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The rate of inflation dips slightly |
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Source: ghanaweb
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Monday, 19 December 2011 01:43 |
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 Accra, Dec. 14, GNA – The rate of inflation has dipped slightly to 8.55 per cent in November compared to 8.56 per cent recorded in October. Government Statistician Dr Grace Bediako, who announced the figures at a press briefing on Wednesday, said the slowdown in the pace of inflation was on the back of lower food inflation, which had been recording single digit inflation rate over the past 12 months.
The food inflation was 4.41 per cent in November.
Non-food, on the other hand, rose to 11.08 per cent within the period, more than two times that of the food inflation rate.
Dr Bediako said government appeared to be on track to meet its end of the year inflation target of nine per cent, saying that it was difficult to go. “It is difficult to predict how the pattern in December will be because of the Christmas festivities,” she said.
Inflation rate in the Regions ranged from 5.43 per cent in Upper East and West Regions to 10.54 per cent in Central Region. The Central, Ashanti, Greater Accra and Western Regions recorded inflation rates above the national rate of 8.55 per cent.
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RevNet Increases Revenue Generation with e-PCC |
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Source: ghanaweb
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Monday, 19 December 2011 01:24 |
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n Some MMDAs
TO IMPROVE on the relationship between the Assemblies and rate-payers, RevNet Limited has introduced an Electronic Payment Certificate Card (e-PCC) to all property and business owners in some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) where it operates.
The Assemblies where RevNet currently operates are the Adentan Municipality, Shama District, Cape Coast, Kumasi and Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis.
RevNet Limited is a Ghanaian IT Service Provider Company that seeks to tailor a revenue tracking, monitoring and collection management service that would meet the Assemblies’ requirements in a least-cost, low risk and most responsive manner.
Interacting with Journalists in Accra, Acting Managing Director, Opeyemi Ogungbo noted that having been contracted to collect revenues for these Assemblies, rate-payers within the catchment areas no longer pay monies to neither the Assembly’s Revenue Collectors nor Revenue Commission Collectors but pay through an electronic banking system that has been directed by the Assemblies.
He intimated that the decision by these Assemblies to engage RevNet to implement the Electronic Banking System-Revenue Cycle Monitoring Service (EBS-RCMS) stemmed from the fact that the authorities of the Assemblies observed that over the past years monies paid to the Assemblies were not a true reflection of what was being collected.
The e-PCC bears the name and photo of the rate payer as well as the Assembly where he has a relationship with. It also features a biometric chip which enables it to store all transactions the rate payer has with the Assembly. It serves as a back-up for receipts and bills that have been served the rate-payer.
Mr. Ogungbo indicated that there is no cost whatsoever to the rate-payer or the Assembly for this card; it is part of the services provided by RevNet alongside SMS alerts to acknowledge receipt of payment, comprehensive enumeration and database.
“Rate-payers over the years have had challenges keeping paper receipts so it is envisaged that the e-PCC will eliminate the problem of lost receipts. Moreover, the unique ID of the card enables verification and validation of payments over the internet at www.ebsrcm-gh.com a website that gives further information about the Assemblies,” he maintained.
The Ag. Managing Director was of the view that the introduction of the e-PCC was seen as yet another feature of the EBS-RCM, which was the process of revenue collection management driven by ICT.
Mr. Ogungbo contended that prior to the introduction of the e-PCC, RevNet had provided ‘e-Payment Points within vantage points in the MMDAs with the view of making payment less burdensome, stressing that these were one-stop points where payers can verify statements and effect payment.
“In addition to this is the temper-proof receipting feature of EBS-RCM called the Automated Revenue Receipt (ARR) whose information is also captured on the e-PCC and can also be used to verify and validate payment over the internet,” he emphasized.
According to him, after numerous information and education programmes, RevNet followed up with a programme dubbed ‘The Surge,’ which sought to further create awareness and answer questions that rate-payers need to know.
He opined that the rationale behind The Surge paved the way for staff of the Assemblies to visit rate-payers on Saturdays and Sundays to meet property owners who due to their work had not been available on week days when the Assemblies’ demand notices are presented.
Most rate-payers who spoke to the media expressed satisfaction about steps taken by the Assemblies aforementioned through the RevNet partnership to execute the Surge programme.
Mr. Ogungbo hinted that RevNet has plans to introduce it services to other MMDAs in Ghana to help maximize their revenue potential through prudent measures that will minimize leakages in the collection-chain, developing comprehensive databases, amply inform rate-payers about their current obligations towards their Assemblies, partnering Assemblies to develop or complete street naming and house numbering to enhance value of properties and bringing the Assemblies to international standards of addressing.
The RevNet services aim at achieving the Assemblies’ objectives of increasing their Internally Generated Funds (IGF) and thereby reduces the Assemblies’ reliance on disbursements from the District Assembly Common Fund and for that matter, the implementation of a wider range of quality services to the communities.
Some of the immediate term benefits of the implemented service would be to ensure that the rate-payer’s payments are well receipted and kept safe and secure; automate the process of collecting rates to ensure improved productivity; have a comprehensive database of properties, businesses and other ratable assets for the Assembly’s budget and planning.
Other benefits include to eliminate collection challenges such as evasion, collusion with collectors, mistakes, among others; assist in the identification of fraudulent debit, diversion of funds and excess charges on the Assemblies’ accounts; establish inter-connectivity among stakeholders (collectors, participating banks, Assembly and RevNet); and to identify areas requiring improvements to be addressed in the short, medium and long term in the Assemblies’ IGF operations.
The longer-term benefits include the ability of the Assemblies to positively position themselves in the medium-term to take advantage of funding packages on offer by primary and secondary financial institutions to undertake development projects that would enhance the quality of life for the people. |
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VRA extends hand to local contractors |
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Source: myjoyonline
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Monday, 19 December 2011 01:19 |
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The Volta River Authority (VRA) says a local-content team has been constituted to draft a policy document in a bid to help local businesses take advantage of its procurement process.
Annually, VRA spends over US$1billion on imported goods and components. In the last 50 years, the Authority has dealt mainly with foreign contractors for the purchase of components for construction of the Akosombo Dam, the Kpong Dam, and the Takoradi thermal generating plant.
These involved large foreign components with little or no involvement of local contractors.
“The VRA finds this concept imperative for its operations because it has the potential of eliminating, or reducing drastically, the financial burden in its procurement system,” said the Chief Executive of VRA, Kwaku Andoh Awotwi.
Speaking at a forum on local content organised on the theme, ‘Practical Initiatives for Promoting Local Content Development in the Power Utilities and Related Industries in Ghana - The Way Forward’’, by VRA in Accra, Awotwi said: “For the next 50 years, we intend to go into renewable energy generation starting with solar and wind.
“Local partnership will therefore strengthen our relationship with indigenous contractors and create more jobs for Ghanaians.”
He explained that VRA’s major objective for implementing the local-content policy is to exploit the country’s resource endowment in an environmentally-sustainable manner, attract increased local value-added investment in the industrial sector to create job opportunities, facilitate technology transfer, and domesticate knowledge.
How feasible is VRA’s local-content policy?
 “It will take a lot of commitment on their part because of the history of local-content practice in Ghana and lack of political will towards its establishment.
“The gold industry is a typical example of the lack of local content. Even galamsey, which is practised mainly by Ghanaians, is outside the mainstream official gold mining, an area dominated by foreign companies,” Kwame Jantuah of African Energy Consortium Limited, told the Business and Financial Times.
“They have seen fit that the US$1billion spending each year -- where US$500,000 is spent on crude for electricity and the other US$500,000 on services procured from outside the shores of Ghana -- can and should be spent here in Ghana by Ghanaians where the objective is that the supply-chain system within the VRA should be tilted towards Ghanaians.”
Jantuah explained that not everything within the supply-chain can be done by Ghanaians, adding that spending in industries like power and oil & gas through the supply-chain is wholly on third-party supplies where Ghanaian companies make up a huge number; and therefore if VRA could have a strong local-content policy and implementation, it would help capitalise and place them in a better position of growth.
He stated that VRA must look closely at the procurement law to make sure that what they intend doing is in conformity with it, as currently the international oil companies in the oil & gas industry do not seem to be practising their procurement in conformity with the law.
Again, he said, “if there is no political support from government, what they are trying to achieve will be mediocre and of very little value to local companies. The other challenge is the fact that the cost of production for Ghanaian goods tends to be high with the kind of bank interest rates we have.”
In his response to the question of capacity building and transfer of technology, he said: “It is important to know how this will be tackled, and what would be the measure of local ownership of firms providing goods and services. We also have to determine what would be the measure of the proportion of jobs that go to local nationals with distinctions made between skilled and basic jobs.”
On the issue of government support to implement the policy, he remarked: “It will definitely require government support for such a venture, but interference from government will halt all attempts by VRA to promote and execute this agenda.” |
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Last Updated on Monday, 19 December 2011 01:24 |
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Cocaine Turns Into Washing Soda After Certification By Police Forensic Lab |
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Source: -daily-graphic
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Wednesday, 14 December 2011 14:47 |
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 The Accra Circuit Court is puzzled as to how a substance alleged to be cocaine which was seized from an accused person, confirmed by the police to be cocaine after testing and weighing 1,020 grammes later turned out to be sodium carbonate (commonly known as washing soda) after the court had ordered another test to be conducted by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB).
After more than three years into the trial, the court yesterday called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to, as a matter of urgency, institute a service inquiry to determine who might have tampered or changed the drug alleged to have been found on the accused person and prescribe the necessary sanctions.
The substance had been in the custody of the police and the court ruled that if the allegation was true, it was a serious indictment on the efforts by the law enforcement agencies to curtail the drug menace in the country.
The court made the recommendation when it acquitted and discharged an accused person, Nana Ama Martin, of the charge of possessing cocaine, in the trial which was aborted after the court had upheld a submission of ‘no case’ made by counsel for the accused person.
Sodium carbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a white solid that is crystalline but often appears as fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste.
The trial judge, Mr Eric Kyei Baffour, expressed misgivings at the way the trial was conducted, as the State Attorney in the matter became troubled when the court acceded to the request of the defence to order another test on the substance.
When a court witness, a GSB official who had conducted the second test, was about to testify in court, the state prosecutor again prayed that the evidence be taken in chambers.
“This was a strong proposition in a criminal trial of this nature that is alien to any known procedure,” the court said, and added that the prosecutor, at a point, even retorted that the substance could have been changed in court, since the substance was taken in the presence of the registrar and the investigator who tendered it and saw that it had not been tampered with before it was taken to the GSB.
“That desperation to blame everybody for the substance not being cocaine except prosecution is mind boggling.
After all, if prosecution genuinely believed that the substance tendered was cocaine, what was the cause for such inexplicable apprehension, as the nature of the drug can never change,” it held.
It said the trial had to take place not because prosecution was willing to prosecute the accused person but simply because of the sole instrumentality of the court when it suo moto (on its own) behaved like an inquisitorial French judge and caused the arrest of the surety and remanded him into custody for a very long time before relatives of the surety caused the arrest of the accused person.
The acquittal of the accused person was after her lawyer had made a submission of ‘no case’ that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused person.
The accused person, according to the prosecution, was, on August 22, 2008, in the company of other persons on board a taxi around the Airport Residential Area.
When they were arrested, she had two bags and in the smaller of the two was the substance concealed as slabs.
During the trial, the prosecution tendered the substance, which it claimed proved positive for cocaine when tested at the Police Forensic Laboratory.
The officer who conducted the test told the court that the substance was, indeed, cocaine and so for him if another test proved to be negative for cocaine, then that substance could not be the substance he had conducted the test on.
But defence counsel objected and claimed that the substance was not cocaine, following which counsel requested the court to order another test on the substance at the GSB.
His claim was corroborated by the test conducted by the GSB, whose officer also said he had conducted the test in the presence of the court registrar and a police officer and it had proved negative for cocaine.
The GSB official said in his curiosity to find out what substance it was, he had conducted a further test which proved to be sodium carbonate.
Armed with the evidence, the court was faced with the task of determining whether the prosecution’s case was reliable or not to warrant the accused person being called to open her defence in the matter.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 14:52 |
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