Mallam Isa implicated - he is to face prosecution
Attuquaefio has no time for Stars – GFA
Reconciliation committee out next week
Govt sets up Complaints C’ttee
UGM is on leave – Wereko Brobby
Kwame Peprah questioned by SFO
The rot at SSNIT: Who is to blame
Baby Ocansey case goes to Higher Court
Gov’t moves to improve transport system
Re-Instate Ms Borden – AMC
Ghana has no excuse for not feeding herself – Quashigah
Mallam Isa implicated - he is to face prosecution
The Daily Graphic reports that crestfallen former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mallam Yusuf Isa, is to be arraigned before an Accra court within the next couple of days over the alleged loss of the US$46,000 Black Stars money.
Criminal charges of stealing and causing financial loss to the state are to be preferred against him.
Mallam Isa’s prosecution is said to have been on the orders of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Nana Akufuo-Addo, following a recommendation by a police investigations committee that the former minister “be held personally responsible for the missing $46,000.”
It further recommended that Mallam Isa “be made to refund the amount.” Investigations by the paper into the matter have unearthed startling revelations leading to a demonstration of the government’s avowed policy of zero tolerance for corruption in a non-benign manner.
The committee’s findings were that the $46,000 was not kept in the suitcase as claimed by Mallam Isa, and that he was rather casual about the loss of the money.
He also did not tell Kojo Bonsu of Ashtead fame and the GFA officials in Khartoum, The Sudan, about the amount of money missing, or details of the other items allegedly stolen.
The 30-page report states that the events in the former minister’s office as narrated by Mr Alexander Asante Sakyi, GFA Protocol Officer, and Mr Worlanyo Agra, GFA General Secretary, were more credible than the statements of Mallam Isa and his witnesses.
During the course of the investigations, Mallam Isa told the committee that he carried an Audit Report on the GFA along on the trip to The Sudan and that he kept it in the suitcase together with the cash of $46,000.
Other items kept in the suitcase included an “agbada” (an embroidered garment) and a kente cloth. When the suitcase was found on February 28, this year, he opened it and found that the Audit Report as well as the “agbada” and the kente were lost.
According to the report, the Audit Report was found in the former minister’s house when he was later searched. On this basis, it was reasonable to infer that the money too was not kept in the suitcase, contrary to Mallam Isa’s claim.
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Attuquaefio has no time for Stars – GFA
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has explained that the decision to dispense with the services of Cecil Jones Attuquayefio as head coach of the senior national team was based on the poor results chalked under his reign and his inability to devote his time fully to the Black Stars.
As a result, the head of the FA’s Technical Directorate, Fred Osam-Duodu is to assume temporary responsibility of the team pending the appointment of a substantive coach.
At a press conference held at the FA’s Accra Secretariat on Thursday to formally announce Attuquayefio’s disengagement, the acting GFA chairman, Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah noted that the coach’s conflict of interest as technical head of African super champions Accra Hearts of Oak, was preventing him from devoting his full attention to the Stars. And with the club’s pending international assignments, the FA was faced with a crisis situation which left the game’s governing body with no alternative than relieve him of his services and allow him lead Hearts to defend their continental trophy and the FIFA World Clubs Championship in Spain, says the Daily Graphic
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Reconciliation committee out next week
‘The Weekend Statesman’, an Independent paper, says President Kufuor will next week announce the membership of the National Reconciliation Committee, which will provide a forum for the promotion of national reconciliation.
In an exclusive interview with the paper after his first press conference to mark his 100 days in office last Wednesday, the President said: “The nation will accordingly be informed about the membership of the committee as well as its terms of reference.”
President Kufuor, in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament on February 15, promised to set up a National Reconciliation Committee to provide a forum to promote the goal of national reconciliation and accelerate the process of restoring confiscated assets.
“It is time to bring this whole sorry chapter of confiscation to an end. I have instructed the Attorney-General to bring quickly for consideration by the Cabinet and myself guidelines for the rapid de-confiscation of assets,” he said.
He told the press that the NPP Government came into power not simply to stabilise the State and maintain social peace, but more importantly to improve the quality of life for each and every Ghanaian.
“I want you to understand therefore, that all we do and will do, should be seen as aimed at pulling the economy together for the purpose of creating wealth and improving the quality of the lives of all Ghanaians”, he noted.
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Govt sets up Complaints C’ttee
The government, according to state-own daily “The Ghanaian Times”, has set up a public complaints Unit to enable the public to lodge complaints against corruption and other acts of malfeasance committed by revenue agencies.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, disclosing this on Wednesday, during President Kufuor’s maiden press conference to mark his 100 days in office, explained that the idea of setting up the unit was to help check the negative behaviour of personnel of the revenue agencies in their dealings with their publics.
He noted that the idea has taken off well, and has started yielding fruits with long queues being formed everyday by complaint lodgers.
On Workers minimum wage, the finance Minister said the government and the Tripartite Committee were working hard to reach an agreement adding that a meeting has been scheduled for Monday to settle all differences.
He also said that the auditing of 10 para-statal agencies, including the GNPC, and Tema Oil refinery (TOR) as directed by his Ministry, would soon begin.
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UGM is on leave – Wereko Brobby
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, leader of the United Ghana Movement (UGM), on Wednesday said his party has started “a long leave”, the aim, to facilitate the process of supporting the NPP administration to achieve its national development objectives.
“I am not afraid to say that we have taken a long leave. After four years we will review the political situation and see whether we have to contest for political power,” he told the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
Dr Wereko-Brobby, who was sharing his views on the first 100 days of President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration, said that he decided to take up an appointment as Government Advisor on Energy because he was convinced that the NPP was on course and he was, therefore, obliged to put his talent at the service of the nation.
Dr Wereko-Brobby, who was presidential candidate of the UGM during the last general election, said “I do not want people to believe that I have an inordinate ambition to become the president of Ghana at the expense of national interest.
“I do not agree with critics of the government who supported Kufuor to win the elections but are now at loggerheads with him. This is the time for such politicians to give the government the needed support to carry out its development programmes.
Dr Wereko-Brobby praised President Kufuor for what he described as the confident manner he handled his maiden encounter with the press saying that, “it is a sign of good things to come”.
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Kwame Peprah questioned by SFO
The Dispatch, a private-owned paper says it can today confirm that Mr Kwame Peprah, former Minister for Finance in the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has been questioned by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on a number of occasions.
Prominent among the cases for which Mr Peprah was questioned, is the Quality Grain Company (Gh) Limited scandal in which the government, as per the 1999 SFO annual report to Parliament, lost $5 million. A former NDC Minister for Agriculture, Mr Ibrahim Adam, who was initially arrested but later released on bail, has also been questioned in connection with the project.
Economic analysts have wondered why the ex-government chose to guarantee over $5 million for an American company to cultivate rice when many local farmers needed such support.
Evidence available also indicates that the Managing Director, Mrs Cotton, allegedly ‘had very friendly relations’ with some highly placed members of the former NDC government which may explain the previous government’s action that has been described by an American journalist as “unbelievably foolish”.
The Dispatch says its investigations are ongoing into huge payments allegedly made to some individual Ghanaians and companies in the United States purportedly made so that some top NDC officials could pay their children’s school fees.
The SFO reportedly, is also searching for one Steve Mawuenyega in a case in which he is alleged to have swindled an investor of $179,000 by false pretences.
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The rot at SSNIT: Who is to blame
Contrary to beliefs that the rot at SSNIT were the sole making of the ‘proceed on leave’ Director-General, Charles Asare, the Daily Guide says it can today say they began and climaxed under Henry Dei, the ex Director General.
Documents available to the paper indicate that as far back as March 31, 1998, SSNIT had lost 319 billion cedis through past mismanagement and bad investment decisions.
A summary report from PLC Consultants and Sigma One Corporation revealed the sordid financial position of the Trust.
Another astonishing revelation is the SSNIT’s over 170 bank accounts that had not been reconciled since 1996 because financial records were woefully inaccurate, especially those relating to banking and internal cash management.
Strangely, the now acting Director General, Mr Eric Adjei, had for 14 years worked under Dei when the rot was going on.
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Baby Ocansey case goes to Higher Court
Hajia Baby Ocansey, the woman at the centre of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) $1.5m scandal has been transferred from the Osu Community Tribunal chaired by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills to the Accra Region Tribunal following her plea to the judge to discharge her to the Regional tribunal.
Hajia Baby Ocansey was represented by Mr Kwame Dadzoe, a legal practitioner.
She was taken away into BNI custody after her pleas were immediately granted and will appear before the Regional Tribunal on April 23, 2001.
Three men, Alhaji Ibrahim, Alhaji Mohammed and one other who also appeared before the court charged for harbouring Hajia Baby Ocansey were also remanded in BNI custody.
Hajia, it will be recalled, was arrested on Thursday April 5, 2001 at Madina following a tip off after being on the run for over six months.
She was, since last July, placed on the police wanted list after reports that she had absconded with $1.5 million dollars in a scandal believed to have been hatched with the connivance of some top officials of the Bank of Ghana.
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Gov’t moves to improve transport system
The Minister of Transport and Communications, Hon. Felix K. Owusu-Adjapong has said government will be attracting direct private sector participation and joint ventures in the country’s transportation system as it embarks on an integrated mass transit system, reports the independent paper, ‘The Ghanaian Chronicle’.
The system, involving all the modes of transport such as rail, road, lake, maritime and air, is expected to provide comfortable, safe and efficient mass transportation system in the country.
This was contained in a speech read on his behalf at a joint launch of Mobil Oil Limited and Auto Parts Limited service centres at the Sakumono filling station in Accra intended to provide efficient, and highly reliable facilities at the doorstep of consumers.
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Re-Instate Ms Borden – AMC
According to the Ghana Palaver, the Ashanti Miners Club (AMC) has expressed surprise at the dismissal of Ms Adelaide Borden, the AGC branch union secretary, following the findings of a committee of enquiry, set up to investigate allegations levelled against her by the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU).
The NDC mouthpiece describes the punishment meted out to Ms Borden as unfair and unmerited.
The committee found her guilty of “peddling false information and misinformation and inciting former contract workers to take hostage and manhandle officials of the union”.
She was furthermore accused of inciting AGC workers to embark on an industrial action, following her interdiction while the committee was at work.
At a press conference in Obuasi on Wednesday, Mr Mahama John Baba, president of the club, decried the action taken, describing it as a miscarriage of justice and Ms. Borden, a victim of circumstances.
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Ghana has no excuse for not feeding herself – Quashigah
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) has said Ghana has no excuse for its inability to feed herself and called for strategies to increase food production, according to independent paper, ‘The Accra Mail’.
Major Quashigah, who was opening a three-day strategic planning workshop at Cape Coast, expressed concern over the high cost of food imports and charged the participants to come out with meaningful strategies to “put food on the table of every Ghanaians.”
The workshop was meant to evolve plans for the production of adequate food, focusing on the development of an integrated strategic plan to achieve of production targets year by year.
The sector Minister pointed out that any nation endowed with natural and human resources such as Ghana “offends God for not taking advantage of the vast arable lands to grow what they can eat and what they cannot eat for export.”
He stressed the need for financial interventions in the agricultural sector by the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and other banks.
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