NEEDED ANNUALLY IN AFRICA

THE Assistant Director General of Education of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Mr Nicholas Burnet, has said that $8.3 billion is needed annually in Africa to achieve education for all under the Millennium Development Goals.
He said even though there had been significant increases in aid to the educational sector since 2000, these were not enough, as only $1.5 million was allocated to basic education.
Mr Burnet who was speaking to journalists at the Press Centre in Accra, stressed that a remarkable characteristic of the last century in Africa was the number enrolled in basic schools.
The Assistant Director General who arrived in the country to participate in the Accra Aid Effectiveness Forum and push for more funds for education and its effective utilisation, noted that there were still significant challenges to address in the educational sector.
For instance, 10 per cent of children of school-age were not in school, and half that number was in Africa. Apart from that, there are also issues of quality education, and this is why there is the need to support governments and parents to meet that challenge through increased aid to the sector and its effective use.
By participating in the forum, Mr Burnet said UNESCO would influence the outcome of aid flows and their use, as well as the participation and involvement of the citizenry and governments in the process.
Mr Burnet said the Press Centre had benefited from significant resources from UNESCO.
He visited the UNESCO ASPnet ICT Centre at the Osu Home Junior Secondary School, set up in 2004 with funding from UNESCO.
Seven other schools in the area, namely, Estate 1 and 2, Anglican 1 and 2, Manle Dada, African Unity and Tenashie also use the centre.
In all, about 1,000 pupils are benefiting from basic training in computer skills at the centre.
Mr Burnet and other officials from UNESCO interacted with the teachers and students.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2008, PG 11

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

A social policy analyst, Dr William Ahiadze, has said that aid has become a blunt instrument for economic development and poverty reduction.
This was because of the lapses in disbursement and the utilisation of aid, due to policy failures, weak institutional capacities, the lack of vision and boldness on the part of governments of developing countries.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Dr Ahiadze, who is also a lecturer at the Centre for Social Policy Analysis of the University of Ghana, Legon, said the system of aid allocation and utilisation, showed that “old habits die hard.”
He, has therefore asked political leadership of developing countries to soberly reflect on their part of development, develop visionary policies and have the boldness to follow it through.
Dr Ahiadze who has studied the processes and implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, said although the declaration was to address some of the challenges in aid, a lot more needed to be done.
The Paris Declaration is a joint effort agreed to by 90 developing and developed countries as well as 27 aid agencies in Paris on March 3, 2005 for the effective use of aid.
For instance, he said the declaration did not clearly link aid to gender, social service provision and agricultural development in developing countries.
These were however important areas and catalysts for development.
On the key principles underlying the declaration, that is, ownership , harmonisation, alignment, results and mutual accountability, Dr Ahiadze pointed out that challenges still persisted in realising these governing principles.
These principles would ensure local ownership and participation in the processes of aid disbursement and utilisation and the fine co-ordination of the efforts of donors and creditors.
While the country-led strategies would be perfectly matched with aid activities for development results and mutual accountability.
Dr Ahiadze said under the framework, Ghana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, was key in aid utilisation.
Because it was the policy framework that set out the strategic requirements in manpower, economic, and other sectors for poverty reduction and economic growth of the country.
However, most Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), hardly used it as a policy guide and the government had to work to change that.
Also the GPRS had to be harmonised with the Multi Donor Budget Support (MDBS), that is, the collective channel of contribution by donors in supporting a country’s programmes.
He said since the MDBS was a key trigger for aid disbursement, the GPRS was not and that needed to be corrected.
For donors on the other had, Dr Ahiadze said, they had to let go of some of their conditionalities that made aid ineffective.
For instance, in the area of capacity building, some donors tied the provision of technical assistance to aid and part of the funds was used in paying for that.
That did not build local capacities and it also reduced the amount of aid needed for a particular project, making aid ineffective.
He said the aid release process was also sometimes characterised by delays, or what was termed "disbursement lag."
When that happened, programmes and projects were stalled making recipient nations worse off, he said.
Dr Ahiadze also pointed to a contradiction in the new framework governing aid.
Despite the underlining principle of making aid more effective for development and poverty reduction, certain prescriptions by donors under like the privatisation of social services, meant limiting access to these services by the poor, a target group of aid.
Another contradiction raised by Dr Ahiadze was the fact that the new aid framework was still being governed by people in charge of international financial institutions.
He said that would mean the same old practices governing the disbursement and utilisation of aid.

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey has expressed the need for mining communities to live in harmony with mining companies and not to let mining become another catalyst for conflict in the country.
He was speaking at the launch of “The State of Human Rights in Mining Communities in Ghana,” a publication by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on human rights in mining communities in the country.
The publication, which is the result of almost two years of research by CHRAJ compiles trends of human rights in mining communities nation-wide, the underlying causes of the phenomenon.
Mr Ghartey described the launch of the publication as an important event and process that had to lead to the peaceful co-existence of people living in mining communities with the companies that were engaged in mining.
He commended CHRAJ for innovatively expressing its mandate and taking the lead to ensure a common platform for redressing challenges in the sector.
The commitment of the government, he said was also shown by the initiation of a process by the Law Reform Commission to review the mining law to redress some of the challenges.
A commissioner of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), Mr Musa Ngary Bitaye, who is in the country for a five-day sensitisation tour said social, economic and cultural rights were areas of focus of the commission because they were linked to all other rights.
He said it was because of the violation of such rights on the continent that had prompted a study by the commission to investigate acts of non state actors and governments in the abuse of the rights of people in the extractive sector.
The Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, Mr Ben Laryee, who represented the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines said the ministry was committed to ensuring that mining was engaged in peacefully in the country.
To that end, he noted that the drafting of regulations on compensation and resettlement was almost complete to ensure prompt payment of a fair compensation.
He said the issue of resettlement and compensation had been some of the issues that had brought about confusion in mining areas and the regulations would ensure predictability and clearness on the matter.
The Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Richard Quayson said the pledge by all partners in December 2006, to work to unearth trends of abuses and their causes had been redeemed with the launch of the publication.
He said the report was not a material that cast blame on any partner but was a genuine attempt to enlist the help of all partners to collaborate on the matter.

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

The country’s Borstal Institute has won the admiration of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) which said it would recommend it to other Afircan countries to emulate in setting up similar institutions.
A commissioner of the ACHPR, Mr Musa Ngary Bitaye, who was fascinated by the absence of fence walls enclosing the buildings described it as a laudable practice, which needed to be emulated.
He, therefore, told participants at a public at a lecture in Accra that he was going to include what he had seen in his report for other countries to emulate.
The public lecture was organised by the Third World Network, Africa, in collaboration with the ACHPR as part of a five-day promotional mission of the ACHPR to the country.
Mr Bitaye underscored the fact that an insistence on the promotion of human rights on the continent was based on the fact that if people were not aware of their rights, they were most likely not able to ensure its protection.
He said his tour of Ghana was one of the ways by which the ACHPR gave expression to its mandate to promote human rights on the continent.
He said since the inception of the ACHPR about 26 years ago, the innovation of the commissioners in giving expression to the mandate of the commission, had resulted in several proactive measures by which the work of the commission had become more relevant to individuals in countries.
For instance, the complaints and communication procedure of the Commission, by which states, non governmental organisations and individuals could draw the attention of the Commission to the violation of rights or freedoms under the African Charter, had been actively interpreted.
That, according to Mr Bitaye, had enabled the consideration of inter-state as well as non-state communications.
Mr Bitaye mentioned that by setting standards in their activities, the commissioners were able to align the African Charter with other international human rights principles while putting in place a system that encouraged significantly the wide access by all to the protective procedures of the commission.
He said each of the eleven commissioners, to ensure the effective discharge of their promotional mandate had been assigned a number of countries to maximize individual and personal oversight of the promotion of rights.
Moreover, the commissioners had also created special mechanisms to address specific human rights issues identified as challenges on the continent, such as, the death penalty, rights of indigenous populations and communities, the prohibition of torture and the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, and recently, the rights of the aged.
Mr Bitaye said whereas the directives of the ACPHR were merely recommendations in the past, the establishment of a special court under a protocol of the African Charter, would now make them enforceable
The only challenge, he said, was a prior declaration that states had to make consenting to allow individuals in their state to bring complaints against them.
Mr Bitaye said without that declaration, individuals from states seeking redress at the commission could not have it enforced and urged all member countries to make the declaration.
The Coordinator of TWN, Africa, Dr Yao Graham, said TWN had taken the opportunity to collaborate with the ACHPR to organise the public lecture as part of their contribution in promoting the work of the commission.

IDEG TO DEPLOY OBSERVERS TO MONITOR VOTE COUNTING

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) over the weekend inaugurated a new programme that would deploy observers at the close of voting to monitor the counting of votes.
The Executive Director of IDEG, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, said traditionally election observation in the country focused on the process of voting at the polling stations and the constituency level but it was necessary they were allowed into the strong room of the Electoral Commission (EC) to give the whole process more credibility.
IDEG was, therefore, going to deploy observers after the voting to observe the counting and was in consultation with the EC to allow observation in their strong room where final results would be collated.
The deployment of observers to monitor the counting of ballots and other activities of the 2008 elections is part of the institute’s project, dubbed “Elections, Public Policies and Accountability.”
The project has three main components; credible elections, peace and anti-violence and national cohesion.
The first component, credible elections has begun with observers already in the field observing the registration of Ghanaians who have turned 18 in 26 districts, clustering 42 constituencies across seven regions where IDEG is already working.
These regions are the Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Volta, Central, Upper East and the Northern.
The monitoring of vote counting, collation and the declaration of results is also under this component, as well as voter education on rejected ballot papers, voter apathy and the training of polling agents.
Under the peace and anti-violence component, IDEG has plans to bring eminent and knowledgeable individuals from all fields to engage Ghanaians on issues that impinge on peace and the development of the country.
Also, a major public forum, called the Citizens Public Forum, has been planned for all Ghanaians to deliberate on flawed elections and their consequences, drawing specific experiences from Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
He said that four forums would also be held with the EC chairman, the Chief Justice, the Inspector General of Police and the National Peace Council for them to interact with Ghanaians and discuss their role to ensure a credible election.
In collaboration with the West African Network for Peace Building, IDEG would also monitor and report on potentially violent conflict trends in all the regions of the country.
With the third component, Dr Akwettey said national cohesion actions???? would involve the convening of a non-partisan eminent citizen’s panel at the national level to discuss public policy issues relevant to the strengthening of national cohesion through equitable development, poverty reduction and eradication.
At the constituency level, Governance Issues Forums (GIF) would be organised to provide a public platform for interaction, debates and dialogues between political parties and parliamentary candidates on one hand and citizens and voters on the other.
He said the GIF foras would continue even after the elections and would become a permanent feature to afford constituents the opportunity to engage policy makers on a regular basis.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2008, PG 16,(BY LINE TAKEN OFF WHEN PUBLISHED)

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Mr Yvo de Boer, says without public support and action on climate change no progress will be made on the issue.
With no progress on the issue, there was sure to be no change in the direction of economic growth, and that had implications for the sustainability of most economies, he said.
Speaking at the beginning of a four day training workshop for journalists on climate change organised by the UNFCCC secratariat, he said public support for, and understanding of, the issues of climate change would get the spotlight on politicians to get things done.
It would also keep up the pace of providing innovative technologies and others solutions, he added.
Mr Yvo de Boer said that was the only way forward provided journalists took the “valuable opportunity” existing during such international talks to understand issues and help sensitise all for the appropriate actions to be taken.
An Environmental Correspondent of Reuters, Mr Alistair Doyle, told journalists no to panic when reporting on Climate Change Talks as the tendency was for them to, because of the technicalities of the issues.
He advised that stories on climate change should be kept simple, innovative and interesting, to attract the attention of all.
The UNFCCC is organising the workshop to engage journalists on the issue and is directly sponsoring about 21 journalists although participation is open to about 37 journalists currently covering the Accra Climate Change Talks 2008.

CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS FISH STOCK, ROOT CROPS

A Report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established that climate change in the country is affecting fisheries, land management, root crop and cocoa production.
The trend could also erode poverty reduction efforts, if action is not taken to mainstream climate change into national development and poverty reduction programmes, the report says.
In addition, women who mostly depend on the ecosystem for their food, water, energy and other means by which they nurture their families will be the hardest hit.
The report, titled "Ghana Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptations Assessments," was done with the assistance of The Netherlands government through The Netherlands Climate Assistance Programme (NCAP), using internationally accepted methods.
The lead author of the report, Mr William Kojo Agyemang-Bonsu, said the report was one of the responses of the country in the international debate on the matter.
In addition, the country had in fulfilment of its obligation under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), prepared its national communication strategy on the assessment of emissions by human activity.
In addition, a Bus Rapid System was to be introduced as one of the measures to reduce emissions by vehicles on some congested roads in the Central Business District, he added.
The report says that the fisheries sector, which covers about 25 per cent of Ghanaians who live on the coastal zone, and about 10 per cent of those who depend on it for their livelihood, ??????upwelling and sea surface temperature conditions observed for the past 40 years have come with dwindling stocks of various species of fish?????.
The observed changes in the sea, the report says is "a local manifestation of global scale climate changes".
On health, the monthly incidence rates of diseases, such as meningitis and diarrhoea have seen a rise at the national level, which is attributed to reduced rainfall amounts and increased mean air temperature.
The report says, "The nation is at risk of guinea worm infestation under current conditions of increased temperature and reduced rainfall."
On land management, the report assesses the implications of climate change on the quality of land, its biotic cover, desertification, among other things.
Among the issues raised in this section are the food shortages that will come with the adverse environmental changes, involving land degradation and drier climate.
This is also expected to affect greatly vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, children, and nursing mothers.
With less amount of rainfall predicted in the future, root crop production is expected to reduce, as well as the country’s main cash crop, cocoa.
This, the report says, will worsen poverty levels in some areas in Ghana that fall within zones with relatively high temperatures and low rainfall.
These areas already have a high incidence of poverty.
On solutions, aquaculture has been proposed as an option with great promise for crop farmers to diversify their income.
In the health sector, strengthening the existing capacity of public health interventions and applying new approaches in examining associated risks to climate change in the health sector was recommended.
The report proposes "appropriate environmental recovery and livelihood support programmes," in land management, with the threat of aridity of land in future.
It calls on policy makers to understand and appreciate the complexities of climate change and poverty for effective policy interventions.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2008, PG 25

CLIMATE TALKS END

The Accra Climate Change Talks 2008 has ended with renewed international resolve to intensify the pace of negotiations on climate change.
The Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr Yvo de Boer, who addressed a closing press conference, described the meeting as successful.
He said the Accra meeting had been a “very important and encouraging meeting” and had provided concrete proposals on several issues.
Mr Yvo de Boer said concrete proposals had been made on financing the means by which developing countries could cope better with climate change while following a sustainable development path.
He said the highlight of the meeting was the agreement by governments to compile all the proposals into one text for the next meeting on climate change in Poznan, Poland, in December this year.
The proposals on stepping up action on reducing greenhouse emissions and better coping measures to the impacts of climate change, particularly by developing nations, would be the first concrete negotiating text to work with on the road to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009, Mr de Boer said
“So Accra has laid the foundation of what could serve as a first negotiating text for a Copenhagen deal,” he said.
At Copenhagen governments will agree on concrete proposals on climate change.
The chairpersons of the two working groups at the Accra Climate Change Talks, Messrs Luiz Figuieredo Machado and Harald Dovland, who also addressed the press conference, said they had made progress in their discussions.
Mr Machado — who chaired a working group that focused on four key issues set out in Bali, that is, better coping mechanisms to climate change, lessening the impact of climate change, technology and financing — said several proposals for solutions had been made.
He said governments had discussed at length what was needed to strengthen individual countries’ abilities to cope with climate change and reduce greenhouse emissions.
Mr Dovland, the chair of the group on the Kyoto Protocol that focused on emission reduction targets, also reported that progress had been made by parties on ambitious emission reduction targets.
He said despite the economic and political complexities in negotiating on that point, positive steps had been taken on the road to Poznan.

DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008, PG 17

CRAVE FOR SMALL FISH CAUSE OF DECLINE

Ghanaians’ crave for “baby fish” or small fish has been cited as one of the reasons for the current shortage of fish in the country.
Contributing to the discussion on the state of the fishing industry in the country, a lecturer at the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of Ghana, Dr Francis K. E. Nunoo, told the Daily Graphic that “Ghanaians are not selective in the fish they eat, but make a delicacy of baby fish, which is the food of other fishes in the sea.”
He said the excuse of most people for eating small fishes was that they were delicious and their bones were soft.
However, in making a delicacy of baby fish, he said, Ghanaians were competing directly with and depriving the fishes of their food, hence the decline in fish stocks at sea.
He said in developed jurisdictions, catching those types of fish were banned and anyone found with them was made to face the law.
He also cited the greed of fishermen, bad fishing practices, poor sanitation and environmental practices by Ghanaians, as well as climate change, as other challenges in the industry.
Dr Nunoo, who specialises in Fisheries Ecology and Management, Coastal Management, Environmental Impact Assessment and Marine Biodiversity Conservation, said the challenges of the industry as was being reported in the media recently, was not new.
“For the past three decades the fisheries industry has been going through decline in stocks. After 1972 when there was a bumper harvest, there has been fluctuations ever since,” he said.
Dr Nunoo said the catch of fish per unit effort, that is, the amount of standard time, effort and resources put into fishing, was not corresponding with any of the catch made.
And as a result fishermen were using more effort, time, resources and finances for less results.
The greed of some fishermen too, and the fact that their whole livelihood depended on the industry, resulted in the use of what Mr Nunoo termed “unorthodox methods of fishing”.
These unorthodox methods include fishing with bright lights, dynamite and carbide.
With the dynamite, all marine life, that is, the fish targeted, those that were not edible but helped in the balance of the marine ecosystem, and all other aquatic life was destroyed, Dr Nunoo explained.
With 10 per cent of the population of the country totally dependent on the fishing industry for their livelihoods, depleting stocks meant more unorthodox methods, he pointed out.
Climate change, Dr Nunoo said, was also having an impact on the industry. With low temperatures the sea experienced upwellings, a phenomenon that brings nutrients from the bottom of the sea to the top for even distribution to the fishes.
This way, all nutrients necessary for the nutrition of fishes are evenly distributed for all fish. He explained that when the temperatures were high, upwellings decreased.
Dr Nunoo said the Ministry of Fisheries had a division called the Marine Fisheries Research Division, which undertook research that fed into policy drawing and implementation.
He said the ministry was doing the best it could with the low logistics and funding to improve on the industry.
Dr Nunoo said a National Fisheries and Aquaculture policy was currently being discussed.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008, PG 1

GHANA HAS POTENTIAL TO HARNESS WIND POWER

It has been established that Ghana has the potential of producing between 600 and 700 MW of energy using wind on the coastal belt.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Energy Commission, with funding from the Global Environmental Facility, have maps that show that winds in the coastal belt, towards the East, are particularly stronger in the dry season when the Akosombo Hydro plant experiences a fall in water levels.
Estimates have shown 100 square kilometres of windy areas that are within 25 kilometres of roads and transmission lines in appropriate areas for putting up the infrastructure that can supply electricity for refrigeration and lighting to about 500,000 homes.
The potential is an opportunity for the country to benefit from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol is the international agreement on climate change, while the CDM is the means by which developing countries gain some financial resources for carbon emissions avoided through sustainable development projects.
Mr Nick Nuttall, the Spokesperson of UNEP and Head of Media, disclosed this in Accra last Tuesday at a training workshop for journalists on the topic: “Expanding the reach of CDM in Developing Countries with Emphasis in Africa”.
The workshop was organised by the UNFCCC secretariat for about 40 journalists from all over the world covering the talks.
He described the potential “a key adaptation measure to climate change” for the country, that could be exploited within the next five years with proposals to the CDM board.
In a telephone interview, the Climate Change Task Manager of UNEP, Mr Tom Hamlin, who is based in Paris and was directly involved in the studies, said the excess energy generated by wind could be offloaded to traditional energy generation plants, like the Volta River Authority (VRA), or exported.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY AUGSUST 28, 2008, PG 50

GOVTS URGED TO REVIEW SUBSIDIES ON FOSIL FUEL

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called on governments to reform subsidies on fossil fuels.
It said subsidies on fossil fuels were no longer serving their intended purpose of providing a social cushion for increases in international oil prices, but was rather costly in economic terms and adding to the carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
UNEP said governments needed to review the subsidies on fossil fuels, reduce or eliminate them and channel them to more renewable sources.
At a press conference to launch a new publication titled “Reforming Energy Subsidies, Opportunities to Contribute to the Climate Change Agenda” the organisation said about $300 billion or 0.7 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was being spent by governments on energy subsidies annually.
“Subsidies reduce incentives to use energy efficiently, act as a drain on government finances and hold back economic development,” the report said.
The Spokesperson for UNEP and Head of Media, Mr Nick Nuttall, addressing the press conference said the issue of reducing subsidies on fossil fuels provided a great opportunity for developing countries to build their capacities in renewable energy resources, reduce emissions in the atmosphere and also gain by trading off the reduction for additional resources for development.
It was also an opportunity for African countries to shore up their adaptive or coping capacities to climate change and build their capacities in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The CDM is the primary international mechanism for offsetting carbon emission into the atmosphere under the Kyoto Protocol, and operates by developing countries establishing renewable development projects and exchanging that for financial resources paid by industries that significantly contribute to emissions.
The UNEP Climate Change Co-ordinator, Mr Kaveh Zahedi, said fossil fuel subsidies was a “blunt instrument” in poverty reduction measures.
It was for that reason that governments needed a reassessment of subsidies on fossil fuels, to find out better ways of development and poverty reduction initiatives through renewable resources.
That, he added, would also help countries contribute to reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
The UNEP Deputy Director and African Ministerial Convention on the Environment (AMCEN) Secretary for the Regional Office of Africa, Dr Peter C. Acquah, said the subsidies from fossil fuels could be channelled into solar, wind and other renewable energy resources.
The UNEP describe subsidies on fossil fuel as environmentally harmful and retrogressive to social and economic development through access to reliable and affordable energy.
It says an energy subsidy is any governmental action that influences energy market outcomes by lowering the cost of energy production, raising the price received by energy producers or lowering the price paid by energy consumers.
It lists direct financial transfers in grants to producers or consumers, preferential tax treatment, trade restrictions and energy-related services provided directly by the government at less than full cost as some of the types of energy subsidies.

DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2008, PG 49

CHRISTAINS COME TO TERMS WITH VOTING ON SUNDAY

CHRISTIANS are coming to terms with the idea of voting on a Sunday, and already, several Christian denominations have outlined arrangements towards a successful polling day on December 7, 2008.
Speaking today on the issue, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. Charles G. Palmer-Buckle, said for Christians, particularly Catholics, voting on Sunday was not an issue they had to come to terms with, but was a responsibility to be fulfilled.
He said the Catholic Church would liaise with the Electoral Commission (EC) for a smooth voting day, particularly on Catholic Church premises where voting would be carried on.
“Voting usually takes place on the compounds of church premises, therefore, there would be no challenges even as the exercise goes on and Catholics worship in the church buildings,” he said.
“We would definitely make sure that everything runs smoothly, with no interruptions,” he added.
Interviews with other leaders of some Christain denominations, confirmed that voting on Sunday was increasingly being seen as a a civic responsibility by Christians to be carried out together with the important Christian duty of worshiping with all the seriousness required on December 7, 2008.
Already some denominations have announced alternative arrangements to ensure smooth polling on that day.
For instance, the Assemblies of God Church has directed pastors to conduct brief services on that day in all their branches for to give worshipers ample time to vote, while the Christian Council of Ghana has also directed their member churches to liaise with polling officials to ensure a smooth process.
This is particularly for small churches with small compounds that also double as polling stations and also ensure worship arrangements that would not clash with the voting process in these areas.
Pastor Eric Ampofo of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), speaking on behalf of the Head of Pastor of the church, Pastor Menash Otabil, said the church conducted two services on Sundays, each lasting two hours.
“Our services are on schedule, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. for the first service and 10. 30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. for the second and congregants can either attend church early and go and vote, or vote before coming to church,” adding that the day would pose no challenges for members.
The General Secretary of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Alfred Koduah, said the church was soon to make known its programme for the voting day to ensure a smooth day.
He was sure that voting on a Sunday would pose no challenges.
“We will surely manage it,” he said.
Despite the general acceptance of voting on a Sunday, other views are that the country has to adopt a system where voting is done on a day that does not conflict with the private endeavours of people.
In 1996, voting day fell on a Saturday and according to Pastor Joe Aaron Hagan, the Director of Marketing and Communications of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church, it posed a challenge to the church then.
At that time, he was Director of Religious Leadership and Public Affairs of the West African Union of the SDA Church. He and others wrote to their mother church abroad as most members were threatening not to vote.
However, the consensus reached was for members to live according to their conscience and decide individually whether to vote or not.
The SDA Church then also tried advocating a change in the voting day but that was not taken by the EC.
Pastor Hagan said Ghana had to change its voting day and adopt what was done in other jurisdictions where voting was done on a working day and not a weekend to avoid a conflict with the private endeavours of citizens.
For December 7, 2008, he called on all Christians to be calm and decide, based on their conscience, on what to do on that day.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008, PG 35

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION INTRODUCES MAGAZINE

GMA Focus, the news magazine of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), is replete with useful information, as well as specialised knowledge for all on health and medicine, especially for medical professionals and health policy initiators.
The second edition of the magazine is equally bold in ideas and print.
A varied and specialised group of writers have dissected issues pertaining to health and the 2008 elections that are worth reading for informed choices, while the layout, printing and picture quality are comparable to any serious magazine.
For lay people, the magazine provides vital information on GMA, its activities, its initiatives in the health sector, statistics on its membership nationwide and professional development information for its members.
The key theme for the second edition of the magazine, “Health and Election 2008,” makes interesting reading for all Ghanaians, as the Flag bearer of the Peoples’ National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama, answers questions on what his party has for the sector.
It is, however, rather unfortunate that other presidential candidates, even after persistent requests from the GMA and the astute writer, Ms Lucy Adoma Yeboah of the Daily Graphic, failed to honour requests for interviews.
One of the issues Prof. Mahama assures of dealing with, is to introduce a common platform that will enable both private and public sectors to contribute to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
GMA Focus rightly links political leadership with a good health sector and provides some relevant examples from the United States, with an insightful article by one Brian Levine of the Columbia University’s New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Several other features on how political leadership and medical expertise can be synchronised to provide better services for Ghanaians are discussed in articles such as “Expanding the Oral Health Outreaches to Deprived Communities,” and “The Health of the Nation: Involving other sectors.”
GMA focus has an interactive section that includes letters from readers who are already addicted to the magazine, especially in its maiden edition, and an uncensored discussion by professionals and lay people on line interactive forum dubbed GMA Google Groups.
Practitioners can also find basic legal underpinnings for the practice of medicine in the country, which when kept, will help in preventing negligence in practice.
On the lighter and recreational side, a Medical Travelogue, by Prof. Stephen Addai, takes readers on an adventure in four countries on three continents in a sort of mental reality excursion.
To top up, GMA Focus, mindful of the welfare of all, provides professionals and readers with the know-how on expanding sources of income of practitioners through sound finance and investment.
GMA Focus is worth the price, the reading time and the information it provides.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY AUGUST 28, 2008, PG 7

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2008

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr Yvo de Boer, has asked for specific proposals that capture the concerns of developing nations on climate change.
He made this proposal at a press conference on the high level talks in Accra.
The Accra Climate Change Talks 2008 is a prelude to the crucial UN negotiating process that will be concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of 2009.
It will focus on the momentum set by the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali last year during which world leaders committed themselves to finding ways to strengthen the international response on climate change on four key issues.
The issues are adaptation, mitigation, financing and technology to help deal with the challenge through reducing emissions and adapting to changes.
The meeting, Mr de Boer said, would provide the opportunity for African countries, which are hardest hit by the challenge, “to put their concerns on the table.”
He said the Copenhagen deal would also seek to “deliver effective mechanisms that help developing nations to achieve clean economic growth and deal with the impact of climate change. This is needed to prevent Africa from being the forgotten continent of international climate change action.”
During the meeting in Accra, there will be two main negotiating groups, one under the Kyoto Protocol to negotiate how industrialised nations can reduce emissions considerably beyond 2012.
The other group will negotiate under the Bali decision that will focus on straightening the international response to climate change.

DEVELOPING NATIONS MUST HAVE ONE GOAL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Ghana will lead a developing nation perspective in the discussions on climate change, the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko told journalists at the on going Accra Climate Talks 2008.
Earlier conference on the issue in Indonesia galvanised developing countries, which are hardest hit by climate change conditions, around a common goal for the current talks in Accra.
“Ghana’s position and Africa’s position is well under control,” Mr Ajei-Darko said.
Developing nations at the talks will be pushing for getting industrialised nations, which are heavy polluters, to keep to a reduction in their emissions, funding and technology to help developing nations better adapt to current climatic trends and mitigate effects on their countries, while developing countries will have to commit themselves to redressing deforestation, which accounts for about 20 per cent of greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere.
The minister said he was looking forward to the consolidation of these and other issues at the Accra conference, which is a prelude to the Bali Conference in Copenhagen in 2009.
He said it was expected that Copenhagen would deliver concrete positions to address the challenge.
Responding to his expectations of industrialised nations in the talks, Mr Adjei-Darko said apart from adhering to their commitments, developing nations also deemed it important to have the needed funding for adaptation and mitigation.
He added though that there was the need for collaboration as climate change and its impact did not know the traditional world ordering of rich or poor nations.
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr Yvo de Boer, said the climate talks in Accra was an opportunity for both developed and developing nations to reach concrete proposals.
He said the challenge of climate change and search for solutions could not be done without input from developing nations.

DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008,PG 50

EPA TO DEAL WITH E-WASTE

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is leading a campaign to deal with electronic waste , known as e-waste.
This was made known in Accra at a press conference under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and addressed by the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko.
The minister said the government was set to address the issue from the root cause by, among other solutions, preventing the importation of such products into the country.
He was unhappy about the dangers caused by heavy metals contained in this waste to the health of people.
Mr Adjei-Darko, however, pointed out the handicap of the government, as it sought to employ drastic measures to address the situation, was the fact that some Ghanaians would argue for the products being the source of the waste not to be banned because they served the needs of the poor.
He said cheap and used electronic appliances were not necessarily beneficial.
The Director of EPA, Mr Jonathan Allotey, said already the EPA was in meetings with the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) and other parties to see how best to tackle the challenge.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY AUGUST 25, 2008, PG 47

UNPUBLISHED, PRESENTED FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2008

The Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) and the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Akropong Akuapem, are collaborating on a project to provide support to people living with HIV/Aids in districts.
The project is geared at identifying people living with the condition through informal networks in congregations and providing counselling and support for them.
The project was first begun by the church in the district, when through informal interactions, one person living with the condition was identified.
In two months, through interaction, counselling and support, to that person, eight adults and four children living with the condition had been identified in the district.
The church is now supporting them with some money for their transportation to and from medical centres when they go for their Anti-retroviral drugs and also supporting in ensuring good nutrition.
The Rev George Kwapong, the District Minister of the Presbyterian Church, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic said the church was now collaborating with the GAC to expand the programme to cover other districts in the region and then nation-wide.
A member of the GAC, Mr Samuel Anyimadu-Amaning, said a commendable element of the project was that the church had through informal networks been able to identify 12 people living with the condition in two months.
That meant that more persons living with HIV/Aids could be identified in all other regions if churches stopped condemning PLWHA and rather used compassion to attract persons with the condition for counselling and other support services.
He said from experience, people suffering from HIV/Aids were scared of opening talking about their status because of stigmatisation and condemnation from some churches who gave the perception that all sufferers contracted the disease through immoral living.
It was therefore refreshing, he said, that the Presbyterian Church in the Akropong/Akuapem district used compassion instead of condemnation to draw PLWHA into support and counselling services.

MAKE HIV, MALARIA CAMPAIGN ISSUES

THE Chairman of the Ghana HIV Network and member of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Mr Samuel Anyimadu-Amanaing, has criticised all presidential aspirants for neglecting issues of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis in their campaign messages.
He said all the presidential aspirants were going on and on about the economic empowerment of Ghanaians. However, “you cannot talk about economic empowerment to a people who are not there because they are being annihilated by HIV/AIDS, Malaria or TB”.
He told the Daily Graphic that the way these issues had been left out of campaign messages and manifestos of all the political parties showed that they were not important to the presidential aspirants and party members.
It also suggested a dearth of knowledge on these issues and concerns.
According to Mr Anyimadu-Amanaing, it was imperative to have policy initiatives for addressing these health concerns by all presidential aspirants in their campaigns and manifestos because of the global importance of these health concerns.
He said the presidential candidates of the US had come out clearly on the issues and campaigned forcefully on their policy initiatives on HIV/Aids, when elected as president, and presidential aspirants in the Ghana had to follow suit and address these issues publicly to support the efforts of agencies in addressing the challenge.
Mr Anyimadu-Amanaing stressed the seriousness of the health challenge, which called for public engagement by the aspirants.
That was because recent studies in the US had revealed that the prevalence rates reported in the past had been under-underestimated.
“Since Ghana also relies sometimes on these international figures, it is probable that estimates from the sentinel survey may also have been underestimated, meaning the 1.9 prevalence rates would be up by about 40 per cent,” he added.
He said the United States had recently increased budgetary support to Aids in Africa under the Presidential Emergency Fund for Relief, making it important for political leadership to show the commitment and foresight in tackling the challenge.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008, PG 35

ROYAL NAVAL SHIP HERE FOR CLIMATE CONFAB

HMS Endurance, the only Ice Patrol Ship of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, has arrived at the Tema Harbour to whip up African interest on issues of climate change.
This is part of the global effort to bring climate change issues to the fore as a run-up to the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Climate Change in New York next month.
The UN meeting is expected to take concrete action and set up specific time lines on gas emissions and actions to deal with the global challenge.
The HMS Endurance is a world class climate and ecological research vessel that operates in the Antarctica collecting data on climate change and has already spent six months there.
The visit of the ship, coincides with the high level talks on climate change under the auspices of the UN framework for Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aimed at securing effective emission reduction framework under the auspices of the Kyoto Protocol.
At a press conference held on the ship, Captain Bob Tarrant, the captain of HMS Endurance, said a useful platform for dialogue on climate change would be presented by the experienced and varied nature of the skills of the more than 100 people living on the ship that included scientists, photographers, engineers, chefs, surveyors, soldiers and air crew.
He also expressed the commitment of the UK in providing solutions to and engaging with partners like Ghana on the challenge.
An African Climate Change and Environmental Adviser of the UN Department for International Affairs, Mr Sean Doolan, said climate change implications for Ghana would be in the mining, energy and water sectors.
He said there was, therefore, a real stake within the country to forge response on the issue and lead an African voice to contribute to solutions to the challenge.
He said although a lot of work had been done already, there was the need for wider national consultations to achieve an international framework by 2009.
Mr Doolan advocated a strong African political mandate on the issue as an African response was generally missing from the debates.
He was sure that Ghana had the potential to provide leadership for the sub-region and, indeed, the continent.
An officer of the UK Meteorological Office, Ms Kirsty Lewi, said the activities of the ship were geared towards understanding climate change, causes and impacts on regions.
She said further that work so far had shown that climatic change was of a global scale, affecting temperature and rainfall pattern.
Currently, the ship was finding out the impact of climate change on regional blocs and data was being collected for modelling climate change in West Africa that would show the impact of climatic change trends specifically on the sub-region.
An official of the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ms Hannah Ryder, said the high level talks on climate change were part of the action plan towards the reduction of emissions and redressing climate change and its effects.
She said these seminars presented opportunities for technological adaptations, and the use of technology and finance as supporting mechanisms to tackle the challenge.
She said discussions in Ghana would also focus on deforestation as forests were critical in redressing emissions and contribute to solving the challenges posed by climatic change.
A representative of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Emmanuel Arthur, said the EPA, which was at the forefront of local initiatives on climate change, was implementing a programme geared at sensitising particularly rural dwellers to their engagement with the environment.
The HMS Endurance will be in the country till August 26, 2008, and will also host a series of seminars on maritime security.
DAILY GRAPHIC, FRIDAY AUGUST 22, 2008, PG 23

PAEDIATRIC SURGEONS MEET IN ACCRA

Paediatric surgeons are meeting in Accra for the Seventh Congress of the Pan-African Paediatric Surgical Association (PAPSA) congress.
The seven-day congress is a biennial event and is expected to attract more than 100 participants.
The Ghana Association of Paediatric Surgeons (GAPS) is for the first time hosting this year’s congress with a series of events on the theme, “The Challenges of Neo-natal Surgery in Africa”.
The President of PAPSA, Dr Mrs Afua A. J. Hesse, told the Daily Graphic that in line with the association’s aim of sharing expertise in the area of neonatal surgery in Africa, the congress had brought together participants from countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas.
A series of sessions and workshops would be held with two Canadian surgeons, Professor Jean-Martin Laberge, a paediatric surgeon, and his wife, Prof. Louise Laberge, a paediatric plastic surgeon, during the congress.
Paediatric surgeons in training would also benefit and learn adaptable methods and skills of surgery in children.
Participants have had the chance of gaining skills in certain types of surgery in children in a laboratory setting, while the resource persons have also taken them through surgery in Hirschsprung’s disease, which affects the nerves of the back passage in children resulting in constipation and cleft lip repair.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the risk of neonatal death is six times higher in developing countries than in the developed countries and setting the tone for upcoming events, Dr Mrs Hesse said the congress would share the expertise needed by all, particularly developed countries, in reducing mortality in infants and children.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY AUGUST 21, 2008, PG 47

ALHAJI HEARTS, 2 OTHERS ARRESTED, OVER ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERING

read by ssb
15.08.08
34 (security agencies)
Story: Caroline Boateng
TWO persons, Alhaji Suleiman Braimah, alias Alhaji Hearts, and Alhaji Tijani, a Ghanaian based in London, have been arrested in connection with a case in which a 34-year-old flight attendant is being held on suspicion of money laundering.
The 34-year-old flight attendant of the Ghana International Airlines (GIA), Clarabel Ewura Esi Kingful, was arrested by security agents in Accra for concealing £59,870 in her baggage on a flight from London to Ghana on August 8, 2008.
Random search on the cabin crew when the GIA flight landed on that day revealed the money in the luggage of Ms Kingful, who was subsequently arrested and arraigned before an Accra circuit court to reappear on August 20, 2008, while investigations continue.
Sources told the Daily Graphic that upon her arrest, Ms Kingful claimed that the money belonged to a man she only knew as George, although she had known him close to 26 years.
She was supposed to deliver the money to some persons in Ghana.
Consequently, a circuit court in Accra remanded Alhaji Suleiman and Ahmed Tijani on charges of conspiracy, concealment of currency, and aiding and abetting money laundering when they appeared to claim ownership of the money.
The court did not take the pleas of Alhaji Hearts and Tijani. They will reappear on August 20.
DAILY GRAPHIC, MONDAY AUGUST 18, 2008, PG 20

BE AWARE OF BASIC RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS

The Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana, Legon, has initiated a Basic Law Training Programme for anyone interested in the acquisition of basic knowledge in some essential aspects of the law necessary for daily use.
The programme, organised by the Centre for Human Rights and Public Affairs of the faculty, has been designed to equip participants with the knowledge of some fundamental branches of the law necessary for informed decision in their personal lives.
It is targeted at private individuals, business people, civil servants and senior citizens with no legal background.
The maiden programme will start on Monday, July 28 and end on August 8, 2008, at the faculty with about 50 participants, who will at the end of the two-week training programme receive a certificate of participation.
Some fundamental aspects of the law that will be treated under the programme are the Constitution and how it is interpreted, administrative remedies, human rights, rights and obligations of landlords and tenants, how to avoid entering into unfavourable contracts, rights and duties of employers and employees and how one can deal with nuisance from neighbours or negligence from government agencies.
The programme is in line with the faculty’s strategic plan of providing a common platform for translating its academic and legal excellence into the relevant basic knowledge for the benefit of the ordinary Ghanaian, the acting Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Kofi Quashigah, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Wednesday.
He said under the strategic plan, the faculty through its Centre for Human Rights and Public Affairs, the Basic Law Training Programme and similar programmes that would be rolled out, was placing itself at the centre of relevance in the legal, political and governance issues that daily confronted Ghanaians in their efforts to democratise and develop.
“Admittedly, important constitutional and legal issues come up and as a faculty, we are expected to have an imprint in these issues,” he said.
He said the centre would, therefore, provide well-researched, comprehensive and easy-to-apply legal and constitutional papers on various issues of governance and public policy that would also take into account best practices in other jurisdictions.
“It is our hope to provide the basic legal knowledge for life and living to all Ghanaians to help us all in our endeavours,” he said.
Prof. Quashigah said the centre was also preparing to institute another programme that would target opinion leaders in communities to be trained as paralegals.
The basic legal training of opinion leaders in communities in matters such as family law and domestic violence, would make them able to provide the direction to their communities when such legal issues arose and enable them to also advise community members on proper actions to take instead of resorting to violence and disturbances, he added.
DAILY GRAPHIC, THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2008, PG 47

SURVEYORS VISIT GRAPHIC

Some members of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) yesterday visited the Daily Graphic as part of moves by the professional body to encourage all Ghanaians to patronise their services.
The 2nd Vice President of the GhIS and Chairman of the Quantity Surveyor Division, Mr Daniel K. Kyere; the Vice President of the African Association of Quantity Surveyors, Western Region, Mr Michael Frimpong and an Associate Member of the association, Mr Humphrey Amegado, discussed with the editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, ways of possible collaboration by which Ghanaians could be sensitised to the cost effective ways of building.
They said the work of the quantity surveyor was most often done behind the scenes but vital to the longevity of structures and engineering works.
Most Ghanaians, without the basic knowledge in construction, often relied on artisans who also lacked the knowledge.
The result was crumbling buildings, the destruction of roads and bridges and the blowing away of roofs during storms, floods and other disasters.
They said as a professional organisation, they could collaborate with the Daily Graphic, a paper that often reported on issues of public interest, so that the public could be sensitised to the benefits of patronising their services, which most often was given free to those in the low income group.
“Buildings and other engineering infrastructure are meant to last a lifetime. However, bad building practices due to the lack of the requisite knowledge tends to make most buildings need major renovations after a few years,” Mr Frimpong said.
Mr Amegado, for his part, said the association had realised in recent times that most buildings in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions were being constructed without beams, an essential part in construction that held buildings together.
He said the association would bring that to the notice of partners in the construction industry in the two regions.
Mr Tetteh said the Daily Graphic partnerships with associations and organisations were important in the sensitisation function of the paper.
That was the reason for the Daily Graphic Governance Dialogue series that created the platform for others to share their views.
He said collaboration was important in finding answers to some of development challenges of the country, as it could draw professional bodies and the media together on a common platform to inform and educate.
“The Daily Graphic is ready for such partnerships to help leverage the market and help sensitise people,” Mr Tetteh said.
The group took the opportunity to announce the 4th Triennial General Assembly and 10th Council Meeting of the African Association of Quantity Surveyors that would be held on August 18 to 21 in Accra on the theme, “Advocating Quantity Surveying Excellence in Africa”.
DAILY GRAPHIC,WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008, PG 15

'EC, IPAC HOLD KEY TO CREDIBLE ELECTIONS

A BETTER collaboration between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) has been identified as key to a credible election in December.
The Executive Director of the West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Mr Emmanuel Bombande, said in Accra yesterday that the country would benefit a lot, if the EC would disabuse itself of the mentality that reduced the relevance and contribution of the IPAC.
He said the situation where deliberations and suggestions made at IPAC were implemented at the discretion of the EC because the former was not a statutory body and the latter was a state institution had to end for better co-operation.
“The best form of co-operation that the EC needs now is that with the political parties to produce a clean election, and you cannot achieve that by making power the centre of argument between you and the parties,” he told the Daily Graphic in Accra.
He said the IPAC was a good platform to address the challenges of the registration exercise.
In their conviction of the nature of IPAC in contributing to credible elections, therefore, WANEP, together with the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), had made overtures to the EC to be observers at their meetings, he said.
In that capacity, they would also recommend appropriate response actions to each challenge discussed and find those responsible for implementing actions.
That would then become a bench mark for determining who was committed and who was not to credible elections.
He said because the political parties also found IPAC to be purely advisory, and some suggestions made in the past had not been considered by the EC, they were unsure of how the EC would take into account their current views.
An interesting contradiction though, Mr Bombande pointed out, was the fact that there were certain issues that the political parties agreed on and this bound them together.
However, there was no opening valve for them to agree on steps to make the process better.
He cited the challenges of the recent registration exercise as an example of that.
“And this is where the leadership role of EC should come out,” he said.
Mr Bombande said judging from the undesired reports of the registration process, there was the urgency for all partners to accelerate their efforts to ensure a clean register for a credible election process.
A failure to infuse a sense of urgency in activities to ensure credible elections, he said, might create a situation where parties might mistrust each other and that could linger on psychologically and influence the December elections by making reference to flawed voters’ register.
Mr Bombande said the disturbances during the registration exercise was the result of a total disregard for the political parties code of conduct and the disposition that made losing the election out of the question.
“It is important to remind them that if they do not include the option of losing the election, then they will do whatever it takes to win, which will amount to political malfeasance,” he said,
He said the current political arrangement was inimical to peace, as access to political power determined the distribution of resources and wealth, making winning a compulsive desire, as losing meant waiting for another four years.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008, PG 3

I'LL ENSURE SUCCESS OF REGISTRATION EXERCISE

the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Attafuah, has noted that his training and experience as a lawyer, criminologist and human rights advocate will be supported by the “considerable expertise” of his predecessor to ensure the success of the national registration exercise.
Effective July 1, 2008, Prof Attafuah took over from Professor Ernest Dumor, whose tenure as Executive Secretary has ended.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, Prof Attafuah said the appointment was one that required considerable expertise as a manager and a change agent, as well as the skills in the handling of extensive database.
Professor Dumor now assumes the post of Special Advisor to the Executive Secretary “in recognition of his considerable expertise in mass registration” to ensure continuity in the implementation of the strategic exercise, Prof Attafuah told the Daily Graphic.
Prof Dumor’s expertise in mass registration exercises when he was at the Electoral Commission had been tapped after he retired and he was subsequently appointed on a contract basis to initiate the NIA.
This month (August) Prof Dumor turns 65 and, according to Prof Attafuah, the latter’s contract could not be extended under the Constitution, hence the change.
He commended his predecessor, saying he had “done an excellent job of establishing the project and getting it started”.
Prof Attafuah served as the Executive Secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and prior to that he was an investigator at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Coupled with that, he said, his training as a criminologist came in good stead, as it equipped him with the ability to handle the type of data under the management of the NIA.
With all these, his training as a lawyer and the various appointments under the United Nations (UN), first as an international management consultant of the UN Mission in Liberia and as one of the consultants to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, had all equipped him to discharge his duty at the NIA with integrity and commitment.
He said although the announcement of his appointment on local FM stations yesterday morning had surprised many, preparations for the appointment had begun long before the news broke.
Prof Attafuah’s letter of appointment obtained by the Daily Graphic mentioned his zeal to inform, educate and ensure the effective implementation of the programme as key factors for his appointment.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2008, PG 17

DEAL WITH ELECTION INFRACTIONS - QUANTSON

A FORMER National Security Co-ordinator, Mr Kofi Bentum Quantson, has asked law enforcement agencies to deal decisively with reported cases of infractions in the election registration process or risk a “culture of impunity” that could threaten the peace of the country.
He also asked politicians to recognise that they risked having no “spoils” at the end of the elections if they condoned the improper behaviour of their members and supporters.
In an interview wiht the Daily Graphic, Mr Quantson also charged the Electoral Commission (EC) to endeavour to uphold its image of efficiency.
“In the national interest, political parties must deal with their supporters who mess up the system, and assist the police to bring to book their fanatical supporters,” he added.
He said the electoral laws of the country had enough provisions to deal with lawlessness, and that what was lacking was the enforcement of the laws.
His call comes a few days to the close of a voter registration exercise characterised by reports of irregularities and disturbances at some registration sites.
“It is imperative that the burgeoning lawlessness be addressed vigorously. Already a dangerous culture of criminal impunity is taking firm root and unless the people involved are immediately identified and promptly prosecuted in a transparent way, more trouble should be expected,” he told the Daily Graphic.
He said reports of parties encouraging the registration of minors and disturbances at registration centres, among other reports, were of a criminal nature and subversive to the peace and progress of the nation.
He said enforcing the laws and dealing decisively with infractions “should be the focused of the enforcement agencies. They should demonstrate clear neutrality and integrity. If they fail to do that the oversight institutions should hold the culprits to strict account.”
Mr Quantson mentioned the ministry responsible for the security agencies and the Ghana Police Council as the oversight institutions that had to bring to book security agencies when they failed in their duty.
“Without this no amount of sensitisation, admonition and sermonisation can serve any purpose,” he stated.
According to him, infractions of the electoral laws were often committed by several people; therefore, the security agencies in their duty of investigating and bringing the culprits to book had to get to the source of impunity by investigating not only the direct perpetrators but others closely linked to them.
Justice, he added, was a precondition for peace and that was why all security agents needed to be seen to be doing their work with integrity and transparency.
Mr Quantson, also a former Commissioner of Police in-charge of the Criminal Investigations Department, and one of the first directors of the Narcotics Control Board also asked civil society organisations and religious organisations to be abreast of advocacy to ensure that the right things were done.
He said there had to be “targeted condemnation” of those who infringed the law, particularly by religious leaders, instead of moral platitudes and sermonisations.
By targeted condemnation, he meant clearly identifying culprits by name and publicly shaming them instead of resorting to diplomacy.
He added that civil society organisations, religious leaders and other independent groups, needed to police the police and malfeasance in the country to deal with the hydra-headed problem that had the potential of affecting the nation.
DAILY GRAPHIC, SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2008