Accra (Greater Accra) 18 March '99 The Sunyani Forestry School is to be upgraded to a diploma-awarding institution, Dr Christina Amoako-Nuama, Minister of Lands and Forestry, said on Wednesday. Negotiations are under way for the transfer of the school to the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. Dr Amoako-Nuama, said, the negotiations involve the Ministry, the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the Forestry Department. The Minister was responding to a question on the ministry's plan for the upgrading of the Sunyani Forestry School, to a diploma- awarding institution during "Question Time" in Parliament. The question stood in the name of Mr Kwadwo Adjei- Darko NPP Sunyani West. Dr Amoako-Nuama said, the Forestry Department indicated that it was no longer in a position to provide funds, for the running of the school. As a result, the Forestry Commission discussed the issue and recommended that KNUST be contacted to absorb it as one of its campuses and turn it into a diploma-awarding institution. Dr Amoako-Nuama said the executive committee of the university discussed the proposal and agreed that the Sunyani Forestry School should be adopted to become a campus of the KNUST to be known as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Forestry, Sunyani. She said the university on January 22, this year, communicated its decision to the National Council for Tertiary Education, which in turn deliberated on the issue. The Ministry is yet to be informed of the outcome of the deliberations. Asked about the desirability to upgrade the school into a diploma-awarding institution, Dr Amoako-Nuama replied that with the privatisation of a lot of the forestry sector, most private sector participants look for much better qualified personnel to man their plantations. Besides, she said, it is also the government's policy to upgrade schools of such level as the Sunyani Forestry School, to provide the middle manpower needs of the country. On what the ministry's policy would be after the school has been divested, Dr Amoako-Nuama said the Ministry would continue to maintain some relationship with it, adding that the students would be offered the opportunity to do attachment at the Forestry Department and other agencies of the ministry. Asked when the school's hostel at Brosankro in the Tano District will be completed for use by the students during field training in the area, Dr Amoako-Nuama said the facility will be ready for use by July one, this year. She explained that the hostel was built under the Forestry Resources Management Project and funded by the International Development Association (IDA), to serve as a field-training centre of the Forestry Department. It was completed in early 1998, but no provision has been made for access road, electricity and potable water. Dr Amoako-Nuama announced that the Forestry Department has awarded a contract for the provision of these facilities, which should be completed by the end of June. "As of now, the electricity connection has been made, bore- holes are being sunk and the access road is under construction. The Department is meeting the cost of these from its own resources", she said. Mr Agyare Koi Larbi, NPP-Akropong, wanted to know steps being taken by the Ministry of Lands and Forestry to speed up the disbursement of monies lodged with the Administrator of Stool Lands for the payment of compensation due to stools. Dr Amoako-Nuama said to date, all compensation monies lodged with the Stool Lands Administrator have been disbursed, except where there are conflicting claims. In such cases, the monies are lodged with the courts pending the determination of ownership. She explained that compensation payments are made in respect of lands acquired by government for specific projects and that such payments are either in lump sum or annual rental amounts, depending on the legal instrument used for acquisition. For example, the Minister said, stool lands are usually acquired under the Administration of Lands Act, 1992 (Act 123). In such cases compensation is prescribed in the form of annual rental payments. But where it becomes necessary for stool lands or any other type of land to be compulsorily acquired under the State Lands Act 1992 (Act 125), lump sum payments are made.