Mr. Asare Ansah had earlier said the Ave Maria Resort in Tema would be pulled down by the end of January 2018 as part of the $1.5 billion Tema Port Expansion Project.

[contextly_sidebar id=”T1Q07YAKHDeReXwt19up7g2TKCdND7wo”]According to him, the GHPA had reached an agreement with the managers of the Resort to pull down the 10 million-dollar facility.

However, Mrs. Ntim refuted the GPHA boss’ assertions, indicating that no conclusive decision had been taken on the matter, which has persisted for over two years.

“It is true they [GPHA] have written that we should leave by January 26. We have replied them to give us three months to wind up and also to make sure they give us compensation and relocation,” she told Citi News.

“I heard he [Mr. Asare Ansah] was saying they have given me several offers. It is not true. Nobody has given me any offers. We were just given a copy of the compensation by the valuers and we are still working on the anomalies in the compensation… So nothing is certain.”

The GPHA boss had also said they had taken the decision to demolish the facility only after they had explored other unsuccessful options to ensure that the establishment remained intact.

But Mrs. Ntim also dismissed these comments, stating that the Meridian Port Services (MPS), the company executing the expansion had indicated that the Resort could be retained and fused into the expansion plans.

“The MPS Managing Director, he told me that Ave Maria can either be included or excluded. In fact, all they need to do was put up a wall, but it was up to the GPHA. The fact that he is saying the people say it cannot be done is not true,” she stated.

“All the things that he [Mr. Asare Ansah] was saying, they were half-truths. I don’t know why he is doing that. He is a liar. I am sorry to use that word,” Mrs. Ntim said.

Alleged intimidation

In October 2017, staff of the Resort were reportedly surrounded by some security personnel of the GPHA. There was some earth movement by a bulldozer which blocked the front gate of the Resort, trapping staff and guests.

A Board Member of the Resort, accused the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), of intimidating the Resort for over two years.

In a Citi News interview, the Board Member said the police offered little protection to the Resort and its staff during a recent attack by security personnel of GPHA.

Managers of the facility lamented that the tension between the Resort and the GPHA was indicative of a country that doesn’t value heritage.

The Resort is said to have been recommended to be preserved by the Center of the World Committee, as it is viewed as having great value for Ghana’s tourism sector.

It has a long heritage for hosting the likes of Ghana’s First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a regular patron, and Queen Elizabeth when she visited Ghana.

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By: Elvis Washington/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Reports indicate that, staff of the Resort were accosted by some security personnel of the GPHA on Saturday evening.

There were reportedly two GPHA pickups, two private vehicles, and a bulldozer brought by the GPHA security personnel.

Staff who reached out to Citi News noted that, there was some earth movement by a bulldozer which blocked the front gate of the resort, trapping staff and guests.

Pictures from the scene show the aftermath of the bulldozer activities, as the ground was dug with pieces of demolished concrete structures.

The Resort’s managers alleged that the GPHA has consistently employed intimidation tactics to forcefully remove the Ave Maria Resort for the past two years.

Officials of the Port are not immediately available for comment on the matter.

About Ave Maria Resort

The Ave Maria Resort is said to have been recommended to be preserved by the Center of the World Committee, as it is viewed as great value for Ghana’s tourism sector.

The Resort has a long heritage for hosting the likes of Ghana’s First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a regular patron, and Queen Elizabeth anytime she visited Ghana.

The port expansion project

The Meridian Port Services (MPS), is executing the port expansion project, and the GPHA, according to a GNA report, has said that Ave Maria Resort has to be relocated to make way for the project.

A former official of the GPHA, however, said they are yet to agree on compensation for the relocation of the Resort.

Nonetheless, he gave the assurance that the two entities were in talks to finalize it.

The Tema Port Expansion Project, when completed in 2019, is envisioned to allow the Tema Port to handle thrice its current traffic of about one million 20-foot Equivalent Units (TEUS).

The project would also see the expansion of the Tema-Accra motorway into a six-lane road, with service lanes to ease traffic flow from the port.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This perceived vastness of the duties and responsibilities of the Director General of GPHA within the ports communities has created an erroneous impression that makes any appointed GPHA boss the most coveted; literally supervising over a gold mining cave within Ghana’s economy pot.

The imagined prestige in the accompaniment that GPHA trails along with might be the reason why most people want to work at the Tema or Takoradi ports, and apparently GPHA. Yet, true as it may be for any GPHA boss as imagined, much depends on the mindset, the upbringing, the sense of dedication and commitment of the individual who gets appointed to this prestigious position.

A closer look at Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, however, evokes several limitations as separate segmented compartments within the purview of the vastness of the Ports and Harbours Authority, and this is where Mr Paul Ansah presides over as landlord, and only in just one segment, yet with a colossal title as Director General of GPHA, with two assisting Directors, one at Tema and another at Takoradi harbour, minus the airports and the various cross-border entry ports.

The fact is that, within the vastness of the ports community, there exists other interests such as Customs & Excise under the GRA, with its own independent appointed boss, there is Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) under the ministry of finance, there is also National Security, and many more, ensconced on a piece of land where Mr Paul Ansah is the landlord with no oversight authority or responsibility over his tenants in what they do, and how it is done. All what is needed between landlord and tenants is co-operation.

In a chat with the Director General, he confidently explains that his operational areas in the community called GPHA within the two harbours are interactions with ship owners or their representatives, interactions with shipping lines, stevedoring companies, shipping and clearing agents, also known as freight forwarders, importers and exporters, and haulage companies.

Mr Ansah, who has been an officer at the ports and harbours authority for 23 years, and risen through the ranks until his appointment as Director General, further explains that his outfit’s business responsibilities with the above-mentioned members of the port communities, is to collect revenue from them, organise port infrastructure to create room and comfort for his tenants and visitors.

With all these explanations regarding GPHA’s operational parameters, there is a continuum of pressing concretions within the functions and activities of the Ghana Ports Authority that need to be found out for an intrusive surgery to be performed to remove them.

These chafing nodules hiding within the body of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority are the disturbing factors that have occasioned visits by both the vice-President, and the Senior minister to ascertain for themselves what gremlin exists at the ports, and for which Mr Paul Ansah has provided a very reassuring answer that can remedy all negative perceptions, both real and imagined within his area of operations.

Mr Ansah is beset with problems and challenges that he is confident to surmount, as well as rectifying remedies, all of which will appear in the sequels to this script. With his enormous experience acquired through many years of working at the ports, every challenge can be trampled upon, and it important the issues are segregated for the general public to know his jurisdictional confinement.

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By: Patrick Mobila ([email protected])

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The three-day non-partisan National Economic Forum at Senchi was patronised by economic policy makers, representatives of traders associations, development and social partners, civil society organizations, members of academia and senior citizens.

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He said under the report, there were 22 points of specific policies to deal with the long term sources of financing from the private sector.

Mr Amissah-Arthur made the revelation when a Swiss Business delegation called on him at the Flagstaff House.

The Swiss Business delegation is in the country to explore business opportunities and to network with their Ghanaian counterparts.

Mr Amissah-Arthur also noted that President John Dramani Mahama has assured to join in the presentation of the full record of the Senchi discussion after which the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) would take it up, as reflecting the agreements that would go into the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA).

He said a couple of years ago Ghana graduated from a Least Developed Country (LDC) to a Lower Middle Income Country and as a result does not qualify for the kind of financing it used to get from donor and multilateral agencies.

He said previously when the country was a LDC, they were able to borrow soft loans from the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (ADB).

Mr. Amissah-Arthur further stated that since the country was now dealing with the markets then it has to develop the right kind of discipline that encourages growth rather than rely on donor financing.

He noted that the country has major constraints with energy generation, as a result of irregular gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline to power its new thermal plants.

He expressed the hope that with the coming of Ghana Gas, it would substitute for the high cost of crude oil that is used to generate energy and therefore bring down the cost of generating electricity.

Leader of the Swiss Business, Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch,delegation stated that Ghana and Switzerland have strong bilateral relations, which goes back many years.

She said Ghana is one of the eight priority countries of Switzerland and that the visit would help improve the economic relations between the two nations.She said the business delegation is in Ghana to discover opportunities and network with Ghanaian businesses.

Source: GNA

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