Re BOOK ALERT: 
Welcome
....to JusticeGhana Group
JusticeGhana is a Non-Governmental [and-not-for- profit] Organization (NGO) with a strong belief in Justice, Security and Progress....” More Details
Civil society hails GH¢50m for Biometric Voter Register
- Details
- Category: Elections & Governance
- Created on Friday, 15 July 2011 00:00
- Hits: 8209
Civil society hails GH¢50m for Biometric Voter Register
{sidebar id=10 align=right}THE Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Asare Otchere-Darko, has welcomed government's decision to vote funds for the Electoral Commission to replace the voters register through a biometric registration exercise. This comes after months of uncertainty over the funding for the use of this technology for the 2012 general elections.
Kwabena Duffuor made this announcement yesterday when he presented to Parliament the 2011 supplementary budget in his mid-year review of the 2011 budget statement.
The Finance Minister indicated that based on the budget submitted by the Electoral Commission, over GH¢80.0 million is needed for the biometric exercise for the 2012 electoral process, of which GH¢50.8 million would be required in 2011.
Government has, decided to release GH¢50.0 million this year to the EC, which some observers believe may be behind its own schedule for the exercise.
In an interview with the New Statesman, the DI man, whose policy think tank has been at the forefront of championing for the adoption of this technology as a means of further enhancing Ghana's electoral process, stated that this development is indeed welcome as this has vindicated DI's long-held stance that the introduction of biometric voter registration would go a long way in protecting the integrity of the 2012 elections.
However, of prime concern to the Executive Director of DI, was the timetable of the EC for the implementation of this involving registration exercise.
According to reports, “the EC only on Tuesday, 12th July 2011, opened tenders submitted by the seven shortlisted companies out of a total number of 47 companies across the world who responded to the advertisement by the EC. What this means is that the EC is yet to identify a company that will undertake this exercise. We think this process has been unduly delayed knowing the EC had plans as far back as 2009 to introduce biometric voter registration for the 2012 elections”, Gabby explained.
He wondered whether this apparent delay was due to late release or funds or late implementation of the programme by the EC itself.
He continued, “The Electoral Commission, so far, hasn't come out to tell Ghanaians if the delay by government in releasing funds for the biometric registration exercise has in anyway affected the timetable for the registration. We are also concerned by the intention of the EC to complete this entire exercise by October next year. That is cutting it too close to the December 2012 race”.
Shedding more light on this, Gabby explained that since this exercise involved the introduction of a new technology into Ghana's electoral process, adequate preparation was therefore needed by the EC, political parties and the voting public to ensure a smooth election in 2012.
“What we know is that it could take the EC from 6 to 11 months to fully implement this. The EC has to undertake voter education and explain what this new technology is all about. In addition to this the EC will have to crosscheck the collected data to remove any duplicity to compile a register which is full-proof to the satisfaction of all political parties and Ghanaians and issue biometric voter ID cards with time to spare before December 7, 2012,” Gabby said.
“Political parties as well require enough time to adequately train their polling station executives to fully grasp this new process. With barely 16 months to the 2012, we are worried the EC may hurriedly rush through these important processes which could spell trouble”, Gabby added.
Gabby is also calling for the Electoral laws to be amended to introduce clear and stiffer punishment for those arrested for registering more than once and other related electoral offences.
The Danquah Institute has also advocated for a system which can also verify the finger prints of registered voters on Election Day as a means of combating multiple voting in the 2012 elections.
“Our research reveals that small population Gambia shifted from its traditional voter registration system to biometric system for this year's general elections at a cost of US$2.3 million. Bangladesh spent $65 million when it introduced biometric voter registration for its 80 million voters. So if we are spending in the region of $60 million dollars on this technology, then there must be a mechanism that will correctly identify a voter on election day to prevent multiple voting,” Gabby explained.
Gabby proposed the introduction of a system similar to that being used in Jamaica. He explained that in Jamaica's elections of 2007, they employed the use of the Electoral Voter Identification and Ballot Issuing System (EVIBIS), which is a computerised method of verifying fingerprints, similar to those used here in E-Zwich or by immigration officials in the United States.
According to Gabby, with EVIBIS, registered electors are identified and verified at the polling station by using their fingerprints after which the system will issue authenticated ballots for voting. The elector will then proceed as before to thumbprint the paper ballot issued as it is done always.
By Fiifi Arhin
Source: The Statesmanonline
No commentsBudget swerves health workers on Single Spine
- Details
- Category: Business & Finance
- Created on Friday, 15 July 2011 00:00
- Hits: 3116
Budget swerves health workers on Single Spine
Yesterday, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwabena Duffuor, read his Mid
Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy when he presented his Supplementary Budget for the year.
Out of the GH¢1.46 billion additional spending he presented to Parliament for approval, only GH¢177.6 was for salaries and wages, increasing the pay budget for 2011 to GH¢3.91bn.
However, this is bad news for a high number of public sector workers because it does not even take care of existing salary arrears, let alone take care of the migration of one of the largest public sector employees, health workers.
This, according to the Danquah Institute, makes it “highly improbable” for the Single Spine Salary Structure to be extended to the 68,000 health workers of Ghana this year despite repeated assurances from both President JEA Mills and George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
By May 2011, with issues still raging over the size of teachers' SSSS, more than half of this year's pay budget, amounting to GH¢1,716,262,696 had been spent. “This,” according to a financial analyst at the Danquah Institute, “represents GH¢157,649,141 more than what was budgeted for January-May salaries and wages and only GH¢20m less than what has been added in the supplementary budget for workers' pay. The signs are certainly not good on the wage front,” said Ato Mensah.
The 2011 budget for salaries and wages, which was a meager increase from 2010, fell far short from meeting the migration of the nation's 250,000 teachers. Teachers have outstanding arrears which the boss of the FWSC has promised to settle in September, in anticipation of this supplementary budget.
But, according to a document prepared by the Ministry of Finance and titled “The Ghana 2011 Budget Strategic Paper”, which has been sighted by the New Statesman, Government knew the cost of implementing the single spine system this year would set it back GH¢5.3bn. Yet, it made budgetary provisions of merely GH¢3.7bn for total emoluments when the budget was read last November.
According to the Danquah Institute, which made this known to the public, “The budgetary allocation for wages and salaries for 2011 amounted to GH¢3,733,500,000, a 9.8% increment from the 2010 figure of GH¢3.4 billion which corresponds to government's decision to increase salaries by 10% across board. So from which envelop is the extra funds required to implement the SSSS?”
Government has consistently been shifting the implementation of the SSSS since the National Democratic Congress took office in January 2009.
On Friday, 7 January 2011, Mr Smith-Graham said that teachers and other Ghana Education Service workers were to be migrated on to the Single Spine Salary Structure that month.
He went on to promise that staff of Ghana Health Service and the Civil Service were to receive their single spine salaries by March during which about 90% of public institutions might have been migrated onto the SSSS.
He said, a team of experts in Accra were working vigorously and competently to ensure GES workers were migrated onto the SSSS before the Controller and Accountant General's Department completed preparing salary payments.
Currently 44 institutions are on SSSS, representing 68% of the total public service workforce.
Earlier this month, Mr Smith-Graham further assured, “Our main focus is now on the health civil [sic] service and the tertiary institutions,” adding “we are hoping that [they] will be on [the SSSS] in August.”
By Fiifi Arhin
Source: The Statesmanonline
Akufo-Addo Is Bereft Of Humility Just As A Hen Lacks The Ability To Pass Urine – Felix Kwakye
- Details
- Category: Politics
- Created on Thursday, 14 July 2011 00:00
- Hits: 2833
Akufo-Addo Is Bereft Of Humility Just As A Hen Lacks The Ability To Pass Urine – Felix Kwakye
{sidebar id=10 align=right}A Special Assistant to the Minister of Trade, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has fired a salvo at the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) warning them not to even dream up the idea of embarking on a campaign of doing a comparison between their flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and President John Evans Atta Mills.
To him, President Mills has more integrity and persona than the NPP’s flagbearer.
The NDC, he says, has a store-room full of nefarious acts committed by the erstwhile NPP government and they (NDC) will not stop at publicizing them should they (NPP) dare step on the NDCs toes in the 2012 electioneering campaign.
Clearly vexed by the NPPs continuous usage of “greedy bastards”, a term first used by ex-president Rawlings to describe members of the Mills administration, Felix Kwakye sought to ask from the host, “What is worse, having a greedy bastard who cannot be jailed and a convicted drug baron supporting one’s campaign team?”
“Bobie, if they say someone is a greedy bastard can you imprison that person?...Can you equate that to Akufo-Addo who has been linked with drug barons? (Obviously, greedy bastards) pales in significance to Amfo Kwakye (one-time Personal Assistant to Nana Addo) who was busted and jailed for drug trafficking. What is more serious than his (Nana Akufo-Addo’s) association with drug barons?” he asked.
Contributing to a panel discussion on AsempaFM’s Political talk-show programme dubbed “Ekosii sen”, he recalled the infamous statement by the Economist, Kwame Pianim that “with the exception of Professor Frimpong Boateng, any idiot can be a flagbearer,” and stated that per Mr. Pianim’s assertion, “Akufo Addo is perhaps part of the idiots.”
“Taking into consideration things said about Nana Addo, do you think he can be used as bait to catch fish?...I don’t think these are the messages the NPP will use in their campaign. Because if push comes to shove, the NDC has a room full of misdeeds by the NPP…Even Former President Kufuor recently confessed that he felt embarrassed when Nana Addo arrogantly decided to contest the results of the 2008 General Elections in court…check ghanaweb, the story is there it’s no fabrication,” he said.
Ex-President Kufuor recently disclosed that if he ever had an issue with the party’s flagbearer, it would be when Nana Addo took a decision to contest the results of the 2008 elections in court. Mr Kufuor told AdomFM that he believed the timing of the court action was wrong and that Nana Addo should have allowed the election results to hold.
The outspoken NDC activist also sneered at the NPP flagbearer’s credentials saying Akufo-Addo cannot appeal to floating voters because of his lack of modesty. He tongue-lashed him for failing to concede defeat to President Mills in 2008, three years after the general elections, and added that this is a marked departure from then candidate Mills who graciously conceded when he lost to President Kufuor in 2000 and 2004.
“Nana Akufo Addo has not done so (given a concession speech)…Since the 2008 General Elections, he has not delivered a concession speech…go and check, its recorded in Arthur Kennedy’s book “Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush…but he goes about crying that the election has been rigged. How can a ruling government claim that an election has been rigged? It shows how incompetent they are in organizing an election and provides further justification for Ghanaians to kick you out of office,” he said.
To him, Nana Addo’s lack of humility is akin to the “inability of a fowl to pass urine” and alleged that the NPP flagbearer once declared to constituency executives in the Upper West Region that he “could replace a parliamentary aspirant with a goat and nobody had the nerve to question him.”
“There is no way the two personalities can be compared because in terms of convincing the electorate for votes, the sitting president ranks higher than Nana Addo,” he concluded.
Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/Peacefmonline.com
Biometric Registration... EC Says GH¢50 Million Not Enough
- Details
- Category: Elections & Governance
- Created on Friday, 15 July 2011 00:00
- Hits: 3088
Biometric Registration... EC Says GH¢50 Million Not Enough
The Electoral Commission (EC)says it needs an additional GH¢32 million to successfully execute the production of a biometric voters register.
It has however commended government for announcing the provision of Gh¢50 million for the first phase of the project.
The announcement was made by the Finance minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor in Parliament on Thursday July 14 while requesting for the approval of a supplementary budget.
Speaking to Citi News, the Head of Public Affairs unit of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry was hopeful the processes would start this year.
“We presented a budget to government for the biometric registration and the whole budget that we presented to government is in the region of GH¢82 million but we also indicated to government that we will need GH¢50 million for this year, to procure the equipment and start the preparation for the biometric registration.
"That is what government is releasing immediately”.
A letter from the Ministry of Finance informing the EC of government's intention to release the said GH¢50 million has already been received, he revealed.
He however noted that due to the delay processes in fund transfers, “the money is yet to be lodged into the accounts but they have already informed us that the money would be released for the purpose”.
Source: Citifmonline.com
25 file to contest CPP leadership positions
- Details
- Category: Politics
- Created on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 00:00
- Hits: 3073
25 file to contest CPP leadership positions
{sidebar id=10 align=right}Twenty Five (25) candidates have filed their nominations to contest for national leadership positions in the Convention People’s Party (CPP) when the party holds its national delegates congress in the Western Region from July 23 to 24, 2011.
The CPP leadership positions open for contest include Chairmanship, three vice chairmen, General Secretary, National Treasurer, National Organiser, National Women’s Organiser and National Youth Organiser.
Four leading members have filed for the position of Chairman. They include incumbent Chairman, Ladi Nylander and Former National Chairman, Prof. Edmund Delle. Two women- Hon. Samia Nkrumah, MP Jomoro and Araba Bentsi-Enchill, current third Vice Chairman.
Six members have filed for the Vice Chairmanship position. They are Rodaline Ayarna, Ibrahim Seidu, Susan Adu Amankwah , William Nana Buckman, Oteng Anane, and Hon. Kojo Armah.
For the General Secretary position, two persons are contesting incumbent, Ivor Greenstreet. They are Ekow Duncan; CPP Shadow Cabinet member for political Affairs and Richmond Nii Akomrah, UK and Ireland Branch Chairman of the CPP.
Evelyn Anabilla, (incumbent); Appiah Amankwah and Abu Forgor are contesting for the National organizer spot.
Two women; Mary Ankomah Boakye Boateng and Aisha Sulley Futa come up against the incumbent National Women’s Organiser, Hajia hamdatu Haruna; while the National Youth organizer position is being contested among a trio of Murtala Mohammed, Francis Opai Tetteh and Abdul Kadri Rauf.
Source: Myjoyonline.com