This is not
a joke, the government's mouthpiece, Ethiopia News Agency, has in fact published
the following news on April 17, 2012. It does not make sense to me, but here is a caption for your musing:
While
responding to questions posed by parliamentarians during the 25th regular
session of the House of Peoples' Representatives here on Tuesday April 17, 2012, PM Meles called on the
public to rally behind the government in the efforts to expose individuals
engaged in corruption.
Meles
said lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability in the civil service
sector resulted in dissatisfaction on part of the public.
He said measures are being taken
to address problems in the civil service sector.
Full story here.
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UPDATE
July 21, 2012
It has come to my attention that visitors see
an error message when trying to access the news article:
Server
Error
404 - File or directory
not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its
name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
It looks like ENA has removed the post. For your convenience, cross-posted below is the text of the article in its
entirety. - Wondwossen
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Meles: Efforts to
reduce inflation register more success than expected
Addis Ababa, April 17, 2012 (Addis Ababa) - Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi said government’s efforts to reduce inflation registered
more success than expected.
While
responding to questions posed by parliamentarians during the 25th regular
session of the House of Peoples' Representatives here on Tuesday, Meles said
the government has carried out successful activities to control money supply at
a national level.
The
Premier said budget deficit is said to be one of the lowest in the world as the
government would not take loans from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).
He said
3.9 percent drop has been made in reserve money at the Bank.
Meles said
global economic instability, significant increase on cost of mines,
agricultural products and petroleum contributed to the increase in inflation.
Absence
of competition in the market system in particular in the wholesale trade in the
country is another factor for growth of inflation.
He said
a study is being conducted to organize domestic or foreign investors and create
competition in the market system to control inflation.
The
Premier said efforts are underway to stabilize price rise through import substitution
and also controlling export of domestic products.
In this
regard the government has imported eight million quintals wheat as well as
sugar and edible oil since last year, he said, adding, there is no shortage in
supply of such products at national level rather a distribtion problem of the
commodities.
Meanwhile,
PM Meles said lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability in the civil
service sector resulted in dissatisfaction on part of the public.
He said
measures are being taken to address problems in the civil service sector .
Meles
on the occasion called on the public to rally behind the government in the
efforts to expose individuals engaged in corruption.
Concerning
teachers, the Premier said the government made salary scale adjustment for
teachers but not salary increase and more than 99 per cent of the teachers have
accepted with satisfaction the recent salary scale adjustment.
Certification
of Occupational Competence, which helps to increase the quality of education,
will be implemented in the near future, he said.
Meles
said government does not interfere in the affairs of religion and vice versa,
however, the government is responsible to safeguard the constitution from
religious extremism.
The
Premier also said that the information disseminated saying Amhara nationals
living in South Ethiopia Peoples' State were displaced was irresponsible and
baseless.
To the
contrary, he said the Amhara and South Ethiopia Peoples' States have reached an
agreement to further continue resettlement in an organized manner.
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