Category: General

President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAGH), Christian Sottie, is calling for amendment to the current Parliamentary Act 1963 that regulates the accounting profession to reflect current trends in the profession.

According to the former Controller and Accountant General, the current law is lacking behind and over the years they have been trying to bring a new Bill which will be in line with current happenings in the accounting profession.

And further added that ICAGH had raised the issue with the Ministry of Education which they fall under but they had been moving back and forth on the issue but are almost at the end of the draft Bill which will be taken to cabinet soon.

Mr. Christian Sottie urged Parliament to look favorable to their Bill when it comes to the House. He made this remarks when ICAGH and Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW) paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament.

So many things are happing all because we did not envisage so many things and we do not have legal backing to deal with those things, key among them, people parading themselves as “Chartered Accounts of which they are not”, he said.

He noted that the new Bill that will come before Parliament when passed will give ICAGH the moral strength to be able to regulate some of these things.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The heavy presence of Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Odorkor Police Division on the Odorkor and Mallam stretch, where a drainage construction is underway has aided with the free follow of traffic.

A visit to the site by ghanadistrict.com on Wednesday and interactions with most road users shows their happiness with the way and manner the MTTD is controlling the traffic situation.

However, the only dissatisfaction by road users has to do with heavy traffic situation around the Sakarman traffic light between 4:00pm to 8:00pm.

In an interview with Gabriel Engman, a Sanitary Engineer with the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, he pleaded that road users have to bear with the situation but most of the time the MTTD men and women in uniform are visible to direct the traffic situation.

He further added that measures had been put in place to tow away any vehicle that would breakdown along the Mallam and Odorkor stretch not to cause traffic as road safety commission had given assurance of their assistance.

On the extent of work done so far Gabriel Engman, indicated that he is very satisfied with work done so far but was on site to push the contractor to work faster.

Mr. Emmanuel Eklu of the Ghana Highways Authority material division also commended, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Michael Asiedu for ensuring that his men and women are on the ground, to assist with free follow of traffic and being around himself to ascertain the situation on the ground.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanadistricts.com

Public Account Committee of Parliament (PAC) has called for an upward review of rents charged on government bungalows is some Assemblies.

According to the chairman of the committee the current rent on government bungalows at the districts were not economical.

He further added that the review of the rents upward should reflect the realities on the grounds and directed his call to District Chief Executives and Financial Directors on low rent charged on government bungalows.

The Financial Director of the Kadjebi Municipal Assembly, Mac George Apetorgbo told the committee that rent on a two bedroom apartment goes for GHC14 Ghana cedis a month and even at that occupants fail to pay.

Dr. James Avedzi urged auditors to monitor the renovation that occupants of government bungalows made to ensure that the costs of renovations were not inflated.

And urged the assemblies to take steps to retrieve all the outstanding rent arrears and report same to the auditors for verification.

According to the Auditor General’s report, the financial memoranda for District Assemblies, finance officers were required to support their payments with invoices or other vouchers.

The affected Districts are Agotime-Ziepe, Biakoye, Central Tongu, Hohoe, Keta, Krachi East, North Tongu and South Tongu.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

In the wake of attacks on Journalist in their line of duty in Ghana, the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) has in collaboration with Norway’s Journalist Association started training some media practitioners on safety in their line of duty in Accra.

In an interview with President of the Association, Roland Affail Monney revealed that the training workshop will be replicated in the regions to sharpen the sense of security in all areas which will pose as danger to Journalist.

He further added that apart from the collaboration the association is having with their counterpart from Norway, the Norwegian government is supporting in the exercise.

As to what advice he has for Ghanaian Journalist, he said, media practitioners should value their life more than the work they do.

Again the International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) is pushing for governments to extend protection to Journalist, “we will push for that convention”, the  UN has also come out with safety guidelines for  Journalist we will train Journalist on this content and for them to adhered to it  in their day to day work

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Acting Director of Public Affairs in Parliament, Kate Addo has indicated that the House is re-introducing briefing of Journalist who cover proceedings in the House at the beginning of every meeting.

She added that leadership of the house would want to brief the media likely on Tuesday the 15th of May, 2018 when the House returns from recess.

The second meeting of the second session of the seventh Parliament of the fourth Republic starts on Tuesday the 15th of May 2018.

Journalist covering parliament would have the opportunity to ask questions, high on the agenda would be the issue of MPs who double as Ministers in the 6th Parliament taking double salaries that had generated a lot of controversy.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Most of the head teachers of pre-tertiary institutions that appear before the Public Account Committee on Wednesday at Ho used the opportunity to appeal to purchase school bus for their institutions recounting the bad states of most of their vehicles and others not having one.

About 15 heads of institutions appealed to the committee to ensure government procures vehicles for them.

Nkawkaw Senior High School’s  head teacher Robert Osei Forson open the flood gate when he disclosed to the committee that the students population of about  two thousand (2,000) had no single bus.

According to the head teacher, teaching and none teaching staffs had to depend on a rickety pickup vehicle.

Mr. Robert Osei Forson further told the committee that appeal has been made to past governments but had not yielded any results.

Deputy Minister of state in charge of monitoring and evaluation William Kwasi Sabi who is a member of the committee disclosed to the committee that, he placed a call to the sector Minister Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh on the matter as the issue unfolded.

And the Minister gave assurance that a number of buses would be procured for various Senior High Schools and attention would be given to Nkawkaw SHS.

Headmaster of St. Dominic Senior High/Technical followed with a similar appeal followed by Donkorkrom Agric SHS.

Chairman of the PAC Dr. Avedzi made a general appeal to government on behalf of SHS schools without vehicles to help aid their work.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

In the light of many reported assaults against journalist in the country, President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) Roland Affail Monney has said the Association is contemplating on coming out with a resolution for all political parties to hold their press conferences at press centre.

This issue was triggered by the latest attack on a journalist with a private radio station Adom Fms  reporter Ohemaa  Sakyiwaa at the New Patriotic Party head office by Hajia Fati.

In an interview with the GJA President on if the Association would boycott covering events organised by the NPP, he said, “it is an option but we have not come to that decision yet as an Association”.

He further added that the incident is a clear case of assault and to add insult to injury, the Hajia Fati described seeing the journalist as an “onion seller”.

“Our laws should be seeing working; this is a very clear case of assault, when this incident happened the woman failed to show remorse, if she is found to be on the wrong side of the law, she should be made to face the law we will never give up until justice is done”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Second Deputy Speaker, Alban Kingsford S. Bagbin has said Ghana’s Right to Information Bill 2018 when approved by the House and assented to by the President Nana Akufo-Addo and it becomes an Act will be a reference point to a lot of countries.

He noted that Ghana has done a lot of quality work on its RTI bill and so far it is unparallel haven seen other legislation passed by many countries, which have challenges and had to be amended, “Ghana could have gone same way like those other countries”.

“Despite the delay in the passage of the RTI, Ghana should still pat itself at the back because the quality of work done, our Act will become a reference point by many countries” he remarked.

He recounted the role he played in the 6th Parliament when the RTI Bill was before the House and added that the whole process started when the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) initiated the whole process.

I have taken my time to go through the RTI Bill worked on in the last parliament and the current one presented to the House this year, still there are some areas we need to address but we should not be despaired, we need to keep on with the fight, he said.

When UK passed its RTI law, they had to postpone its effectiveness for five years, it is usually referred to as one of the bad cases, their law is not one to be followed and added it took long for the commonwealth to declare the Act in 1993.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Phase one of the Mallam drainage works under the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water project has progressed very well within the 10 days of working.

In an interview with ghanamps.com, Emmanuel Eklu of the Ghana Highways Authority material division noted that work had progressed very well and confident the phase one is on course for completion within the expected 13 days.

He further added that what is left is to back fill the culvert that had been laid to the road level and move to the second phase over the weekend, when the site was visited on Wednesday.

At the drainage site, everybody was observing safety measure by putting on their reflective cloths, gloves and shoes.

Mr. Emmanuel Eklu revealed that World Bank is very strict on safety measures being taken on its funded projects and would stop any project being undertaken if safety is not being religiously obeyed.

He observed that some previous projects were stopped because of failure to observe safety measures, but now we are abiding by “safety measures strictly”, and World Bank will send people round to observe “if we are following safety rules”, he said.

As to whether traders and hackers along the stretch of the drainage had posse any change, Emmanuel Eklu said no and they are aware of the benefit they will have with the completion of project that will end the perennial flooding.

“Phase one has not had any disturbance by way of heavy rains setting in to disturb the project, we have had occasional light rains but that has not been anyway a problem to progress of the project” he said.

The project Manager Mr. Sun a Chains   in an interview indicated that by Saturday they would be moving onto the second phase of the project by cutting into the main road of the Mallam junction to excavate into  the road.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com