Presidential jet is for sale
SSNIT’s 50bn Cedis support for Wahome queried
We’re for peace, stability – Foreign Minister assures envoys
Sale of cars to ex-NDC Ministers-court case takes new turn
HIV to infect 1.4 million Ghanaians
Boakye Djan clears the air
Dismissing 100 to create 100 jobs…The Kufuor way
No houses for MPs
E.T Mensah’s Wife’s deals exposed
Presidential jet is for sale
The government has set in motion a procedure to sell off the Presidential plane leased by the former government in fulfilment of the NPP’s electioneering campaign last year, reports The Ghanaian Times.
The Minister of State in charge of Media Relations, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, disclosing this on Monday on a Joy FM discussion programme, monitored in Accra, said; “what needs to be done to sell off the aircraft is being done”.
She explained that the President had to use the chartered plane because he had to travel and having made his intention to sell the aircraft leased purchased by the former government, there was no way he was going to use it.
Ms Ohene was answering questions on why the Ghanaian taxpayer was burdened to pay 10,000 dollars for the chartered flight, which took President Kufuor to Lome, while the same taxpayer was paying four million dollars per month, for the aircraft. Both the new aircraft and the old one, which were said to be short haul, are not being utilized.
Asked why the President did not use the old Presidential jet for his Lome trip, the Minister who earlier said she did not know how much the chartered flight cost the tax payer, recalled having read somewhere that the short haul plane was not sky-worthy, hence the inability of the President to use it.
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SSNIT’s 50bn Cedis support for Wahome queried
Mr Komla Dumor of Joy FM on Tuesday questioned the rationale behind the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) using over 50 billion cedis of workers’ contributions to restructure a private company, Wahome Steel Company, at Tema.
According to a Times story, the investment has not yielded any appreciable returns since 1997.
But the SSNIT legal team countered this position and said that the Trust did not give out cash, but rather guaranteed Letters of Credit (LC), opened with the Standard Chartered Bank for Wahome Steel.
It was revealed that SSNIT as majority shareholder with 41 per cent in Wahome, thought it prudent to assist the company to recapitalize with the hindsight to recover what the Trust had invested.
These came out in Accra on Monday at the third sitting of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) probing allegations of malpractices levelled against SSNIT.
Mr Dumor in his testimony described the investment decision as ‘poor’ leading to the loss of contributors’ fund.
Mr Ernest Thompson of the SSNIT legal team, said Wahome found itself in that situation of high leverage because for years between 1993 to 1997, the company was virtually under the control of Chinese and Taiwanese investors.
The totality of SSNIT’s involvement in Wahome was to convert from debt position to equity, which was more beneficial and would safeguard its shareholdings.
“Nothing was done in bad faith”, Mr Thompason added.
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We’re for peace, stability – Foreign Minister assures envoys
The Daily Graphic quotes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hackman Owusu Agyeman, as expressing the commitment of the government to ensure lasting peace and stability in the sub-region by contributing troops to war-torn countries.
He said the disturbances in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are of concern to the government because they threaten the peace and stability of neighbouring countries, a development which easily kills investor confidence in the region.
Mr Owusu Agyeman intimated that ensuring peace in the sub-region forms part of the foreign policy of the new administration and will be vigorously pursued to boost investor confidence in Ghana and the region as a whole.
Speaking at a meeting with the Swiss Foreign Minister, Professor Joseph Deiss, at his office in Accra on Monday he disclosed that the government is in close contact with Nigeria to see how best peace can be restored to the affected countries to help stabilise the region.
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Sale of cars to ex-NDC Ministers-court case takes new turn
The Statesman says Mrs Justice Georgina Wood of the Court of Appeal in Accra has asked four ex-NDC Ministers to explore an out of court settlement of a case in which they are challenging a presidential order on the controversial purchase of official cars.
Four NDC Ministers on their own behalf and for 15 others are seeking an injunction over the car sale issue and Justice Wood is sitting on the case as an alternate High Court Judge.
The four former officials-Mike Gizo, former Minister of Tourism, Martin Amidu, former Deputy Attorney-General, Kwamena Ahwoi, former Minister of Regional Integration and Mike Hammah, former Deputy Minister of Roads and Transports and 15 others are seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the government from interfering with their “quiet possession and enjoyment of their respective vehicles”.
President Kufuor had on Friday, January 26 ordered the ex-NDC Ministers and other political appointees to pay within one week the difference between the money they had earlier paid and the official valuation, or return the cars.
They said the President’s directives interfered with their fundamental rights to their lawfully acquired property.
The ex-Ministers said the President’s order was unlawful because they had a contractual agreement with the state to buy the official cars, which they had used at concessionary prices.
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HIV to infect 1.4 million Ghanaians
Medical prediction, according to the Independent, has it that about 1.4 million Ghanaians will be affected with the deadly HIV/AIDS virus by the year 2014 if concrete measures are not taken to halt rapid spread among the adult population.
The figure would be an astronomical rise from the current forty-two thousand known infected populace who are mostly adults.
The frightening disclosure was made by a medical superintendent at the St. Michael Catholic Hospital at Pramso near Kumasi Dr Joe Bonney, on the occasion of the 9th World Day of the Sick initiated by head of the Catholic Empire Pope John Paul II.
Dr Bonney said from a relatively unknown disease two decades ago HIV/AIDS has turned out into a steady pandemic striking silently and spreading rapidly through sex.
He disclosed that his outfit over the past eight years has recorded about 906 HIV/AIDS cases with the figure expected to rise if nothing is done about the menace.
“There is therefore a big challenge for all of us to put in interventions to control this pandemic before it gets out of control”, Dr Bonney added.
Commenting on the theme of the occasion which was “The Catholic Church and HIV/AIDS in Ghana,” he said the fight against the worst form of disease to hit mankind should not be left to the health sector alone and called on politicians, traditional rulers and district assemblies to get involved in the campaign to eradicate or minimise its spread.
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Boakye Djan clears the air
Major Kojo Boakye Djan (rtd), the Second in Command (2IC) and Official Spokesman during the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), currently in political exile in London, has unequivocally stated that he has no personal problem with General Joshua Hamidu (rtd) one time Chief of Defence Staff.
Boakye Djan, in a story carried by the Crusading Guide said also that in the same vein, he has made it clear that he has nothing to gain for discrediting Hon J.H. Mensah, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Government Business.
Making these disclosures in an interview with the paper, he described as rubbish information circulating in the security circles that he was busy digging and supplying materials to be used to discredit key members of the NPP, particularly Gen (rtd) Hamidu and J.H. Mensah.
The retired Major, who doubled as the AFRC member responsible for National Affairs and Government machinery underscored, “The problem I have with the General is one of policy and nothing personal”.
Touching on his alleged plot against Hon J.H. Mensah, the former 2IC said J.H. Mensah is not only a key member of this administration which hail from my own region but had collaborated with him closely in exile to work to see off the PNDC/NDC era. “More important, I personally led the policy in AFRC chambers to reverse political disqualifications imposed on him and many other civilian politicians by the two previous illegal military regimes we were called upon to examine”.
He said today J.H. Mensah is the chief beneficiary of that personal policy crusade. “What is to be gained by me for discrediting him now?, Major Boakye Djan wondered.
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Dismissing 100 to create 100 jobs…The Kufuor way
Political observers, according to the Ghana Palaver, have expressed surprise at the way President J.A. Kufuor is removing top officials, perceived not to be members or supporters of the NPP from office under his “all inclusive” Government.
The action, the observers pointed out, is completely contrary to what prevailed under the NDC Government, which embraced even well-known NPP members into its fold.
They cited the appointment of Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, an NPP member who in 1992, intended contesting a parliamentary seat on behalf of the NPP until it pulled out of the elections, but who the NDC appointed as Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
Also mentioned are Mr Kan Dapaah of the Electricity Company of Ghana and Prof. Akumfi Ameyaw of the Ghana Education Service, who in 1992 left their positions to contest parliamentary elections for NPP but were reinstated.
“The NDC Government, by looking at quality rather than party affiliation in running the country, could lay better claims for a nationalist approach to issues, far more than Kufuor’s NPP, whose one-month rule appears to be more concerned with dividing the country into those “for” and “against” in its administration,” it said.
Palaver says judging from developments since last January 7, many wonder whether Kufuor’s promise for jobs for all, in practice, means embarking upon another “Apollo” exercise, by removing some perceived pro-NDC officials and replacing them with party faithfuls.
It said observers believe the promise to create 100 top jobs within 100 days, actually means sacking 100 men in high positions and replacing them with 100 faithfuls, including those waiting in the wings, outside.
Fear have been expressed in certain quarters that ultimately Kufuor’s targeted “Apollo” victims, may exceed the 568 record set by his predecessors in 1969.
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No houses for MPs
The government is going to spend billions of cedis on the provision of private accommodation for the Members of Parliament of the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic, says the Guide.
It said information reaching it indicates that MPs have been asked to look for flats and inform Parliament to rent those flats for them.
It said even though no ceiling has been placed on the rent, the policy is going to cost the nation billions of cedis each year.
An MP who wanted to remain anonymous said, “this is really going to cost Parliament so much, because landlords in Accra will take nothing less than five years in rent advance before we move into their apartments.”
Asked why that order, the MP said they were told it is expensive living in a hotel and therefore Parliament prefers renting flats for them.
He said he does not know whether the previous MPs are not vacating their flats at Sakumono, near Accra.
When the Guide contacted Rexford Owusu-Ansah, the Clerk of Parliament he confirmed the order and indicated that the decision has been taken because the cost of accommodating MPs in Hotels is so high.
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E.T Mensah’s Wife’s deals exposed
The Chronicle said that months after a Presidential probe was established to investigate acts of malfeasance and conflicts of interest in the award of Accra and Kumasi stadium contracts (Abon Woha probes), the Sports Ministry has been rocked by another scandal resulting in the loss of revenue to the state.
Investigations by the paper revealed that relatives and close buddies of some highly placed individuals connected to the Ministry including the wife of Mr E.T. Mensah, the former Minister, have benefited from several contracts awarded during his term.
One company, which has gained immensely in the scheme of things, is a certain Chief Aryee Enterprise, owned by the ex-minister’s wife.
During her husband’s nearly eight-year stranglehold of power, Chief Aryee Enterprise won virtually every contract with respect to the provision of kits for Ghanaian athletes, especially for foreign trips like Olympics, all-Africa Games etc.
It also supplied plastic chairs for the National Sports Council, (NSC), the National Youth Council, (NYC) and the other associations under the Ministry and provided catering services for some of the national teams.
During the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2000) she received the nod to supply and sew all the costumes worn by Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Ghanaian officials, including the official CAN 2000 special cloth.
Members of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) who were detailed to handle security for the games together with several hundred officials of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) also wore clothes supplied by Chief Aryee.
She won the contract of supplying kits to sports men and women who went to Sydney Olympic Games, supplying 80 Blue and Dark Green Blazers worn by the contingent at a whopping 155 million cedis.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports in a response to a Chronicle request, confirmed the story.
The Tagoe Committee had been set up by the former NDC government following public uproar over the award of contract for the rehabilitation works on the Accra and Kumasi stadiums.
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