Time for grassroot leadership – amartey

One of the contestants of National Democratic Congress (NDC) regional chairmanship race, Mr. Amartey Mensah has declared that time has come for the party grassroots to take over the leadership role of the party.
According to him, he was the only person among the contestants who has gone through various party positions from polling station to constituency executive.
“I stand tall among the five contestants in the chairmanship race, I a track record, because i started from the grass roots in 1992, as the branch chairman for Cold Store, up to 1995”, he said.
Mr. Amartey from 1995 to 1999, held the position of a Constituency Treasurer for Ledzokuku, and was elected Assemblyman for Tsui-Bleoo in 1998, a position he held until 2002. He was elected as the Constituency Chairman from 2005 to 2009, and was at the same time Co-ordinator of the Kpeshie Co-ordinating Council from 2006 to 2009.
Through hard work and humility, the President appointed him as the MCE for Ledzokuku-Krowor, one of the newly-created Assemblies in 2009, a position he held up to 2013.
The NDC guru is contesting with 4 other candidates including the incumbent regional chairman Ade Coker who is seeking re-election.

Mr. Daniel Amartey-Mensah, immediate past Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ledzokuku-Krowor, on Friday filed his nomination to contest the Greater-Accra Regional Chairmanship position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The former MCE who picked his nomination forms on Tuesday, assured members and supporters of the party in the region that under his chairmanship, he would work hard to ensure that NDC swept the entire constituency seats in the region, come 2016.

Speaking to this reporter in an interview after filling his nomination, Mr. Amartey-Mensah, stressed the need for the rank and file of the party to close their ranks, so that with a united front they could go into the 2016 elections with confidence.

According to the Regional Office of the NDC, the filing of nominations closes on Saturday, November 1, while all contestants for the various positions subject themselves to vetting on Wednesday, November 5.

MEDIA, CITIZENS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO SCRUTINIZE GOVT BUDGET
By: Iddrissu Abubakari Jara (The Al-Hajj)
The campaign has begun to scrutinize national and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies budget by the media and the citizenry in the country.
This is to increase citizens understanding of both national, Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies budget and to ensure accountability.
Speaking at the launch of Media Campaign to Promote Citizens Participation in District and National Budget Process in Ghana, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Julius Debrah called for serious participation of citizens in the process of budget especially at the local levels.
The Minister reveals that a survey conducted by his outfit indicated that citizen’s perception of local government performance in 23 Metropolitan, Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) shows that 98% of the 3678 respondents had never participated in any budget of MMA where they live.
Hon. Debrah expressed his dissatisfaction at the high rate of citizens not participating in national and district budgets processes.
He said over third of the statistic mentioned above responded were also not aware of their rights to participate in budget process of Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies ( MMA), whiles only 2% of respondents were aware of their MMAs’ source of revenue and one percent was aware of the expected income of their assembly.
The Minister explained that the survey was under the Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP) aimed at promoting and strengthening fiscal decentralization as well as local government accountability mechanisms in 46 MMAs in the country.
The Campaign initiative by Local Government Ministry according to the Mr. Julius Debrah built capacity of media on local government issues by providing training to over 300 media network members on mass media campaign.
The goal of the six weeks campaign was to increase citizen’s awareness and understanding of MMDA and National budgets.
The Local Government Minister indicated that since 2013 “the project has supported a number of MMAs to actively engage citizens on Financial Management issues of the Assembly through the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) process, Town Hall Meetings and Media Network initiatives”.
“As a strategy to increase the public education and information sharing efforts of the project and to meet Government’s aspirations on Social Accountability and Citizen Engagement, the Ministry established the media Network to compliment the Social Public and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) process”, he added.
The Minister commended the efforts of the Network members adding that “it has further enhanced information sharing between Local Governments and Citizens especially in the 46 MMAs in the project areas.

INDUSTRIAL STRIKE POLITICAL - CADRES FRONT
By: Iddrissu Abubakari Jara (The Al-Hajj)
The United Cadres’ Front of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that the current industrial actions declared by the labour front was a politically motivated that to discredit the reputation of Mahama government.
“As if the earlier strike action, led by Kofi Asamoah and his Trades Union Congress, could not achieve its intended aims and objectives of toppling the Mahama administration, simply on the grounds of yet another flimsy excuse of non-payment of allowances, the UCF strongly believes and agrees with deep-thinking Ghanaians that such actions are carried out to serve the political interests of those who use their offices to put clogs in the wheel of progress of state,” the UCF stated.
Addressing pressmen in Accra, Mr Efanam Felix Nyaku, General Secretary of UCF, it said it was ridiculous, anti-state and inhuman to look into the faces of innocent students, vulnerable in-patients and out-patients of our hospitals and ordinary citizens to embark on industrial actions on issues that did not threaten the very lives of the organizers and their members but those that they served.
According to the UCF, the happenings at the industrial front; the “dum-sor dum-sor” sabotage; the price hikes and currency flights; and some state institutions using their offices to subtly project the opposition in the name of ‘equalising’ or ‘offering a level playing field’ were all a precursor to the diabolical plans to unseat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, in 2016.
A section of organized labour is currently on an indefinite strike, demanding their right to manage the pension scheme for civil and public servants.
The UCF observed that the 2016 general election becoming muddier by the day and with the conviction that strikes were going to be clandestine weapons of the opposition.
The UCF said the Kufuor administration, in 2003 and 2004, laid off thousands of workers within the Non-Formal Education Division of the Ministry of Education and the National Mobilization Programme for no tangible reason because they were perceived to be NDC operatives.
“Will it not be the same unashamed elements with their paid agents who will consider such an action as political witch-hunting? There is the urgent need to hunt and stop them from haunting the government. There is a saying across cultures that, once you hold the stick, you do not look on for a snake to bite you,” the statement said.