Reconstruct Oblogo-Weija road(inside page) March 25, 2008

Story:Michael Donkor
THE Assembly Member for Weija, Mr Kwasi Mensah, has called on the government to reconstruct the six-kilometre Oblogo-Weija road to enable vehicles to ply the area.
He said the road, the only access route for vehicles to the Weija township, was in a bad state and had caused many accidents in recent times.
He said as a result of the situation many passenger vehicles had refused to carry passengers on that road.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra at the weekend, Mr Mensah said the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) treatment plant that supplied parts of Accra with water was situated in the town.
He, however, stated that some of the vehicles of the GWCL got involved in accidents while bringing water treatment chemicals to the plant due to the deplorable nature of the roads.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to reconstruct the road to serve the people.
Mr Mensah said apart from the road which had been ignored, the town itself had been neglected for far too long.
He said the town lacked infrastructure such as proper drains and gutters to carry waste water away.
Mr Mensah said currently schoolchildren of the Presbyterian Junior High School had no classroom block, while parts of Weija had no electricity.
He appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Patrick Acheampong, to establish a police station in the town.
He said what was there now was a police post with only about three policemen.
Mr Mensah said considering some sensitive installations such as the water treatment plant in the town, there was the need for a police station to be established there to protect such installations.
He said the people of Weija had a lot of confidence in the government and added that trust must not be toiled with for it to wane.
Mr Mensah commended the Member of Parliament for the area, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and the acting Chief of Weija, Nii Boafo Daanya Nse, for their tireless efforts in getting the area developed.
He, therefore, called on the people to throw their support behind them to enable them to continue with their good work.

Establish more specialised schools(page 15) March 17, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
THE President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Mr Tony Oteng Gyasi, has called for the establishment of more specialised institutions to train people with the required manpower for the country’s development.
He said the universities only trained a broad range of people most of whom had no specialised skills to meet the growing demand on the market.
Mr Gyasi, who is also the Council Chairman of the University of Ghana, told the Daily Graphic that for the start more polytechnics could be established to produce such specialised people.
He said for instance courses could be organised on plastic technologies to train people for the plastic industry while more expertise should be trained in petroleum to move into oil exploration in the country.
The purpose of technical and vocational education is to equip young men and women with the technical and professional skills needed for the rapid socio-economic development of the country.
Technical and vocational education has been given a boost with the ongoing establishment of 20 Technical/Vocational Resource Centres throughout the country (two in each region) but people have called for more to be established considering the growing population of the country.
At the moment Ghana has 23 public technical institutes.
Tertiary Education Reforms were launched in 1991 with the publication of a Government White Paper on the University Rationalisation Committee Report.
The White Paper on Tertiary Education redefined higher education to include universities, polytechnics, and teacher training colleges, and all formal education beyond the senior high school.
The major objective of Tertiary Education Reforms is to expand access, improve quality teaching and learning and provide the much needed infrastructural base for accelerated technical manpower delivery for sustainable economic development.
To this end polytechnics are being encouraged to introduce post HND and Bachelor of Technology programmes.
Already the Takoradi Polytechnic has concluded plans to start a Bachelor of Technology degree in commercial arts and marketing, and purchasing and supply.
To improve the capacity and qualifications of teaching staff, arrangements are being worked out with local and foreign universities to give special consideration to staff of polytechnics for special grants.
Physical infrastructure in the form of offices, residential and classroom accommodation, libraries, laboratory facilities as, well as tools and equipment supply in all tertiary institutions, are also being improved.

Osei-Owusu to contest Bekwai NPP seat (page 17) March 17, 2008

Story:Michael Donkor

AN aspiring parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party for Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, Mr Joe Osei-Owusu, has stated that when elected as the member of Parliament for the area he would bring massive development to the area.
Speaking at the launch of his campaign in Accra last Friday, he mentioned Agriculture, Education and Health as his major priority which he would tackle earnestly.
He said Bekwai had been blessed with fertile land to produce abundant food but because value was not added to the produce, the farmers could not obtain high value for their harvest.
He said the situation was not the best for the farmers, adding that when elected he would assist farmers to add value to their produce to enable them earn more income.
Mr Osei-Owusu who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) said for instance that he would procure machines to enable the farmers to dry the cassava so that it could earn good price on the market.
He said he would also assist in the acquisition of a tomato processing machine to process the tomatoes of farmers and package them nicely for sale on the larger market.
Mr Osei-Owusu said on the educational front he would lend his support to efforts to enhance living conditions in the Bekwai area to make the place attractive to the best and dedicated teachers to teach there.
He said before then he would meet teachers already in the area to find out their difficulties and assist them to make life comfortable for them to be able to teach the children very well.
He explained that his priority would be to liaise with non-governmental bodies and stakeholders to raise education standards of pupils and students through awards of scholarships, especially in deprived communities.
On health,Mr Osei-Wusu said he would lobby for medical personnel to come to the area and work towards the health needs of the people by introducing incentives to entice them to stay and work harder in the area.
Mr Osei-Wusu is also the founder of the Osei-Wusu Foundation for Indigenous Business Development, a micro financing service which disburses funds to beneficiary members and all potential members of the foundation to expand their businesses in line with government's poverty alleviation drive.
Mr Osei-Owusu said under the foundation’s micro credit facility, loans would be advanced to those who cannot raise the premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He paid the premiums of about 150 beneficiaries in September last year under the scheme.

Centre for Crop Improvement Inaugurated at Legon(Inside page) 14 March, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
THE University of Ghana, Legon has inaugurated a centre to train experts to help improve food production in Ghana and other countries in the sub-region.
Known as the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), at the College of Agriculture of the university, it was established with a grant of $5.78 million from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
WACCI is expected to train 40 experts in plant breeding in the first 10 years of the programme.
Inaugurating the centre, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Tagoe, called on Agricultural Research Institutions to collaborate with farmers to increase crop production.
He said if this was done it would go a long way in ensuring food security in the sub-region.
Prof. Tagoe said the issue of food security was crucial to the survival of mankind hence the need to train more human resources in that direction.
He said relying on the traditional way of farming would not ensure food security hence the need for an effective collaboration between farmers and experts in plant breeding.
The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Institutions, Miss Elizabeth Ohene, expressed her gratitude to AGRA for the grant.
She said plant breeding was a notable area but a lot of governments did not commit themselves to it.
The Director of WACCI, Prof. Eric Danquah, said it had been recognised that capacities in plant breeding, including both conventional and modern technologies, in sub-Saharan Africa were neither sufficient nor properly integrated to fully capture the benefits of the plant genetic resources that were conserved.
He said the country’s ability to meet the millennium development goal for food security would depend on how governments and institutions confront the entire food production value chain.

Japan supports Kofi Annan Centre(page 28)

Story: Michael Donkor

THE Japanese government has provided $2 million to support the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to build the capacity of ECOWAS institutions to effectively deal with the proliferation of small arms in the region.
With this assistance, Ghana is being supported as the continental hub for conflict prevention, capacity development and peacekeeping training.
The three-year capacity-building support programme spans from 2008 to 2010 and encompasses 10 training sessions, which will benefit 400 participants from the sub-region.
It is estimated that there are eight million weapons in West Africa, with approximately 50 per cent of them being used for illegal activities such as violent crime and drug trafficking.
The Training Development and Programme Design Officer at the KAIPTC, Commodore Dereck Deighton, said resource persons were experts from KAIPTC, ECOWAS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said through the support, the UNDP was also building on the Millennium Development Goals by increasing the partnership for development and bringing more stakeholders on board the centre.
He said the programme would provide the avenue for ECOWAS constituents to benefit from a broad spectrum of training on all aspects of small arms to enhance their capacity to manage and control the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and consolidate peace in the sub-region.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yutaka Nakamura, said at the country level, Japan was supporting the effort of arms collection in countries affected by conflict recently, pointing out that such collections had yielded positive results.
He said the Japanese government believed that a reduction in the proliferation of small arms in West Africa would lead directly to a decrease in armed conflict and in crime levels in the sub-region.
The United Nations Resident Co-ordinator, Mr Daouda Toure, noted that the adverse effects of the proliferation of small arms were clear and contributed negatively to national development.
He said those who underestimated the negative impact of small arms proliferation should consider its impact on fuelling conflicts and violence.
Mr Toure said the UNDP was delighted that there was increasing support to upscale or drive interventions in small arms issues and pledged to continue to support such initiatives for development.

The socio-political role of the Ghana Armed Forces(Page 23)March 13, 2008

Article: Michael Donkor

GHANA is now 51 years old. Among the institutions that are celebrating are the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), which have played various roles towards the attainment of independence and the administration of the country thereafter.
The genesis of the establishment of the GAF can be traced to the colonial days when the colonial masters formed troops, mostly Ghanaians, to serve and protect their interest so long as they continued to colonise the Gold Coast, now Ghana.
One infamous incident which always reminds Ghanaians of the critical role Ghanaian soldiers have played in the attainment of independence is the Christianborg cross-road shooting incident in 1948.
This incident marked the first major step towards the struggle for Ghana’s independence.
At the end of the second world war, there was an increased agitation by anti-colonial movements for independence for the colonies in South East Asia and Africa.
Ghanaian war veterans of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) who had fought so gallantly alongside their allies and received commendation were demobilised at the end of the war when they were only paid a pittance, by way of war gratuity, of about one shilling a day.
The ex-servicemen were naturally not happy with the gratuity.
They thought the British government which then ruled the Gold Coast would, in appreciation of their sacrifices, pay them something appreciable.
In addition to this, several appeals made by the soldiers to the authorities fell on deaf ears.
After waiting for a period of time in anticipation that a reasonable war benefit would be paid to them, the ex-servicemen decided that a direct approach should be made to the British governor and commander in chief of the Gold Coast Regiment, Sir Gerald Creasy.
It was in the process of making this direct approach in a protest march to the Christianborg Castle to present a petition that a British police officer opened fire, killing three of the ex-servicemen.
This infuriated the people of the Gold Coast who rose up to demand for an immediate self government.
The war veterans and some Ghanaian military personnel and their counterparts from the civilian populace in active politics like Dr Kwame Nkrumah then pressed home their demand for an immediate independence.
When Ghana was granted independence in 1957, Dr Kwame Nkrumah became its first President with the Convention People’s Party (CPP) as the ruling party.
The military for one reason or the other took over the administration of the country from the constitutionally elected government.
Four military regimes have taken over the administration of the country since the country gained political independence.
On February 24, 1966, the GAF and the police overthrew the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. A National Liberation Council (NLC), headed by Lt. General Joseph Arthur Ankrah, was formed to administer the country. General Ankrah was removed from office in April 1969 and Lt. General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa became Chairman of the NLC, which later gave way to a three-man Presidential Commission with General Afrifa as chairman.
The commission paved the way for a general election in 1969, which brought into power the Progress Party government, with Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia as Prime Minister and Mr Edward Akufo-Addo as President.
The GAF again took over the reins of government on January 13, 1972, and Colonel (later General) Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, became the Head of State and Chairman of the National Redemption Council (NRC). The name of the NRC was later changed to the Supreme Military Council (SMC). General Acheampong was replaced by General F.W.K. Akuffo in a palace coup in July 1978. The SMC was overthrown on June 4, 1979, in a mass revolt of junior officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces. Following the uprising, an Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was set up under the chairmanship of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. The AFRC carried out a house-cleaning exercise in the armed forces and society at large, while restoring a sense of moral responsibility and the principle of accountability and probity in public life. The AFRC was in office for only three months and, in pursuance of a programme already set in motion before the uprising, allowed general election to be held. On September 24, 1979, the AFRC handed over power to the civilian administration of Dr Hilla Limann, leader of the People's National Party which had won the elections.
The Limann administration was overthrown on December 31, 1981 in another coup by Mr ( Flt. Lt.) Rawlings who had left the military after the handover to the PNP. Mr Rawlings became the chairman of a nine-member Provisional National Defence Ruling Council (PNDC) with Secretaries of State in charge of the various ministries being responsible to the PNDC.
But neither military nor civilian governments during the next 15 years were able to deal successfully with the host of problems Nkrumah was claimed to have bequeathed. In particular, under the Supreme Military Council (1972-78), Ghana's economic and political situation deteriorated at an alarming rate. The 1970s were a period of steadily falling agricultural production, manufacturing output, and per capita income.
Declining cocoa production and exports were accompanied by a corresponding rise in smuggling of the crop to neighbouring countries, especially Cote d'Ivoire, and largely accounted for chronic trade deficits. Personal enrichment and corruption became the norm of government.
Beyond these serious problems loomed much larger issues that needed to be addressed if Ghana were to resume its position at the forefront of Africa's leading nations. Among these were the fear of an overly centralised and authoritarian national executive, the burden of accumulated foreign debt, and the need to forge a nation from Ghana's diverse ethnic and regional interests. In particular, the challenge was to devise a system of government that would bridge the enormous gap that had developed between the political centre and society at large.
For most Ghanaians, the nation-state by the late 1970s had become a largely irrelevant construct that had ceased to provide economic benefits or opportunities for meaningful political participation. As a consequence, local, ethnic, and regional interests had become much more prominent than those of Ghana as a whole.
Such were the challenges that lay before the group of military officers who seized power at the end of 1981. During its first year, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) spoke vaguely about socialism and established people's and workers' defence committees and extra-judicial public tribunals as a way to involve Ghanaians in public administration.
In 1983 however, the council, under its leader, Jerry John Rawlings, abandoned its socialist leanings and negotiated a structural adjustment programme with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as the best and perhaps only method of rejuvenating the economy. Called the Economic Recovery Programme, it was designed to stimulate economic growth and exports, to enhance private initiative and investment, and to reduce the role of the state in economic affairs.
On the one hand, Ghana's Structural Adjustment Programme was and continues to be one of a half dozen models for such programmes backed by international lending agencies. It succeeded in reversing the downward trend in production and exports, especially in the cocoa, mining, and timber industries. During the 1980s, gross national product grew at annual rates of five per cent or more a year, per capita income slowly began to rise, and inflation abated. Since 1990, economic growth has slowed, but trends in the economy remain positive.
Despite problems and shortcomings, the government of the present Fourth Republic, which succeeded the PNDC in 1993, remains committed to it.
In April 1992, a new constitution that called for an elected national parliament and chief executive won overwhelming approval in a national referendum. Political parties, banned since 1982, were the mechanism through which the system was to work.
On the whole, Ghana's economy seemed to be headed in the right direction in the mid-1990s, even if sustained economic recovery was not yet a reality more than a decade after introduction of the Economic Recovery Programme and even if the country continued to rely on cocoa, gold, and timber for most of its foreign currency earnings. Nonetheless, in spite of real problems, Ghana was still the model for structural adjustment in Africa in the eyes of Western lending institutions.
By mid-1995, Ghana had emerged at the forefront of change in sub-Saharan Africa. Its structural adjustment programme was a model for other developing nations on the continent, and its pursuit of popular, representative government and democratic institutions made it a pacesetter in the political realm. Endowed with both human and natural resources and with a political leadership seemingly determined to reverse decades of economic and political decline, Ghana had the potential to become one of Africa's leading nations once again. Whether Ghana would resume its status as the "Star of Black Africa" envisioned by Kwame Nkrumah, is beginning to manifest in the administration of President John Agyekum Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The country has for the past three years enjoyed ???a stable macro-economy?? with massive infrastructure development.
The GAF have since pledged their loyalty to defend the constitution of the country and partner democratic governments by ensuring that there is peace and stability at all times to enable these governments to develop the country.

Ghana Armed Forces organise open day (Inside page) March 10

Story: Michael Donkor
THE Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) have organised an open day for the general public including schoolchildren where they were conducted round some military installations at all the garrisons across the country.
The open day, which is the eighth in the series since the former Minister of Defence, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, mooted the idea, was to bridge the gap between the civil population and the military.
The programme is designed to create a platform to help the citizenry understand the life of the soldier, how he is resourced and the challenges he and the forces face.
In Accra, at about 8.30 a.m. students and pupils, some of whom were accompanied by their teachers, and parents converged on the El Wak Sports Stadium where the ceremony kick-started.
The children and the students were taken on a tour to the Air Force Base, Gondar Barracks, the Military Academy and Training School and Arakan Barracks. At each location, they were briefed on the operations of the unit and in some cases made to have a feel of it.
For instance, at the Air Force Station some of them were flown around the capital on the Air Force aircraft while at the Armoured Squadron they were driven in some of the armoured cars, around the Burma Camp.
As compared to previous years, they joined queues from the entrance of the Air Force Base before they were conveyed in batches to the tarmac.
On the tarmac, their names were mentioned one after another after which they boarded the aircraft.
The congestion which normally occur at the tarmac was not experienced this year due to the orderly manner the exercise was conducted.
At the Recce Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, the children were chauffeured in armoured cars.
At Ho, the Commanding Officer of the 66 Artillery Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) Lt. Col. Emmanuel Kotia, said the military should not be seen as an isolated entity but the embodiment of society that cherish peaceful coexistence.
He said the level of good civil-military relationship should not be measured in terms of unfounded cases of molestation of civilians but must go beyond to the gesture of social responsibility that soldiers had exhibited for a long time now.
Addressing a press conference to mark the open day celebration, he reaffirmed that the military was a partner in development and nation building and that it was its expressed desire to foster relationship with the public devoid of animosity and acrimony.
According to Lt. Col. Kotia, soldiers of the regiment were in partnership with the people of Mafi-Anfoe in the North Tongu District in the construction of a library, adding that the support would continue until the project was completed.
The commanding officer also said the soldiers would assist the people of Kpenoe in the Ho Municipality to construct a water reservoir and check illegal sand winning, adding that the blood donation to the Volta Regional Hospital had become an annual affair.
On projects, he said a 70-acre mango plantation had been established in addition to a kraal that was opened to interested civilians too.
He said the income generated from the projects was used to improve the welfare of troops and families in the barracks.
He said the people of the Volta Region were fortunate for the regiment in Ho because it was the only military unit in the Ghana Armed Forces trained to use artillery weapons.

Trained local expertise key to conflict resolution(Page 31) March 6, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
THE Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Major-General John Attipoe, has called on African leaders to contribute to the concept of training local expertise to handle conflicts on the continent.
He noted that the problems of the continent could best be resolved by Africans rather than resorting to the West for assistance.
Major-General Attipoe made the call at the opening session of a training course in peacekeeping operations at the KAIPTC in Accra yesterday.
Known as the Negotiation Course, it was organised jointly by the KAIPTC and the Canadian government to build the capacity of the participants in how to use negotiation and dialogue to resolve conflict.
The participants drawn from all the African countries were made up of military, police and civilians.
Major-General Attipoe said without peace and stability, the continent would be unable to attain economic and social progress and commended the efforts being done by the regional institutions to work together and make peace and stability a common concern.
The Counsellor of the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, Madam Maria Lavelle, said negotiation skills were essential if one was to be effective in today’s complex peace operations.
She said the traditional peacekeeping with armoured military personnel standing between two state parties in conflict who had agreed to a ceasefire had changed.
She said many conflicts in recent times happened between two or more groups in the same state hence the need for a broader set of skills to bring a lasting peace.
Madam Lavelle said regardless of the type of peace operation one was engaged in, one would find himself entering into negotiations on a daily basis.
She said it was in this regard that the Canadian government saw the need to support the course.

Armed Forces acquire two fighter aircraft(Centre spread) March 6, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
THE Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) have taken delivery of two new fighter aircraft from China to augment the fleet of the Air Force at a ceremony in Accra.
The two K-8 aircraft are single-engine, two seaters with tandem seating arrangement and will be used in the surveillance of the country’s maritime and land interests and the training of pilots of the Ghana Air Force and its technicians.
The aircraft is developed by the Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company, in collaboration with the Pakistan Aircraft Complex, and marketed by China Aero-Technology Corporation (CATIC).
Speaking at the ceremony, the Minister of Defence, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, commended his predecessor, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, for initiating and concluding deals for the delivery of the aircraft.
“He worked hard to achieve this, and the many projects he initiated in the GAF while he was the minister will continue to constitute a very proud record of accomplishment to his eternal glory,” he said.
The minister said the move was in fulfilment of the government’s commitment to re-equip the GAF.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said the government would continue to provide the resources to enhance the operational capabilities of the GAF to an optimum level.
He said the government’s focus for the Air Force in the coming years would be on its fixed wing transport capability,
adding that providing all those resources in the face of the many diverse national economic demands was the result of well-thought out policies and plans to re-equip the forces so that they could continue to provide the nation with the needed protection and stability required for the national development agenda.
He said the delivery of the aircraft was timely to provide the needed fighter ground attack capability which the Ghana Air Force lacked when its Macchi fleet became obsolete.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said military expenditure should not be seen as wasted expenditure but rather as a most crucial investment to complement the improved macro-economic environment and economic infrastructure.
He appealed to the Air Force to handle the aircraft with care and ensure that they were maintained at all times.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhe, expressed the hope that the gesture would enhance the relations between the two countries.
He said CATIC, as a major channel for the Chinese aviation industry to the international market, had delivered thousands of Chinese made aircraft to many countries and accumulated a rich experience to meet the needs of its clients.
He said China would soon send senior agricultural experts, a medical team and a youth volunteer to Ghana.
A representative of CATIC, Mr Wu Jiajia, said the aircraft were aerobatics jet trainers which allowed pilots to carry out various basic and advanced training missions.

Funds Released for Housing Projects(back page) March 1, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor, Kpone
THE Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing has paid an additional GH¢2.5 million to contractors working on the government’s housing projects to facilitate the speedy completion of work on them.
The sector Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, announced this when he conducted journalists round the project sites at Kpone and Borteyman, near Accra, on Thursday.
Lack of fund is said to be affecting the pace of work on the projects at Kpone and Borteyman.
The situation has, therefore, raised doubts as to whether the completion date of the first phase of the project, which has been changed from June to November this year, can be met.
Alhaji Boniface said with the release of the money, the completion target for the first phase by November this year would be met.
When journalists accompanying the minister got to the project site, some workers were seen laying blocks, while others were mixing concrete.
Some of the buildings at the site have reached completion point, while others were at the lintel and foundation levels.
It was also observed that about 20 structures were fully plastered and half painted.
The road network had been clearly demarcated but the roads had not been tarred and looked too narrow to make it possible for two vehicles to pass each other at a time.
Alhaji Boniface said the government had so far spent GH¢400 million on the project, adding that there was the need for another GH¢108 million to be made available for the completion of the entire project.
According to him, the project was being financed from the HIPC fund, hence the delay in the release of funds.
He said to address the delay in the execution of work, the government had decided to source for money outside the HIPC fund to speed up work on it.
Late last year, Alhaji Boniface told the Daily Graphic that 4,500 affordable housing units would be ready for occupancy in June this year.
According to him, the bed sitter, single and two-bedroom apartments which were situated at Borteyman and Kpone in Accra and Asokore Mampong in the Ashanti Region would either be given out for rent or outright sale to Ghanaians, particularly public servants.
Some of the contractors on site told the Daily Graphic that the delay in the release of funds was the major hindrance to the progress of work on the project.
According to them, as and when funds were released, they were ready to continue with the work.
The sod was cut on September 1, 2005 to mark the commencement of the multi-million dollar affordable housing project at Borteyman and other parts of the country, including Kumasi in the Ashanti Region and Tamale in the Northern Region.
The minister later visited the Kpong Water Treatment Plant to acquaint himself with the state of the plant.
He said the government was going to evaluate and assess the performance of Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) to see if the company had delivered according to the contract agreement.
He explained that the rationing of water for residents of Accra and Tema, as well as their environs, was the result of rapid population growth.
Alhaji Boniface said the government was sourcing for funds to enable it to increase the capacity of the reservoirs and the treatment plant to meet the increasing demand of the people.