Tuesday, September 30, 2008

DEC 7 POLLS WILL BE PEACEFUL-AMOO (Page 3 Lead)

24/09/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
THE National Security Co-ordinator, Dr Sam Amoo, has given the assurance that the December parliamentary and presidential polls will be held in an atmosphere of peace.
He affirmed that the security apparatus of the country had, in times past, stood the test of time and would rise to the occasion once again to avert any possible threat to the state as the elections approached.
Speaking at a two-day Election Monitoring and Policing seminar for Police commanders and members of the National, Regional and District Elections Security Task Force in Accra, Dr Amoo said the perception of insecurity and mayhem, and the spectre of a Kenya or a Zimbabwe occurring here, would not happen.
The seminar is being sponsored by the British High Commission.
He said although it was widely acclaimed that Ghana was a peaceful country, the security apparatus would not take any chances for the electoral process to be threatened.
"We have planned and will effectively execute the necessary security measures to ensure peace and stability before, during and after Election 2008," he said.
The co-ordinator said the seminar was timely, in view of the fact that the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections were less than three months away and given the backdrop of the anxiety currently being generated about them.
He said the topics for discussion included the electoral law and electoral offence, the role of the media in elections, the role of civil society in elections and democracy and human rights and the management of election conflicts.
Dr Amoo expressed the hope that all Ghanaians, irrespective of their political affiliations, would be governed by the rules, regulations and guidelines set out by the Electoral Commission to ensure peaceful elections in December 2008.
He urged the participants to approach the seminar with seriousness in order to be fully prepared for the challenges they would encounter in December.
For his part, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, said since its inception in May this year, the National Elections Task Force had made steady progress.
He said a budget had been approved and members of the various sub-committees were doing their final rounds of tours in the regions to confirm earlier analyses and assessments.
The IGP said the seminar had five parts, saying the remaining four would be held in Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi and Ho and that at the end of it all members would have improved on their store of information on the elections and the general overview of analyses and assessment countrywide.
The Political Officer of the British High Commission, Ms Rosie Tapper, said the commission had spent £500,000 in training the police, of which the seminar formed part.
She said the High Commission was confident that the elections would proceed smoothly and that there would be no room for complacency.
The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mr David Kanga, said the laws on the electoral process were many but the crucial ones would be made available to the public.
He called on the participants to act professionally during the elections and disseminate the right information to avoid any clashes.

Friday, September 26, 2008

GHANA IMPROVES RATING ON CORRUPTION INDEX (Page 21)

25/09/2008

Story: Mary Mensah
Ghana Scored 3.9 out of the maximum possible score of 10 and ranked 67 on the list of 180 countries included in the 2008 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Transparency International.
This represents an improvement of 0.2 over Ghana’s 2007 ranking of 69 with a score of 3.7 just as last year’s score was an improvement over the 2006 performance.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mr Vitus Azeem, who announced this at a press briefing to launch Transparency International’s 2008 CPI, said this year’s score took Ghana back to its highest score ever of 3.9 that it obtained only in 2002.
He attributed Ghana’s improvement to the enactment of laws aimed at promoting transparency and accountability, considered the basis in the fight against corruption in the country.
He said the creation and support of anti-corruption or accountability institutions by the government and development partners such as DANIDA, GTZ, USAID and DFID had played an important role in getting Ghana this score.
Mr Azeem said it was unfortunate that Ghana had not reached the pass mark after eight years of zero tolerance for corruption but had taken it five years to return to its first-time high score attained in 2002, adding that with the current rate Ghana would reach the 50 per cent mark in 10 years or more.
The Executive Director indicated that the low levels of enforcement of anti-corruption laws, the newspaper reports about alleged corruption that the government did little about and the impunity with which public officials reacted to such allegations, no doubt explained Ghana’s failure to score even 4.0 on the TI’s CPI.
“Thus, while we might rejoice at the improvement of the scores from 3.7 to 3.9 we should recognise that there is more to be done. In fact the trend should awaken us to the fact that we are far from winning the fight against corruption, which also frustrates our fight against poverty reduction, disease, ignorance and efforts to reach the middle-income status,” he said.
He said globally, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden shared the highest score of 9.3 followed immediately by Singapore at 9.2 with Somalia in the rear with 1.0 slightly trailing Iraq and Myanmar at 1.3 and Haiti at 1.4.
He said Botswana topped Africa’s performance list with 5.8 followed by Mauritius at 5.5, South Africa 4.9 and Namibia 4.5.
Spelling out what needed to be done by the current President and whoever would take over from him come January 2009, Mr Azeem called for the fast-track passage of the freedom of Information Law, to ensure that the Assets Declaration Law was complied with and that disclosures could be verified, among others.

Friday, September 19, 2008

TRAINING PROGRAMME ON COMBATING CRIME HELD IN ACCRA (Centre Spread0

19/08/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
A five-day training programme aimed at combating drug trade, money laundering and organised crime in Ghana by the use of a common Software Application System (SAS) has ended in Accra.
The programme was organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) in collaboration with INTERPOL and the US Department of Justice.
Participants were drawn from the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and detectives from the Republic of Togo.
Closing the training in Accra, the Chairman of the NACOB Board, Gen (rtd) Joshua Hamidu, called on the security agencies to share intelligence in order to combat the drug menace.
He said people involved in the drug trade were dangerous and heartless, conducted their activities in secrecy and were willing to do anything to have their way.
He said due to the nature of their work, there was the need for NACOB officials, the police, Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), Immigration and other security agencies to collaborate in the fight against drug trafficking.
The chairman, therefore, called on them to involve themselves in serious intelligence gathering and sharing.
Gen Hamidu said, “as investigators you will become vulnerable with lots of money being put before you to influence you but you must be firm in order to overcome such temptations, the welfare of the nation must be your priority”.
He urged participants to share whatever knowledge they had acquired with their colleagues in order to bring the drug situation in the country under control.
According to Mr Vincent Davies from the INTERPOL Secretariat in Lyon, France, using the new database called the Real Time Analytical Intelligence Database (RAID) would enable Ghana share information on drug trafficking, money laundering and other related crimes within the West African sub-region.
Mr Davies said the RAID facility had been installed at the premise of the NACOB to exploit information and build cases on organised crimes.
He said the facility which included computers, scanners, telephone and other gadgets would record key pieces of information and would quickly identify links among people, places, businesses, financial accounts and telephone numbers, among other things.
On his part, Mr Mark Nolta, one of the trainers from the US Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence said RAID would provide a common platform for security agencies from all countries in the sub-region to fight organised crimes.
He said already the device had been used in over 700 investigations in the US and had assisted in the arrest of several criminals and organised groups.
He expressed the hope that the device would help countries in the sub-region to fight drug traffickers and other dangerous crimes.

POLICE DISPATCHES EXPERTS TO TAMALE (Page3)

03/09/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
THE Police Administration has constituted a team of police experts to investigate the alleged disappearance of weapons from the Tamale Police Armoury.
A former police officer, Inspector Kwaku Johnson, alleged on an Accra-based radio station yesterday that a number of rifles and ammunitions had been stolen from the Tamale armoury and sold to civilians, who use them to commit violent crime and to fuel the ethnic conflict in the Northern Region.
To help the team in their investigation, the Police Administration further announced the arrest of Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Mahama Nantogma, who was in charge of the police armoury in Tamale.
The team is made up of officers from the Arms and Ammunition Registry of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters, the Police Intelligence and Professional Standard Bureau and the Internal Audit Directory.
In addition to the investigations, the team is also to conduct a thorough audit of the weapon facilities of the police in the Northern Region.
According to the Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, DSP Kwesi Ofori, the team has already been dispatched to give effect to the administrative orders of the high command.
He said the outcome of the investigations would be made known to the public to assure Ghanaians that the police Administration would do whatever it could to ensure the safety of the people at all times.
He said the administration was determined to flush out all miscreants and indisciplined cops from the system.

CHANGES IN POLICE SERVICE (Centre Spread)

03/09/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
THE Police Administration has made some changes in the regions as part of measures to strengthen the service.
All the changes take immediate effect. The Northern Regional Police Commander, Commissioner of Police (COP) Ephraim Oko Brakatu is to move to the national headquarters to head the Special Duties Unit.
COP Brakatu is expected to help strengthen the co-ordination between the national headquarters and the various regions and in addition carry out special assignments as directed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to enhance general policing in the country.
The Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, DSP Kwesi Ofori, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday, said DCOP Ofosu Mensah-Gyeabour, the Upper East Regional Police Commander, would move to the Northern Region but would temporarily supervise the Northern, the Upper East and Upper West regions to ensure cohesion of police operational activities and peace enforcement in some conflict spots in the region.
He said the Central Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio-Atinga, was now to head the Service Workshop in Accra, where she is to assist in improving the workshop operations.
DSP Ofori said DCOP Bio-Atinga was one time responsible for the Technical Directorate of the service and her experience would help improve operations at the workshop, as well as the fleet of police vehicles.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Akayire Kampara, Agona Swedru Divisional Commander moves to the Central Region as Regional Commander and ACP Mahama Hamidu, Second in Command of the Upper East Region is now the substantive commander.
Chief Supt Fred Agyapong Asare of the Goaso Division of the Brong Ahafo Region is to head the East Gonja Division (Salaga)/ Northern Region and Supt Francis Aryitey Aryee is the Special Operations Assistant at the National Police Headquarters, Accra.