Kofi Annan To Address Ghana's Parliament

BUSUMURU Kofi Annan, the immediate past Secretary General of the United Nations, is expected to address Parliament as the house rises on Tuesday, July 31.The House is expected to rise on July 31 after completing the second meeting of the third session of the Fourth Parliament.Felix Owusu-Adjapong (NPP – Akyem Swedru), Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, who announced this on Friday, when presenting the business statement of the House, urged Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, who announced this on Friday, when presenting the business statement of the House, urged members to be present for the special occasion.He said, during this week, the House would debate a private member’s motion requesting "government to take appropriate measures to remove the algae in the marine waters of Jomoro District since they have greatly affected the livelihood of the people of the area". The motion was filed by Lee Ocran (NDC Jomoro).He brought the issue to the attention of the House in a statement on the floor of the House, two weeks ago.Mr Owusu-Adjapong said the Appointments Committee would meet to consider the President’s nominees for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial appointments and also debate the motion for the adoption or otherwise of the committee when they are presented.
Source:Times

MTN Areeba pledges Support for festivals and cultures in northern Ghana

Mr. George Andah, Chief Marketing Officer of MTN (formerly Areeba), said on Saturday that the company would support traditional authorities in the north to celebrate their festivals and also help them to preserve their culture. He said this would become fully accomplished when MTN Foundation was launched in the country before the end of the year to focus on education, health, economic empowerment and arts and culture especially in the northern sector.

Mr. Andah said this in Tamale when he paid a courtesy call on the regent of Tamale, Alhaji Abdulai Ziblim, and added that Areeba supported vocational education in the Northern Region and would build on it for further improvement. Mr. Andah said MTN, sponsors of CAN 2008, would collaborate with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and traditional authorities to ensure that Tamale hosted the event successfully. Areas of collaboration would include decoration of roads from the Tamale Airport to the games venue, some major roads and roundabouts to ensure that visitors and investors appreciated the beauty of Tamale and the country.

Alhaji Ziblim commended MTN for the projects and pledged his full support to their activities in the region. He said Tamale was now a haven of investment and that MTN's presence in the region would encourage other investors to focus attention on the Northern Region. Mr. Andah earlier presented a cheque for 41.1 million cedis to the Northern Regional Coordinating Council as MTN's contribution to the Tamale Disaster Fund.GNA

Otumfuo sets up committee to facilitate cocoa processing factory in Ashanti

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has set up a committee to select a suitable piece of land for the establishment of a cocoa-processing factory in the Ashanti Region within the next six months. This followed the conclusion of an 18-month feasibility study by the ADM Cocoa International that had expressed interest in setting up the factory in the region at a meeting with Otumfuo Osei Tutu.

This was contained in a statement issued in Kumasi and signed by Mr G.B. Osei-Antwi, Media Relations Manager for Manhyia Palace. Oheneba Atwereboanda II, Hiahene, heads the committee. Otumfuo Osei Tutu charged the committee that has officials of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the ADM Cocoa International as its members to work with dispatch and submit a report to him within two weeks.GNA

Fire devastate Tema ECG panel

Technical personnel of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) Tema, on Saturday afternoon acted promptly to put out fire that had swept through one of its equipment at the Community one substation to save a national disaster.

Within 30 minutes the men led by the Regional Engineer, Mr. Delali Oklu brought the fire in one of its panels at the material division of the ECG opposite the old Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company under control.

The incident has placed part of the city in total darkness but Mr Oklu assured the public that power would be restored after the situation had been rectified soon. Mr Oklu could not tell the cause of the fire, saying they were still investigating. When Ghana News Agency arrived at the scene ECG personnel were still working on the burnt panel.

Their equipment, together with others in other sub-stations in the municipality were recently installed by the Tema Office of ECG from its own internally generated funds, costing millions of cedis. Meanwhile the early morning rains caused havoc in part of the communities in Tema. Many roads at Community 12 got flooded, making it unmotorable some residence near Good News Mission were flooded. The situation was not different at Community five as the frontage of some houses got flooded whiles pools of water had collected in the middle of the road, making driving uncomfortable.GNAREA

Veep commends health workers for promoting health delivery

The Vice President, Alhaji Mahama on Saturday commended the efforts health workers are making towards the promotion of quality health care delivery in the country. He said the contributions of health workers and other service providers were supplementing the government efforts at addressing the welfare needs of Ghanaians.

The Vice President was addressing the management, nurses and staff of the Obuasi Government Hospital as part of his working visit to the Obuasi municipality. The Vice President had earlier inspected a 1.5 billion cedis, 25-bed children's ward being built by the Municipal Assembly for the hospital. Messrs George Senefo-Antwi, the Project Manager and Patrick Thompson, Project Engineer of the Mining and Building Contractors (MBC), the contractor of the project told the Vice President that the project was about 80 per cent complete. Alhaji Mahama commended the management, nurses and staff of the hospital for their contribution towards the health care delivery of the people in the municipality.

"Let us all see how we can bring quality health care to our people", he said. He gave the assurance that the Kufuor administration was doing everything possible to ensure that health workers were motivated to enable them to carry out their good works to the nation. The Vice-President was hopeful that the children's ward was going to add value to the operations of the hospital and further help to improve health care delivery services at the municipality. Alhaji Mahama called on all Ghanaians to embrace the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since it was the easy way to access affordable health care.

The Vice President said as part of the government's efforts to create jobs for the country's unemployed youth and also support the expansion of the health sector, health extension workers had been engaged under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and called on the nurses to give them the maximum encouragement and support in their duties.GNA

We will Not Shutdown Akosombo Dam---VRA

Contrary to speculations that the Akosombo Dam would soon be shut down due to declining low water, the Volta River Authority (VRA) on Friday said the two generating units were running reliably.A statement signed for Ms. Abla Fiadjoe, Acting Director of Corporate Affairs, said with the technical analysis carried out and the critical monitoring system put in place, VRA had taken measures to operate the Station with two of the units at a level lower than 235 feet in "a technically safe but professionally cautious manner". "The VRA wished to assure all electricity consumers that and the general public that the two generating units currently at Akosmbo are being operated reliably and that we have no plans to shutdown the Akosombo Generating Station," it said.The statement said the VRA would continue to run the two generating units and review the situation at the end of July. "We wish to stress that this is not the first time the Akosombo Generating Station is being operated at levels below 235 feet," stressed.Going back to history, the VRA said in March 1966 it operated at 234.60 feet and for about three months to as low as 234.0 feet on June 8, 1966 when it reached the lowest ever levels with the units. "This is compared to the 126 Megawatts being produced from each of the units at this time following the successful retrofit of the Akosombo Plant," the statement said.The Authority said it had also taken requisite action to ensure that water for the reservoir, which was not only meant for power generation, was available for other uses, including water supply to the communities in the catchment area downstream Akosombo."The VRA wishes to assure the general public that it has the matter in hand and is with the assistance of Government, implementing various emergency measures which have to date helped to contain the situation albeit at lower than normal water levels," the statement noted. The Authority said it had also taken note of certain public sentiments expressed largely through the media that the VRA was telling a different story to the Government than it was telling the public explaining that: "This is patently false."It said Ghanaians and consumers of electricity on the other hand needed to appreciate the fact they could contribute to improving the situation by adopting serious energy conservation measures. 20 July 07
Source:GNA

Bill to Bring Ghanaians Prisoners Abroad Passed

Parliament on Friday passed the Transfer of Convicted Persons Bill, aka "Amoateng Bill" into law after taking it through the Third Reading.The Bill, yet to receive Presidential assent, would enable Ghanaians convicted outside the country serve their sentences in Ghana and other foreign nationals convicted in Ghana serve theirs in their home countries.

Although debate on the bill was non-partisan, the passage of the bill was preceded by days of heated arguments and sharp divisions. Those against the bill said it was a waste to spend resources on transporting convicted Ghanaian prisoners back home.They argued that the country's prisons were already choked with a large number of prisoners sharing limited facilities. Members who supported the bill, however, countered those arguments, saying convicted Ghanaian prisoners were kith and kin and needed support from fellow countrymen.

A report of the Committee on Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs presented to the House said: "The Commonwealth Secretariat has proposed a scheme to enact legislation to facilitate the transfer of convicted prisoners to address issues where extradition does not respond to the transfer of convict.""So far not less than 25-member countries of the Commonwealth have enacted legislation in this regard," it added.The Report said President J.A. Kufuor continues to receive persistent request during his visits abroad from citizens abroad for Ghanaian convicts to serve their prison terms in Ghana.

"The introduction of the Bill for consideration of this House was informed by the above stated concerns," it explained. It said the Extradition Act 1960, (Act 22) only permitted a person accused of an offence committed outside Ghana to serve the term of imprisonment in Ghana where the Republic of Ghana has an extradition agreement with the other country."Further to this, the request for extradition of the accused person can only be made where the act or omission in question constitutes an offence in both jurisdictions.The above specified conditions for the transfer of accused or convicted person under the Extradition Act poses severe limitation, the report said.

Meanwhile, the number of Ghanaians serving prison terms outside is not known, however, it is on record that there were about 100 prisoners from Ghana in Thailand prisons in relation to narcotics crimes.Earlier, Members of the House called for urgent response from regulatory bodies and the assemblies to check the activities of food vendors and others who sell consumables.They touched on the way food and drugs were being sold under unhygienic conditions and said it was compromising the health of the public.

They were contributing to a statement by Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, (NDC-North Dayi) on the poor handling of comsumables. Ms. Dansua said exposure of food items and poor handling of foods were compromising the health of everybody in the country. Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, said the ministry was working at addressing the problem and was set to design markets that enhance the protection of the handling of food in a better way.
Source:GNA/GHP