<<Print>>

The honourable minister in charge of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, has stated that, the Ghanaian tax payer is not being charged anything from the services of the American fire experts who have come to Ghana to support in the ongoing investigations into the recent fire outbreaks. The minister made this known during an interview on GFM Radio�s Direct TALK show hosted by Osagyefo in London on the 12th June, 2013. The minister explained that, the American government expressed interest in helping Ghana undertake investigations into the causes of the frequent fire which has bedevilled many families and businesses in recent times. He commended the efforts and expertise of the Ghana Fire Services (GFS) and explained that, the agency was well equipped to undertake investigative exercise but, due to deficiency on identifying how the fires got started, government decided to accept the assistance from the Americans to consolidate the works of the fire service. He further hinted that, government was determined to further train fire personnel�s to be able conduct fire investigations thoroughly in the future without any possible assistance from elsewhere. The minister also assured the Ghanaians community that government communications has improved considerably from the time he took over at the information ministry. He did highlighted some of the lapses and inconsistencies in information flows which engulfed the government communication team earlier on as he took office. He was emphatic that any errors and inconveniences caused were his responsibility and apologised as such. In the light of this, the minister said the most honourable thing to happen in our democracy was for ministers and politicians to learn how to apologies when they got things wrong. He explained that, lessons learnt from past mistakes has rather churned and strengthened government�s communications in recent times. He said, it is his interest to see in Ghana�s politics where, politicians will be courageous enough to own up anytime they made mistakes to bolster confidence in the system. The minister also reiterated President Mahama�s desire to see the Right to Information Bill become a law at the earliest possible time. He hinted that, it was in government plans to create a more congenial media environment to foster Ghana�s young democracy, hence the Broadcasting Bill was also under cabinet�s considerations. Touching on attracting investors into Ghana, the Mr Mahama Ayarigah also explained the reasons surroundings President Mahama�s recent travels to France, Japan and the UK. He highlighted that, Ghana as an emerging economy was losing some of the old loan facilities enjoyed from her development partners, hence the president took advantage of invitations from foreign partners such as France, Japan and UK to market Ghana and also entice more foreign direct investments opportunities for the country. Mr Mahama Ayarigah assured the UK residence that, all their concerns raised through the show will be brought to the attention of His Excellency President Mahama. The minister admonished Ghanaian in the diaspora to have faith in the government of President Mahama to make Ghana a better nation.