Tema, July 30, GNA – The new Land Act 2020 makes provision for accountability, therefore people put in trust of lands are to take note that they are accountable; Lawyer Timothy Anyidoho, a member of the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana, has indicated.
He stated that the Family Accountability Law which existed under PNDC Law already made provision for accountability but was reemphasized in the new Land Act.
Mr Anyidoho disclosed this during the fifth edition of the Ghana News Agency-Tema Regional Office’s monthly stakeholder engagement and workers’ appreciation day seminar in Tema when speaking on the topic: “The role of Licensed Surveyors in Ghana’s Land Act 2020”.
The engagement focused on: the authority in charge of the management of stool or skin, clan or family lands; the role of Customary Land Secretariat; Systems of recording and registering land and interests in land; What is electronic conveyancing; and Procedures under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 201.
Mr Anyidoho explained that the Land Act ensures that family heads account for lands sold, their location, and where they were located and indicated that lack of transparency and fairness in the past resulted in tension which led families to split into smaller groups.
He noted that the Land Act had introduced the establishment of the Customary Land Secretariat to aid stools, skins, clans, and families to keep records.
He stated that all that was needed to establish the Customary Land Secretariat was a decent office, consultation with the Lands Commission for any assistance, acquire the services of a legal person, and find a simple way of recording.
Mr Anyidoho who is also a Senior Staff, Lands Commission, at the Public and Vested Lands Management Division said the establishment of the Customary Land Secretariat would be done based on some guidelines which would make it easier for people to interact with the stool by going to a defined office with staff.
“Now what happens is, you have to meet the Chief in his house, palace, or restaurant and negotiate with him, and you may not know whether he is acting in consent with his elders or not, which had contributed to people being defrauded,” he said.
The Act indicates in Section 16 the structure of staffing of the Customary Land Secretariat, such as the minimum qualification for certain people does not restrict the stools to necessarily to people who are of the same clan.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager explained that the event was a progressive media caucus platform created to allow both state and non-state stakeholders to interact with journalists and address national issues.
It also served as a platform to deepen the working relationship with stakeholders to ensure that the media and corporate world work together towards national development.
Other speakers include Dr Stephen Ayisi-Addo, Programme Manager National AIDS/STI Control Programme who spoke on: “Workplace policy on HIV/AIDS, who enforces it: the legal basis for churches demanding HIV/AIDS test from would-be partners? Role of partners of infected individual”.
Mr Fred Aseidu-Dartey, Head of Freight and Logistics, Ghana Shippers Authority also spoke on: “Emerging trends in Ghana’s maritime industry – the perspective of the Ghana Shippers Authority.
GNA