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Anger is brewing in the judiciary over the impact of mid-year tax measures on the salaries of judges. It would be recalled that government announced a 35 percent tax on persons earning over 10,000 cedis as part of measures to rake in more revenue. Even though the move has been hailed as forward looking, Gold News understands it is affecting the living conditions of judges. Article 127(5) of the 1992 Constitution states; “The salary, allowances, privileges and rights in respect of leave of absence, gratuity, pension and other conditions of service of a Justice of the superior court or any judicial officer or other person exercising judicial power, shall not be varied to his disadvantage.” This constitutional provision, I am made to understand imposes an obligation on government to ensure that its policies do not unduly negatively affect the living conditions of judges but that seems not to be the case at this time. Information I have gathered indicates  some judges ar...

I have been reading the press statement delivered by Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and listening to our President and I have been left confused. Both Kojo Oppong- Nkrumah and President Akuffo-Addo  have taken the view that former President Mahama's proposal of a "review" or saying the double track "ento asum" means JDM would scrap the policy if elected into power in 2020. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah goes a step further to say that former President Mahama has always been against the free Senior High School policy and campaigned against it. Frankly, I would avoid speaking for the former President because I believe he can speak for himself and has official and volunteer spokespersons who are qualified enough to do that. Just to say that the former President has been handed a perfect opportunity to come clear on how intend to ensure affordable, quality secondary education for all and not skirt around the issue like they typically do. President Akuffo-Addo and his gov...

In an age where electricity has become the livewire of every activity, it is surprising when you are told that the regional office of a major state institute has been without power for days. It all started on the evening of September 21 when Ghana was celebrating the birthday of the Founder of this great nation. That evening the offices of the Volta Regional Education Directorate went dark and were still in darkness as at Friday September 28, 2018. The situation like you would expect was affecting operations of the office with the personnel forced to work without electric power. The situation has adversely affected productivity at the regional offices with most members of the public who turned up at the offices to carry out transactions returning home disappointed. The interesting thing is that some of the people who turned up at the offices are teachers came from very far distances and so their journeys took hours and had to forego a day’s work without any result; meanin...

Every journalist likes a good story but some stories are so interesting they must be told. One of those stories is about attempts by local representatives of teacher unions to explain what is turning out to be an interesting topic, "Special insurance for teachers" The story is told of how most teachers woke up one morning, walked to their banks (which are usually GCB Bank),to their surprise found out GHC10 had been deducted form their salaries and it was going to be monthly affair; the purpose for these deductions, life insurance cover for them. It turned out their respective unions had signed them on for these insurance covers, in the belief that it was in the interest of the teacher. Unfortunately for the unions, no teacher is a juvenile so you need their consent to sign them up to anything no matter how well intentioned. So the roars went up in the various classrooms with some teachers resorting to social media to express their disgust at the move leaving ...

Perhaps it is an over-flogged matter that does not interest the public or even the media anymore; well, except in instances when a strike is threatened. The unpaid salary arrears of teachers is a matter that dates back to the days of Seth Tekper and was brought on by a decision to pay only three months of arrears and subject the rest to rigorous vetting. It is a matter that has attracted some industrial action but is still yet to be resolved; at least in the case of scores of teachers. The worst part is attempts to get the issue resolved have fallen on deaf ears. A couple of them who have spoken to me say they are becoming persona non grata at the Accountant General's office because the staff there were tired of their faces. The question is whether the frowning faces at the AG's department should deter them from pursuing their hard earned wages; the answer is No and they continue to frequent the offices. A couple of them who I have personally spoken to to...

It was Captain (rtd.) Nkrabea Effah Dartey, a lawyer of over 30 years standing who first expressed this confusion after Justice Daniel Mensah had decided to adjourn to await the administrative decision of the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo. Interestingly enough, the man fighting off the adjournment is one whose name would be called anytime there is talk over the development of law in the country, Tsatsu Tsikata. The author of the letter is Frank Davies who was representing the Bank of Ghana; the purpose of the letter is to get the case assigned to a new court. So let me unwrap the case a little for you. In the wake of the consolidation of 5 banks into the Consolidated Bank, shareholders of UniBank one of the 5 unfortunate banks went to court in a bid to overturn the decision of the Bank of Ghana (BoG). Their case was simple, the Consolidated Bank of Ghana created by the Central Bank to takeover the assets of the five banks is an illegitimate entity. After filing th...

Deputy Attorney General has hinted that President Akufo Addo would confirm the appointment of Jean Mensah as EC Chairperson within the next 24 hours. He gave the hint in an interview with the press after the Supreme Court refused an application for interlocutory injunction filed by Fafali Nyonator, the private citizen challenging the removal of Charlotte Osei as EC Boss. There are indications that the Council of State has approved the nominations forwarded by the President. Godfred Yeboah Dame says the Court's decision clears  the way for the appointment and the President would act accordingly.