Day: August 21, 2022

The Methodist Church Ghana has elected Kwesi Atta Antwi, a member of the Kumasi Wesley Society, in the Kumasi Diocese as the next Lay President of the church.
The Lay President of the Methodist Church Ghana, is a person who is not a reverend minister but mandated by the Methodist Constitution to “assist the Presiding Bishop in giving leadership to the Church in addition to carrying out duties that may be assigned by Conference and by the Presiding Bishop.

The Lay President also presides over the Representative Session of Conference and General Directorates in the absence of the Presiding Bishop.

Mr Atta Antwi who is a Past Lay Chairman of the Kumasi Diocese and a Management Consultant will take office from October, 2023 when the three year mandate of the incumbent, William Orleans Oduro expires.

He was elected after a run-off election held on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at the 50th Annual and 12th Biennial Conference of the Methodist Church Ghana held in Winneba.

He has served the Church in several capacities at various levels.

He polled 255 votes, representing 68.63 per cent of ballots cast to go pass his closest contender, Grace Nkrumah-Mills of the Wesley Society in Akosombo in the Somanya Diocese, who secured 117 votes.

Key decisions taken by church at the Winneba Conference

At the conference in Winneba, the Methodist Church Ghana took some key decisions including the creation of two new Dioceses starting October 1, 2022 to bring the total number of Dioceses to 22.

The new ones are the Ho and North America.

The Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has observed with grave concern a situation where the Police Administration appears to have adopted what can be described as a 'centralized communication system' which ın our view has the potential to affect the time-testded Police-Media relations in the region.

The Association is finding it difficult to understand why the regional Police Command ın recent times appears to be avoiding media interviews on news items where the police in the region iş expected to provide clarifcations on urgent situations of public interest but rather chooses to refer the media to the headquarters in Accra.

Is it not surprising, why media houses in the region cannot access information of an incident in the region from the regional command?.

A point must be made by GJA that "our job is not just to be called upon to cover parades and" WASSA" at your instance".

The fact remains that journalists have an essential duty to inform the public on the issues of security and other safety matters.

It is a fact that both journalists and the police share the common object of providing service to the Public, even though from different perspectives.

While the police work to keep peace and provide safety for the public, the media work to provide information, in fact, accurate information, to the public including the police and other security forces.

Therefore, the situation where a media house cannot access information from the Regional Command, but would have to wait for someone from Accra to respond to the issues, which in many instances is not forthcoming, should be of great worry to us and as a result calls for a second thought by the Police Administration.

İt is therefore our submission that İf nothing iş done to correct the state of affairs, such can easily give rise to speculations and twisting of facts, which would not be in the best interest of the people both institutions are serving.

İt is the position of GJA Ashanti that the police iş chatting a path of creating a strained relationship between the two institutions with the introducion of centralised communication system where journalists ın the region are referred to contact the headquarters in Accra for clarifications on news items ın Kumasi and its environs and that şame needs to be rectified.

This position of ours is reinforced by our strong desire to avoid instances of speculative reporting which can be inimical to the progress of democratic growth and development.

Sgd.
Hope King
Ashanti Regional Chairman,
GJA.

CC:
ALL MEDIA HOUSES

The Education Ministry has sent a final demand notice to TANIT Ltd for the refund of an amount of eight hundred and fifty-nine thousand, one hundred and fifteen cedis, forty-six pesewas (Gh859, 115.46).

The demand for the refund was due to TANIT’s failure to execute the given assignment within the specified duration.

In a letter dated 18th August 2022, the Ministry indicated that it will advise itself if TANIT Ltd fails to comply with the final demand notice.

The Ministry made reference to letters dated 22nd June 2022, 24th June 2022 and 18th July 2022 all in relation to the contract agreement signed on 26th July, 2021 between them.

Terms of contract 

The Education Ministry in the contract expected TANIT Ltd to have performed each of the five deliverables and submit a claim respectively for work done at each stage and report for verification before moving to the next stage.

Here are the five deliverables spelt out in the contract by the Ministry to TANIT Ltd: 

1. Submission of inception report by August 2021 attracting payment of 15 per cent of the contract sum which was met by TANIT Ltd.

2. Design, construct and build a platform for the training of teachers online by September, 2021 attracting payment of 25 per cent.

3. Develop and build curriculum design by October 2021 also attracting 20 per cent payment. 

4. Operationalise a dashboard, platform sign off and go live by November 2021 which also attracted payment of 20 per cent. 

5. Consultant to be required to stay on board for additional two months (December 2021 to January 2022) after the project goes live for quality assurance which attracted the remaining 20 per cent.

The bone of contention is the fact that TANIT Ltd did not submit monthly reports for the remaining four deliverables but rather lumped the four reports together and requested the payment of the remaining 85 per cent contract sum.

In addition, TANIT Ltd also failed to complete the project within the five-month period as prescribed by the contract.

Background

It must be noted that TANIT Ltd submitted a lumped payment claim of the remaining 85 per cent on 14th February 2022 meanwhile, the contract which was signed on 26th July 2021 was supposed to be completed by January 2022.

It must be put on record that TANIT Ltd's contract was NOT TERMINATED as is being speculated but it rather EXPIRED forcing the Education Ministry to seek support from another source for the successful execution of the project.

The Education Ministry is therefore informing the general public of its commitment to making good use of resources it received from the government for the provision of quality education to all Ghanaians irrespective of location.

Again, the Ministry did not cook up figures but gave actual training figures to merit the payment of the project fund from the World Bank.

Former MMDCEs in the Country who worked under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo’s first term of government are calling on the President of the Republic to credit them with their End of Service Benefit.

According to them, for over twelve months that they were sacked from government ,the Nation has refused to pay them their End of Service Benefits.
Speaking to this newspaper,the inability of the government to pay them their End of Service Benefit has rendered some of them into abject poverty.

Source has it that,most of them cannot even afford to pay their utility bills,let alone their wards' school fees because of the untimely sack and it forgoing characters.

The source indicated further that , most of them depend on their wives for living which according to them has resulted into broken homes leading others to their untimely death.

Report has it that some of them are finding it difficult to have their daily three square meal.

The above reasons have compelled them to demonstrate against their own party government if not paid .

According to them,if the President fails to attend to them then they have no option than to demonstrate against their former master.

They revealed that, lives have not been eazy for them since they were sacked from government and the only way they could enjoy lives in this difficult times is to have access to their End of Service Benefits but the government has refused to pay them since.

They however appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo to as a matter of urgency release their money in order to make lives better for them because they are suffering.