The directive by President Akufo-Addo to the National Disaster Management Organisation to step-up efforts to bring relief to residents of Apiate, after the town was rocked by a huge explosion on Thursday afternoon is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to step-up efforts to bring relief to residents of Apiate, after the town was rocked by a huge explosion on Thursday afternoon (January 20, 2022).
In a post shared on his social media pages, President Akufo-Addo said the Police, Armed Forces and NADMO are coordinating efforts to contain the aftermath of the deadly explosion that occurred around midday.
President Akufo-Addo also expressed condolences to the families of the persons who lost their lives in the blast.
He posted: “I have just received a briefing on the circumstances that led to an explosion in Apiate near Bogoso, in the Western Region, resulting in the loss of lives and the destruction of properties belonging to residents. It is a truly sad, unfortunate and tragic incident, and I extend, on behalf of Government, deep condolences to the families of the deceased, and I wish the injured a speedy recovery.
“The Police, Armed Forces and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) are co-ordinating efforts to contain the situation, and I have also instructed NADMO to see to it that rapid relief is brought to residents of the town.
“Government will spare no effort to ensure a rapid return to a situation of normalcy for residents of Apiate”.
Dozens are feared dead in the blast with viral videos from the scene showing dismembered bodies scattered on the road.
At least 17 people have been confirmed dead after Thursday afternoon’s huge explosion at Appiatse in the Bogoso area of the Western Region.
A statement issued by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said at least 59 people were injured, some of whom were in a critical condition
A vehicle carrying mining explosives which was traveling from Tarkwa to Chirano collided with a motorcycle at Appiatse near Bogoso.
The newspaper says that the government has suspended 20 percent expenditure in the 2022 Budget, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori Atta has confirmed.
Parliament has already approved the government’s total expenditure for 2022, but the government, in a prudent fiscal consolidation move, has decided to cut down on its expenditure, up to a whopping 20 percent.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, the Finance Minister said the expenditure management by the government, is expected to continue from this year and beyond, in the midst of the global impact of covid-19 on economies.
“To ensure that the government matches all expenditure to revenue inflows, all expenditure commitments in 2022 will be adjusted to match revenue collection,” the Finance Minister announced.
“Therefore, in accordance with Section 25 of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) law, the quarterly expenditure ceilings of the approved budget will include up to a 20% downward adjustment, beginning in the first quarter of 2022, in commitments across board for all covered entities benefiting from the 2022 Budget, subject to revenue performance,” the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Attah announced at a briefing.
The Minister said that this means that Ghana’s fiscal consolidation agenda is going to be primarily driven by the expenditure side with support from additional revenue. In this regard, projected revenues in the 2022 budget will only be spent when they materialize.
Following the impact of the pandemic on the economy, the latest bold step adds to government’s announced fiscal consolidation strategies, which includes a focus on more internal revenue generation.
The government’s projected expenditure for 2022, which has already been approved by Parliament was GHc135.6 billion.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) is working on a number of policy reforms in line with professional regulatory best practices to ensure that all doctors working in Ghana meet the minimum competency standards to provide safe quality healthcare services in the public interest.
Some of these reforms include the conduct of objective structured clinical examination for foreign doctors in 2022 and common national licensing examinations for both locally and foreign trained doctors, dentists, and physician assistants in 2025.
These policy reforms were informed by a report on joint visits undertaken in 2017 by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and the Council to some of the countries where Ghanaian doctors and dentists are trained in significant numbers.
These followed observations that the quality of some of the doctors trained outside the country left much to be desired, according to the Registrar, MDC, Dr Divine N. Banyubala.
“Now, generally we have had problems relative to the quality of training of foreign trained doctors and dentists in most of these jurisdictions especially Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and China. These quality concerns are generating a lot of anxiety and disquiet among the professional fraternity,” he said.
The Registrar said this in an interview with Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday on the general concerns about the quality of training of doctors in some foreign countries and the activities of quack or unregistered doctors whose actions were putting the lives of many unsuspecting members of the public in grave danger.
Dr Banyubala explained that the major causes of the failure were that some of the candidates had poor knowledge in the various disciplines in medicine including poor knowledge in basic sciences and basic clinical skills, a claim which was corroborated by various Examiner’s Reports.
GIK/APA