The report that the Police Administration has ramped up security measures, including intensifying patrolling and increasing visibility in crowded areas, across the country to ensure public safety during the festive season is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that the Police Administration has ramped up security measures, including intensifying patrolling and increasing visibility in crowded areas, across the country to ensure public safety during the festive season.
In line with this, thousands of policemen in uniform and plain clothes have been deployed to various locations throughout the country.
Night patrolling has also been increased, particularly in places the police identify as vulnerable areas.
Day and night checks on some trunk roads by our reporters revealed that the police had mounted checkpoints at close intervals for snap checks and scrutiny and to shorten response times for emergencies.
The roads travelled include Accra-Tamale, through Kumasi, Techiman and Kintampo; Accra-Takoradi, Takoradi-Axim, Kumasi-Obuasi, Cape Coast-Kumasi, Accra-Ho, Accra-Aflao, Wa-Tumu, Wa-Jirapa, among others.
The exercise is very visible in the Greater Accra Region, especially in Accra and Tema, and the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi.
In Accra, aside from the usual police patrol teams in police branded vehicles, other channels of policing, such as motorbike, foot and horse patrols during the day and the use of trained dogs for patrol duties, have all been intensified.
The newspaper says that the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has recovered GH¢3,129,135.58, representing 95 per cent of unearned salaries recovered within the reporting period of 2021.
The amount is out of a total of GH¢3,290,150.70 reported unearned salaries.
The Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, who announced this, said it was the mission of the department to also protect the public purse in line with the effort by the government to curb corruption.
Mr Kwaning-Bosompem, who was speaking at this year’s thanksgiving and nine lessons and carols of the department at the forecourt of the treasury house in Accra, gave the assurance that the department would continue to promote the development of efficient accounting systems in all government departments.
“The government has invested heavily in the Ghana Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS). Some of the setbacks on the effective usage of the system has been connectivity. I want to assure you that the government is working assiduously to improve and deal with the connectivity issues.
Come the year 2022, no institution will have an excuse for the non-usage of the system”.
Failure to use the GIFMIS to process financial transactions, the Controller and Accountant-General cautioned, would attract the requisite sanctions.
The Graphic also reports that the Oslo District Court, presided over by Justice Dagfinn Gronvik, has dismissed an action instituted by Messrs Jongsbru AS, sellers of a property identified by Ghana for use as a Chancery in Oslo, Norway in 2018.
The court, after a trial, held that none of Ghana’s representatives in the transaction, as well as Ghana’s lawyer at the time of the transaction, had authority to conclude a binding agreement between Ghana and the sellers and, therefore, “Ghana will be acquitted of the lawsuit by Jongsbru AS”.
It awarded procedural costs in the sum of one million, seven hundred Norwegian Kronner in favour of Ghana to be paid by Jongsbru.
In 2018, Ghana decided to establish an embassy in Norway, for which Parliament approved the grant of funds for the establishment of the embassy, as well as other missions around the world.
A delegation of four Ghanaian officials was appointed to go to Norway and carry out the necessary practical and administrative preparations for the establishment of the embassy.
Among the preparations to be made was the acquisition of a Chancery Building, either by purchase or lease.
The Ghanaian delegation identified a number of properties, including Sigyns Gate 3 at Frogner in Oslo, the property which became the subject matter of the litigation in the District Court of Norway.
For legal assistance, Ghana hired a lawyer, Mikkel Vislie, from the Law Firm of Selmer.
The newspaper also says the security of the country has been buoyed up by the President’s approval of funds for the payment of allowances of members of the various regional and district security councils.
The approval was part of efforts aimed at safeguarding the security of the nation, the Minister of National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, disclosed.
He said the funds would also cover other activities of regional security councils (REGSECs) and district security committees (DISECs) which were responsible for considering and taking appropriate measures to safeguard the internal and external security at the regional and the district levels.
At a sensitisation workshop on the National Security Strategy Document for Regional Ministers in Accra yesterday, Mr Kan-Dapaah said in the past, there was no provision of funds for the REGSECs and the DISECs, “but now the government has made provision and the funds will be handled by the Ministry of National Security”.
He said the approval by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo followed a proposal by the Ministry of National Security.
“The Ministry of National Security aims to continue to strengthen the various REGSECs, taking cognisant of the fact that a stronger REGSEC enhances our chances, as a country, to deal with security threats at the local level,” he said.
GIK/APA