Month: July 2011

Parliament on Monday approved the report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the information technology systems of St. Louis Senior High School.

The report signed by Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah said the Committee had recommended that the school should seek technical assistance from the Ministry of Communications on its current computerization arrangement to ensure that they were in line with recommended good practices in IT service management whilst adequately meeting the needs of the school.

He said the Committee also observed that there was still no technical documentation on how the application of the school’s IT system had been configured.

This lapse in the opinion of the Committee would render the maintenance of the application very difficult should there be a change of a hardware or software, he added.

Mr Kan-Dapaah also noted that the management of St Louis should contact the Ministry of Communication through the Ministry of Education for technical guidance and urged all educational institutions to consult the Ministry of Education before undertaking any computerization exercise in the future.

He said the recommendation was as a result of weaknesses observed in the management of the school’s IT systems.

These included the absence of an information system strategy approved by senior management, poor control over user access to data, the absence of the necessary technical documentation on installed IT applications and the absence of the back-up systems for ensuring continuity of the school’s operations in the event of any system failure.

He said in line with the efforts to get the public sector abreast with the advancement in information technology some pre-university institutions in recent times resorted to the computerization of their systems to improve upon their service delivery and St Louis was one of them.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said in accordance with sections 11(1) and (3) of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), the Auditor-General conducted an audit of the Information Systems of St Louis Senior High School to review and approve the controls and procedures operated by management to ensure that information was reliable and the continued integrity of the schools critical systems was safeguarded.

He said it was also to assess the effectiveness of the overall management control over the IT function within the school.

GNA

Parliament is considering debating a bill that will soon be passed into law leading to the establishment of a veteran’s fund which will be disbursed to retired members of the various forces upon retirement.

The bill when passed will go a great length to alleviate the suffering of most veterans who are virtually at the verge of destitute in life as a result of harsh living conditions coupled with poor or at best no pension provisions during active days.

Some veterans of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Police Service especially are forced to retire at an early age of forty due to one form of accident or the other normally encountered in the line of duty which renders them incapacitated and inactive for the rest of their lives.

The bill upon its passage will also secure for its beneficiaries some form of employment offers that will keep them profitably engaged even in their inactive days thereby making them better off in life then their hitherto worse plight.

The house will also debate and subsequently pass the Defense Industrial Holding Company Bill which also seeks to prepare members of the various forces well in advance of their retirement.

Arojah Amadi-Ferguson/ghanamps.gov

The Christian Council of Ghana, has cautioned Parliament to resist the temptation of legalizing homosexuality in Ghana by passing a law that backs the practice.

According to the Council, Ghana as a country risk being visited with the wrath of God by encouraging an abominable, immoral and evil practice such as homosexuality.

The group’s aversion and campaign against the despicable act has intensified over the past month after the Daily Graphic June 10 edition, published a story which indicated that about 8,000 gays have been registered in two regions of the country, with majority of them infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS with most of the registered homosexuals including students in junior and senior high schools, the polytechnics and workers.

The publication of the story received widespread condemnation from people of diverse religions who were of the view that the act was totally alien to Ghana which is a very religious country.

Addressing a press briefing in Accra the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr Fred Deegbe stated that the Council which has a watch dog role of “policing” society cannot sit down unconcerned while immorality becomes the order of the day in Ghana.

He urged Christians to vote out politicians whose actions or inaction encourage the practice of homosexuality in any form.

Rev. Dr Fred Deegbe also called on Christian organizations that have counseling centers to willingly render counseling services to homosexuals who turn up at those centers for help, and also urged health workers to offer medical help to practicing homosexuals to curb the act.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Atwima Mponua and Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah has expressed displeasure over the low patronage of the National Unity Games which kicked off yesterday.

The Accra Sports Stadium which was the venue for the 10 day event was virtually empty with only a handful of people occupying the stadium to witness proceedings.

The last time the event was held was in 2004 but had to be stopped to allow for rehabilitating works to be done at the Accra Sports Stadium for the CAN 2008 tournament hosted in Ghana.

It has over the years served as an avenue for unearthing talents and the selection of sports men and women into the national teams, one notable sports man who was unearthed several years ago is Boxing Hall of Famer Azumah Nelson.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Atwima Mponua, attributed the low patronage of the event which should have been exciting and attract several youth groups to the stadium to the inadequate publicity carried out on the games by the media.

He however commended the government for reintroducing such important sports festivals which could go a long way to improve the performance of Ghana at international sports competitions.

Hon. Isaac Asiamah urged organizers of the programmme to consult all stakeholders in organizing subsequent events so they could bring their expertise to bear to ensure a successful exercise.

“Some of us who are members of no mean a body as the Parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports did not even receive invitation to this programme which I find a bid surprising and unfortunate’’ he said.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Deputy Minister of Health Rojo Mettle Nunu has given the strongest assurance yet to the residents of Tema and its environs that renovation works on the Tema general hospital will commence immediately after the necessary specification works have been completed.

According to the minister, feasibility studies of the necessary drawings and architectural work are being done to give to bring the hospital to a standard befitting a general hospital status.

He was responding to questions from the floor of parliament on the deplorable state of the Tema general raise by the member of Tema East Irene Naa Torshie Addo.

The member, Naa Torshie Addo questioned the delay in the start of the supposed renovation work on the said health facility. She said the house has long approved an amount of $8m for the purpose and wondered why it has taken this long for contract on the project to be awarded.

Facilities at the hospital are in a sorry state, expectant mothers lie on the bear floor, as the few beds available are just not enough to for the growing numbers of expectant mothers. As though that was not enough doctors for the various departments of the hospital are cramped in one room, thereby making nonsense of the privacy of patients.

She further lamented the poor state of preservation of death bodies at the morgue, stating that the cooling systems are not functioning and the capacity too small to accommodate the regular influx of dead bodies. So poor is the system at the morgue that mice eat some bodies which are poorly preserved.

This she said has brought undue pressure on the health personnel at post at the hospital not to mention the decline in patronage by patrons who would rather seek better health care from private facilities.

To retain the staff of the facility some of whom are threatening to vacate their post to join private health institutions, the member for the area called on the government, Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to as a matter of urgency put in place the needed mechanisms to enable the renovation work on the hospital to commence.

Arojah Amadi-Ferguson/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Minister of Roads and Highways and Member of Parliament for Central Tongu, Joe Gidisu has dismissed allegations that some individuals are hugely benefiting from the road tolls that are collected across the country.

There have been assertions that some persons at the various toll booths are able to employ dubious means to siphon monies from the tolls collected, and in so doing deny the country of the needed revenue to fund developmental projects in the country.

But answering questions on the floor of Parliament on Friday 15th July 2011, Hon. Joe Gidisu refuted the assertion stating that the automated nature of the toll collection on all the major highways in the country makes it practically impossible for any leakages, and it’s impracticable for anyone to steal from the monies collected.

He stated that toll collection as one of the major means of revenue collection is very dear to the heart of government and that government has employed measures to ensure that monitoring of tolls is done effectively.

The main sources of financing road development and maintenance are the Road Fund, the Consolidated Fund and development partners.

Revenues accrued to the Road fund are used for routine and periodic maintenance, as well as rehabilitation works, largely executed by Ghanaian contractors.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South, Stephen Balado Manu has questioned government’s commitment towards the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

According to him, government has paid lip service to SADA and has not demonstrated enough commitment to the organization whose programmes when implemented is expected to address the development gap that exists between Northern and Southern Ghana.

Government has released an amount of GH¢8 million out an allocation of GH¢25 million for the 2011 fiscal year, with assurance to release the rest of the funds to SADA to ensure a speedy implementation of programmed activities.

In addition, Government has made a provision of GH¢5million in the Supplementary Budget. A GOG-Development Partners conference on SADA will be convened soon to, among others, solicit the support of development partners.

However contributing to a discussion on e.tv’s BREAKFAST TV show on Friday 15th July, the Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South, Stephen Balado Manu stated that the amount government’s has released to SADA is woefully inadequate considering the huge sum of money it pledged as seed money for the SADA project.

“Government during its campaign told Ghanaians that it would pledge an amount of GHC 250 million as seed money for the SADA project which touched the hearts of many Northerners to voted for the NDC and now that it’s in power, the NDC government appears not to be serious with the commitment it made earlier’’ he said.

Hon. Balado Manu urged the government to make good its promise to the people of the three Northern Regions by releasing all the funds promised for the project to ensure improvements in their lives.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Former Deputy Finance Minister, Professor Gyan Baffour has said Ghana’s economy is being run on auto pilot.

According to him, economic indications under the current government show that the country is being mismanaged.

Speaking to Multi TV’s Joy News in an interview at Parliament House after the reading of the supplementary budget presented by the Finance Minister to Parliament today, Prof. Gyan Baffour said “this government is one of the luckiest governments. Gold prices are up, cocoa prices have shot to the roof and oil prices are not doing too bad, yet it is not being felt”.

He added that “I suspect they have their priorities wrong”.

Prof. Gyan Baffuor expressed surprise that construction works on major trunk roads have stalled even though the NDC is boasting of having exceeded its targets for this year.

He mentioned that the situation whereby government continuously cries that there is no money is no excuse citing that the NPP in 2008 financed major projects with government revenue.

“So I think the economy is on auto pilot and they are tinkering around mismanagement”

The supplementary budget released 50 million cedis to the Electoral Commission to commence activities preceding the 2012 elections.

8 million out of an allocated 25 million Ghana cedis has been earmarked to fund the activities of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority.

The NDC administration however believes the developments in the first half of this year point to an optimistic outlook.

Dr. Dufour assured that the government will enforce strictly the budget plans for the rest of the year.

Source: Multi TV

Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Health, has appealed to students of pharmacy currently on outreach in the Volta Region to tie-in the national anti-malaria campaign while preaching the efficacious use of medicines.

He said reducing the occurrence of malaria among the citizenry could boost the success rates of all other medical campaigns, especially those dealing with maternal and child health.

Mr Chireh was launching the 2011 National Drug Safety and Health Awareness Campaign in Ho on Thursday on the theme: Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality through Preventive Health Education”.

The yearly programme is held under the auspices of the Ghana Pharmaceutical and Herbal Medicine Students Association. The Minister said the two-pronged malaria campaign, with donor support, provides affordable effective anti-malarias on the open market for the populace, alongside tackling of the vector.

He urged the students to prevail on pharmacy and drug store owners they interact with during the period to remove chloroquine-the now ineffectual former recommended first line drug for treatment-from their shelves.

Mr Chireh asked the students to tell their audiences to desist from self medication, eat healthy foods, watch their alcohol intake and charged students studying herbal medicine to impact their scientific knowledge on the production of herbal medicines. Mr Chireh expressed worry about the increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases in the country.

Mr Kwasi Owusu Antwi, President of the Association, said the students would visit eight districts in the region in groups of about 10 with the messages. He called for more resources for education on drug use and healthy living in the country.

Dr Timothy Letsa, Volta Regional Director, Ghana Health Service (GHS), asked the students to provide information on health problems they noticed on their rounds. Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, in a speech read for him appealed to the students to accept postings to the rural areas after school.

Miss Binh K. Tang, a student of the Pacific University-Oregon School of Pharmacy, one of the three visiting pharmacy students on the programme, said she had left her comfort zone” in the US to be part of the solution to the dire health educational needs of people in Ghana.

Source: GNA