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Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso — President of Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council
Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso — President of Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council

Pentecostal Council urges govt, UTAG to resolve impasse

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has called on the government and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to consider the impact of the latter’s strike and return to the negotiation table with open minds and less entrenched positions.

It said the parties must be committed to respecting the outcome of all negotiated settlements.

“We also urge the National Labour Commission, in particular, to at all times demonstrate a posture of impartiality and proactiveness in resolving labour disputes rather than being reactionary in its approach to dealing with labour unions.

“While urging government — the employer — to demonstrate sincerity and commitments to a lasting negotiated settlement to this impasse, we also wish to appeal to UTAG to consider calling off its industrial action and returning to the negotiation table,” a communique issued at the end of the GPCC’s 2022 Conference of Heads of Churches and Organisations said.

The council said the recent unrest on the labour front, especially in the education sector, not least, the almost four weeks’ industrial action by UTAG, was of grave concern to the council.

Council

The communique was issued by the National Executive Council of the GPCC, led by its President, Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso; First Vice-President, Most Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah; Second Vice-President, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, and the General Secretary, Rev. Emmanuel Teimah Barrigah.

The conference, which was held at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region from February 1-4, 2022, was dubbed: “Defending the Christian Faith in Contemporary Times".

While commending the government for the various youth initiatives under the Ghana Care Programme, it said if those initiatives were not well coordinated and nurtured to create innovative youth entrepreneurs to solve the unemployment challenges, “we may be sitting on a time bomb ready to explode in our faces. Strengthening TVET (technical, vocational education and training) is the way to go in creating sustainable employment, and we call on government to open a broad national consultative process on the Free TVET policy to ensure that the quality of practical TVET trainings is not compromised”.

In that regard, it commended the government for its partnership with the GPCC and other ecumenical councils in the training of many of the youth in various short-term entrepreneurial-based TVET skills.

Corruption

The communique said the council had noted with concern the increasing cases of corruption and mismanagement of public funds as revealed by the 2020 Auditor General’s Report on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and some state-owned enterprises.

It said while Ghanaians were being called upon to pay more taxes to facilitate development, “we have public officers embezzling, misapplying and misappropriating public funds through various corrupt activities, causing the state to lose billions of Ghana cedis, with most culprits going unpunished over the years”.

The council, therefore, called on the Office of the Special Prosecutor to take keen interest in the reports of the Auditor-General to save this country from the brink of social upheavals.

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