Month: August 2011

A Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Aquinas Quansah has challenged the Editor of the Daily Searchlight Newspaper, Ken Kurankye to publish the picture of the supposed mansion being built by President John Evans Attah Mills as a gift from Regimanuel Gray Estate.

The paper on Monday 15th August 2011 published that the President is in the process of completing a beautiful new mansion at Asanfra Street on the Platinum section of the Regimanuel Grey Estates on the Spintex Road!

According to the paper, the building which is believed to have several rooms and the latest of comforts is currently nearing completion. It added that this piece of land on which the building is being erected is the same land on which the security men sent to guard the President house were camping because they were not welcomed into the residence itself.

Government after denying that the President was not putting up any mansion took a team of Journalist verify and to inspect the said building, which is a two bedroom and toilet facility to relieve the security personnel who have over the years been using mobile toilets.

However Mr Ken Kurankye insists that the President is building a mansion and that the place the journalists were taken to inspect was not the right place.

Speaking on e.tv Ghana’s BREAKFAST TV show, Hon. Aquinas Quansah who is also the Member of Parliament for Mfantseman West, threw a challenge to Ken Kurankye to shame the President by publishing the picture of the alleged mansion if he indeed has any evidence and pictures to show.

He said Ken Kurankye must not be taken seriously as he is noted for successively publishing lots of stories about government officials acquiring mansions which have turned out to be false.

“Ghanaians are tired of daily stories of government appointees putting up mansion in their short stay in government, an assertion which the publishers of the stories have failed to prove with evidence’’ he said.

Hon. Aquinas Quansah added that knowing President Mills for his modest lifestyle,and the fact that he has other houses, he’ll not put up a mansion and even if he did, he would have done that with his own resources.

By : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, Hon Paul Collins Appiah Ofori, says he considers the ‘token’ outhouse being constructed by Regimanuel Gray Estates Limited for the security personnel on duty at the private residence of President John Evans Atta Mills as an ‘inducement for corruption’.

The NPP MP says he is always guided by the sage words of Ghana’s former Prime Minister, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia to wit, “government officials must not collect any gift from anyone since it is a form of bondage, where favours will have to be returned”.

“Dr. Busia said gift bounds an individual and that was an advice he gave to his government officials…anything we collect as a gift is bribery… Attempting to give bribe is a criminal offence…nobody should try to offer any form of defense, it is bribery and I live by Dr. Busia’s word, every gift given to a government official is bribery…,”he said.

He was commenting on media reports that President Mills has acquired a new mansion and subsequent explanations by Koku Anyidoho that the facility is simply an outhouse for the security detail at the president’s private residence at Asanfra Street in the Platinum section of the Regimanuel Gray Estates on the Spintex Road.

Mr. Anyidoho had earlier stated that on Adom FM on Monday, August 15th, that Regimanuel Gray “as the land owners …told the president that we will do a little extension at your backyard so the security men will have a better place of convenience. That is it; it is the developers, you can call Regimanuel Gray people and they will tell you they themselves have decided to build this as a token for the president.”

However, on Tuesday, after leading a team of journalists from the Presidential Press Corps to tour the place which turned out to be a shocking, still-under-construction platform by real estate firm, the Director of Communications at the Presidency clarified that Regimanuel Gray decided to put up the outhouse which comprises ‘toilets, bath houses and a bedroom or two’ after the President first brought up the idea.

After reading copiously from a series of correspondence between the President and Regimanuel Gray on the construction of the facility, he further stated that “Regimanuel Gray is bearing the initial cost and per the tenancy agreement, the president, would make good the repayment to Regimanuel Gray”.

But speaking in an interview with PeaceFM during the Midday Bulletin, the anti-corruption Campaigner P.C Appiah Ofori opined that if President Mills refused to accept gifts sent to him on his birthday because of his principles, then he should not equally have accepted the ‘token’ from the real estate developer.

“…President Mills should have started dealing with all his government officials who are fond of receiving gifts…if he had done that, no one would have thought of bringing him anything in a form of gift…We should not encourage these things…it is an inducement for corruption…,” P.C. Appiah Ofori added.

Peacefmonline.com

Power outages at the La General Hospital will now be a thing of the past following the presentation of a 250KV Prime Power Generator donated by the Member of Parliament for La Dadekotopon, Nii Amasah Namoale.

The MP, who is also a Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in Charge of Fisheries, made the donation on Tuesday to save the hospital from the frequent difficulties it goes through in handling critical cases such as surgery and deliveries, whenever there was power outage.

Nii Namoale provided GH¢72,056.38 as the cost of 200KV of the generator while Global Power Energy, a locally based energy company that supplied the facility, bore the cost of the additional 50KV as its social responsibility to the hospital.

The capacity of the generator can power the whole hospital when there is a power outage.

The MP said the hospital old generator had always broken down and therefore felt the need for its replacement in order to save the lives of thousands of patients that visited the facility.

He said politicians were put in office to meet the needs of people in society. “If people are dying in our hospitals today because of electricity (power) then as politicians we should all bow down our heads in shame,” he said and asked why politicians should be in office when people who placed them there could not see improvement in their lives.

Having witnessed a power outage at the La General Hospital, the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, said he was glad that the electricity problem was now over and hoped the facility would be properly managed.

He said the proposal to supply the generator came to him from the MP and he willingly supported it, adding “I will never be a stumbling block to the Better Ghana Agenda.”

Mr Vanderpuije said conditions in the public health facilities in the metropolis needed to be improved to make the delivery of health care more accessible to Ghanaians.

Welcoming officials for the handling-over of the generator, Dr Juliana Ameh, a Specialist Pediatrician at the hospital, noted that La General Hospital’s chronic headache, which was unreliable power supply, had just been cured with the new facility.

“It has been a challenge in this hospital with our electricity condition, especially during operation,” she said and added that patients were in the wards and mothers had come to deliver whilst laboratory staff needed power to carry out quick tests.

GNA

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Health Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka Mohammed has discredited the assertion that herbal and traditional medicine is patronized only by the poor and the illiterate.

Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, who is also the Member of Parliament for Asawase, emphasized the need to improve the production of traditional herbal medicine to meet the regulated standard and also draw the elites in the society, adding that this will to a great extent discredit the notion that herbal medicine is for the poor.

Alhaji Muntaka while commenting on the strategy for formal institutionalization of plant medicine in Ghana on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem Monday noted that the efficacy of herbal medicine cannot be undervalued, and called for more research into herbal and traditional medicine.

He expressed concern over an unfortunate development where unregistered drugs with the Food and Drugs Board, are included in the drug list by Herbal Practitioners.

Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak bemoaned the practice of some herbal peddlers claiming that one medicine can cure more ailments, adding that such practice do not inure to the growth of the herbal industry.

Hon. Muntaka also urged the Ghana Federation of Traditional and Herbal Medicine practitioners (GHAFTRAHM) to officially write to the Ministry of Health to be included in decision making to ensure the growth of the herbal medicine industry.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Stephen Kweku Balado Manu, Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South, says President John Evans Attah Mills’s acceptance of a house which was allegedly donated to him free of charge from real estate developer REGIMANUEL GRAY ESTATE, is the most shameful act that he has brought on himself.

According to the MP, no philanthropic act is done without a profit motive be it in the short or long term.

The Searchlight newspaper, on Monday August 15th, published the story alleging that on its front-page with a screaming headline; “Manifesting The Better Ghana…Mills Grabs Brand New Mansion!

According to the story, the building has several rooms and the latest of comforts and is situated on a piece of previously bare land which is behind the Asanfra Street residence of the President.

“The walls round the residence have been raised higher and fortified, and behind it the building is rising rapidly…Previously it had been assumed that the new edifice was going to house the security men guarding the president.”

The Director of Communication at the Presidency, Koku Ahyidoho, has confirmed the building was a token from the real estate developer which would house the security personnel of the President who building is situated near the said building.

However speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South, Stephen Balado Manu, states that it will be hypocritical on the part of President Mills to accept the building when he had earlier instructed his appointees not to accept gifts.

“This is a man who has been portrayed as a humble and principled person, if he directs his subordinates not to accept hampers, why will he then accept a huge gift such as a house, this is double standards’’ he said.

“ We were here in Ghana when a farmer came out to say he was renovating the house of Ex President Kufour who at the time was a sitting President, there was hue and cry by the then opposition NDC and now that they are in power, we have someone donating a new house to the President, this is condemnable’’.

Stephen Balado Manu, adds that if President Mills wants Ghanaians to take him serious that he does not preach virtues and practice vice then he must reconsider his ways.

By : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Vice Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Kweku Agyemang Manu has called for the speedy establishment of a financial tribunal to deal with recommendations made by the PAC.

According to him, the financial tribunal when in operation will ensure that recommendations including fines and prosecutions made by the Public Accounts Committee against persons found culpable by the Auditor General’s report are upheld.

Staggering revelations of financial impropriety have been made against some officials of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning at the resumed public sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra yesterday.

The committee’s sitting, expected to last five days, will consider reports of the Auditor-General (AG) on the accounts of Ghana for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The audit report indicated that during the audit of the treasury accounts of the Finance Ministry, a schedule officer at the treasury, Mr Francis Aryeetey, failed to produce payment voucher covering GH¢351,900.

The report said auditors were informed that Mr Aryeetey allegedly effected the payment using falsified documents aimed at misappropriating the amount from the MOFEP Contingency Account Funds.

He made the sentiments in the wake of calls by the public for persons found to have embezzled public funds to be prosecuted.

Speaking on e.tv Ghana on Tuesday, Vice Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Member of Parliament for Dormaa West, Kweku Agyemang Manu stated that the PAC has limitations and does not wield power to prosecute anyone found culpable.

He said the PAC in its dealings have employed several means to retrieve monies embezzled by public officers, but the power to take legal actions against such people does not fall within the PAC’s domain.

By: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu has questioned the authority of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to ban the “Friends of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings ‘’ (FONKAR) group.

The party at a press briefing on Thursday 11th August in Accra announced an outright ban of all groups or associations which were formed prior to the recent presidential primaries of the party.

The party explained that such groups were illegal and undermined the Constitution and structures of the NDC and that the ban took immediate effect.

The General Secretary who addressed the media stated that groups such as ‘Get Atta Mills Endorsed (GAME)’, ‘Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR)’, ‘Old Guards in the Ashanti Region’ and ‘Olonka’ were all affected and no one in the NDC should use any mass medium to debate on behalf of any such proscribed groups.

He said the party would also not allow anyone to speak on behalf of the NDC, its founder, Ft Lt Jerry John Rawlings and his family or President John Evans Atta Mills, apart from their official spokespersons.

However speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu described the party’s decision as unfortunate and ill –advised as the FONKAR group is not in any way affiliated to the NDC party and does not answer to the party.

“ I don’t know what went into the party’s decision to ban FONKAR, obviously they got it all wrong, I believe they really don’t know what FONKAR stands for’’ he said.

Hon. Teye Nyaunu who was the Campaign Coordinator for former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings in the recent NDC Presidential candidate race, noted that FONKAR was formed long before the NDC presidential primary with the objective of preserving the legacy of the Rawlingses and there is no way anyone can proscribe it.

By: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The NDC Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini has denied reports that his campaign manager for the Changli electoral area has deserted him, as he has quit the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to him, Abdul Karim Seidu indeed helped in his campaign during the 2008 elections but has never been his campaign manager.

There have been reports in the media that 2008 campaign manager of NDC MP for Tamale Central Hon. Inusah Fuseini, for the Changli electoral area has quit the ruling National Democratic congress (NDC), a move that is thought will adversely affect the chances of the MP retaining his seat.

Abdul Karim Seidu affectionately called Chesua who is believed to have been very active in the Tamale Central Constituency MP’s 2008 victory announced his resignation from the NDC at a news conference in Tamale where he vowed never to rescind his decision and threatened to campaign against Hon. Inusah Fuseini in 2012.

However speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central and a Deputy Minister of Energy, Inusah Fuseini stated that this is about the third time the youth activist has stated publicly he’s left the party, adding that such a person should not be taken seriously.

“This man appears to be an unstable politician, he issues statements claiming he’s leaving the party depending on his mood, but he never seems to quit the party as he says, no serious politician will appoint such a person as his campaign manager. I don’t even know why he continues to hold himself as my campaign manager, this man has issued several statemenst criticizing me unnecessarily ’’ he said

Hon. Inusah Fuseini, expressed confidence that his performance as an MP so far put him in pole position to retain his seat come 2012 parliamentary elections.

By : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.g

The NDC Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini has denied reports that his campaign manager for the Changli electoral area has deserted him, as he has quit the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to him, Abdul Karim Seidu indeed helped in his campaign during the 2008 elections but has never been his campaign manager.

There have been reports in the media that 2008 campaign manager of NDC MP for Tamale Central Hon. Inusah Fuseini, for the Changli electoral area has quit the ruling National Democratic congress (NDC), a move that is thought will adversely affect the chances of the MP retaining his seat.

Abdul Karim Seidu affectionately called Chesua who is believed to have been very active in the Tamale Central Constituency MP’s 2008 victory announced his resignation from the NDC at a news conference in Tamale where he vowed never to rescind his decision and threatened to campaign against Hon. Inusah Fuseini in 2012.

However speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central and a Deputy Minister of Energy, Inusah Fuseini stated that this is about the third time the youth activist has stated publicly he’s left the party, adding that such a person should not be taken seriously.

“This man appears to be an unstable politician, he issues statements claiming he’s leaving the party depending on his mood, but he never seems to quit the party as he says, no serious politician will appoint such a person as his campaign manager. I don’t even know why he continues to hold himself as my campaign manager, this man has issued several statemenst criticizing me unnecessarily ’’ he said

Hon. Inusah Fuseini, expressed confidence that his performance as an MP so far put him in pole position to retain his seat come 2012 parliamentary elections.

By : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh