The report that the deployment of the 177,600 Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose schedule vaccines is expected to begin latest by Monday and the presentation of two Rural Motor King tricycle ambulances from LK International Company Ghana Limited to the government as proof of the company’s production capacity are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday
The Graphic reports that the deployment of the 177,600 Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose schedule vaccines is expected to begin latest by Monday, the Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, has disclosed.
He told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the vaccines were targeted at those who had not received any vaccine at all in 11 districts in the traditional hotspots, the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi metropolises.
The newspaper says that the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, yesterday received two Rural Motor King tricycle ambulances from LK International Company Ghana Limited as proof of the company’s production capacity.
The donation was the company’s symbolic appreciation of government’s support in enrolling it under the flagship One, district, One, factory (1D1F) programme.
Fabricated in Ghana, the tricycle ambulance is fitted with first aid box, collapsible stretcher, seats, lights, sirens and has double back tyres for stability.
The machines are to be transferred to rural communities, particularly difficult-to-access areas with such a need.
Receiving the ambulances, Mrs Osei-Opare said the government was working to ensure that no Ghanaian, irrespective of their socio-economic status and location, was left out in health and education.
She explained that it was for that reason that it instituted the Free SHS and One, ambulance, One, constituency programmes, while providing extra fleet for the Ghana Ambulance Service as back-up.
The Graphic also reports that the government has saved $5 billion in the energy sector following the implementation of the Energy Sector Recovery Programme (ESRP) in 2019.
The savings are the result of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism and the Natural Gas Clearing House, established to ensure a weekly sharing of tariff revenues among players in the electricity value chain to improve liquidity in the sector.
The Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, disclosed this in a speech read on his behalf at a workshop for accountants held at Ada.
The three-day workshop was on the theme: “Effective Implementation of the Energy Sector Recovery Programme, the role of the Accountant”.
It brought together accounting professionals in the energy sector to deliberate and strategise on their role as accountants in the settlement of the energy sector debt and eventually ensure financial stability in the sector.
Speaking on behalf of the minister, the Coordinator of the Ghana Energy Sector Transformation Initiative (GESTIP) of the Ministry of Energy, Mr James Demitrius, said the waterfall was a payment system that allowed debtors to pay higher-tiered creditors their full interest and principals first before lower-tiered creditors received their principal and interest payment.
The programme, he said, had been extended to cover gas sector revenues with the establishment of the Natural Gas Clearing House (NGC) aimed at ensuring equitable and smooth distribution of gas sector revenues to all sector players.
The Times says that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in 2019 recorded losses amounting to $11,794,109 following the liquidation of three of its investments
The three investments, according to the Auditor General’s Report, released in June, this year, had a total cash outlay of $14,768,153.
Officers whose action led to the loss are to be appropriately sanctioned, as recommended by the report while the company had been tasked to investigate the non-performance of the investments to ensure value for money.
Already, the Trust was considering a proposal to write off losses of GH¢26,838,588.87 due to the official liquidation of Bridal Trust, which could only pay GH¢5,490,000.00 out of its accumulated loan of GH¢32,328,588.87.
The report further cited SSNIT’s inability to retrieve an outstanding loan balance of GH¢146,964,641.07 from the Ghana Road Fund by the end of 2019.
“This was partly due to the Trust’s inability to put in place strict measures to ensure that Ghana Road Fund issue a Letter of Authority to the Ghana Commercial Bank and Bank of Ghana, to pledge and place a lien on the Road Fund Accounts, to recover the monthly instalment in line with the loan agreement,” it explained.
Referring to operational challenges, the report noted that, SSNIT was also constrained in collecting from the Ministry of Finance, the divestiture proceeds of $626,522.47 from Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) since 2012.
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GIK/APA