Elections in Malawi: Joyce Banda under pressure

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:00

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Elections in Malawi: Joyce Banda under pressure

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DCE FLATTENS ABURI GARDENS

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Category: Culture & Tourism

Created on Thursday, 15 May 2014 00:00

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DCE FLATTENS ABURI GARDENS

AS THE government spends millions of cedis planting trees to protect the environment, the Aburi Botanical Gardens has rather come under serious threat, especially, its forest reserve, following the Akuapem South District Assembly’s decision to develop 23 acres of the land into an Assembly complex.

So far, about two acres of the forest reserve have been destroyed through the cutting down of trees by the Assembly, led by its Chief Executive, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. The incident, which occurred in early March this year, has brought animosity among the staff at the gardens, the District Chief Executive, and the entire people of Aburi, with the indigenes swearing to put their blood on the line to protect the forest reserve.

It all started when the DCE, Mr. Afari-Gyan, on Friday, March 7, 2014, stormed the forest reserve with chain saw operators, and directed them to cut down the timber species, in preparation for the proposed Assembly complex. Mr. Afari-Gyan, The Chronicle learnt, had earlier proposed to the Minister of Local Government & Rural Development, Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, during his recent visit to the Aburi Botanical Gardens, to develop a portion of the forest reserve for the Assembly’s office complex.

But the Minister, cautious of the implications of the said proposal, directed him (Mr. Afari-Gyan) to engage the traditional authorities of Aburi, the custodians of the land, and authorities of the Department of Parks and Gardens, under whose care the Aburi Botanical Gardens operates, to see how best they could arrive at a decision in getting a piece of land for the said project.

But Mr. Afari-Gyan, for unknown reasons, took the law into his own hands without engaging any of the above mentioned authorities, and took the Assembly’s surveyors to study and demarcate a portion of the 172-year-old forest reserve for the project.

The demarcation was followed by the clearing of the timber species and other medicinal plants on the piece of land for the Assembly complex. In the course of clearing the land, a security man at the place raised the alarm, leading to the arrest of the chainsaw operators, who were later handed over to the police for interrogation.

However, about an hour after their arrest and subsequent detention, Mr. Afari-Gyan went and bailed them, with the explanation that he ordered them to encroach on the forest reserve. The Aburi Botanical Gardens operates under the Department of Parks and Gardens, which is an agency under the Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development. It covers an area of 160 acres (64.34 hectares), out of which 35 acres has been developed.

The Gardens is one of the leading gardens in the world for research into tropical botany. It is made up of orchids, flower plots, rock gardens, children’s park, nurseries and chalets (apartments for rental). It further has 13 hectares of undeveloped land (forest) reserved in its wild state as a means of stabilising the ecology of the area.

Following the release of the chainsaw operators, an emergency meeting was held between the stakeholders, where the DCE was advised to refrain from encroaching on the forest reserve until further notice. “From that arrangement, he stopped until a week later, when he came back to the forest again to cut down the trees,” recounts a staff of the Aburi Botanical Gardens, who did not want his name to be mentioned, because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

Following his second attempt, the Director of the Department of Parks and Gardens, Mr. Nantogma, The Chronicle understands, lodged an official complaint to the Minister for Local Government & Rural Development, where an arrangement was made to meet all the parties. Mr. Afari-Gyan, according to inside sources, was ordered by Mr. Oppong-Fosu not to encroach on the forest reserve again, since he had no right to do so.

At the said meeting, the authorities of the Aburi Botanical Gardens were also directed to take custody of the remaining lumber, The Chronicle understands. A follow up to the offices of the Aburi Botanical Gardens confirmed the seized lumber was being kept at the stores of the Gardens.

However, interactions with some of the staff revealed that the verbal directive from the Minister was simply just not enough to deter Mr. Afari-Gyan from carrying out his agenda, as they prefer a documented directive that could easily be referred to challenge whoever encroaches on the forest reserve.

“We the workers are demanding that any directive from the Minister should be a written document – something that we can lay our hands on to challenge the DCE, since he does not respect anyone here,” noted a senior staff member, who wants to remain anonymous.

Since then, Mr. Afari-Gyan has allegedly threatened to revisit the cleared area to develop it into an Assembly complex, since the Assembly has no option. He is reported to have threatened to sack any member of staff of the gardens who comes his way in the course of pursuing his agenda.

The Akuapem South District Assembly, one of the newly-created district assemblies, currently operates in the building of the School of Horticulture, located in the premises of the Aburi Botanical Gardens. There had been widespread reports of the DCE accusing staff of the garden of cutting down trees in the garden for commercial purposes. Mr. Afari-Gyan, when contacted, to ascertain the above-mentioned issues, declined to comment.

“Do I have an appointment with you? You can’t just wake up and come here. You need to book an appointment with me,” he noted, while directing his Secretary to book an appointment for the reporter. “Give him next week, Monday,” he ordered.

The Curator of the Aburi Botanical Gardens, Mr. Albert Asiedu, when contacted on the subject matter, said he was amazed when the DCE decided to encroach on the forest reserve, when the Minister of Local Government & Rural Development had directed otherwise.

When asked what his outfit was going to do with the seized lumber, he said there was an initial agreement with the Assembly to share it into two (50/50), but the Assembly, led by Mr. Afari-Gyan, wanted to take the lion’s share.This, he noted, had brought the agreement to a standstill, but noted that since revenue from the garden goes into government coffers, they had decided to sell the lumber and put the proceeds into the government chest.

Officials of the Aburi Botanical Garden apprehend one of the chainsaw operatorsWith regards to the cutting down of trees by staff of the garden for commercial purposes, Mr. Asiedu said: “We are indeed cutting down trees, but that is meant for a project by the Cocoa Research Institute.” He said the garden had entered into an agreement with the Cocoa Research Institute to revamp the cocoa plantation in the garden meant for research purposes, hence the cutting down of the “voluntary trees” in preparation for the said project.

He said his outfit had always gone to the open the market to buy lumber when they needed some, and not cut down what was in the forest reserve, since “that is our national heritage.” Attempts to get the Director of Parks and Gardens, Mr. Nantogma, to comment on the issue, have proved futile, and several calls and a text message to him have not been returned.

The Deputy Minister of Local Government & Rural Development, Baba Jamal, who, The Chronicle learnt, played a pivotal role in stopping the DCE from carrying out the plans of the Assembly, when contacted directed the paper to talk to the Director of Parks and Gardens.

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

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CPP Prepares To Enhance 2016 Electoral Fortunes

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Category: Politics

Created on Friday, 16 May 2014 00:00

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CPP Prepares To Enhance 2016 Electoral Fortunes

The Chairman and leader of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Samia Yaba Nkrumah, has inaugurated a consultative and co-ordinating committee with a call on members of the party to dedicate their efforts to CPP electoral victory.

The co-ordinating committee, which is composed of chairpersons of all constitutional committees of the party, is part of measures towards the achievement of the electoral objectives of the party.

Inaugurating the committee at the party headquarters in Accra, Samia Yaba Nkrumah pointed out that the party had formidable challenges because it was the most besieged and embattled party in the political history of the country.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}“Our party is the most besieged and embattled political party in the political history of our nation. We have suffered two coups d’état of our governments in 1966 and 1981.

“Our party was banned in 1968 and dismembered and fragmented in 1992. This attitude towards our party continues to this hour and the question many have asked over the years is why?” she said.

She explained that some political parties view the great tradition and heritage of CPP with animosity because the party resisted their efforts to impoverish the country, saying they also despised the self-less and principled commitment to the development of our country.

According to the chairman of the party, “the rapid industrialisation, strategic investments and progress in continental union under the CPP government threatened and undermined the efforts of external financial and commercial interests to dominate and control the resources and markets of the economy of Ghana”.

She added that “they hate our party because we are opposed to their exploitation of the peasant agricultural economies of a divided Africa, and acted on their intense hatred to collaborate with internal subversionists to plot and execute the overthrow of the CPP government on February 24, 1966”.

On the fragmentation of the party, she explained that the party suffered this fate because “our electoral victory in 1979 was the revelation that no political force could defeat a united Nkrumaist front of the CPP”.

This, she said, was reinforced and underpinned by the fact that “our victory in the political liberation struggle of our country makes us the traditional majority party in our country.”

She asked the members of the party to resist the destabilisation of the party by her political enemies, and warned against “fifthy columnists and agent provocateurs who may infiltrate the party and attempt to influence the party by corrupt means to act against interest.

She advised members of the party to “respect and obey the leaders they have freely elected and elders of the party who laid the political foundations, adding that their actions at all times should be consistent with the party’s constitution and the organisational principle of democratic centralism.

“We should appreciate the CPP’s disciplinary code of supremacy of the party and not our persona and egos”, Ms Nkrumah stressed.

The party, she said, remained resolute and undaunted because it had the power and capability to govern the country on the strength of the relevance, appropriateness and efficiency of the development ideology and philosophy of the party for the prosperity of the nation.

The chairman called on the committee to work tirelessly and without reservation towards an electoral victory in 2016, saying that “this is the challenge of our times”.

She pointed out that because of the “failure of the inappropriate and ineffective policies of the P/NDC and NPP governments in the past 32 years, it is time for a change”.

According to her It is time for the rejection of development policy dictates from political, economic, financial and commercial interests that denied Ghanaians political rights and economic opportunities under colonial rule.

"We refuse to be the hewers of wood and drawers of water in international economic relations.” she stated.

It is time she said ,for the history of slavery and colonialism and responsibility to colonial freedom to drive and inform the economic development policy choices in fulfilment of the mission in history.

She concluded that “on account of her incomparable and supreme development achievements in the economic development history of our dear country, it is time for the CPP to govern this country to prosperity”

Source: Daily Graphic

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Labour: we will link minimum pay to earnings

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Category: Politics

Created on Wednesday, 14 May 2014 00:00

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Labour: we will link minimum pay to earnings

Ed Miliband to say that Labour will aim to reach target over five years, linking wage to earnings rather than the economy

Patrick Wintour

Ed Miliband will set out radical plans on Monday to tackle low pay, announcing that a future Labour government would set a statutory minimum wage target linked to average hourly earnings.

The proposals mark the first time Labour has suggested a long-term link between minimum wage and median earnings, rather than setting the figure in cash terms according to what the economy can afford year on year. Labour would attempt to reach the target over five years, and sees it as analogous to the government setting an inflation target for the Bank of England.

Miliband will not announce the precise figure until before the general election. But a recent Resolution Foundation commission report on the minimum wage, chaired by Prof Sir George Bain, the first chairman of the Low Pay Commission (LPC), recommended a rate at 60% of average earnings as a "reasonable lodestar".

That would put the UK minimum wage in the top third of developed countries.

Miliband, speaking on Radio 4's Today, said: "This gets at a terrible scandal in this country of 5 million in low-paid work unable to make ends meet. We have got to tackle it and I just don't think we can carry on as we are. The minimum wage has done a good job in tackling the worst of exploitation but we have now got to tackle low pay."

He refused to put a figure on minimum wage, or at what proportion of average earnings the target would be set, saying this was for a discussion with industry, but the aim "was to raise it as a proportion of average earnings from where it is now".

In 2013 the minimum wage was set at 54.6% of average earnings, and the suggestion from the chancellor, George Osborne, that the minimum wage could be set at £7 an hour would take the wage to 57% of median earnings.

Miliband will make his proposal to write "a new chapter" in the battle against low pay at the launch of his party's review of the minimum wage, undertaken by Alan Buckle, the former deputy chairman of KPMG International.

Labour has tried to build its European election campaign around specific policy announcements such as better access to GPs, regulating the private rental sector in housing, improving social care, changes to zero-hours contracts and now low pay.

Miliband will claim at the launchsay: "It is time to raise our sights again because Britain can do better than this. The next Labour government will restore the link between hard work and building a decent life for your family.

"A Labour government will establish a clear link between the level of the minimum wage and the scale of wages paid to other workers in our economy. We will say workers on the minimum wage must never be left behind because those who work hard to create our nation's wealth should share in it."

Critics such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned that it has tolerated the minimum wage on the basis that it does not become a political football, and expressed concern about Miliband's proposals. "Business will be concerned with this sort of interference from a Labour government wanting to set a target," said Katja Hall, deputy director general of the CBI. "The minimum wage was introduced by a Labour government and it has widespread support from political parties and from employers. Let's not jeopardise that. Let's trust the Low Pay Commission to do their job."

The CBI fears a five-year target or ambition linked to earnings would be unduly rigid, and possibly inflationary. But Miliband will stress the LPC would be free to take into account external shocks to the economic system.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has also proposed setting a long-term target for the minimum wage.

Buckle proposes, in common with the Bain report, that the LPC, set up 15 years ago, should have broader terms of reference including a wider duty to tackle poverty and raise productivity across the UK. He will suggest joint employer-employee taskforces to examine the causes of low productivity and low pay in specific sectors such as catering or social care. That in turn could lead to different minimum earnings targets in different sectors.

There is no single body in the UK responsible for examining the sources of low productivity, although Acas, the conciliation service, is broadly responsible for good industrial relations.

Buckle has found the number of workers on low pay – defined as those paid less than the living wage of £7.45 per hour outside London and £8.80 in the capital – now stands at 5.2 million – one in five of all workers and one in three of women in work. That figure is up from 4.8 million in 2012 and 3.4 million in 2009.

He has estimated the cost to government finances in tax credits and lost taxable income is close to £3.23bn.

Buckle also suggests that poor enforcement in some sectors means that more than a quarter of a million people are still estimated to earn less than the national minimum wage, while the UK has higher levels of low pay and lower levels of productivity than many international competitors.

Buckle also stresses that this long-term earnings target cannot be pursued regardless of the state of the economy, and external shocks must be taken into account.

The Buckle report also makes some more familiar recommendations, including strengthening enforcement of the minimum wage by extending the remit of HMRC to take action against those employers who fail to pay workers for holidays.

It also suggest employers could be encouraged to pay the higher living wage by making it a condition of large central government contracts, requiring employers to disclose numbers earning less than the rate, and offering temporary incentives to raise low pay.

Despite the emphasis on reform, the Buckle report stresses the minimum wage is a rare policy which enjoys widespread support, increasingly cross-party.

The annual process through which it is set, drawing on a rigorous evidence base and agreed by a panel with representatives from employers, unions and academia, would be retained.

Buckle said: "The current system was designed in the 1990s to stop extreme low pay and abuse. But, with millions of people earning just above the minimum still living in poverty, we need a broader and more ambitious strategy to tackle low pay and move to a more high-skill, high-wage economy. Businesses have choices about how to compete, and policymakers should seek to create incentives to encourage more productive, higher value business models.

"I believe that my core proposal of a clear goal to increase the minimum wage over the life of a parliament is achievable as part of a national mission to tackle the problem of low pay, and that achieving this will be good for citizens, business and the government."

Sunday 18 May 2014

Source: The Guardian UK

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