National Organizer of Coalition, Paul Offeh Karikari, says the graduates have passed the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination and completed their mandatory national service in February 2025, awaiting posting.

During their service, they observed some teachers were handling multiple subjects outside their areas of specialization, which negatively impacts students’ understanding.

Paul Karikari emphasized that employing them would improve quality education in public schools.

He said approximately 15,000 trained teachers are unemployed, which the Coalition has petitioned the Minister of Education twice without response.

They are urging the Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education to consider their employment before their skills become obsolete.

“The prolonged silence from authorities is causing financial, emotional, and psychological hardship for members,” said Paul.

The Coalition of Unemployed Trained Teachers hope their calls will be heeded by the authorities.

Club insiders say the actual process, which could lead to 200 staff losing their jobs, has been ongoing for a number of weeks, with most staff already aware if they are to remain at the club or not.

However, BBC Sport has been told some staff connected to the first team were not informed of their fate prior until Friday so that preparations for the Europa League final against Tottenham were not disrupted.

It is anticipated that the sports science, medical and scouting departments will be among the areas that could be affected, with up to 200 jobs set to go.

Now the game is out of the way, staff in the affected areas are being informed. Sources claim those staff had early been told their positions would be clarified at a later date.

It means in cases of specific roles in those areas being cut back, staff affected are being told whether they are to remain at United or not.

Morale around the club is said to be at a low ebb given this latest news has come so soon after Wednesday’s defeat by Tottenham in the Europa League final.

Club sources are adamant the timescale for the redundancies has not changed.

United had about 1,100 employees before the first wave of cuts last year.

About 250 employees were made redundant during the first round of redundancies, saving the club between £8m and £10m.

United chief executive Omar Berrada said earlier this year that between 150 and 200 redundancies were set to follow.

Defeat in Bilbao means United will be without European football next season for only the second time since 1990, leaving a £100m hole in the club’s finances.

Ratcliffe has embarked on a series of cost-cutting initiatives since purchasing a minority stake in the club in February 2024.

Club ambassadors, including Sir Alex Ferguson, have had their roles reprised, while a canteen for staff was closed and replaced with the offer of free fruit.

Ratcliffe and fellow co-owner Avram Glazer attended Wednesday’s final defeat in Bilbao, with Ferguson pictured alongside them.

Sources have told BBC Sport that a number of cars were driven to Bilbao before the final for the use of Ratcliffe and senior club officials during their time in Spain.

The club stuck to plans to hold a barbecue for the first-team squad and family members at Carrington following the defeat by Spurs.

But the latest cutbacks come against a bleak financial backdrop, with United losing more than £370m over the past five years.

They also kicked against the bill’s proposal to establish an independent Thermal Power Authority from the VRA’s thermal plants.

The VRA staff groups stated that “these decisions are not in the best interest of Ghanaians and would have dire consequences on the VRA and the people of Ghana,” and cited 25 reasons to support that assertion.

The staff groups, in a communique made available to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said “the staff of the VRA with the support of Ghanaians shall fearlessly resist and use all legitimate means at our disposal to ensure that the people of Ghana are not robbed of affordable electric power and energy security under the guise of mergers and privatisation”.

Reasons

As part of the reasons, they said the VRA was efficient in operating both hydro and thermal generation plants and had commissioned a number of solar stations to augment the thermal-hydro generation mix.

They said the VRA was the first to build and operate a thermal plant in the country, which it had efficiently operated for over 25 years, having operated hydro plants very efficiently for 63 years to the admiration of countries within the sub-region.

“The idea to merge VRA Hydro with Bui is just a smokescreen and geared towards surreptitiously swaying Ghanaians of their true interest of selling these assets to themselves and cronies,” the staff said.

The VRA/NEDCo staff said the authority had made huge investments in those assets and instead of building them up, it was being broken apart “to make it easy to be thrown into the hands of few selfish persons to the detriment of the masses”, adding that both VRA and Bui Power had independently and efficiently managed their assets and the records were there to show.

The staff explained that the cost of power generated from Bui was high and if added to that generated from Akosombo and Kpong, “will lead to a high cost of power to the consumer”.

They further said since the VRA and Bui were both hydro-generation plants and depended on the Volta River for water, there would be dire consequences for the entity and the people of Ghana if there was drought which had been predicted in the coming year.

Again, they said the allocation of hydro-generated power was determined by the Energy Market Oversight Panel (EMOP) and so the entity would not have the choice of customers.

“This will mean that the power generated would be sold to mainly ECG and industries such as Volta Aluminium Company, who both owe VRA several millions of dollars and are not prompt with their payments as well,” the groups said.

It said the VRA was paid only 30 per cent of power sales to the ECG under the CWM month-on-month and that the non-payment posed liquidity challenges.

The VRA staff said revenue from the thermal plant (unregulated customers) was used to augment the VRA’s cash flow, hence the survival of the VRA was dependent on its thermal businesses.

For such reasons, the VRA staff groups said they “cannot fathom why the government is in a hurry to hive off the VRA thermal assets and sell them to supposed private investors when these Independent Power Producers (IPPs) continuously threaten the government with shutdown for non-payment or delayed payments”.

“This idea of private participation or wholesale of the thermal plants will lead to the use of our national natural gas to generate power and sell at cut-throat prices to the people of Ghana and the export market,” the staff stressed.

The staff said after its position was made clear on the Cash Waterfall Mechanism in May 2024, and calls on the government to sell VRA Thermal Plants to private operators, the VRA Board Chairman, Kofi Tutu Agyare, invited leadership to a meeting where plans by the government to privatise the Thermal Assets of the authority was questioned

The VRA board chairman denied knowledge of any such notion and emphatically stated that no such thing would happen under his watch as board chairman, since he knew the importance of the authority’s contributions to the national grid.

The groups said as well-meaning citizens, they tried on several occasions to engage the management of the VRA to ascertain the existence of the bill, including writing to seek audience with management, which proved futile.

“Further probing by the staff group leaders at the meeting led to management admitting that they were part of a technical committee that worked on a report for the Ministry of Energy, proposing the VRA as a Holding Company.”

The groups said last Tuesday, they heard reports of an attempt to surprisingly lay the bills for the mergers before Parliament.

Key stakeholders

“We wish to say here without any fear of contradiction that, the staff of VRA/NEDCo are key stakeholders in this issue and these very important and strategic decisions would significantly impact our lives, yet have never been engaged in the process,” it said in a communique made available to the Daily Graphic.

The VRA/NEDCo staff groups said the action was “another diabolical scheme to hive off the thermal department from the VRA to make it extremely easy for a façade of privatisation so that faceless people/politicians would take over these very important Ghanaian assets”.

“We, the staff of the VRA, understand the operations of the VRA and its assets, so it would be out of place to sit unconcerned and watch the government disintegrate the authority to the detriment of the Ghanaian populace,” the communique stressed.

The industrial action takes effect from Thursday, May 25.

JUSAG leaders Wednesday afternoon summoned members to an emergency meeting, ostensibly to declare the indefinite strike, after ultimatums issued government to address demands for the approval of salary increases and payment of arrears from January 2023 expired on May 19.

The association had in a letter to the Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission, threatened to lay down their tools if their demands were not met.

The association says it had previously written to President Nana Akufo-Addo to approve the recommendation of the Judicial Council for a review of salaries and related allowances for staff of the Judicial Service in line with Article 149 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. 

JUSAG also complained about the withdrawal of the Cost of Living Allowance in December 2022, amidst the economic difficulties in the country, concluding that its members had shown patience enough.

Guards shot the attacker dead as he approached the entrance to the consular section, officials said.

A number of other people were reported to have been wounded. The Islamic State group said it was behind the attack.

The attack is the first on a foreign mission in Afghanistan since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021.

Earlier, a Taliban official said at least 10 people had been injured. Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA reported that a diplomat and an embassy security guard had been wounded.

Other media reports put casualty figures higher. As well as the embassy staff, four Afghans waiting for consular services were killed, police said.

“This morning, an explosion took place at the Russian embassy in Kabul – four people and two employees of the Russian embassy were killed, and a number of Afghans were injured,” a statement from the Taliban police chief’s spokesman in Kabul said.

It added the suicide bomber had been spotted by Taliban personnel guarding the embassy as he approached people gathered in front of the building.

“He was identified by security and targeted, which caused a blast,” the spokesman said.

Russia’s foreign ministry said “an unknown militant set off an explosive device near the entrance to the consular section”.

“Without any doubt, we are talking about a terrorist act, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Speaking from the hospital, survivors of the attack spoke of the chaos in its aftermath.

“I went to the Russian embassy to get a visa. We were sitting outside,” a man called Faiz Mohammad told Reuters. “The consul came and we showed him our papers, he guided us towards the entrance door of the embassy. Suddenly the blast occurred and I fell on the ground.”

Another man called Wahidullah was close by: “I heard a huge blast. Later I didn’t understand what happened to me, I just remember the blast threw me out on the street. My hands and legs were not working, then my cousin ran toward me and brought me to this hospital.”

Ahmad Samir, a boy who suffered head injuries in the blast, said “there were so many injured people around, everyone was fleeing the site”.

Russia is one of the few countries to maintain a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. Moscow does not officially recognise the Taliban’s government – no country does.

However, the two sides have discussed possible Afghan purchases of commodities like wheat, gas and oil from Moscow.

Violence in Afghanistan has greatly declined since the Taliban returned to power – under its 20-year campaign to drive US-led forces from Afghan soil many attacks were carried out by Taliban militants themselves.

However security has been deteriorating in recent months. A string of deadly bomb blasts has mainly targeted mosques and minority communities, many claimed by the militant Islamic State group who see the Taliban as not radical enough.

Last week, a suicide bomber struck one of western Afghanistan’s biggest mosques, killing at least 18 people, including an influential imam who supported the Taliban.

He adds the company has over 360 active post offices across the country, though he believes it is still struggling.

Obour, as he is popularly known, explained though the company is delivering on its mandate it has the room to do other things to support communities.

“Being the MD for Ghana post for these past months has been good so far. I am impressed though there are some challenges that are still being worked on. I’ve been learning every day because there are lots of things to learn. We have over 360 active post offices across the country.

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“We have a staff strength of over 2,000, meanwhile the company is struggling but I have been charged to fully resuscitate the company and that is exactly what I am doing,” he said in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show Tuesday.

To Mr Kuffour, Ghana Post has so much potential and therefore he is ready to turn things around.

Ghana Post, he noted, although did not take advantage of the emerging markets of technology, they are trying hard to meet the e-commerce market.

Some staff members in the sectors of finance, production, distribution, Import and Export (shipping) MOP and RFCC were affected.

The 14 staff members, who held various positions of responsibility with respect to the transfer of products, have been queried and interdicted.

This became necessary following series of incidents of five major product storage and transfer losses over a period of time.

The losses were recorded from 2012 to September, this year, a statement issued to that effect indicated.

This includes the disappearance of 105,927 litres of gas oil on September 4, 2021 which belongs to a CBD client.

Also, there was a disappearance of LPG belonging to a client between 2012 and 2015, as a result of which TOR became indebted to the client to the tune of USD 4.8 million, as confirmed by an audit.

Another wrongful overloading of 252,000 litres of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) instead of regular Kerosene into BRV trucks at the loading gantry between September 21 and 25 was recorded.

The discovery of 18 drums of electrical cables worth GHS 10.4 million from TOR’s Technical Storehouse in April 2021, is also a factor for the sanctions.

There was also a loss of Naphtha to a BDC recorded.

Consequently, the persons in charge have been sanctioned pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.

Find attached press statement below:

The staff, Kumah Philip Ceasar, who is said to be a Deputy Director of YEA at Akatsi North in the Volta Region, according to the police, is assisting in investigations.

YEA in a statement that sought to bring clarity on the issue said there was no administrative position at the District level.

The outfit explained the suspect was a staff engaged on contract to aid in monitoring activities in the Akatsi South District, not Akatsi North.

“His contract has expired and is under review and consideration for renewal. Management has gotten to the Volta Regional Director of the Agency who is obtaining
detailed information and facts on the matter to inform further actions,” parts of the statement read.

Admitting the case is now criminal involving the suspect and the Ghana Police, it urged all and sundry to allow the law to take its course.

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“We vehemently abhor any act of violence, abuse and/or attacks perpetrated against any member of our social development, especially women,” it added.

Read the full statement below:

The deceased, identified as Jerry Azaglo, was the assistant coordinator of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), was found dead while sitting on his chair.

Concerned that her husband had not returned home from work as of 8:00 pm, the wife of the deceased went to his workplace that evening to enquire of her husband’s whereabouts from the security man at his office.

The security man subsequently did a search of all the offices only to find Mr Azaglo’s office unlocked. Curiously, he switched on the light to find the man sitting in his chair motionless.

The security man quickly informed his superiors who reported the incident to the Police.

Police personnel from the Koforidua District Police command arrived at the scene and after taking inventories took the motionless body to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The cause of death is currently being investigated, however, information gathered indicates that the deceased had an underlying medical condition

Staff of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) have from today, Wednesday, December 11, 2019, begun an indefinite sit-down strike.

The sit-down strike is to seek for the payment of some millions of cedis owed the power transmission company by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO), Power Distribution Service (PDS) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo).

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Akosombo branch chairman of GRIDCo, Asante Guggisberg, in an interview on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Wednesday, explained that the strike by the GRIDCo staff followed the non-response to petitions presented to the government.

The staff had originally threatened to strike on December 4, 2019, but postponed the strike to December 11, 2019.

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Mr Guggisberg noted that the indebtedness of ECG, VALCO and NEDCo to GRIDCo was crippling operations of the company, adding that the strike will continue till the matter is addressed by the government.

The staff in their petition to the Finance Ministry said the Ministry must act on a directive by President Nana Akufo-Addo to make available to them some GH¢250 million.

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M Guggisberg further said from today, Wednesday December 11, 2019, all emergency services will be withdrawn to push government to settle all debts owed the company by ECG, VALCO, PDS, and NEDCO.

Listen to audio above:

About some 14 months after their banks were collapsed by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the staff claim they now live from hand to mouth.

“We are now dead goats so we will stop at nothing until we get our severance packages; the government should not push us to the wall,” they fumed.

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The Bank of Ghana revoked the two banks’ licences due to severe impairment of capital on August 14, 2017, and appointed Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah – both Directors of PwC – as Joint Receivers for the purpose of winding-down the two banks’ affairs.

GCB Bank was then authorized by the Bank of Ghana to take over management of the defunct banks under a Purchase and Assumption Agreement.

As a result of this action, the ex-employees of Capital and UT Banks appointed UNICOF to negotiate an Exit Package on behalf of staff.

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As per the Joint Receivers’ letter dated 15th January 2018, an agreement was reached with UNICOF to pay all staff of these defunct banks an Exit Package”.

Following this agreement, the aggrieved staff on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem Thursday said the Central Bank has refused to give PwC to authorization to pay their severance packages.

Samuel Enin, former staff of UT bank said he now begs friends and family to feed his family.

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“I’m now the woman in the house because I can’t feed my family and my wife has to take over. I’m now a beggar after 14 months,” he bemoaned.

Samuel Obeng-Osei also with UT Bank said the severance package for former staff of both banks amount to “just GH₵40 million” thus could not fathom why the government cannot pay them.

“For the past 14 months, we have been begging and living from hand to mouth; why!” he asked.

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The former UT Bank staff cited how the stigma of being a staff of a collapsed bank is affecting their chances of securing another job.

Mr Obeng Osei feared the future of his children is at stake as he is finding it difficult to pay their school fees.

Raymond Addei Danquah, a former staff of Capital Bank revealed that the majority of his colleagues are bedridden due to the shock they suffered when the bank collapse

“I went for an interview and I was told I have lost value because my bank has collapsed” he stated.

Mr Danquah said petitions sent to the presidency, BoG and to former presidents to intervene has not yielded any results.

“We are going to use violence because we’ve pleaded for too long,” he stressed.

According to them, months to the takeover by the Bank of Ghana a year ago, their auditors and management told them they had made profits thus were extremely shocked at its collapse.

Raymond Addei Danquah who was Deputy Head of Digital Banking and Philip Yawson, a branch manager who are both now unemployed, revealed this in an exclusive interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Tuesday.

They revealed that there was a massive expansion on the company’s digital platform and the opening of new branches across the country, months to the takeover.

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“We were extremely shocked because we never dreamt and nothing showed that our bank will collapse. Our books and finances were very good according to what management told us,” they stated.

Raymond Addei Danquah who was deputy Head of Digital Banking said he returned from training abroad with his boss only to receive the bad news.

To survive now, the banker said he grills pork to sustain his very young family.

“I have really lose because  I was diagnosed of Diabetes due to my bad eating habit since I have to travel almost every weekend to work at our branches” he bemoaned.

Philip Yawson on the other hand who has two children said, he now depends on God to provide for his family.

Though he has a registered business, the money to start it has been a very big challenge.

Raymond and Philip revealed that a year after the bank’s collapse, they have not received anything and management and the board have not bothered to contact them.

A year after the collapse of UT Bank and Capital Bank, some of their former employees are still struggling to make ends meet.

One of such persons is Raymond Dankwa, a deputy manager in the now-defunct Capital Bank. Despite the several job security promises that were made to employees, Raymond and a host others were axed by the new owners.

Several of them have still not received their benefits from the new owners.

Dankwa now makes a living by grilling meat at events. He told Joy News’ Justice Baidoo that he also started the ‘RaD Kitchen’ where he supplies food to the staff of financial and other institutions.

Capital Bank and UT Bank collapsed in August 2017 due to liquidity challenges and all their assets taken over by state-owned GCB Bank.

Five other banks have since gone down for similar reasons.

The Tamale High Court, presided over by Mr. Justice Edward Apenkwah, also fined the convict 3,000 penalty units, equivalent to GH¢36,000, for money laundering or in default serve five years in prison.

The court ordered the confiscation of a house built by the convict in Tamale with some of the stolen money.

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It would be recalled that the convict, who was an accounts officer at the Domestic Tax Division of the GRA in Tamale, was arrested for allegedly stealing GH¢2,430,774.30 belonging to the state.

Fuseini Hamza was charged with two counts of stealing and money laundering.

The convict, as part of his duties, was responsible for lodging monies collected by the Authority into its various accounts.

In June 2017, the Northern Regional Accountant of the GRA reportedly discovered that there was a shortfall of GH¢2,430,774.30 in the accounts of GRA during a validation exercise.

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When the convict was questioned by the accountant, Hamza said he had lodged all the money into the account of the GRA.

The accountant followed up to the GCB Bank Limited to verify whether or not the convict had deposited the money into the bank account.

After the checks, the accountant was told by the bank that the money had not been lodged into the account.

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Upon further interrogation, the prosecutor said the accused admitted that he used the money to acquire property, including two plots of land, a house and 4X4 vehicle.

This brings the total number of appointees to 998.
The list has created a controversy with partisan colouration both on social and mainstream media.
While ministers and government spokespersons have vehemently defended the list, critics some of whom belong to the opposition National Democratic Congress, have rubbished it.
Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul, on Newsfile, Saturday said, of the 998 names submitted to Parliament 706 are civil servants bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo administration by the previous government.
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He emphasized that president Akufo-Addo only made 292 appointments and not 998 as suggested in the media.
He also dismissed assertion all the 998 workers were going to be stationed at the Jubilee House, the seat of government, adding some of the workers will be stationed at the Osu Castle; the former seat of government, Castle Annex, Peduase Lodge and all other outfits captured under the Office of the Presidency.
But a former Presidential Staffer, Clement Apaak, has been quick with a rebuttal.
He told Joy News the “elephant size staffers’” list is a drain on the public purse.
“Technically every political appointee working at the Office of the President is a presidential list,” he added.
Contributing to the debate, Franklin Cudjoe said while in opposition, the NPP criticized the large-sized appointee at the Presidency named by the former government.
“There was decent understanding we couldn’t be padding up the numbers at the Presidency,” he stated.

“I am wondering what 276 [256] junior political officers are doing at the Flagstaff House.
“I have looked through the list and some of them I know them. Most of them were facebookers, making noise on Facebook. I don’t know whether it was a reward…”
Franklin Cudjoe also raised issues with the total number of technical advisors and their deputies.
He called for better efficiency at the Presidency.

The assailant, 26-year-old Jihad Thaabn, said to be the brother-in-law of the owner of the restaurant angrily grabbed the neck of the victim, Evelyn Boakye and dipped her face into raw pepper, which he had poured onto a table.

Accra Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Afia Tenge confirmed this to Adom News Sunday after the victim lodged a complaint with the police.

She said the police will be taking the statement of the suspect on Tuesday, March 7^th, 2017 for the next line of action.

However, the provisional charge for Jihad, ASP Afia Tenge stated is assault pending further investigations.