Accra (Greater Accra) 18 March '99

Members of Parliament today appealed to the

government to take urgent steps to house the National Film and Television

Institute (NAFTI), which has up to March 26 to vacate its present premises or be

ejected.

Members made the appeal today, when the debate for approval for 22.655

billion for the Ministry of Communications commenced.

Members made the appeal after being told by Nii Adjei-Boye Sekan, chairman

of the Committee on Communications, in his report on the sector ministry, that

the rented premises of the school is about to be sold.

The members stressed the importance of NAFTI to the film and television

industry and national development, and stressed that urgent measures be taken to

solve the problem.

The members also made urgent appeal to the government to provide the

institute with a celluloid machine, to enable it to provide training in

celluloid filming.

The committee observed that the school no longer offers training in this

subject due to the collapse of their equipment, which the government was

supposed to replace last year.

Nii Adjei-Boye said the committee was also dismayed to find out that out of

the 202.500 billion cedis allocated to the Ministry last year for development,

only 30.377 million cedis was released by the Ministry of Finance.

The committee expressed their disappointment over the Ministry of

Finance's inability to release all the funds and appealed to it to ensure that

the situation is not repeated this year.

''The committee observed with grave concern that, though it recommended

last year that computers and fax machines be provided to the Ghana News Agency

by the government, this did not materialise...''

The Agency is confronted with poor telephone facilities and lacks

vehicles, which do not augur well for effective communication.

The committee, therefore, recommended that government should improve this

situation to promote efficiency in the agency.

Nii Adjei-Boye Sekan appealed to the ministry to do all it can to address

the manpower problem of the Agency for maximum productivity.

The committee observed that poor staffing is one of the biggest problems

confronting the GNA, he explained.

This is made evident by the fact that there is only one director for

planning, research, statistics and human resource development.