NDC Was Using State Funds — Crabbe

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Sammy Crabbe, has described statements by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists that being in opposition is hell as an indication that they were using state funds to enrich themselves when they were in power.

According to him, the NPP would not dip its hands into state coffers to cater for its members but would rather empower them through training to be economically independent to support the party, whether it is in power or not.

Mr Crabbe said this at the end-of-year get-together for members of the party in Accra. More than 100 members who have distinguished themselves in serving the party over the years were rewarded with standing fans.

Mr Crabbe said most of the members had been provided with employable skills, with others being supported to undergo various forms of education, while others had also been employed in factories set up by the regional secretariat.

He added that the regional office was in collaboration with some transport companies for the supply of 350 taxi cabs which would be given to members of the party in the Greater Accra on credit basis.He commended the members for the keen interest shown in the National Youth Employment Programme.

The General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Ohene Ntow, commended the Greater Accra Regional branch for always being innovative and urged other regional branches to emulate it.
Source:Graphic

Two million unemployed in Ghana

The Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique has estimated the umeployment number in the country to be two million and said out of that number, 78,000, representing 26 per cent, were between the ages of 18-25.

He, therefore, advised the youth to take advantage of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) to get something to do in order to earn their keep.

The minister made the remark last Friday in Accra when some officials of his ministry interacted with the media to explain the programmes so far embarked upon by the ministry.Commenting on the numerous industrial disputes which hit the labour front this year, the minister expressed the hope that the Fair Wages Commission (FWC) would help to stem labour agitation.

He urged the labour unions and employees, such as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), to work at resolving labour issues amicably in order to bring sanity to the industrial sector.The National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, Mr Leo Kaba, in a separate interview, expressed his appreciation to the opposition parties, notably the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for supporting the programme.

He said every home in Ghana had at least an unemployed youth and added that the programme, in the long term, would provide sustenance for the numerous youths who were currently out of jobs.He said the organisations which absorbed the interns had been granted tax rebates by the government so that they could be encouraged to absorb more unemployed youths under the programme.

He mentioned the employment modules as paid internship, waste and sanitation and vacation jobs, among others, and was particularly happy about the recent rise in revenue mobilisation by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, with the support of about 300 youths.IN the same interview Saddique commended the media for undertaking positive but critical reportage of his ministry.

"Although sections of the media have been critical of us, that has propelled me to work harder, thereby putting me on my toes," he declared.Alhaji Saddique said in an interview that during his tenure as the Northern Regional Minister, the good media reports the region enjoyed contributed to bringing about peace and tranquillity in the Dagbon Traditional Area, especially during the burial of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II.
Source:Culled From Graphic

NPP to organize national conference at Koforidua

The New Patriotic Party(NPP) is to organize it's national conference at Koforidua from January 5 to January 7, 2007 at the EREDEC Hotel.

The three-day conference which would be organized under the theme "Moving forward in unity" would be climaxed with a non-denominational church service in the morning of January 7 at the EREDEC Hotel and a rally at the Jackson's Park in the afternoon. This was disclosed by the National Organizer of NPP, Mr Laud Commey at a press conference at Koforidua on Tuesday.

He said the conference would be attended by over 200 delegates made up of 1,429 delegates from the constituencies and other delegates from the foreign constituencies of the party and would be used to reenergize and resource the structures of the party in preparations towards the 2008 elections.

Mr Commey said the conference would discuss reports from the regions, some key ministries and the government to assess how the manifesto presented to the people of Ghana by the party was being fulfilled.

He said a special feature of the conference would be the opportunity that would be offered the delegates to sit with the President to chat with him and ask him key questions on issues affecting the areas where they were coming from.

Mr. Commey said some proposals had been forwarded to the party secretariat and would expect some amendments to be made to the constitution of the party but did not specify. He explained that as far as the party was concern, there are no presidential aspirants of the party but what was happening could best be described as party members conducting consultations and "testing the waters".

Mr. Commey explained that, by the constitution of the party, 14 months before an election, the party opens nominations for possible presidential candidates to fill their nominations. He explained that, it was after the filling of nomination that a committee would be set up by the party to vet the nominees and it was after a nominee had been confirmed by the committee that the fellow would become a presidential aspirant of the party.

Mr. Commey described the research said to have been published on the presidential aspirants through a poll of delegates as a fun because the delegates of the party were not automatic. He explained that by the constitution of the party, every constituency would be expected to organize a special delegates conference to elect four delegates from the ten constituency executives and six non-executive members and as at now nobody knows who would be a delegate and so wonder who were interviewed.

Mr. Commey said to him, the various threats of passing of vote of no confidence in the various executives of the party at different levels of the party was an expression that the party was alive and that the ordinary members of the party could point out faults of the leadership to them even if the ordinary members were wrong.

The Eastern Regional chairman of the party, Mr Yaw Gyekye Amoabeng explained that, most of the party members accusing him of not acting on their threat to have their executives removed were not having their way because often, they failed to abide by the laid down procedures in the constitution of the party.Source:GNA

Cocaine traces 'on Spanish euros'

Traces of cocaine can be found on 94% of euro banknotes circulating in Spain, a study has suggested. Analysis of notes from a selection of Spain's major cities showed that each one carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of cocaine.
Spain has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in the world, with about 475,000 regular users, El Mundo newspaper reports.
Euro banknotes have only been in circulation since January 2002.

Scientists could not carry out tests on old peseta banknotes before 2002 for fear that they would not withstand the chemicals used in the analysis.
Now, though, armed with resilient modern euro notes, experts collected 20 notes for analysis from each of five cities - Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia and Seville.
From each city they gathered five 10 euro notes, 10 of 20 euros and five of 50 euros.
Only three of notes gathered from each of Madrid and Barcelona were found to carry no trace of cocaine.

Wider issue

Users of the drug usually snort it by rolling up a banknote into the shape of a tube.
But experts said it was difficult to tell which notes had been used for snorting cocaine and which had become contaminated with the drug in other ways, such as in counting machines.
According to El Mundo Spain has just over one billion banknotes in circulation, with estimates suggesting that 142 million have been used directly to snort the drug.

Other countries have been found to have drug problems in the past: a BBC survey in 1999 found that 99% of £5 notes tested in London contained traces of cocaine.
Euro banknotes in Germany appear especially vulnerable: a 2003 survey gave similar results to the Spanish analysis about cocaine traces.

And this month officials in Germany suggested that methamphetamine, or crystal meth, could be causing euros to "corrode" when users snort it through a rolled-up note.