WE WON’T ALLOW VAMPIRES TO INVADE OIL INDUSTRY

President John Evans Atta Mills has issued a stern warning to Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians with parochial interest in country’s emerging oil industry to stay off or face the consequences.

The President said many vampires have evaded the country with a view to reap where they have not sown.

Addressing a cross-section of Ghanaians in Bern in Switzerland on a 3-day official visit at the invitation of the Swiss President, President Mills said government will sincerely protect the country’s oil resources from those he described as “vampires" who want to benefit at the expense of the many Ghanaians whose lives need to be improved.

“Ghana has been blessed in so many ways with the latest being the discovery of oil and gas. But my brothers and sisters let me sound a note of warning. We want the oil and gas to be a blessing not a curse. "Already there are so many vampires who are invading Ghana. And I want to warn both Ghanaians and non- Ghanaians that we are not going to sit down and allow our God given resources to be mismanaged. The people of Ghana must benefit from these resources” he said.

President Mills said Government is only concerned about the national interest as far as the oil revenues are concerned, and would not be distracted by the barrage of criticisms from interested individuals and groups.

“In the recent past, so much has been written and said, but we are guided by only one which is the national interest. But in pursuing the national interest we have to be fair, transparent and objective. This is what we are trying to do and all kinds of interpretations have been given, but we are not going to be distracted.

"We are going to remain focus because we want to leave a better Ghana for future generations. It is for those people that we are toiling. Let them come and meet something that they can be proud of and let’s also leave something that we ourselves will be proud of” he added.

President Mills is hopeful that his visit to Switzerland will yield good returns for the business community.

Accompanying the President is a host of business leaders including Vice President of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and MP for Nkawkaw, Seth Agyei Baah, Managing Director of CAL Bank Frank Adu and the Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, George Aboagye. 

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70 TRAINED MCAs GRADUATED IN TAMALE

The 3^rd batch of 70 Medicine Counter Assistants (MCAs) of Chamalt MCA Training Institute in the Northern Region of Ghana, have graduated successfully after a six months intensive training programme on drugs dispensing and first aid.

Until recently, training programmes and refresher courses for MCAs never existed except for pharmacists, licensed chemical sellers, dispensing technologists and technicians, the Northern Zonal Manager of Pharmacy Council Michael Kudebong, said in a statement.

According to him, the Pharmacy Council, the body mandated to secure in the public interest the highest standards in the practice of pharmacy in Ghana, decided to bridge the gap by instituting the MCA programme to ensure that all personnel involved in the provision of pharmaceutical care are trained to meet current trends and challenges in the efficient and appropriate pharmaceutical service delivery.

The MCA is any person with the minimum qualification of SSSCE or its equivalent and has completed the required training and equipped with necessary skills to assist other members of the pharmaceutical care team, to provide optimal pharmaceutical care to patients by performing various duties in accordance with the Pharmacy Act, 1994 (Act 489) and any other regulation prescribed by the Pharmacy Council.

The training of MCAs is therefore, intended to build a trusted group of pharmacy support personnel to provide competent, acceptable and ethical methods of handling medications, and to also formalize the career of MCAs and make them recognized members of healthcare team.

In a speech read for him, the Registrar of the Pharmacy Council, Joseph Nyoagbe, indicated that MCAs are supposed to assist members of the pharmaceutical care team in performing various duties under the supervision of the superintendent pharmacists. Adding that, their duties include keeping pharmacy tidy, providing services to customers, selling over-the-counter medicines under supervision, assist in inventory management and dispensing, clerical duties, basic health education and among others.

He disclosed that currently, there are about sixteen (16) MCA institutions across the country with only ten including Chamalt MCA Training Institute being accredited to train MCAs. The others are G-Health Consult, Pfago Service Ltd, Rapha Development Ltd, Avenue Chemist ltd, CS Allot Pharmacy, Senes Pharmacy, EMEF Training Centre, Zinaida Pharmacy, Volta Health Consult ltd, Kraspect Ventures, Pharmatrust Pharmacy ltd, Chenette ltd, Medimax Pharmaceuticals ltd and Pherson’s Pharmacy ltd, which have trained 2,855 MCAs over the past few years.

The Registrar of the Pharmacy Council urged all personnel who work in pharmacies and related facilities to enroll in recognize MCA Training Institutions for capacity building.

The Director of Chamalt MCA Training Institute and owner of Chamalt Pharmacy, Anthony Amalba, said the first batch of MCAs enrolled in 2008 was 46 students who went through a 6 months training programme as required by Pharmacy Council, adding that 33 representing 71.7% passed the final exams conducted by the Council.

Following this great achievement, Mr. Amalba disclosed that all the second batch of 28 students who enrolled and wrote the final exams successfully passed, whilst 10 out of 13 who failed in the first batch made it after taking the exams again.

The Director of Chamalt MCA Training Institute however, appealed to the Pharmacy Council to endeavour to release final examination results early enough. He also called on the government to employ MCAs in the Ghana Health Service to provide services to people most especially in deprived areas where health facilities lack trained pharmacists.

12 BILLION CEDIS ROAD PROJECT FOR TAMALE

The Tamale South Legislator and member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Harunah Iddrisu, has cut sod for the construction of a road project at Nalung/Bilpela Fong estimated to cost 12 billion old cedis.

The project when completed would link the Nalung/Bilpela farming community to other parts of the Northern Region to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of residents.

The Member of Parliament, who is also Minister for Communications, assured the nation of government’s commitment to build strong and vibrant State institutions in line with the “Better Ghana Agenda” and therefore urged Ghanaians to have hope in the President John Mills’ administration.

Mr. Iddrisu bemoaned that that part of his Constituency (Nalung/Bilpela) had been neglected by successive governments including the past PNDC administration in terms of roads and other social amenities and said that informed his decision to pump the 12 Billion old Ghana cedis into such a project in fulfillment of his campaign promise in 2008.

The Minister renewed his promise to connect all satellite communities in the Tamale South Constituency to the National Electrification Grid before the end of the four year term of the NDC.

He also pledged to improve the health status of his constituents by building modern sanitary facilities in communities in his Constituency that lacked such facilities.

He praised residents of Tamale and its environs for the stable peace they were enjoying and encouraged them to co-exist peacefully to attract potential investors to the region.

The Mayor of Tamale, Alhaji Abdulai Harunah Friday for his part said government would put the economy of the nation on track and cited communities such as Kapkpagyili, Banvim, Malshegu and Kalariga as among four communities that had been earmarked by the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to benefit from similar projects.

Alhaji Friday however appealed to residents of Tamale to honour their tax obligations and also refine their language when contributing to radio discussions.

MIDA ASSIST FARMERS IN NORTHERN REGION

The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) as part of its Agriculture Transformation Programme component has supported about 24,186 individual farmers and 604 Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Each of the 24,186 individual farmers received has been offered GH¢300.00 cash in the form of grant to engage in what is called “model acre farm projects” in their respective communities as a means of helping them shift from the paradigm of subsistence to commercial farming practices.

These interventions put in place by MiDA also sought to transform the living conditions of inhabitants of under-developed farming communities in the region.

Additionally, MiDA is constructing 110.5 Kilometer stretch of roads in five selected districts alongside the rehabilitation of abandoned irrigation projects like the Bontanga Irrigation and Golinga dams.

This was contained in a speech read for Mr. Martin Eson-Benjamin, CEO of MiDA-Ghana at a sensitization workshop jointly organized by MiDA and the Ghana Association of Private Voluntary Organizations in Development in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital.

He described MiDA’s already rolled out programmes as pro-poor interventions that intend to reduce poverty in rural communities in some selected districts in Ghana through agriculture transformation.

Mr. Eson-Benjamin noted that the only way such interventions could achieve the desired results depended on the atmosphere of peace and tranquility.

He thus implored citizens of the entire region to help MiDA succeed by creating the necessary conditions for those executing the projects to complete on schedule.

The CEO of MiDA announced his outfit’s determination to build an ultra modern Land Title Registration Office in Tamale to register about 500 farmers who would be given land titles to enable them access credit facilities from financial institutions and banks.

Also, he said MiDA would build agricultural business centres and warehouses to create marketing avenues for farmers to maximize their income earnings.

George Ahadzie, Chairman of the Council of Ghana Association of Private Voluntary Organizations commended MiDA for complementing the efforts of existing community based organizations to eradicate poverty in the region.

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS C'TTEE BEGINS SITTING IN TAMALE

The Public Accounts Committee’s ongoing nationwide sitting for the three northern regions begun in Tamale Sunday August 22 at the West African Examination Centre in Tamale where Hon. Kan Dapaah, Chairman of the Committee threatened to recommend to government to suspend subsequent common fund allocation for the Sisala West District Assembly in the Upper West Region.

This followed the Sisala West District Assembly management team’s inability to account for monies that were spent without recourse to the Procurement Act.

It was detected that the WA Municipal Assembly also spent One Billion, Eight Hundred and Sixty Million Cedis without receipts.

The Committee also uncovered that some of the District Assemblies’ expenditure exceeded their budgetary allocations which needed immediate redress.

Further discoveries pointed to the fact that only 49% of the WA Municipal Assembly’s internally generated revenue was spent on development projects whereas the 51% was used for administrative purpose which Mr. Kan Dapaah, Chairman of the Committee said was totally unacceptable.

These and several flaws were detected when the first five DCE’s for Sisala East, Sisala West, Jirapa/Lambusie, Lawra/Nandom and WA Municipal Assemblies all in the Upper West Region appeared before the Committee.

But the WA Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Duogu Yakubu told the Committee that the anomalies had been rectified and promised that the necessary financial statements will be submitted later to the appropriate quarters for redress.

Hon. Albert Kan Dapaah advised the MMDCE’s to be guided by the District Assembly laws governing revenue generation and expenditure to avoid the tendency of being jailed for misappropriation of the tax payers money.

Hon. Kan Dapaah compelled the MMDCE’s to constantly submit their annual reports to the Auditor Generals Department for scrutinizing, three months prior to December ending.

He also expressed worry over the low representation of the required number of the top ten ranking officials of the various assemblies who were expected to appear before the Committee.

The Committee Chairman explained that the exercise sought to ensure accountability and probity at the various assemblies and thereby urged the MMDCE’s not to consider the work of the Committee as “Witch hunting” but rather cooperate fully with the members whose duty is to ensure that State resources are not misappropriated.

Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister complained about the selective nature of the exercise and underscored the need for the Committee to consider making subsequent sittings all-inclusive which he noted will hold MMDCE’s accountable for their stewardship.

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