Prempeh students go on rampage
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 - A
Forensic audit is to be carried out into the operations of Ghana Airways to
enable the government have an informed decision about what to do with the troubled
airline, Finance Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has said in Accra.
Reacting to a question at a meeting with a
section of the news media about the budget he presented to the 200-member
Parliament last Thursday, he said when the audit is completed and studied, it
would serve as a guide to help the government to take a decision on the
beleaguered national carrier.
He made it plain that “the government cannot
throw the tax payer’s money into the drain, especially when some transactions
appear to be questionable.” Ghana Airways is engulfed in a financial crisis
with an overhang debt of $150m. Such is the debt for which the company has
pledged all its revenue and encumbered its assets. Creditors and suppliers are
mounting pressure on the airline.
Ten days ago, it took the intervention of the
government to release the company’s US bound aircraft because Ghanair owed a
Dakar-based firm about 300 million CFA francs.
The minister stressed that the national purse
must be used wisely and effectively and “it will be absurd to dissipate the
scarce resources on commitment which we do not understand.”
On the divestiture of the Ambassador Hotel, the
minister said the issue has not been resolved yet, but the documents on the
project are in safe hands and it would not go for a pittance. It is not his
problem whether some people have bought it twice or not.
On Ghana Commercial bank, the minister said the
government is looking for a buyer who would retain all the 134 networks in the
country. The minister explained that the decision to subside the utility
companies is to enable them to remove the existing inefficiencies because water
and power are critical to the economy.
He was quick to add that, “the companies are
aware that we cannot use revenue to cover losses.” For the first time, a
provision of ¢353.6 billion has been earmarked for the operations of the
utility companies – Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company.
The amount is meant to cushion consumers and ensure the smooth transition of
the proposed increases in utility tariffs. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 -
Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, through the President, is asking all sector
ministers to submit time-bound action plans on how to achieve set targets and
objectives in this year’s Budget.
Such plans will also ensure an effective and
dependable Mid-Year Review, which the minister says has become a permanent
feature the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The minister, who was shedding light on some
aspects of last Thursday’s budget at a meeting with a section of the news
media, said such action plans are part of any sound management practice and
must be pursued to the letter.
In addition, he said the small and medium scale
enterprises (SMEs) will be put on high pedestal to enable it to play a
significant role in shaping the economy. The minister has made it a policy that
bills that never went through procurement procedures will not be passed for
payment.
He referred to the new banking law, which
stipulates that government’s borrowing from the central bank should not exceed
10 per cent and said it will help to ensure fiscal discipline. “I wish I could
do it at 7 per cent,” said the minister.
On services, he said the sector did well last
year and expressed the hope that with the celebration of the 300 years of
Dutch-Elmina relationship, there will be more opportunities to boost the
sector.
He indicted that ¢26 billion has been earmarked
for the women ‘s ministry and it is anticipated that the ministry will help the
women especially the disadvantaged ones, to lift themselves from abject
poverty.
On his part, the Information and Presidential
Affairs Minister, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, said the government will vigorously
market Ghana outside the country to achieve the desired effect. – Daily
Graphic.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 - Barely twenty-four hours after his choking
experience in Parliament, Finance Minister Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo bounced back
with an expression of sympathy for the former Deputy Minister of Finance, Hon.
Moses Asaga.
Osafo-Maafo said he would not blame Asaga for
saying that the 2002 Budget Statement presented to Parliament on Thursday lacks
focus, even though he expressed surprise at the comment.
The Minister pushed over Asaga’s comment last
Friday at a post-budget encounter with journalists, reckoning that he did not
get a copy of the Budget Statement on time, like every other Member of
Parliament (MP), but was quite surprised over the comment because, according to
him, the budget did focus on agriculture.
“I did not blame him because he did not have a
copy of the Budget on time, no MP had access to the Budget on time. And “I was
quite surprised about that comment because the budget did focus on
agriculture”, Hon. Osafo-Maafo said adding, “I will forgive him because maybe
he hadn’t had time to read it… But if after reading it, I want to see him repeat
it. He will be shown figures that he had defied.”
Hon. Asaga, who is also the MP for Nabdam and
Minority Spokesperson on Finance, was reported to have said that the Budget
Statement lacks focus, arguing that the economy could have performed better in
view of the reasonable prices for cocoa, gold and crude oil on the
international market.
Four percent growth, he argued, is not
encouraging against the background of these favourable trends. A growth of
between 7-8 percent, he proposed, would have been ideal under these conditions.
But Hon. Osafo-Maafo maintained that the
112-page Economic Policy and Budget Statement, which he himself could not even
read in full, had indeed redirected focus and made a choice.
Hear him, “If you look at the allocation of resources,
I brought some tables inside the budget, which is not normal, at page 70 of the
budget; you didn’t find this in any budget in the past. I tried to compare the
allocation of resources with the previous year to enable you know my emphasis
and if you look at another table which I will refer to, you will see that from
page 70, from infrastructure, 17 percent have moved to 18.8 percent. If you
take the social services then you are talking about all the delegations, we
went from 32 percent to 36 percent.”
He continued, “One percent of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) is normally ¢481 billion cedis, so when you are talking about
percentage difference you are talking about big numbers. So this shift is so
significant that anybody who understands this figure cannot say the budget
lacks focus.”
Hon. Osafo-Maafo also pointed out that the
budget did also put emphasis on things that will ensure the alleviation of
poverty in the country. According to him, there are three major areas, which
always ensure the alleviation of poverty even though people may not link it.
Education, he mentioned, is one of the obvious areas, which when you put
emphasis you reduce poverty.
Health and Agriculture, he intimated, are the
rest because, according to him, the last poverty study that was conducted
revealed that food growers are getting poorer and poorer and, therefore, lots
of emphasis has been placed on agriculture. “If anybody can make the nation GDP
to go up higher it is only through agriculture. This the budget has made clear,”
the Minister stated. – The Ghanaian Chronicle
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Accra (Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 - The
People’s National Convention (PNC) has accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of
“using monetary influence and other pressures” to get its candidate in the
impending Bimbila bye-election to defect to contest the poll on the ticket of
the NPP.
Dr Edward Mahama, leader of the PNC, who made
the allegations in an interview, said: “We consider this illegitimate and
clandestine means to lure our candidate, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, to the fold of the
NPP as flagrant abuse of incumbency.”
But the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Dan
Botwe, has denied the allegations, insisting that the candidate is a member of
the NPP. Dr Mahama said the moves pose serious threats to multi-party
democratic dispensation “which we have all embarked upon.”
He used the occasion to shed more light on the
drama surrounding the exit of Mr Nitiwul, who was hitherto picked by the PNC
and supported by two other Nkrumaist parties (Convention People’s Party and
National Reform Party), to contest the Bimbila bye-election slated for March 14,
this year.
The Bimbila parliamentary seat became vacant
following the resignation of Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas (NDC) on February 15. Dr
Chambas relinquished the seat to take up a new appointment as Executive
Secretary of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
According to Dr Mahama, the PNC regarded the
last minute ‘poaching of its candidate as both an attempt to undermine the PNC
as well as secure an unfair advantage in the Bimbila bye-election.
“The fact that the NPP cannot produce a candidate
from its own ranks but has to resort to a variety of underhand tactics to
recruit the person the PNC has publicly outdoored as its candidate, shows
clearly that the NPP has little support in the area and is, therefore, prepared
to use every means to win the bye-election,” Dr Mahama charged.
He said that contacts he made with the General
Secretary of the party Mr Gabriel Pwaman (Scott) and other leading members of
the PNC on the ground at Bimbila revealed that the bid to ‘poach’ Mr Nitiwul
matured last week after he had reportedly held secret meetings with NPP top
functionaries.
The PNC leader confirmed that Mr Nitiwul had
told PNC functionaries on the ground in Bimbila that he was now pitching camp
with the ruling NPP as its candidate for the bye-election. “I am personally
shocked about Mr Nitiwul’s U-turn, mainly because of the zeal with which he
approached me to help him gain the nomination of the PNC to contest the
bye-election.
Reacting to the PNC allegations from Bimbila,
where he has pitched camp for the poll, Mr Dan Botwe, NPP General Secretary
categorically denied that the party has used money or any other influence to
get Mr Nitiwul into its fold.
“Mr Nitiwul, early in January this year, was at
my office in Accra to present himself as one of the active members of our party
in the area who was interested in contesting the bye-election in Bimbila on the
ticket of our party. I subsequently referred the matter to the regional and
constituency executives of the party for their attention,” he said.
Mr Botwe said that when he visited Bimbila
later that month to prepare for the bye-election, he met Mr Nitiwul and other
interested candidates and that they deliberated in accordance with the
Constitution of the party, and it decided to give all party members an equal
chance to contest party nomination.
“When I heard the PNC describe Mr Nitiwul as
its candidate for the Bimbila bye-election, I was very surprised. When I got
back to Bimbila and verified, I got convinced clearly that the PNC did not know
the man they were dealing with, for he had not only been a member of the NPP
since 1992, but had also worked actively for the party in the area ever since,”
he contended.
Mr Botwe wondered how the NPP could turn round
to “buy” or influence its own activist to join the ranks of the party and
charged the PNC of not doing its homework well and of messing up its own
campaign. “We have neither abused any advantage over any party.”
“I wish to advise Dr Mahama and PNC leaders not
to sit in ‘Accra and select its candidate but to come right down to the
battlefield in Bimbila and see things for themselves. They are better advised
to refrain from choosing a candidate whose background and orientations they do
not know or comprehend,” he stressed.
“I wish to serve notice that the NPP is taking
this bye-election seriously. The decision to move the National Headquarters to
camp temporarily at Bimbila is a testimony of our desire to work hard to
capture the seat. Even though we have not as yet selected a candidate I can say
with great optimism, that the NPP will carry the day irrespective of who is
chosen among the list of competent candidates vying for the nomination of the
party,” he stressed.
After persistent probing, he named Mr Nitiwul
and Mr Mohammed Aminu Wumbei as the leading contenders for the nomination of
the NPP as candidate for the March 14 bye-election. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 - While
ex-President Jerry Rawlings preached austerity to a hapless Ghanaian
population, decimated by the worst economic malaise to hit this country since
Don Diogo D’Azambuja sailed to Elmina in 1482 and laid the foundation for the
imbalance of trade with Western partners, at least one key member of the former
Head of State’s Men of Integrity, was acquiring an empire in Europe and
America, at the expense of the Ghanaian tax payer.
Public Agenda can reveal that Augustine Kwame
Addo, a top National Democratic Congress (NDC) member, cited in a number of
fraudulent deals while a Member of the Board of Directors of the Social
Security and National Insurance Trust, has bought properties in the United
Kingdom and Europe running into several billions of cedis in foreign exchange.
One property alone, owned by Kwame Addo in
Wellington, Somerset in the English countryside, is valued at two million
pounds sterling (about ¢20 million). Another in Virginia, United States is
valued at nearly $1.5 million (about ¢10.5 billion). It is located at 9792
Thorn Bush Drive, Fairfax Station Va. 22039. It is registered in the name of
Augustine Kwame Addo and his wife, Begnina A. Addo.
Public Record on the Virginia property held by
the Metropolitan Information Systems Inc, available to Public Agenda, indicate
that the single family detached property measuring 221,163 square feet is on a
5.08-acre land, in what could be described as the richest enclave in the United
States.
The two-storey mansion, built in the year 2000,
has 13 rooms. It has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and one half bath. The
property was acquired from Renaissance At Roseland 1 Winchester Homes Inc., with
a transfer of $1,045,273 on July 18, 2000. Earlier on August 3, 1999, the Addos
had made an initial deposit of $179,036.
The Title Deed on the property between
Renaissance At Roseland Inc, a Virginia Corporation as the Grantor and the
Addos, described in the Deed as husband and wife, was prepared on July 18, 2000
by John T. Frey, Clerk at the Fairfax County Circuit Court.
The NDC guru is said to own a chain of
properties in Accra and other parts of the country and the Public Agenda is on
their trail. A former police officer in charge of licensing firearms, Kwame
Addo, who hails from the Volta Region, was plugged from virtual financial
obscurity and put on the Board of SSNIT when the country came out of over one
decade of Culture of Silence into a democratic dispensation, under the same
leadership that ruled this nation with iron hands.
According to evidence available to Public
Agenda, Kwame Addo used his political connections to engage in unfair trade
with SSNIT. The Serious Fraud Office in Accra is investigating a number of
cases of conflict of interest in business deals by SSNIT Board Members with
various SSNIT institutions. One of the main characters under investigating,
Public Agenda can reveal, is Kwame Addo. – Public Agenda.
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Rawlings, Mills reject VVIP
treatment at Airport
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 February 2002 -
Ex-President J.J. Rawlings and his Vice John Evans Atta Mills who have both
suffered at the hands of Joshua Hamidu’s National Security’s harassment have
carried their protest even to courtesies accorded them at the Kotoka
International Airport (KIA).
Unknown to many Ghanaians but known to the
government, the two former heads were due to touch down at the KIA at 10.05 pm
on Sunday February 17, 2002. As the plane touched down, state protocol officers
drove two cars to the gangway of the British Airways flight and waited for them
to descend and board the vehicles.
The two leaders descended the gangway together
and with their minds set on the hullabaloo over certain privileges extended to
the two former leaders of the country, they decided to walk from the gangway to
the VVIP lounge.
One can recall that on one of his foreign trips
JJ’s batman was withdrawn at the last minute, leaving the ex-President to carry
his own luggage to the plane. And when he was also stranded in Canada after the
11th September attack in the US, the Ghana High Commission in Canada
behaved as if it did not exist at all and abandoned him to his fate.
The Ghana High Commission was so indifferent
that it did not know the day he was leaving Canada and he had to pick taxi to
the Airport. And when the former Head of State landed in London he had to join
a queue at the Airport before he boarded a taxi to Victoria in London.
In the case of Prof. Atta Mills, BNI officials
went to his house, took away vehicles that had officially been allocated to him
and told his wife, Mrs Naadu Mills, at the office of the BNI either to walk
home or take a taxi.
When they finally got to the outside of the
VVIP lounge at the Kotoka International Airport the two refused to enter the
lounge, probably because of the controversies, which have arisen over the category
of people who should make use of the VVIP, lounge. The two of them walked to
their waiting cars, which took them to the Airport Shell Petrol Filling Station
where a welcome party was waiting for them. – The Ghanaian Voice.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 25 February 2002 -
Students of Prempeh College, Kumasi, on Saturday night stormed the bungalow of
the Senior House Master, Mr Obeng Odoom, and damaged parts of the building and
his personal property. They also destroyed the school’s notice board and looted
a quantity of soft drinks and food items being sold by his wife.
The reason? Mr Odoom is “too strict” for their
liking. An official of the college told the ‘Times’ on Sunday that “Spirit FM”
a private local Radio station organised a funfair for students of second cycle
schools in the Kumasi metropolis at the Assembly Hall of the college on
Saturday.
After the close of the funfair and subsequent
departure of the visiting students, the ‘Prempeh’ boys went to their dining
hall for supper at about 6.00 pm. Some of the students, after taking their
meals, trooped to the Senior House Master’s bungalow about thirty minutes later
and looted a quantity of soft drinks and food.
At about 9.30 pm a large army of the students
chanting “O square, you are dead today” and armed with stones broke into the
sitting hall and damaged some electronic gadgets, lights and louvre blades. Mr
Odoom was not in at the time of attack, but some of his dependants who were at
home were left unharmed.
When the ‘Times’ visited the college campus
around mid-day, the situation looked very calm with both the tutors and
students going about their normal duties. –The Ghanaian Times.
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