One Trillion outside banking system
Ministry to reduce rice import by 50%
More Ministers approved
Cop in Highway Robbery
Ato Dadzie spied on judges
J.J. Rawlings can’t decide for himself – NPP
Interior Minister frowns on ACDR in Army, Police
ET’s secretary destroys files
Divestiture of Mim timber, GIHOC stopped
Castle had too many friends
One Trillion outside banking system
A Bank of Ghana (BOG) Adviser, Mr Emmanuel Asiedu-Mante, is reported by the Daily Graphic to have expressed concern about the huge currency outside the banking system.
He said it is unacceptable that for the last quarter of last year, a little over one trillion, representing 94 per cent of total currency, was in circulation.
This, he said, puts inflationary pressure on the economy and “blunt the capabilities of the instruments of monetary management”.
Launching a new financial scheme by the Metropolitan and Allied Bank (MAB) and Ghana Post Company (GPC) in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Asiedu-Mante called on the banks to adopt innovative marketing strategies to mobilise “these idle funds into the banking system to enhance redistribution to productive sectors of the economy and to ensure the effectiveness of monetary policy”.
The scheme, Metropost Certificate of Deposit, is in the form of a 91-day fixed term deposits, with flexible features which include linking of deposits to an interest-bearing account which offer tiered interest rates.
Presently available at 56 post offices and MAB branches, it is also linked to monthly raffles with attractive prizes.
Mr Asiedu-Mante attributed the huge cash in circulation to the culture of the Ghanaian to hold cash rather than its substitutes like cheques, adding that the problem cocoa farmers often go through each year with the Akuafo cheques could also make the citizenry prefer holding physical cash to holding cheques.
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Ministry to reduce rice import by 50%
Graphic in another story says the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has said the government is determined to reduce rice importation by 50 per cent by the end of the year.
To this end, the ministry has begun re-examining its policies, programmes, strategies and performance over the years to ensure that the target is met.
It said the $100 million spent on rice importation annually is too high and unacceptable.
Dr Samuel Dapaah, Chief Director at MOFA, made this known at a three-day international workshop on “Integrated watershed management of inland valleys – the ecotechnology approach,” in Accra being attended by 70 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.
He said the government is also considering the comparative advantage and development potential that exist in the various ecologies for profitable rice production particularly in the inland valleys, to raise the low level of rice production to attain food sufficiency, reduce the huge foreign exchange spent on the importation as well as provide jobs and raise living standards of rice farmers in the country.
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More Ministers approved
Parliament on Tuesday approved the second batch of Presidential nominees for appointment as Ministers, ‘The Ghanaian Times’ reported.
They are Mr Charles Omar Nyanor (MP) for Upper Denkyira), Minister of State, Office of the President (Private Sector) Dr Richard W. Anane (NPP Bantama), Minister of Health; Mr K.Adjei-Darko (NPP, Sunyani West), Roads and Highways; and Mr Albert Kan Dapaah (NPP, Afigya Sekyere West), of Energy.
The rest are Mr Kwamena Bartels (NPP Ablekuma North), Works and Housing; Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey of Presidential Affairs; Madam Hawa Yakubu (NPP, Bawku Central); Tourism Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Education and Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State at the Presidency (Media Relations).
The Appointments Committee said that it received no adverse reports, petitions or objections on any of the nominees and noted that all the nominees had the requisite qualification and experience to handle their respective portfolios.
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Cop in Highway Robbery
The ‘Times’ said in another story that Police Constable Rockson Kwakye Ampofo, suspected to be leader of a gang of armed robbers operating in some parts of the country, was arrested by the Asokwa Police in Kumasi on Monday.
Ampofo, stationed at the Police Headquarters Workshop Division, Accra, was arrested in the company of 11 of his accomplices including a woman.
The suspects were said to have been using two vehicles, a Totoya Landcrusier and a Ford bus in their operations.
A search on the vehicles revealed a number of masks and mobile phones, a pistol, condoms and other dangerous implements. The police have impounded the vehicles and the items.
Superintendent A. Awuni, Head of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Unit, told newsmen on Tuesday that information reached the police about a band of gangsters harassing passengers plying the lake Bosomtwe-Kumasi road.
Acting upon a tip-off on Monday, the Asokwa police intercepted the two vehicles at about 3 pm and arrested the suspects.
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Ato Dadzie spied on judges
It has now been established that the government of the PNDC put forth an intelligence network to spy on and investigate certain judges, a front-page capture of ‘The Guide’ stated.
It said documents available to it revealed that a number of judges including Justices M.K. Adsovie, E.K. Wiredu and H.B. Apatu Plange, were investigated by the National Investigations Committee (NIC) on the orders of Mr Ato Dadzie without their knowledge.
The documents indicate that as far back as 1986, Mr Dadzie listed more than 20 judges of the country and handed over their files to the NIC for thorough investigations of unspecified wrong doings.
Mr Dadzie, then a Secretary at the erstwhile PNDC secretariat had allegedly held the reports and files on the judges and ordered their investigations.
The source noted that while it was not very clear even at the time the essence of the investigations, it was suspected that the order was aimed at digging in on the occupants of the benches in the nation’s judicial system.
The Guide recalls that three High Court judges and an Army Officer were brutally murdered by persons within the PNDC in 1982 and judges in the country, since then, have been criticized for some biased or politically motivated judgements that have been handed down.
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J.J. Rawlings can’t decide for himself – NPP
Interior Minister frowns on ACDR in Army, Police
The Evening News says the NPP has stated that resettling the former President is not the business of the ex-President and his opposition NDC party but a constitutional obligation, which the new administration must fulfil.
It has therefore advised the NDC to stop issuing statements on the matter talking about the ex-president’s wishes.
Speaking to the paper during an interview in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Dan Botwe, General Secretary of the party, said the Kufuor’s government would not waste its time on unnecessary and unfruitful issues, which cannot improve the living conditions of Ghanaians through whom it captured power from the NDC.
Mr Botwe said, when the NDC was in power, it could not liberate Ghanaians from their impoverished status and now that the NPP was underlining the major problems and how to address them, they are unnecessarily making comments about the ex-President’s settlement.
He said ex-President Rawlings’ request to stay where his wife currently resides should not be considered serious adding, “this contravenes the constitution from sheltering the president. When his tenure of office “expires.”
Mr Dan Botwe asked Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings to stop circulating information on her supposed ownership of the Ridge House where the ex-President is currently staying. “That house is for the state and there is no way she can claim ownership of the house since there is no evidence of her acquisition of the house,” he said.
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Interior Minister frowns on ACDR in Army, Police
The government is reported by the Evening News in another story as saying that it will not encourage the continued existence of the Association of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDR) in the Armed Forces of the country.
“The constitution allows for freedom of association but it is the existence of the ACDRs in the police and Armed Forces which is unacceptable and incongruous,” Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu, Minister of the interior expressed these sentiments at a news conference organized in Accra on Tuesday to address current security issues in the country.
He warned that the government will not tolerate any acts of lawlessness on the part of any organization including the ACDRs, stating however, that any group that acts within the law will be free to exercise its right to freedom of association.
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ET’s secretary destroys files
Two secretaries at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, including the secretary of the former Minister, according to the Ghanaian Chronicle, are being investigated for their alleged role in the destruction of several files at the Ministry.
The paper says it learnt on Monday that query notes have been fired to Ms Theresa Ayittey, at the ex-Minister’s office, and another colleague by their superiors who are presently at sea as to deciphering the motive behind their action.
“Most of the files which contain several sensitive documents were deleted from the Ministry’s computer pool before the inauguration of President Kufuor three weeks ago without any authorisation from their superiors.”
Theresa described her action in her query as a routine procedure, which she explained was necessary in order to create more space on the memory component of the computer, the hard drive.
Well-placed sources in the Ministry confirmed the story but stressed that meticulous investigations were being conducted to get to the roots of the case.
According to the source, the Ministry had not as yet come up with proof of any untoward act since it had not as yet checked which documents have been deleted.
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Divestiture of Mim timber, GIHOC stopped
The Dispatch says it can confirm that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of President John Agyekum Kufuor, has stopped the divestiture of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, Mim-Timber Company Limited (MTCL) and the uncompleted State Hotels Training School.
Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings was reported in the January 26 - February 1, 2001 issue to have just before the January 7 handover authorised the divestiture of the said state-owned entities.
GIHOC had been sold to a British company, Grandexport Limited, at 4.5 billion cedis for 65 per cent of the equity. Scanstyle Mim Limited (SML) bought MTCL for $4 million, plus $300,000 and 300 million cedis granted to MTCL as financial assistance.
The Africa Institute of Journalism and Communications (AIJC) won the bid for the uncompleted State Hotels Training School for 1.1 billion cedis.
Among the first tasks of the acting Executive Secretary of the Divestiture implementation Committee (DIC), Mr Benson Poku-Adjei, is as per the directives of President Kufuor, to refund all monies paid by the companies that won the bid.
As at Monday, the SML had paid the required 10 per cent of the combined purchase consideration, a non-refundable commitment fee.
The SML is also reported to have paid the second instalment (with a February 15, 2001 deadline) of 40 per cent of the combined purchase consideration. SML’s total amount to be refunded is about $2.17 million.
Grandexport Limited is reported to have paid Four Hundred and Fifty Million Cedis, being 10 per cent of the purchase consideration of 4.5 billion cedis.
The paper’s sources could not however indicate how much the AIJC had paid for the Training School.
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Castle had too many friends
The Free Press quotes a serving officer in the police as saying that the problem the service faced in the effective dispensation of its duties was due to the fact that the Castle in the past had too many friends hence the countless number of orders that was given them in the name of the high office of the Executive.
The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the paper that so many suspected criminals had their way off the police grips because telephone calls and high-powered visits from some top-ranking police officers caused their release after committing all sorts of crime against the state.
“Everyday, we arrest people for all sorts of criminal acts against the state and its internal security but some of them, we are ordered, b our superiors to release because the Castle say so,” the officer said.
He cited as an example the case of one Karim, an engineer of the Piccadily Biscuit Factory who persistently assaulted his wife and house-helps but subsequent arrests by the police were blocked by orders from the Castle.
The officer noted that the saddest thing about such orders is that they are unchallenged even by the highest superiors of the Police Service “because no one wants to go hungry” suggesting that even the senior police officers were hesitant in carrying out the orders, yet they had to.
“My brother, now I can talk, sometimes you will be at home late at night, then one of your Commissioner’s would ask you to go and release the man in your custody,” he said.
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