NPP have close to about almost 800 serial callers around the country–John Boadu
John Boadu, General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has revealed that the party has over 800 serial callers across the country who call media houses to defend the party and government. Mr. Boadu revealed it on Starr Chat Wednesday with Nana Aba Anamoah. He said, the party tries to support them but no amount of money can compensate for their work. “These days we try to support serial callers. No amount of money can compensate them for the work they do. We have close to about almost 800 serial callers around the country. Some of them are businesswomen, I was also a serial caller,” he said. On the other hand, Mr. Boadu also noted the chaos happening in the ongoing polling station executive’s elections is normal considering the number of candidates involved and interest. “One thing I must make clear is that at the onset of the exercise, people thought the constituency executives wanted to hide the forms and in the end, calm was restored but the bad news went out”. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
The decision of the Supreme Court of Ghana amounts to judicial interference–Haruna Iddrisu
The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said, the decision of the Supreme Court of Ghana amounts to judicial interference in a time-tested parliamentary practice and established conventions. Engaging the media in a press conference he said:“Everywhere in the world, in civilized democracies, including the United Kingdom, the presiding officer’s vote is discounted, so, it’s not for nothing that Article 102 provides that ‘A person presiding shall have no original nor casting vote’.” According to him, the Supreme Court ruling is just a “judicial support for e-levy and nothing more, judicial support for a struggling economy in distress and a judicial support for the restoration of a matter that they have said is constitutional; it’s repugnant to the provisions of Articles 102 and 104”. Mr. Iddrisu maintained “this is a travesty of parliamentary justice and a stab in the growth and development of multiparty constitutional democracy built on the spirit of checks and balances” Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
‘I thinks the reasoning by the Supreme Court is clearly sound–Attorney General
Attorney General Godfred Dame has said, he thinks the reasoning by the Supreme Court is clearly sound and is in accord with the practice in other jurisdictions around the world. According to Mr. Dame, “Nowhere in the Constitution has any statement been made that whenever a deputy speaker presides, he loses his right to vote”, the Minister of Justice said. “All the circumstances under which a Member of Parliament loses his right to vote have actually been spelled out in Article 104,” He stressed. The decision comes after a lawyer, who is also a law lecturer, Justice Abdulai, petitioned the court to declare as unconstitutional, First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu’s action of counting himself as one of the MPs on the floor even while presiding over the proceedings of the house in relation to the formation of a quorum for the passage of the 2022 budget which had earlier been rejected and thrown out by the minority side. Justice Abdulai was of the view that once a deputy speaker, who is an MP presides in the stead of the Speaker, he loses his right to vote. The Supreme Court’s ruling effectively means either of the two deputy Speakers can vote while presiding over the house. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Local Government Service charges workers Gh¢6,000 each for interview preparation
There is a seething anger in Ghana’s Local Government Service because 240 of the workers are to cough up Gh¢6,000 each for a promotion-interview training. The directive to pay the money is from the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service (OHLGS), according to a letter sighted by The Fourth Estate. The letter says the money is meant for organising “a 3-day High-Level Residential Refresher Training Workshop to prepare the officers for the impending interview”. The Local Government Service has directed the candidates to pay the money into an Absa Bank Gh Ltd account by Wednesday, March 23, 2022. “The amount will be used to cater for the training materials, accommodation, feeding as well as the administrative cost of the interview,” the letter explains. Some local government service workers are angry about the content of the letter because those to be interviewed take less than Gh¢4,000 home at the end of the month, and the amount being charged was almost twice their monthly salaries. “This country is on Fire!” Some employees of the Local Government Service have told The Fourth Estate that the service was using the so-called interview preparation to extort money from employees. According to them, the service knew the employees desperately needed promotion and could not afford to be left out. “This ought not to be. This is robbery. The last time they did this thing, they took Gh¢4,500 from everyone. They took Gh¢4,500 from each of those who are working as District Coordinating Directors currently before they promoted them to directors. They forced them to pay,” an employee who did not want to be named told The Fourth Estate. “Later, they took Gh¢5,000 each from another batch of workers. I don’t know what has emboldened them this time to increase that amount to Gh¢6,000 in this Ghana.” Another official believed that the authorities who instituted the cash-for-seat-promotion scheme did not live through such “an oppressive system” themselves when their promotions were due. “This is just a way to hide behind something and rob the people. This country is on fire! We need a voice,” she said. “This is not new,” Local Government Service reacts Chief Director, Local Government Service, James Oppong Mensah When The Fourth Estate reached out to the Local Government Service on the matter, the Chief Director, James Oppong Mensah, confirmed that the letter was authentic. He said the amount each potential interviewee was supposed to pay was, indeed, Gh¢6,000. He said the service had charged Gh¢5,000 for the previous interview preparation workshop, but this year the hotels had increased their prices so the Service increased the fee for the interviewees. When asked about the proposed venue for the training and who the facilitators would be, the Chief Director said he would not disclose that to The Fourth Estate. He was unhappy that the employees had expressed their disapproval to the media instead of the management of the Local Government Service. “They should have regard for the Service. Why should they go to a journalist?” he told Manasseh Azure Awuni at the head office of the Local Government Service in Accra. “It’s not compulsory. They are not under compulsion to pay,” he said, adding that if someone was not able to pay the money and attend the preparation, they would still be allowed to take part in the interview. When asked whether he did not see the amount being charged as very high, the Chief Director said even if the employees felt it was high, they had to use the right approach. They could have reached out to the Local Government Service for a negotiation, instead of going to the media. “Payment and participation is almost compulsory” Some staff of the Local Government Service, however, say the payment is almost compulsory. They say those who are not able to pay could easily be targeted and victimized. A planning officer expressed fears things might get worse for his colleagues in the local government service if schemes of this nature were not stopped. “It doesn’t happen. You don’t have to go and pay for any promotion. Where are they going to get that Gh¢6,000? The truth of it is that it is robbery,” he said. “Gh¢6,000 multiplied by 240 people; that is one Gh¢1,440,000. That is a lot of money. If people can now go for promotion interview and they have to pay this, where are we taking the country to?” Deprived communities will bear the brunt Deprived communities will eventually suffer the “pointless and extortionate” demands directed at the workers who are due for elevation in the Local Government Service, a top-ranking official told The Fourth Estate. “The net salary of Deputy Directors, after-tax and SSNIT deductions, is not up to Gh¢4,000. And you are asking them to pay Gh¢6,000 for a promotion interview,” he said. “After they have paid this money and have become Coordinating Directors, they are going to take public funds to pay back the money you unjustifiably took from them for the promotion interview.” “The job of a District Coordinating Director is to implement government policies and projects― provide water, schools, et cetera. The money that is supposed to be used for water, they are coming to find a way to inflate the contract sums and claim it. The ripple effect will be on the community people. These are the things that corrupt the whole nation, making the cost of everything high. These are the things,” he lamented. —thefourthestategh Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093