Month: April 2012

Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, on Friday said there was an urgent need to increase the housing delivery to people in the country.

This, he said would also help prevent people from exploitation by unconscionable landlords.

The Minister said these when he swore-in an eight-member committee, to among other things identify the issues that led to the suspension of the Affordable Housing Project and recommend a way forward towards its reactivation, in Accra.

Mr Mensah stated that the country required an annual hosing delivery of about 150,000 units for the next ten years to overcome the current deficit, which was estimated at 1, 500,000 units.

“Regrettably, the housing supply currently ranges between 40,000 to 50,000 units per annum” he said.

According to Mr Mensah, the Ministry was engaged in seeking innovative solutions, including private-public partnership in the delivery of homes, as well as the renovation of such projects like the Kwame Nkrumah Flats at Laterbiokorshie and the Karser/Valco Flats in Tema.

He said special attention would be given to the early completion of the housing units that are located in various parts of the country, such as Bortey-man, Nungua, Kpone, Asokore-Mampong, Koforidua, Tamale and Wa.

The Minister said that the Ministry, as part of measures to complete the project, would make sure all resources that were not used for the intended purpose were retrieved.

“We cannot move to finish the project without clearing the system,” he said.

The Affordable Housing Project was introduced in 2005 to provide 100,000 housing units at various locations, to address the accommodation problem of the country.

The project has suffered setbacks and has currently come to a halt due to a number of reasons.

GNA

Mr Kwaku Agyenim-Boateng, Member of Parliament for Berekum over the weekend advised the Electoral Commission to consider extending the deadline of the on-going biometric voters registration exercise at some centers in the municipality.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Berekum that, the laptops for the registration exercise at the Berekum New Town, Jinjini Presby Primary School, as well as the Berekum Amangoase centers broke down during the first phase of the exercise.

“Because of this the exercise was halted at these centers for more than two days, denying many of the eligible voters the opportunity to register after the machines were fixed”, he said.

The MP observed that those who were not covered in the first phase however went to other centers in the second phase of the exercise to register but they were prevented by some residents.

Mr. Agyenim-Boateng said though the exercise was carried out peacefully in the first phase, it was characterized by some minor problems and called on the EC to endeavour to find solutions to some of the problems to obtain a credible register.

Mr. Stephen Lord Oppong, Municipal Chief Executive told the GNA that the new biometric exercise was the panacea for electoral malpractices.

He however called on the EC to prosecute the few miscreants who registered twice in the first phase of the exercise to deter like-minded.

Mr. Oppong said the only way the government could retain power in the upcoming general election was for eligible voters to participate in the exercise and urged members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to register in their numbers.

He advised the NDC agents engaged to monitor the exercise to be vigilant and ensure that they concentrated on their work to ensure a credible register.

Mr. Oppong advised minors and foreigners not to take part in the registration exercise since they would be arrested and prosecuted.

The outgoing Member of Parliament for the Odododiodioo, Jonathan Nii Tackie Komme, during the weekend distributed examination materials including mathematical sets, pens and erasers to over a thousand candidates of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the area.

The equipment is to further equip the candidates who will sit for the examination who takes off on Monday 16th April 2012 across the country.

Addressing a service for the students put together by the Mission to Nations Church at Palladium, Accra, hon. Jonathan Nii Tackie Komme stated that his donation to the students which he does every year is to aid the final year JHS students in both public and private schools in the area to produce sterling performance in the BECE examination.

He urged the students to endeavor to comply with all the examination requirements and eschew malpractices which could result in their exam papers being canceled, an unfortunate action which could affect their educational progression.

Mr Tackie Komme promised to visit the examination centres in the area on Monday to encourage them and supply those who were not present.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem South Constituency, Hon.Ohene Konadu Gifty has blamed mothers for being the major cause of the increasing number of children on the streets of Ghana.

Mrs Ohene Konadu traced this astounding situation to the negligence of mothers who after suffering neglect as a result of broken homes leave their children to wander around aimlessly thereby ending up on the streets for survival.

For them (children) to survive, the legislator said they resort to hawking on the streets as an alternative for making it in life whereas the girls also indulge in practices such as prostitution thereby endangering their lives.

She argued that although the issue of broken homes prevailed in the olden days the rate of streetism, then, was not as disturbing as we have now.

“Look, our forefathers use to marry 3 to 4 wives but when breakups occur the children were not affected since their mothers took good care of them. I don’t think broken home is a problem, what I think is that there is something wrong with our mothers of today,” she added.

Hon. Konadu was speaking on an Accra based radio station, Pravda FM, today when she was commenting on the issue of streetism in Ghana as today, April 12, 2012 marks international street children’s day under the theme: “challenging perceptions”.

According to the MP, we have laws in the country which frown on such activities but implementing it had been a major challenge.

“We have the law but implementation plans are lacking, hence the need to adopt strategic measures for this problem to be addressed once and for all. I believe with hardwork and persistence, we can chalk some success in this area,” she intimated.

She however endorsed the need to empower traditional institutions such as the home, school and the church to also do their best to help curb this menace of streetism.

Recent statistics from a research conducted by the Department of Social Welfare indicates that there are about 33,000 children living on the streets of Ghana.

When asked whether she agreed that inequality was a major factor increasing the statistics of streetism, she said no, arguing that because society was dynamic things are changing and the youth in their quest to seek for greener pastures migrate to urban centres with their peers.

She however advised stakeholders to intensify their fight against this menace.

Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Okere, Dan Botwe has asked the police to immediately follow up issues that would create tension and chaos at the biometric registration centres.

He said the police, acting only after a report had been made to them, had not been helpful since the delay normally resulted in tension and in some instances chaos at some of the registration centres.

Mr Botwe, made the appeal when he met a journalists at Adukrom after visiting some of the registration centres in the Okere Constituency.

He said under the normal circumstances, there should not be chaos or violence at the registration centres and called on all prospective voters to exercise restraint for biometric registration process to proceed peacefully.

The police, he also indicated must follow up immediately with any issues likely to disturb the registration process instead of waiting for a complaint to be lodged before action would be taken.

He called on members of all the political parties to abide by the rules of the registration process to make the event peaceful.

“The registration process in the some of the centres has been associated with tension and chaos because the police, who are aware of simmering issues which will create tension and chaos at the centres, wait till a report has been lodged. If they act immediately, there will be peace at all times at the polling stations,” Mr Dan Botwe stated.

Mr Botwe, who was happy that the second phase of the exercise had not been characterized with frequent breakdown of the registration equipment, called on the Electoral Commission to respond quickly should any of the equipment fail to function.

He called on the members and sympathizers of the NPP to be vigilant at all times to help check fraudulent deals by the other political parties.

The controversial New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odebeng-Brakwa P.C Appiah Ofori says he feels vindicated after the government publicly announced on Wednesday that the STX Korean Housing deal has collapsed.

He was the only Minority MP who sat through the long-drawn proceedings which ran into Wednesday after it started at 10:00am Tuesday, after his colleague minority MPs had boycotted the debate for the approval of the deal.

The minority pulled out over disagreement with certain terms of the contract and also the fact that the Majority showed a betrayal of trust after the two sides had agreed in a caucus meeting to delay the debate for a week for more work to be done on the deal.

Parliament in August 2010 approved the controversial deal in which STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited will build 30,000 houses at $1.5 bn.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosi sen programme, Hon. PC Appiah Ofori recounted the experience he went through on the day of approving the deal, when he decided not to step out of the chamber but remain to put his arguments across saying he feels justified by his action.

He stated that the collapse of the STX deal comes to him as no surprise as the ruling NDC government’s refused to heed to the advice of the opposition and other civil society organization.

“The NDC has brought shame on itself due to the intransigent position it took while the deal was being brokered, this is the price you pay for not being humble enough to learn what you don’t know from others’’ he said.

PC Appiah Ofori, added that he would continue to stand by his conviction and work effectively as an MP to ensure that Ghana develops further to enhance the living conditions of Ghanaians.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has described government’s confirmation of the collapse of the STX Korean deal and the decision to pursue officials of STX who failed to fulfill the promise of building 30,000 housing units for security personnel in Ghana, as a victory for common sense and for Ghana.

He said the latest development comes as no surprise as the minority who are not jubilating over the botched deal, envisaged the difficulties the controversial STX contract was to suffer after the government failed to heed to the advice the minority gave concerning the deal.

Government on Wednesday through the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing E.T Mensah publicly vowed to chase officials of STX Korea to retrieve every investment made.

He said the Attorney General has been directed to thoroughly look into the contract signed with STX and advice accordingly.

However speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo, the Minority Leader who is the MP for Suame who welcomed the sector minister over his intended move, he hastened to note that quick the country would not have gotten to this stage if the government had listened to advice from the opposition and other civil society groups.

He said despite the fact that the opposition in Parliament demonstrated their displeasure over the deal by boycotting the process of approving the deal at some point; the final decision to accept STX was taken in the name of Parliament and accordingly accented by the president.

Hon. Osei- Kyei Mensah- Bonsu further stated that Ghanaians needed to know how much of the tax payers money has been expended in the failed deal after which parliament will also do its work by looking into the failed deal.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh