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2 coys donate 10 ventilators to fight COVID-19
The government has received 10 medical ventilators for distribution to eight hospitals across the country to boost theirmanagement and handling of COVID-19 cases.
The equipment were donated by two private companies; Peewood Limited and Tema Bonded Terminal,yesterday as their contribution to the fight against the pandemic.
Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo received them from Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Peewood Limited, Mr Adu Arthur at the COVID-19 press briefing.
According to the donors, two of the ventilators were sent to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GHPA) International Maritime Hospital, Tema and same number to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
The rest are to be distributed to the Tema Government Hospital, South Suntreso Government Hospital; Sunyani Regional Hospital, Ho Teaching Hospital, Oda Government Hospital and Yilo Krobo Municipal Health Directorate.
A medical ventilator, is an equipment that assumes control over the body’s breathing process when the disease has caused the lungs to fail and gives the patient time to fight off the infection and recover.
The donation, by the two companies, brings to 72 the number of ventilators in the country.
Already the Ministry of Health is in the process of procuring 50 additional ventilators.
Mr Osafo Maafo expressed the government’s gratitude for the gesture and assured donors that they would be distributed as they had indicated.
He called on other institutions to rise to the occasion and support the government in the fight.
Touching on restrictions to curb the virus, he said the government would take its final decision on whether or not to ease on Friday, May 29, 2020 as the government was concluding its engagement with the identifiable groups.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
