The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council has called on government and other religious bodies to spearhead efforts for the formation of self-regulatory bodies that would check activities of independent pastors and churches. In a communiqué signed by its Chairman, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah and General Secretary Samuel Antwi,  the council expressed worry about charlatans who are denting the Christian practice The Pentecostal and Charismatic church leaders underscored the need for the setting up of the quasi-formal regulatory bodies since Ghanaians are becoming disillusioned with Christianity and religion. The council says activities of charlatans parading as pastors have become too rampant. According to the council the proliferation of independent pastors and churches who are exploiting the society is undermining the integrity of the gospel of Christ. The council also called on the media to be more circumspect in programmes they put on air, particularly on TV and radio stations. It wants Christian programmes to reflect national values. On corruption, the council challenged the Christian community to show the way and also encourage Government to strengthen the existing departments to work in the interest of national development. The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council was founded by the Assemblies of God Church, The Church of Pentecost, Elim Pentecostal Churches, The Christ Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church to among other things, to "promote good relationship between member Churches and other church organizations in Ghana in particular and in the world at large".  

The Scheme Manager of the Adaklu Angyibe Mutual Health Insurance Scheme was yesterday put before the Financial Division of the Fast Track High Court for embezzling GH¢106,706.23 belonging to 15 service providers. Raybon Evans Anyadi raised payment vouchers totalling GH¢134, 481.81 for 15 service providers resulting in the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) settling the amount but he allegedly paid GH¢27,775.58 and pocketed the rest.  The affected service providers are: St Anthony Herbal Clinic, Deo Valente Chemical Shop, Steven Vuvor Chemical Shop, Hope Health Centre, Avedzi Community First Aid Centre, Menyi Maternity Home, Ryte Aid Pharmacy, Catherine Atta, Miracle Life, Volta Regional Hospital, Municipal Hospital, Aggor D.K. Waya Health Centre, Wudzedeke CHPS Zone and Ahunda Health centre. The offence, which was committed between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009, was detected by an auditor of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).    Charges Anyadi has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of forgery of document and 30 counts of stealing and the court, presided over by Mr Justice John Ajet-Nasam, admitted him to bail in the sum of GH¢100,000 with two sureties. Anyadi is expected to reappear on February 13, 2014. Facts of the case According to the facts of the case, Anyadi, as manager at Adaklu Anyigbe Mutual Health Insurance Scheme located at Kpetoe in the Volta Region, was fully responsible for the payment of all claims submitted by recognised service providers in the district. The prosecution said a finance and operational audit conducted by auditors of the NHIA between April 12 and 14, 2010 revealed that after the service providers had submitted their claims, the accused person raised the payment vouchers and arrived at a total sum of GH¢134,481.81. He took the amount from the NHIA and was billed to pay the 15 service providers but he paid GH¢27,775.58 leaving a difference of GH¢106,706.23, which, according to the prosecution, he could not account for. The facts further stated that the accused person allegeldy forged some documents and raised vouchers in respect of non-existing service providers and collected the moneys illegally. Writer’s email: [email protected]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has directed the Ga East Municipal Assembly to ensure the closure of the waste dump site at Pantang, near Abokobi. This is to address the health and environmental concerns the dump site has posed to residents at Pantang and its environs in the Ga East municipality. Position of the assembly But the Ga East Municipal Assembly thinks otherwise. The assembly explained that,the problems of the Pantang refuse dump site were not the making of only the Ga East Municipal Assembly. “The dump serves many other assemblies within the Accra metropolitan area namely, the AMA, Ga West Municipal Assembly, Ledzorkuku Krowor Municipal Assembly, the Adenta Municipal Assembly and the Ga Central Municipal Assembly among other assemblies,” it said. In an interview, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Ga East, Mr Kwao Sackey explained that “because of the number of assemblies dumping their refuse here it is very difficult for the dump to be closed when an alternative site is not ready for use.” Activities to mitigate effect He, however, promised that the assembly would continue to monitor and make sure that the managers of the site put in all remedial measures to mitigate the effect of the dump on residents. Activities to be undertaken at the dump, according to the MCE included regular compacting and covering of the dump; periodic spraying against flies and rodents; undertaking a 24-hour surveillance to help control fire at the site as well as meeting with scavengers to educate them on the need to stop setting fire on the dump and also meeting with the residents of the area. Meeting with scavengers To give meaning to the promise, the assembly yesterday met with the scavengers to discuss with them the need to prevent setting fire on the dump which normally caused excessive smoke that inconvenienced residents. He told the scavengers that because of the excessive smoke and stench emanating from the dump, the EPA had also added its voice to calls for the closure of the dump and further reminded them that if they did not safeguard the dump, it was not only the assembly that would suffer, “but you too will lose your daily bread”.  Scavengers The scavengers denied setting fire on the dump, explaining that most of the fire was always in the refuse before it was brought to the site. They were grateful that the assembly was willing to liaise with them and appealed to the assembly to advise the drivers to always ensure that the refuse they brought to the site was without fire. Wtirer’s email: [email protected]

A Komla Dumor Memorial Foundation has been set up to promote excellence in journalism, with particular emphasis on broadcast journalism. The foundation, among other aims, is to sustain the legacy of Komla Dumor by pursuing plans he had for promoting the ideals that he stood and worked for.  It will initiate programmes for the development of African youth as well as the education of children, including the late broadcaster’s own three children-- Elinam, Elorm and Araba.  Since the passing of Komla Dumor on January 18, 2014, numerous individuals, local and international organisations have offered to contribute to such a agenda for continuing the tremendous impact that Komla made in addition to giving him a fitting burial.  In that respect, the foundation has made arrangements for monetary contributions to be paid into a bank account details of the Komla Dumor Foundation with account numbers 0100118364400(Ghana Cedi); 8701518364400 (US dollar); 8700218364400 (US dollar offshore) and 2800218364400 (British Pounds Offshore)  at the Opeibea branch of the Standard and Chatered Bank (wift code SCBLGHAC). A statement issued by the family said, “The Komla Dumor Memorial Foundation will be managed by a Board of Trustees made up of distinguished local and international personalities who believe in what Komla stood for.   The foundation will coordinate all other initiatives designed to honour the memory of Komla Dumor.”  “Komla sought to give of himself to society and set an example of excellence, especially for the youth. He was always eager to ease the pain of those in need. It is our hope this foundation will enable us to continue pursuing and realising Komla’s dream. We are grateful to all those who have expressed their commitment to this cause, “Prof Ernest Dumor, the father of the late BBC journalist said.  Komla Dumor passed away suddenly on January 18, 2014 in London. He was a well-respected international broadcast journalist. He previously hosted the Super Morning Show on Joy FM in Ghana for almost a decade before going to the BBC in 2007.

Organisations and agencies that work to promote the rights of women and children have been advised to exhibit positive attitudes towards complainants. According to the former President of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana, Mrs Ernestina Naana Hagan, such positive attitude would encourage victims to open up about their problems for redress. She explained that stakeholders still lacked the right attitude to handle various cases of violation due to ingrained, endemic and outmoded socio-cultural practices, and appealed to them to change their attitude to help achieve the objective for which they were established. Mrs Hagan was speaking at an assessment meeting of  FIDA’s service providers and state actors in Accra.  Assessment Meeting  The meeting was to evaluate the impact of the learning and sharing programme introduced by FIDA to educate stakeholders on issues related to domestic violence, Intestate Succession Law and other issues concerning human rights. It was to determine how information acquired during the programme had been implemented to improve women’s right. In addition, the meeting was to ascertain stakeholders knowledge on referral systems in addressing various human rights issues among others. Mrs Hagan said more favourable results had been achieved since the project began and was hopeful that more could be achieved with constant education and awareness creation. Participant  Organised by FIDA and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), representatives of the Judicial Services, Police, Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Social Welfare, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Ark Foundation and other human rights organisations in the Greater Accra Region evaluated their successes after the sharing and learning programme. They were of the view that if more stakeholders could be introduced to the programme, more results could be achieved in the next few years. Writer’s email: [email protected]

Hundreds of residents of Kumasi Thursday took part in a demonstration against the sale of Merchant Bank to Fortiz.The protest march was organised by the Public Action Against Corruption and Abuse (PAACA), a pressure group. The demonstrators, clad in red and black, and holding placards, sang and danced as they marched through the streets, casting aspersions on the government. Some of the placards read “We need our Merchant Bank now”; “SSNIT contribution not for sale”; “Ghana workers are suffering”; and “Boys Abre enso yenti gyae”  The protestors started their march from the Asem Park, near the Prempeh Assembly Hall, and went through the Roman Hill, Kejetia, Adum and finally to the Ridge Park, where their leaders addressed them. An altercation between the police and the demonstrators who decided to change their route from the originally approved one nearly marred the otherwise peaceful demonstration. Addressing the group, Mr Sammy Awuku, who is contesting the National Youth Organiser position of the  New Patriotic Party (NPP), called on the people of Ashanti in particular, and Ghanaians in general, to kick against what he called the bad governance of the John Mahama-led administration. He also called for the rejection of the capitation grant that is being piloted by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in the Ashanti Region for two years now. Mr Ernest Owusu Bempah, the Deputy Communications Director of the National Democratic Party (NDP), claimed that the capitation exercise had resulted in untold hardships among the people of the region and called on them to resist its continuation. Other speakers addressed the crowd.

Curious onlookers who thronged Kwahu-Fodoa to witness the massive destruction caused by a gas explosion last Wednesday, January 22, 2014 were struck with awe when a Bible inside a church in the affected area remained intact. The inferno destroyed most of the items in the Kwahu-Fodoa branch of the New Faith Church International but did not touch the 50-year-old Bible. The Bible laid on top of a table on the altar of the church after a gas tanker crashed into the church and sparked the fire. A picture believed to be one of the church’s leaders also lying on top of the Bible and a notebook lying beside the Bible were spared. However, several chairs belonging to the church that were behind the table on the altar were completely burnt together with other items in the church building. When The Mirror visited the farming community last Friday, three days after the explosion, some of the onlookers described the scene inside the church building as “a wonder”. “Indeed everything will pass away but not the word of God,” retorted Kwabena Addo, a resident of the area, who looked on dumbfounded at the unburnt Bible. Several residents who spoke to The Mirror stated that the church building had now become a 'tourist' attraction to most motorists and other people who stopped by to take a look at the extent of damage caused by the fire. The inferno killed eight people and caused life-threatening injuries to 13 others, most of whom are currently receiving treatment at the Burns Unit of the Komodo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. The blaze also destroyed 37 houses, farms and domestic animals. It has displaced hundreds of the residents, causing them to seek refuge in nearby Kwahu towns. The incident followed an accident involving a gas tanker that skidded off the road and crashed into the church building. The impact of the crash was so severe that one of the compartment of the tanker opened, releasing huge amount of gas into the atmosphere. The inferno was sparked two hours later when the gas came into contact with the naked fire that consumed items in the church and a large part of the farming community.

The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has apologised to the public for the collection of unapproved fees from first-year students by some heads of senior high schools (SHSs). In view of their regret over their actions, CHASS said, the heads had credited the accounts of the affected students with the unapproved fees. “We concede that some of our colleagues may have made some mistakes in the course of the implementation of some policies. We, therefore, unreservedly apologise on behalf of our colleagues who may have erred in one way or the other,” the President of CHASS, Mr Samuel Ofori-Adjei, said at a press conference in Accra yesterday.  He deplored the attitude of those heads who had been involved in the act, since all heads had been cautioned by the conference against engaging in such acts.  Complaints unit Shortly after the release of SHS placements, there were reports about the collection of unapproved fees by some heads of schools.  The situation prompted the Ministry of Education to set up a complaints secretariat in November 2013 to receive complaints on illegal fees collection, grievances and criticisms from the public for redress. By January 11, this year, the unit had received about 300 complaints from parents and guardians. Early release of fees Mr Ofori-Adjei called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to come up with the approved fees before schools reopened for the first term of every academic year. According to him, the approved fees for this academic year were released to heads on October 30, 2013 after students had started going to school in September. “We implement the policies formulated by the Ministry of Education through the GES. By our calling, we operate with the process, the system, the environment and the people. “As a human institution, in the performance of our duties we are bound to make mistakes,” he said.  Erroneous impressions As heads of SHSs, Mr Ofori-Adjei said, they were faced with daunting challenges on a daily basis “and we have tried to manage our schools with very limited resources”. He said sometimes heads found it very difficult to provide basic teaching and learning materials for teachers and students to perform their duties. He said the constraints faced by schools included unpaid absorbed fees and feeding grants, inadequate supply of government textbooks and unnecessary harassment by EOCO with regard to school terms fees. The CHASS President said as a result of unpaid absorbed fees, for instance, “schools are finding it difficult to pay utility bills, particularly electricity and water which students use very much”. “Sanitation expenditure is also a big problem due to the regular lifting of solid and liquid waste. We wish to state that schools pay commercial rates for electricity and water, although they are not commercial or profit making entities,” he said. Feeding fee Mr Ofori-Adjei said the GH¢2.20 feeding fee per student per day was used to buy food, firewood, gas and cooking utensils, pay VAT and withholding tax, adding that the feeding fee was approved in September 2012, although economic conditions had dramatically changed since then. “The rise in fuel prices, increase in utilities and other maintenance costs and recent adjustments in VAT have greatly reduced the value of the feeding fee, which is used to provide three square meals for adolescent students,” he said. Communication With regard to the channel of communication between the Ministry of Education and CHASS, he said that should be done through the GES and not through the press. Mr Ofori-Adjei said the public must know that heads of second-cycle schools had an important role in educating and shaping the future leaders of the country and, therefore, they needed respect from the public. “Any attempt to ridicule them in the media unnecessarily will definitely have a negative impact on discipline in SHSs,” he said.

A man, believed to be in his late 20s, fell from the third floor of a four-storey building to his death in Kumasi early Thursday. The man, identified only as Nana Osei, unemployed, fell on a waste collector who was then descending from an alley, before hitting the ground with his head. He died instantly. The incident, which occurred at Adum around 9:40 a.m, attracted many people to the scene. At the time of filing this report, it was not clear if the incident was a case of a suicide or an accident. Nana Osei, who, according to eyewitnesses, appeared to be drunk, had returned from the wake of a dead friend. He even had the funeral bill of the deceased friend, Isaac Osei, pinned to his breast pocket. According to Dauda Alhassan, the waste collector, he was doing his usual rounds of collecting waste from the offices in the vicinity for disposal when Nana Osei, out of the blue, fell on him. He said although he felt some pain in his neck when Nana Osei fell on him, he had to run away because he was scared, leaving behind his wheelbarrow and the waste.  Ms Vida Sarpong, who identified the deceased, said he was the younger brother of her husband. According to Ms Sarpong, Nana Osei neither had any mental problem nor did he show any suicidal tendencies. Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) mortuary, while the Kumasi Central Police have taken over investigations into the incident.

The Bank of Ghana has injected $20 million into critical areas of the economy as part of efforts to shore up the cedi. Governor of the bank, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic did not give details but said there were also plans to roll out more stringent measures to fend off mounting inflation and stabilise the cedi. He said decline in the value of currencies was not peculiar to Ghana, was pervasive in many parts of the world. In an effort to stablise the cedi, there was the need to ensure that the country’s reserves were not be depleted. The cedi has, since the beginning of the year, suffered more than three per cent depreciation against other currencies, as demand for the dollar by local firms importing goods to drive the growing economy heavily outstripped the supply, thereby worsening the country's inflation outlook.  Dr Wampah also said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would announce a string of banking reserve restrictions to deal with the twin difficulty of inflation and depreciation of the cedi. “We are aware of the slight depreciation of the cedi, and in addition to the measures we have just announced, new guidelines will be considered at the next MPC sitting,” he said. New regulations The central bank had already issued new regulations to improve liquidity on the interbank currency market and shore up the local currency, Dr Wampah said. The regulations require all commercial banks in the country to quote a two-way pricing of currency exchange and limit the spread on corporate transactions to a maximum of 200 percentage points. "I believe this new set of measures and others to follow soon are transformational and will help revamp our interbank market and stabilise the local currency,” he said. The BoG Governor and his team are expected to go to Parliament to reinforce their regulatory control of the currency under the current circumstances. "We intend to ensure strict compliance," he said, adding that the central bank would soon announce further restrictions on foreign accounts. Although January has barely ended, the cedi has already depreciated by more than three per cent, after closing 2013 with a 17 per cent slump against the dollar. It was trading at GH¢2.45 or GH¢2.50 to the dollar last Tuesday and analysts expect it to remain under pressure next week, while market participants assess the impact of the new regulations. But Dr Wampah was upbeat that the measures already taken and those which would be rolled out next would stem the tide. “This decline is seasonal due to firms buying dollars to pay for goods bought during Christmas and it will soon subside,” he said. Analysts say the directive will result in a review of the measures introduced to check the cedi's free fall, since other measures already introduced are yet to produce the desired result. More than regulations The Head of Research at Databank, Mr Sampson Akligo, thinks the problem requires more than regulations. According to him, providing a two-way quote and limiting the spread would help in facilitating transparency.  “Broader rules often rather distort the markets and lead to off-balance sheet transaction,” he said. The attempt to stem the constant decline of the cedi follows a directive by the Vice-President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, that the Finance Ministry, together with the BoG must work fast to save the local currency from further depreciation. Finance Minister The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper, has promised to strengthen existing foreign exchange laws to help halt the decline in the value of the cedi. Earlier this week, President John Mahama had said stabilising the currency was a priority if the government was to enable the private sector to lead economic development. Other priorities, he said, were bringing down inflation and closing the budget deficit, he said.  Macroeconomic instability, including a falling currency, casts a shadow over Ghana's economy. Background In 2012, when the cedi depreciated by almost 20 per cent, the BoG, then headed by now Vice-President Amissah-Arthur, increased interest rates, limited the net open positions of local banks in currency trading, introduced new 30, 60 and 270-day government bonds to mop up liquidity, restricted local banks from holding nine per cent reserves against non-cedi deposits in foreign exchange and instructed a 100 per cent local Ghana cedi cover for all bank vostro accounts. Those measures temporarily halted the decline of the cedi, which was seen as a bold attempt to stem exchange rate fluctuations. The new Ghana cedi was introduced on July 3, 2007 after four zeros were knocked off, making it the highest-valued currency unit issued by any sovereign country in Africa in 2007.  At that time, US$1 was sold at GH¢0.91.  In December 2008, US$1 was sold at GH¢1.10.  In June 2009, US$1 was sold at GH¢1.40; in December 2010 it sold at GH¢1.47 and in December 2011 it sold at GH¢1.64 At the beginning of 2013, US$1 was exchanged at GH¢1.88 and ended the year at GH¢2.16, a 15 per cent decline, according to statistics by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).