AGC bounces back
Arkaah is dead
DOC, Staff in court
HIPC offers a way out – Pianim
NDC reacts on Quality Grains
Corruption in Armed Forces
PHC boss wants second hand cars banned
GWCL halts debt collection
Baby thief jailed
NGO leads campaign to recover stolen wealth
Water company to pay £12,000 for 1 Foreign Advert
AGC bounces back
The Daily Graphic reports that Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) has posted $9 million as earnings from its operations for the first quarter of this year.
The amount represents a $2.1 million improvement over last year's performance for the same period.
Earning per share also went up from $0.06 in the year 2000 to $0.08 this year. Profit before tax was $9.8 million as against last year's $7.6 million for the same period.
Mr Sam Jonah, Ashanti’s Chief Executive, who disclosed this in a tele-conference on Thursday, said he was happy that Ashanti "has had a profitable first quarter”.
The CEO said the company is managing its debt well so much so that it has not drawn on its $100 million headroom in the Revolving Credit Facility (RCF).
"Our efforts to reduce corporate debt have resulted in $13 million reduction in our group debt levels. The RCF now stands at $79 million, the lowest since 1996," said Mr Jonah.
The group's hedging strategy, which created a problem for the company, recorded market positive $143 million, as at March 31, based on the spot price of $259.
Mr. Jonah said even though there were initial setbacks in the first quarter, total production was 398,992 ounces because of excellent production from Geita in Tanzania and other mines. At the same time, operating cost at $195 per ounce was marginally lower than the previous quarter, which was $197.
More…/
Arkaah is dead
Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah, a former Vice-President, is dead. He died on Thursday in Washington, United States of America (USA), where he had gone to seek medical attention for an ailment believed to be connected with a recent motor accident. He was 74.
The Daily Graphic recalls that On March 12, this year, Mr Arkaah's Benz car which was being driven by his driver crashed and somersaulted three times near his Cantonments residence in Accra after swerving off the main road to avoid a head-on collision with another vehicle which apparently had crossed its path.
He was admitted at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra where he was given medical attention and later discharged.
The late Mr Arkaah was born on July 4, 1927 at Senya Bereku in the Awutu-Efutu-Senya district of the Central Region.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
DOC, Staff in court
Dr Yaqub Mensah of Bosomtwi clinic at Mempeasem, a suburb of Kumasi who was arrested in connection with the death of a middle-aged woman, Fatui Walla, on Tuesday appeared before a circuit tribunal at Kumasi for the third time, on provisional charged of murder, The Ghanaian Times reports.
The State daily says with him in the dock were two of his nurses, Grace Opoku and Mercy Serwaa Bonsu, also known as Attaa.
Their plea was not taken and the tribunal, chaired by Mr Vincent C. Senu, granted them 20 million cedis bail with two sureties each to report to the Regional Criminal Investigations Department every Monday until the determination of the case.
The bail followed an application filed by their counsel, Mr Adu Gyamfi, that the facts of the case did not in any way connect the accused to the murder.
The prosecution had contended that the post mortem report was not ready and that the accused should not be granted bail.
The tribunal chairman, in granting bail, said that his decision was influenced by the arrest of the deceased's boy friend in connection with the murder.
Earlier, the tribunal granted a 10 million cedis bail with a surety each to two cleaners at the clinic who were also arrested in connection with the murder.
The deceased, according to the prosecution visited the clinic complaining of abdominal pains, for which she was treated and discharged on April 11.
At about 5.50 am, last Monday, the deceased was found lying at a car washing bay at Kentinkrono, a suburb of the town and a report was made to the police.
The police thought that she might have been raped and later strangled to death until investigations led to the arrest of the suspects.
More…/
HIPC offers a way out – Pianim
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative provides an implicit way of dealing with the country's budget deficit and better management of public sector expenditure, Mr Kwame Pianim, an economist, has said.
According to The Times, he said it would also improve the private sector's access to commercial credit, lower inflation and interest rates.
Mr Pianim said these at a day's symposium organized by the University of Cape Coast Chapter of the Association of Economics Students (AES) as part of its fourth Annual Economics Week.
Speaking on "The Pros and Cons of HIPC," he said that the issue at stake now was no longer whether to go or not to go HIPC, but how to make the most of it.
He said that careful steps should be taken to minimize the potential demands on scarce administrative and human resources that the initiative's negotiations and processes would demand.
Mr Pianim said that "the country stands to save, annually between 2001 and 2003, an amount of 230 million dollars accrued from debt servicing effected by paying 155 million dollars under the HIPC initiative".
GRi../
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
NDC Reacts on Quality Grains
The Ghana Palaver carries that the NDC has, in a statement, noted the decision of the NPP to take over the Quality Grains Company Limited and its rice operations at Aveyime in the Volta Region, but expresses extreme surprise at the Government’s attempts to impute impropriety to officials of the former NDC Administration.
The party said it finds as particularly unfortunate, the allegations and insinuations intended to embarrass, harass and bring into disrepute ex-President J.J. Rawlings, ex-Vice President Professor Atta-Mills and the other former Senior Ministers and officials of the NDC Government.
“Far from causing serious losses to the State as alleged by Nana Akufo Addo, the Attorney General, at his Press Conference held on 25th April 2001, former President Rawlings and former Vice President Atta –Mills did everything possible to assist and expedite the production of rice by Quality Grain Company Limited with the objective of reducing the country’s heavy dependence on imported rice and to create employment opportunities for the people of Aveyime-Vume area around the Lower Volta.”
It said regarding the legality of the transaction, the NDC Government, through Cabinet, secured Parliamentary approval for a guarantee to enable the company procure a US$7 million loan from the US Exim Bank to undertake the project. However, an augmented US$12 million due to land acquisition and settlement problems, was considered as supplementary to the original loan requiring no fresh Parliamentary approval. “This was also done to cut on start-up time”.
Agriculture is a risky venture, therefore care must be taken to safeguard the investor and this is what the NDC did, it pointed out, explaining that against the possibility of non-performance by Quality Grains, the NDC Government ensured that the company executed a deed of indemnity and a floating charge on its assets in favour of the Government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Finance.
“It is this indemnity clause in the agreement intended to safeguard the interest of Ghana, which the NPP Government is today taking advantage of to take over the Company and its assets, and yet creating the impression that it is correcting a wrong of the NDC Government,” the statement said.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Corruption in Armed Forces
The Ghanaian Chronicle says its ongoing investigation into corruption in the Armed Forces has exposed cover-ups on the part of some officers of the Armed Forces High Command who consistently condoned and refused to sanction officers who squandered public money or engaged in other corrupt practices.
Documentary evidence available to the paper indicates that on several occasions, officers who engaged in corrupt practices, which merited dismissal, according to Armed Forces regulations, rather enjoyed official protection from the top hierarchy of the Force who merely removed them from their positions only to appoint them to a more sensitive office.
The refusal of the Armed Forces High Command to investigate or sanction some erring officers met strong protests from some soldiers who on numerous occasions wrote letters and reported the cover-ups to Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings.
Investigations have revealed that corruption in the armed Forces became so serious that on several occasions Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings had to personally intervene to sanction corrupt officers, while the former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen Ben Akafia, sat on the bench and watched the officers raid the coffers of the Force.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
PHC boss wants second hand cars banned
The Accra Mail, carries that Ghanaians have been advised to stop importing used vehicles into the country, as some of them are too old and pose danger to road users. The call was made by Mr Paul Pepera the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of PHC Motors during the inauguration of an 800m-cedis PHC Motor showroom in Accra on Thursday.
He said the Motor Association is trying to get the financial institutions to design credit facilities to enable people procure new cars. Repayment for the facilities he said would be spread over a three to five year period.
He added: “we have warned the banks that unless they come out with a policy for our customers to afford to buy vehicles on credit, the Association will set up a financing means, put their resources together to enable people buy cars on credit at affordable prices”.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
GWCL halts debt collection
The loud claim by the Ghana Water Company Limited that individuals, private and public institutions are indebted to it to the tune of over 60 billion cedis cannot be wholly true, according to The Evening News.
The state daily says there is strong suspicion at the headquarters of the GWCL that some top officials of the company have collected and squandered a huge chunk of the debt owed even though the value of the debt still stands in the books of GWCL.
Already, some key officials of the company who have been incriminated in the deal have fled the company whilst others in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA) are currently being prosecuted.
Sources at the GWCL head office in Accra told The Evening News on Thursday that feverish efforts are being made at top management level to shield some key personnel at ATMA who are suspected to have taken part in collecting and sharing part of the huge debt owed the company.
Consequently, the company has given a month’s notice to all its private debt collection agencies in the Accra-Tema area suspending their services.
Sources said this has become necessary because the agencies are beginning to expose the hollowness in the GWCL’s claim that it is owed 10 billion cedis in the Accra-Tema area alone.
GRi…/
Send your comments news@ghanareview.com
Baby thief jailed
Ekua Dinah, a 22-year-old house-help who allegedly stole one Gifty Morkeh, a-two-and-a-half year old school girl of Takoradi has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour, reports The Daily Guide.
A Sekondi Circuit Tribunal chaired by Mr Fred Miezah Anyimiah convicted Ekua on her own plea of guilty to the charge according to a Ghana News Agency report.
Narrating the story to The Guide on Thursday April 19, at Takoradi Miss Rebecca Pobee, mother of the girl and an iced water seller said she left her daughter in the care of a friend, one Sakinatu, at the lorry Park to buy some iced blocks on April 7, 2001.
She was told on her return by Sakinatu that little Gifty went along with Ekua, her dish-washer and errand girl, to buy eggs.
The two combed through the area to no avail trying to trace Ekua and Gifty.
Worried and disturbed, Pobee lodged a complaint with the Takoradi Market Circle and Central Police stations while announcements were made on the local FM radio stations on the whereabouts of Ekua and Gifty.
Pobee was on the fourth day hinted that Ekua had boarded a train to Accra with the girl and an alert of the railway staff and the security led to the arrest of Ekua on board a train in Accra, with Gifty by her side.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
NGO leads campaign to recover stolen wealth
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International, has urged President J.A. Kufuor to set up a task force, as a matter of urgency, to trace, recover and repatriate public funds allegedly looted and stashed in foreign banks, reports the Free Press.
The call follows recent media reports alleging that former government officials have stashed illegally acquired wealth in foreign banks in Africa, Europe, the Americas and South East Asia.
In a release signed by the Executive Secretary, Mr Yaw Asamoah, the GII suggested that the task force, when instituted, should not limit its investigations to the previous government but to all governments since independence.
The call, according to GII, is in accordance with a declaration by participants in Nyanga, Zimbabwe in March, this year.
The Nyanga Declaration called for an international campaign for the recovery of Africa’s stolen wealth stashed abroad.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Water Company to pay £12,000 for 1 Foreign Advert
The Dispatch says the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), which has been lamenting on its inability to buy ordinary chemicals to produce good drinking water, is being threatened with legal action, unless it ‘coughs’ up £12,000 (124.8 million) for an advert placed on its behalf by Kensington Publications Limited in a foreign newspaper.
A letter, dated April 9, (ref. KP104/GIL 4001) from Inter-Credit International Limited to the GWCL stated that, “the above balance (£12,000) is overdue and immediate settlement is required. We have today been instructed by our client to effect recovery on their behalf and hereby give formal notice of our intent to commence legal proceedings against your company.”
The threat accompanied that, “should you wish to avoid this course of action, your payment must be received at their offices within ten days of the date of this letter”.
However, in a letter signed by Mr Charles Anson-Lawson, Chief Manager, Public Relations, the GWCL says it will not be fair for it to pay the bill because the company’s Public Relations Department was not consulted before the publication of the advert.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com