SOLAR MINES FOR COURT

The Solar Mines a mining company which was cited  for engaging in illegal mining practices and strictly banned by the government would soon be dragged to court.

The company would go to court to answer questions pertaining to some of the alleged fraudulent dealings. This was due to petitions made by some chiefs and their people of the affected communities over the meager compensations paid to farmers whose lands were desecrated.

Area  affected as the result of the company’s illegal practices were Akyem  Abuakwa  Juaso near Osino and Atewa.

The Environmental  Protection Agency (EPA)in collaboration with some responsible bodies of the sector has taken the initiate, a source from the EPA had disclosed to this paper.

According to the source , a series of meeting were held some few weeks ago where the court case was mentioned.

One of the reasons believed to have prompted the group to sue the company was the use of heavy duty machines  to deliberately destroy the Atewa Forest Reserve in its purported two years of operations.

Meanwhile, in a recent statement issued and signed by the Executive Director of WACAM, Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng , expressed greats concern over the treacherous deeds of the company.

He indicated that the unreasonable compensations paid to the coca farmers in such affected areas were not enough and thus violates the Minerals and Mining Act of Ghana.

The Director highlighted that WACAM’s contacts with the affected farmers in the area revealed that Solar Mining Company paid one hundred thousand and two hundred Ghana cedi (1,000 to 1,200 Ghana cedi ) as a compensation for an acre of cocoa farm which could contain 450 to 600 cocoa trees.

Mr. Owusu Koranteng further added that when one translate the compensation rate of about 2 to 3 Ghana cedi for a cocoa tree would only earn a cocoa farmer at least 25 to 30 Ghana cedi per year for the economic life of cocoa for about 50 to 60 years.

In his analysis he stipulated  that in section 73(3) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) requires all mining companies to negotiate compensation with affected farmers based on the compensation principles, whiles section 74 of the Act states that “the owner or lawful occupier may be entitled  to compensation for (a) the deprivation of the use or a particular use of a particular use of a natural surface of the land ; (b) loss of or damage to immovable properties; (c) in the case of the land under cultivation, loss of earnings or sustenance suffered by the owner or lawful occupier, having due regard to the nature of their interest  in the land ;(d) loss of expected income depending on the nature of crops on the land and their life expectancy’’.

‘’the company has blatantly violated all these sections of all the Minerals and Mining Act and has gone ahead to reap so much profit from its illegal operations through the paltry compensation it had paid to the farmer in the area’’.

He condemned a recent media publications about the company’s illegal surface operations where the managing Director , Mr. Samuel Odalai Lamptey argued that the company was operating legally and was waiting to be licensed because it had forward all the proper and legal documents to the minerals Commission and had satisfied all necessary prescribed by law.

Upon a crosscheck embarked at the EPA from Mr. Ransford Sekyi, the Deputy Director of Mines by WACAM confirmed that Solar Mining Company does not have an environmental permit and the company was operating illegally.

This presupposes that Solar Mining is operating without due regard to environmental protection.

Mr. Lamptey justified the operations of  Solar Mining as not illegal because it sells its gold to the Precious Mineral Marketing Company (PMMC).

According to Mr. Lamptey the illegal operations of Solar Mining had benefited the people in the area because the company had offered employment to 500 people and had provided funds for the building of a modern palace at Osino as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility.

‘’It is an illogical argument for the Managing Director of Solar Mining Company to use employment generations and Corporate Social Responsibly  project s justify an illegal business that has grave social environment and economic consequences’’. The  Wacam  boss said.

MP CALLS FOR MORE LAW SCHOOLS

The member of parliament for Manhyia  Constituency, Mr. Matthew Opoku  Prempeh has appealed to the government to ensure that more law schools are set up in the country.

He said, the establishment of more law schools would help ease the numerous hardships  that students go through in their studies.

The MP, made the call on the floor of the house to highlight some of the plights that students face when being admitted into the Ghana  Law School.

He expresses the view that, the Ghana School of Law should adopt the running of two sections for a class in a day to enable clear up the back log faced by both students and the authorities.

The facilities of law at both the university of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science  and Technology (KNUST), must equipped and empowered to  run the part-I  programme  while the Ghana Law School undertake the part-II programme , he observed.

Authorities of the Ghana Law School were called upon to encourage and support the decentralization and extension of their campuses to Kumasi and ultimately Cape Coast and Tamale.

Mr. Prempeh  further urged Ghanaians to consider investing in the education of their children to enhance  good foundation for student in the country.

On this part, the MP for Akropong, Mr. William Ofori  Boafo advised that adequate resources must be invested into the legal education of law students.

He task all student to be more focused in their studies and refrain from restricting themselves to one particular aspect and rather explore more sectors in the law field.  

Ghana To Become An Oil Economy

Ghana an open economy, relatively well integrated into the global trading system and critically dependant on Cocoa, Gold, and Oil is expected to mark the transition from 100 years of a Cocoa-economy to an oil economy.

This was revealed during the lunch of a publication the year 2010 from a Cocoa Economy to an Oil Economy by the centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), held in Accra.

Dr. J .S. L  Abbey an Executive Director of CEPA in a presentation said , CEPA expects inflation to continue to decelerate into the third quarter of 2010, into the upswing phase of the 3 year inflation cycle and that a trend reversal is expected  with a gradual rise inflation reaching a peak in the first quarter of 2012.

He said, with  a sacrifice ratio a measure of the economic growth foregone needed to achieve the inflation reduction is estimated at nearly one by the international  Monetary  Fund (IMF),the (4%) points reduction in the rate of inflation from (20%) to (16%) per annum was achieved in 2009 which cost the nation an economic slack, equivalent to (4%) point of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

However , CEPA has projected that a cumulative of (5.7%) point reduction in the rate of inflation in 2010 was from (16%) in December 2009 to (10.3%) for December 2010 would require a corresponding loss in output equivalent to (5.7%) points of GDP.

 

This measure of putout foregone will  lead to loss  of jobs that would be used to produce that output ,and will particularly severe for new entrants into the labour force especially the youth.    

MPC Press Release dated April  16,2010 and pointed out that the economy is indeed slowing down due to the fall in non-oil imports, reduced  spending by tourists, a slowdown of the private sector  transfers to SSINIT which is indicated as a low rate of job creation ,reduction in value added tax (VAT) collections, an indicator of a reduction in consumer spending and tightening of commercial bank credit to the private sector.    

Finances Minister Begs For Cash From Private Sectors

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning ,Dr.Kwabena Duffour is soliciting for financial support from the private sector to finance the 2010 population and housing census.

This was held in Accra with the organized private sector ,an initiative of the government as part of its strategy to mobilize resources for the population and housing census programme this year. The meeting was aimed at engaging the private sector to deliberate on how they and the government can join hands to implement the census project.

He said the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) the agency leading the national census programme need an estimated amount of GH70 million to effectively complete the exercise and thinks the private sector should help finance the gap of about GH22 million needed for a successful  completion. ”

 

We are convinced that this gap can easily be closed from contributions from the private sector “ these requests will indeed strengthen the public and private partnerships that are needed to ensure a successful conduct of the census.

The government provided GH5 million in this years budget. This has exceeded 50 per cent of the government’s    total contribution of the entire cost of the exercise he revealed.

He noted that the financing for the programme would enable the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) partners and collaborating organization to make significant progress in the planning and implementation of this year’s census,” there is no doubt that the population and housing census is a unique data source that provides benchmark information for effective planning and good governance at all levels of governance”, he stated.

Government Statistician Dr.Grace Bediako, in a presentation said, they expect most of the preparatory work to be completed very soon to establish a firm base towards successful census cartography and the trial census among others.

She further explained that by partnering with government to successfully implement  this year census ,the private sector stands to gain in both and short and long term and that the census from the private sector needs to get to each community, each dwelling unit, each  district, each household ,each structure and each settlement before the end of the census ends. 

Children Treated With Adult Drugs

The habit of taking unprescribed and the usage of fake drugs and wrong medication for some illness have prompted  the Ghana National Drug Programme (GNDP) to launch the Better Medicine for children project in Accra with the theme: Meeting  the millennium Development Goals.

The access for better medicines for children , a collaboration between the Ghana National Drug Programme(GNDP) of the Ministry Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) with an aim to improve the access to life saving medicines for children.

Latest statistics according to the UNICEF has shown that, over 9 million children under five years old die each day meaning 1000 children die every hour and more than half of these deaths are caused by diseases  which could be treated with safe essential child-specific medicines .

Research  has also shown that (17%) acute respiratory infections (pneumonia) and diarrhea diseases respectively, (9%) neonatal severe infection ,(7%) infected with malaria and (2%) with HIV/AIDS every year in Ghana ,about 81,000 children under five die of preventable and treatable conditions such as infections, malnutrition and neonatal conditions.

A decline in under  5 mortality rate from 111/1000 live births in 2003 to 80/1000 live birth showed by the 2008 Ghana demographic  and health survey indicated that malaria ends to be the main causes of mortality rate in children under five years recording 25%, malnutrition is associated with more than half of  death recording (53%).

The project which will improve access to child specific medicines in the sector and their rational use and designed to tailored to fit within the country perspective by close alignment with the child health policy of Ghana.

World Health Organization representative in Ghana ,Dr. Daniel Kertesz said, they are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Ghana on this project and will particularly focus on the implementation of health insurance and strengthening the food and drug board and look forward to achieve these to ensure better Medicines for Children.

Mr. Benjamin Kumbour, Minister of Health said, the reduction of child mortality is a global priority expressed in the millennium development goals (goals four, five and six) and that Ghana has developed a child health policy in 2007 with a goal to reduce mortality from 111 death per 1000 live births in 2006 to death per 1000 live births by 2015.

He noted that, child specific medicines are those manufactured to suit the age , physical condition and body weight of the child taking  them, is unsafe alternative to mix pediatric formulations and heath care workers and parent often have no alternative but to use fractions of adult dosage forms or prepare makeshift prescriptions of medicines by crushing tablets or dissolving portions of capsules in water ,thus affecting the manner in which these medicines must work to perform the expected function and the outcome of the children taking these medicines result in prolonged illnesses he cautioned.

He revealed that, the best form of delivering medicine to children is through medicines that can be easily dissolved in water and sprinkled on food are idea; and cheaper than liquid medicine which does require refrigeration or difficult measuring.

On 6^th December 2007’’Make Medicine Child Size” a global campaign spearheads by WHO was launched to raise awareness and accelerate action to address the need to improve availability and access to safe child-specific medicine for children under 12 and received a grant from bill and Mandela Gates foundation to improve upon medicines for children.

Ghana and Tanzania are the new African country to be involved in the intensive phase of this project for the next 2 years.

He concluded by saying the ministry of heath will remain committed to the development of the heath sector in the country to meet the millennium development goal four ,five and six.

Bizarre Death Of 15 yrs Old House Help In Dansoman

A 15 year old girl brought uncertainty unto her foster parents when she decided to end her life untimely.

The bizarre sorry occurred in Dansoman when the 15 year old house help whose name  was given as Dede Tamesti  decided to hang herself after detecting she was pregnant.

Dede who upon seeing that, she was pregnant and in her quest to avoid shame after being questioned by her foster parent Mr. and Mrs. Aquafi  chose to end her life since she was unable to name the man responsible for her pregnancy.

Breaking the news to this reporter at the Dansoman police station, DSP Maama Arhin the crime officer of the Dansoman  divisional command said, around 7:00pm of 22^nd may 2010 the same time Bayern Munich played a crucial match with Inter Milan, the foster parents  confronted  Dede to question her about the pregnancy but to her surprise the deceased refused to disclosed the identity of the man who have defiled her and gotten her pregnant.

Dede threatened to kill herself in the presence of her foster parents but was prevented by Mr. Nat Aquafi. The parents later left her in the care of a young girl in order to attend to their church activities and returned home  to witnessed the unpalatable scene at their residence.

An autopsy report available at the Dansoman police station has confirmed that she hang herself.  The body has since been released to the family for burial.

The  crime officer took the opportunity of the New Voice and  advised ladies especially minors to be alert and report cases of attempted sexual abuses to the appropriate authorities.

He stressed on the commitment of police to fight crime and warned, that the division will deal ruthlessly with people who take undue advantage over poor girls to satisfy their sexual ego.

Meanwhile the foster parents of the deceased have been granted bail to enable them burry  the girl pending further investigations. 

 

Assembly Elections Platform To Be Banned

A ban is yet to be imposed against the mounting of campaign platforms by candidates who will be aspiring to contest for positions as District Assembly members.

The ban will manly seek to prohibit individuals contesting from mounting platforms to drums up support for votes from the eligible electoral in their designated electoral areas.

These restrictions  will also be affected by political parties that may be supportive to the election of a candidate to a District Assembly or to a lower government unit .

This was revealed when a report containing the District Amendments bill was laid on the Parliament House  for approval by the Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development and Member of Parliament for Garu/Tempane Constituency ,Mr. Dominic Azumah.

In the report which was read on the floor , cited and proposed that the bill if approved by members of the house will go a long way to strengthen and serve as the yardstick to mandate organizations that has no political linkages to mount platforms with the prior written approval from the electoral commission.

This it also stressed would only be for the common use of the candidates contesting for the election.

According to the chairman, he indicated that any organization other than a political party which desires to mount a platform shall officially apply to the Electoral Commission for an approval and will be made pertaining to the terms of the approval.

In the report further mentioned that any individual who contravenes  subsection (1) of the six clauses commits an offence and will be liable on a summary conviction to a fine of not exceeding two hundred and fifty cedis  (GH 250) as a penalty, where as political parties that also violates such clauses will be subjected to a fine of GH 250 as penalty units.

On his side , Papa  Owusu  Ankomah, Member of Parliament for Sekondi constituency, expressed displeasure towards the position taken since it will deliberately denies such individuals from their political rights as stipulated  by the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana.

The former Majority Leader therefore called for the abrogation of the bill as a matter of urgency since it will go a long way to keep interested people away from lobbing the electorates on a wider margin.

The Minority Leader , Mr. Osei  Kyei  Mensah, on his part disagreed and called that the bill should be taken into a second look for a proper consideration in other to curtail the heartbreaking clauses that might be preventing individuals from openly campaigning with the view of addressing to the people their plans and programmes.

In the case of the emoluments determination by the house for the Chief Executives in the various assemblies, Mr. Kyei  Mensah , further recommended to the local  Government Minister that immediate measures should be put across to enable that the house deal with such exercise.

The Minister for the Local Government and Rural Development , Mr. Joseph Yeileh Chireh, in his remarks recommended that the bill should be considered for a second thought and commended members for the effort s made to debate the bill.

The First Deputy Speaker ,Mr. Edward  Doe Adjaho, suspended the bill for approval and added that a prudent consideration shall be made before the house proceed for recess come July.    

10% Of Oil Revenue To Finance Education

Education is the key  to success which help in the development  of the country. This  has prompted the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) a network of civil society organizations, professional grouping and practitioners interested in promoting quality basic education to advocate on financing education, one  goal education for all in Accra.

Kofi Asare  of the Ghana National Educational Campaign Coalition in a presentation said, Ghana has ratified the following international instrument: UN covenant on social , economic and cultural Rights Education of all (Dakar 2000),millennium declaration and AU protocols on basic education. He said the GNECC targets 100% primary enrolment and Junior High Senior completion respectively and 1:1 gender parity by 2015.

He said the national budget financing for 2009 was (31%), basic education receives about (50%) of the total educational budget which recurrent (80%).financing a gap of about $500,000,000 and that the District  Assemblies are primarily responsible for building schools, however inadequate District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) limit that function and over 90% are account for local revenue.

He stated that, financial crises causing expenditure in education especially in the LDC’s district primary’s reducing budgetary support to education which makes GETFUND over stretched making the basic education a non priority.

 

He said, about 3,900 schools are under trees, about 4,000 schools are under sheds, about 16,000 schools are without toilet facilities and 800,000 children are out of school.

He noted that, Government  Of Ghana (GOG) estimates 1 Billon US$ a year from the oil revenue and 10% of this 1 Billion can build 1,250 fully furnished basic schools at a per capita cost of $75,000 US dollars which will tend to eliminate schools under trees and shed in five years and all other factors remaining.

He finally  said, the  Ghana National Campaign Coalition (GNECC) will promote and facilitate processes that will ensure equality in access to free quality education for all.