Seth J. Bokpe's Ghana Newsreel

Ghana’s successive governments always over-spend the country’s budget during election years, but a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mrs Mona Quartey, says the situation will be different this year. She said the country’s experience in 2015, which was a year of low revenue that was met with massive expenditure cuts, should be an indication of less spending of the budget during the 2016 general election. She gave the assurance at the launch of the Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) Survey Report by KPMG, an international accounting and advisory firm in Ghana, in Accra yesterday. Read more here

President John Dramani Mahama has admitted that the country was not out of its power crisis woods yet but indicated the situation was better than it used to. He said the crisis appeared to have been prolonged by the non-supply of gas from neighbouring Nigeria to feed thermal plants as a result of a sabotage which has led to the shutdown of the Asogli power plant. The president told the Council of Christian Churches in Kumasi on Thursday that the high cost of running thermal power has accounted for the recent increase in electricity tariffs but expressed hope that per his directive, the tariffs would be beginning July 1, 2016. Read more here 

Some opposition political parties in the Northern Region have held a joint press conference to complain about electricity tariffs. They have consequently given the government a one week ultimatum to reduce electricity tariffs by at least 50 per cent or face the full force of the anger of the people. The political parties comprising the New Patriotic Party (NPP) , Convention People's Party (CPP) , People's National Convention (PNC),  Progressive People's Party (PPP)  and the All Peoples Congress (APC) jointly addressed the press conference in Tamale. Read more here

Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruit bodies of several species of macrofungi (fungi which bear fruiting structures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye). They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand. Edibility may be defined by criteria that include absence of poisonous effects on humans and desirable taste and aroma. Read More here

The Flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet has said he is not an agitator for other people’s political intentions. Condemning the status quo where people who were accused of wrongdoing are unfairly tried in the media, Mr Greenstreet asserted that he would not allow himself to be used as a stooge to pursue other people’s political interest, particularly with regard to President Mahama’s gift of a Ford Expedition vehicle by a Burkinabe contractor. He was answering questions when he took his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Evening Encounter with Presidential Candidates of political parties with representation in Parliament in Accra last Tuesday. Read more

A former Accountant General, Prof. J. B. Ato Ghartey, has advocated the inclusion of how public officers acquire their wealth in the assets declaration regime of the country. He said that would enable the public to track funds that had been dissipa ted, as a public servant’s lifestyle had to match with the assets he or she acquired.

The Paramount Chief of the Suhum Traditional Area, Osabarima Ayeh Kofi, says the decision by the 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to seek redress in the Supreme Court, instead of resorting to violence, in the aftermath of the disputed 2012 elections, is enough testament to the true nature of the NPP flagbearer.