Cape Coast, March 29, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills last Saturday inspected some projects under construction at the Cape Coast polytechnic and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) being funded under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFunD).

The projects included teachers' bungalows, flats, classroom blocks and a students' hostel at the Polytechnic, and the School of Medical Sciences' clinical laboratory building, a lecture theatre and a new administration block at UCC.

The inspection formed part of a three-day tour of the Central region.

President Mills also inspected work on construction of the Cape Coast stadium and asked the consultant to increase the sitting capacity from its original 20,000 to 25,000. He also directed that field tracks should be included to promote the athletics in the region. At Cape Coast Poly, President Mills said government would ensure massive infrastructural development of the polytechnics to enhance the training of middle level manpower needed to propel the country into a middle income economy. The President also met fishermen at Elmina and thanked them for their support during the 2008 December elections and promised that the problems associated with the distribution of premix fuel would soon be over.

He said the Department of Fisheries is competent enough to solve problems facing the industry and appealed to them to exercise restraint while adequate measures were put in place to facilitate the development of the sector.

President Mills urged the fishermen to pray for God's guidance for him to enable him run a successful administration adding that humility, love and empathy would be his watchwords. The Chief fisherman of Elmina, Apofohen Jojo Solomon expressed gratitude to the President for the visit and noted that it was the first time a President had ever visited the Elmina fishing community. The President was accompanied by the Regional Minister, Madam Ama Benyiwa-Doe and some top government officials.

Accra, March 28, GNA - Mr. Daniel Okai, Chairman of the Odododiodioo Constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called for the prosecution of appointees of the previous administration who have been found to have illegally taken away vehicles and other equipment belonging to the State.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Saturday, he said this should also apply to those who removed household and other items from their duty residencies.

Citing the reported missing of household items worth more than GH¢3.3 million from the official residence of the former Speaker, Mr. Ebenezer Begyina Sakyi Hughes, Mr Okai described such illegal taking away of State property as "criminal" and that culprits must be treated as such.

Mr. Okai reiterated that former officials found culpable of committing such acts should be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.

He stated that all citizens of the country should be equal before the law and that there must not be one set of laws for the ordinary man and another for high office holders or influential persons. "When anybody steals government or state property they are put before the law courts," he said and asked why the same principle should not apply to former government appointees found proven to have taken state property illegally.

"The return of state property in the custody of ex-officials should not polarize the country and we should not behave as if we do not keep records and do not know who has custody of state property. The records are there and we should resort to them to retrieve all such property for the state.

"This is not witch hunting and we should not create the impression that retrieving state property to facilitate the work of government is political vendetta," Mr. Okai added.

Accra, March 27, GNA - HelioTech Limited, a German-based organization, on Friday introduced a water treatment system that uses solar energy to purify any form of contaminated water or salty water into potable drinking water. Mr. Ralf Keller, Director of Marketing, HelioTech, announced this at a day's seminar to introduce the technology to stakeholders in the water industry.

He said the equipment had the capacity to purify or desalinate about 50 to 5,000 litres of water a day and was useable at any location where there was sunlight and access to any kind of water. Desalination is a process that involves removing salt or harmful particles from water. Mr Keller noted that about 1.1 billion people the world over did not have access to safe drinking water and in Ghana even though about 79 per cent of people had access to water, large quantities of water used at the household level in various communities were brackish, salted or contaminated with iron or germs. The equipment, which cost about GH¢6,000 cedis, takes about two to three hours to be installed. Comparing the HelioTech Solar Water treatment system to another technology called "Reverse Osmosis system", Mr Keller said, with the HelioTech system, there was no need for specialist training to run the system, no energy cost and can be used in rural areas provided there was sunlight.

He said the technology was designed with the intention to help, especially developing countries meet the Millennium Development Goal target on water, which aims at providing half the population of people in various countries with access to safe drinking water by 2015. Mr Keller announced that HelioTech had arranged with Fidelity Bank Ghana to provide funds in a form of loans to those interested in buying the equipment. Nii Amasa Namoale, Member of Parliament for La, Dadekotopon, said the technology was a good innovation and advised non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and individuals to patronize the product and send it to villages that had salty drinking water. Mr Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, Renewable Energy Expert at the Ministry of Energy, who chaired the seminar, pointed out that Ghana was faced with a lot of challenges when it came to providing potable drinking water.

"If solar can be used to make water available for mankind, it is only important that we accept such a technology," he said.

Cape Coast, March 27, GNA- President John Evans Atta Mills was on Friday given a tumultuous welcome by an enthusiastic crowd when he arrived at Cape Coast to begin a three-day official visit. The visit has been dubbed by residents as the "homecoming of the President".

The crowd that had converged at Siwdu stadium area, a suburb of Cape Coast as early as 1400 hrs when news reached them on his visit, welcomed the President with loud cheers amidst drumming and dancing when he arrived around 1600 hrs.

At a point, President Mills had to get out from his vehicle to acknowledge the cheers before riding through the principal streets of the metropolis and to the offices of the Oguaa Traditional Council where the Paramount Chief, Nana Kwesi Atta II, his sub-chiefs and queenmothers had gathered to receive him. President Mills re-assured Ghanaians that, he would be the President for all, irrespective of their political affiliation and pledged to strive for their development and that of the country in totality.

"The country's money is not meant for the leaders of the country, it will be well utilized for the benefit of all Ghanaians," he declared, adding that, God has endowed the country with all the resources needed for its accelerated development and urged Ghanaians to contribute their quota to facilitate its achievement.

He also urged the people of Cape Coast to eschew negative tendencies such as unnecessary grumbling, bickering and backbiting which, he said, was a stumbling block hindering the progress of the area, but rather forge ahead in unity of purpose, humility and love. President Mills expressed gratitude to God for his victory and also thanked the chiefs for their prayers and support adding that he was in the region to show appreciation for their support and give thanks to the Almighty God.

The Regional Minister, Madam Ama Benyiwa-Doe said it was appropriate that the President "came back home to give thanks to God" because he is from the region and also received a lot of support there during the 2008 elections.

Osabarimba Kwesi Atta, for his part welcomed President Mills and promised that the Traditional Council will continue to pray for him for God's guidance and counsel.

He appealed to him to ensure the expansion of the seating capacity of the Cape Coast Sport Stadium currently under construction from a seating capacity of 15,000 to 25,000, while the Kotokuraba market should also be given a facelift.

The Lotto Industry generated GH¢10,600,000

 in revenue last year

Kumasi, March 27, GNA - The Lotto Industry contributed GH¢10.6 million to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, Mr Kofi Frimpong, General Secretary of Lotto Receivers Union announced in Kumasi. He said there was expected to be increase in the revenue this year because of good record keeping practices by its members.

Mr Frimpong was addressing a delegates' conference of Ashanti Regional branch of the Union. He expressed concern about irregularities and malpractices that continued to affect operations in the industry in-spite of its crucial role in the nation's socio-economic development.

Mr Frimpong appealed to members to refrain from using plain sheets as lotto coupons or tickets with no serial and registration numbers that could lead to tax evasion. He pointed out that it was time government enforced the National Lottery Authority Act, to inject sanity into lotto operations in the country, adding "non-enforcement of the law since its promulgation in 2006 had allowed many unscrupulous people to operate in the industry without license."

Mr Gabriel Boateng, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Union, said lotto was not a social liability but an asset and urged members to refrain from malpractices. Other executive members elected were, Mr Kwadwo Agyei, Secretary, Nana Ohene Asiedu, Treasurer and Mr Samuel Aboagye, Welfare Secretary.

District records 835 teenage pregnancies

between 2007/2008

* 25.03.2009

Items worth 3.3 million cedis missing from

Speaker's residence

Accra, March 25, GNA- The Parliamentary Service Board would meet next week to discuss items worth more than 3.3 million Ghana cedis allegedly missing from the official new residence of the former Speaker of Parliament.

The loss was detected after Mr. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes

had vacated the newly built residence for Speakers of Parliament.

The former Speakers, the late Mr. Justice Annan and Peter Ala Adjetey lived in private residences.

Mr. Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu confirmed this in separate interview with the Ghana News Agency in Parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Bagbin said on March 10, this year, he led a team from Parliament to take inventory at the Speaker's residence and that, Mr. Sakyi Hughes, the number three gentleman of the State had vacated his residence he (Bagbin), was shocked to have found the rooms virtually empty; "not even a pin could be found there."

The Majority Leader presented to the Ghana News Agency a list of a host of items that were missing in the rooms some of which included refrigerators, ovens, washing machines and cooking utensils and electronic gadgets.

Some of them are gymnastic items, beds, fire extinguishers and conference room and other furniture.

Mr Bagbin said even if the Chenery-Hesse Committee Report became implementable the former Speaker was to be entitled to two cars but two of VW Passat cars had been retrieved and a new Toyota Landcrusher and a Tuareq VW car, which cost 1.8 billion Ghana cedis could still not been traced.

According to Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the incident might have happened because somewhere along the line there was a communication gap. He explained that sometime ago a meeting was held to decide whether,

when the Speaker was leaving office some of the items could be sold to him at a depreciated value because there was a likelihood that the new Speaker might not like to use some of the used items.

From: Nathaniel Glover-Meni, GNA Special Correspondent, Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, March 25, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills will pay an official visit to Burkina Faso next month to strengthen bilateral relations between Ghana and Burkina Faso. He will hold talks with his Burkinabe counterpart Blaise Compaore on a wide range of issues of mutual benefit to the two countries, Vice President John Dramani Mahama announced on Tuesday. He was speaking to reporters on arrival in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, to participate in an international conference on sheanut aimed at making the crop a major foreign exchange earner in the West Africa sub-region.

Vice President Mahama was met on arrival by the Burkinabe Prime Minister, Mr Tertius Zongo, to a cheering welcome. Also at the airport was a throng of the Ghanaian community in Burkina Faso. Vice President Mahama traced the shared historical and cultural bonds between the two countries and called for the deepening of ties in line with the economic integration philosophy of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission. Vice President Mahama was accompanied on the tour by the Chief Director, Mr Roger Ansongwini and other officials of the Ghana's Foreign Ministry.

Speaking on the sheanut conference, the Vice President underscored the essence of using the produce as a basis in helping to eliminate poverty among women in the northern parts of West Africa. The Vice President's concern was premised on the fact that women form the bulk of persons engaged in the sheanut business but remained poor owing to a number of factors including poor prices for their produce and the lack of modern implements to add value to the nuts. Meanwhile, by-products of the sheanuts were in high demand in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and catering industry.

The Vice President would use his speech at the conference to demonstrate the likelihood of the industry becoming a major foreign exchange earner for the sub-region and the critical steps that might be taken to make this a reality in the foreseeable future. Vice President Mahama's address would also focus on the proposed Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), which was one of the key models being championed by the government to address the development gap between the southern and northern parts of Ghana.

Developing the sheanut industry is a critical component of the SADA agenda and the Vice President would seek to use his address to encourage development agencies to buy into the programme so as to turn round the blight of impoverishment in the three northern regions of Ghana. The three-day conference, which was being organised by the West African Trade Hub with support from the United Nations, was being attended by delegates from 125 countries including Ghana, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Veep to act on allegations of extortion

by immigration officials

From Nathaniel Glover-Meni, GNA special correspondent, Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, March 25, GNA - Immigration officials at Ghana's border with neighbouring Burkina Faso on Tuesday came under severe criticism over alleged extortion of money and seizure of passports of travellers who refused to yield to their demands. Making the claim at a meeting with Vice President John Dramani Mahama, who was on a two-day visit to Burkina Faso, Ghanaian expatriates in Ouagadougou, claimed they had been subjected to all manner of coercion by immigration officials for nearly two decades and the situation was getting out of hand and required an urgent attention to reverse the slide.

Mr Ernest Osei Boateng, a Ghanaian plastic ware dealer in Ouagadougou, claimed travellers continued to endure anguish at Ghana's frontier with her Northern neighbour and called for the direct intervention of the Vice President since previous pleas failed to reverse the rot.

Mr Boateng said what was worrying in recent times was the forcible seizure of passports and other documents of those who refused to pay money to the immigration officials. His complaints received unanimous endorsement from other members of the Ghanaian community, who turned out at the Ghana Embassy to receive the Vice President.

Confirming the allegations, Mr Mumuni Kofi Amuquandaoh, an official at the Ghana Embassy, said his office had on several times acted on the complaints and requested the immigration authorities to intervene but nothing concrete had come out of it. Disturbed by the complaints, Vice President Mahama said he would demand a briefing from the Director of Immigration and deal expeditiously with the issue. He assured the expatriates that government would not tolerate in any guise the situation where state officials extorted money from citizens.

Vice President Mahama also briefed his compatriots on efforts President John Evans Atta Mills had been making to reverse the decline of the economy in recent times, caused largely by the international financial debacle.

He said while some sacrifice would be expected, government was nonetheless on top of the issue to make Ghana a better place for all her citizens regardless of their political inclinations and social standards.

Mr Mahama said government would continue to place the welfare of the citizens at the heart of its policies, giving the assurance that the projected revenue of oil expected to come on stream next year would be geared towards providing social infrastructure especially in underserved communities. Mr Alfred Saame, acting head of mission, challenged Ghanaians living outside the country to have a stake in ensuring the development of the motherland. He said Burkina Faso had made some giant strides in the agriculture sector which businessmen must replicate in their own country to further enhance the drive to add value to food crops in Ghana. 

Winneba (C/R), March 25, GNA - The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Childhood Care Education Students Association of Ghana (CCESAG) has expressed regret that children in the country were yet to be emancipated from all forms of abuse, irrespective of the numerous UN Conventions and Acts on the Right of the Child that had been ratified. Mr Samuel Ambre, President of the Association said this at the launch of the second CCESAG week celebration in Winneba. The week-long celebration is under the theme "Ensuring Quality Early Children Care and Development -The Role of the Early Childhood Care Development Practitioner"

Mr Ambre said according to Ghana's report to the United Nation's Committee on the Right of the Child, admission into children's homes rose from 133 to 142 between 2002 and 2004. A clear indication that inadequate care and maintenance of the Ghanaian child continue to rise annually, Mr Ambre emphasized. He said from the same report the child-teacher ratio also raises a big question mark, adding that at the KG level for instance, where solid foundation is needed, the training of those children in their formative years, are handled by people without the requisite knowledge. The CCESAG President said in recent times, children undertake all kinds of menial jobs either to fend for themselves or support the family to the disadvantage of their education. According to Mr Ambre, members of the Association have at times prevented children from engaging in petty trading, especially selling of iced water because they were either too young to sell or weak to carry such loads of sachet water.

                      (c) bongo-bongo.com / EventPicture.co.uk

"Some of these children at times are found not to have eaten at all at the period they go about selling," he said. Mrs Evelyn Quartey-Papafio, Officer In-charge of the National Nursery Teachers Training Centre, said children benefit when the family and the early childhood staff share a common commitment to promote the interest children.

* 24.03.2009

Kumasi, March 24, GNA - Mr Kofi Poku Manu, Ashanti Regional Minister, has assured that the Mills administration will ensure equitable distribution of the national cake to benefit the citizenry. "No region or group of persons would be discriminated against in the execution of development projects, since government is committed in meeting the socio-economic aspirations of Ghanaians irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious background". Mr Poku Manu gave the assurance when four identifiable groups paid a courtesy call on him at the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) in Kumasi on Monday to congratulate him on his assumption to office. The groups are the Atta Mills Foundation, Kingdom Traders Association, Voltarian Co-ordinating Council (VCC) and Anloga Carpenters Union.

The Regional Minister appealed to residents of the Region to be supportive of projects and initiatives of government since nation building required a multi-sectored approach by all. Mr Poku Manu advised all and sundry to be tolerant of divergent views especially in the Region to help consolidate on the unity and peace being enjoyed in the country.

He said he would be a minister of all, stressing that as such people in the Region should bury their political differences, co-operate and feel free to approach his office with their problems, suggestions and pieces of advice that would move the Region forward. Togbui S. K. Fugah, Life Patron of the Anloga Carpenters Union and spokesperson for the groups, lauded Mr Poku Manu for being appointed as the Regional Minister and expressed the hope that, as a former Regional Co-ordinating Director, he would bring his rich experience and expertise to bear on the activities and the socio-economic development of the Region.

He told the Regional Minister about the activities of the carpenters union and also the challenges confronting their relocation to the Sokoban Wood Village.

"Mr Minister, I know you have in recent times been inundated with reports that the carpenters have resolved not to relocate but I assure you that there is no iota of truth in those speculation as we are almost ready to move to the new site," he added. Mr Young Attipoe, a leading member of the VCC, stressed the need for Ghanaians to be law-abiding if the nation was to realize her development goals.

Accra, March 24, GNA - The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), announced on Tuesday that the Tweneboa-1 oil well offshore the Tano Basin, which has a significant discovery of oil and gas, has encountered more oil after the well was deepened.

Accra, March 23, GNA - The Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Albert Abongo on Tuesday said government was committed to providing clean and adequate water, especially for the rural dwellers to prevent water-borne disease.

Mr Abongo said in line with the Vision 2015, which was aimed at ensuring that 76 per cent of rural areas had access to clean water, government had earmarked GH¢40 million with expected additional funding from partners to improve the country's water sector this year.

The Minister said this when a Canadian delegation led by its High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Darren Schemmer called on him at his office in Accra to discuss ways to deepen relations between the two countries.

Mr Abongo said the investment in the sector was not only to prevent and eliminate water-borne diseases but also to attain the Millennium Development Goal on provision of water to the populace. He said government was also in talks with development partners to find lasting solution to the perennial sea erosion affecting coastal towns.

Mr Abongo also said the affordable housing programme would be expanded to ensure that more housing units were constructed to cater for the needs of the people who really needed them. Mr Schemmer pledged his country's commitment in the area of technical cooperation to Ghana to help her execute the projects in the water sector.