A Civil Society Organization operating in the Upper East Region, Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), has expressed displeasure about the situation whereby medical examination of students in second cycle institutions in the region is being undertaken by health clinicians from Accra.
The President of NORPRA, Mr. Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, expressed the concern during a meeting with the Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, in
Bolgatanga
Mr. Ayorogo stated that there were equally qualified medical staff from the Region who were as competent as their colleagues who came from Accra for the exercise, and said monies paid to them could be used to develop the Region.
NORPRA was not also happy about the situation where mock examination papers of Junior High Schools in the Region were given out for contract to a company in Accra, and said they could be done in the Region to save cost and other inconveniences.
The organization disagreed with the teachers and staff on motivation
levies initiated by some school authorities in the Region where parents were made to pay monies that were in turn given to teachers as a form of incentive.
The NORPRA Members appealed to the Committee organizing the region's 50th anniversary celebration to assign competent people in the Region to take up contracts on the designing of paraphernalia for the celebration instead of awarding it to contractors from outside the Region.
The members of NORPRA appealed to the Regional Minister to give them a role to play during the forthcoming celebration of the Upper East Region's 50th Anniversary.
They also took the opportunity to ask the Regional Minister how far the Government had gone with the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programme.
In response to the SADA question, the Minister said Government had finished some of the processes and that a bill on it was before parliament.
He expressed the hope that after successfully passing the bill, the implementation would start, adding that a lot of organizations were contributing to the SADA.
The Regional Minister assured the NORPRA membership that the Regional Coordinating Council would investigate the concerns they had raised, and assured them of roles to play in the forthcoming celebration of the region's 50th anniversary, scheduled to start in September this year.