Fuel prices to go up
Row over cars is Alibi…but Alidu resigns from NDC in protest
What killed RSM Tetteh?
Kufuor's Balancing act
Kufuor's Ministerial headache
Ghana Airways goofs big
Rawlings' legacy … Kufuor's inheritance ¢58 Trillion!
Asantehene calls for second chamber for chiefs
Fuel prices to go up
The Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has given an indication of a likely increase in the price of petroleum products, reports the tate-owned Daily Graphic.
Speaking to newsmen in Tamale on Sunday in a maiden visit to the Northern Region as Vice-President, he said it is a reality that something has to be done about the price of petroleum products to reduce the huge debt that has been incurred by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
He indicated that the Government is working with the Ministry of Mines and Energy to ensure that so much is not off load to the consumer when the price is increased.
The Vice-President said the previous government should have come out with new prices for petroleum products but because of political expediency it did not do that.
"With the situation on the ground at the moment, it is a reality that something has to be done about it," Alhaji Mahama stressed.
He, therefore, appealed to the people to bear with the new government. "A lot is expected from us but we are pleading that we are given a little time to study the whole situation because things are really very bad," he added.
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Return all items - but ex-KMA boss expresses surprise
The Acting Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Nuamah Donkor, has asked the ex-Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman, to return all government property in his care within 24 hours or face police arrest.
Mr Nuamah Donkor, the former Ashanti Regional Minister and Acting Metro Chief Executive, gave the order after a meeting, the first after the elections, with members of the Assembly in Kumasi on Friday to review its activities and adopt new plans for development.
The Acting Metro Chief Executive asked the Metro Co-ordinating Director to serve Nana Akwasi Agyeman with a letter asking him to return items under his care to the assembly. He said if he failed, the assembly will seek the help of the police.
A five-member committee was instituted to investigate and provide a comprehensive inventory of all properties of the assembly.
The meeting also took a critical look at what has been described as the unfair manner in which stores and stalls were allocated to traders in the metropolis and called for a review of the allocation.
A source close to the assembly alleged that Nana Akwasi Agyeman is still in possession of the keys to his office, a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Volvo saloon car and a Mitsubishi Pick-up, all belonging to the assembly plus other items.
When contacted Nana Agyeman expressed surprise at the allegations and said he has never been approached by the former Regional Minister in connection with the items mentioned, claiming he was entitled to the vehicles on being appointed as a Special Envoy of the ex-President.
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Row over cars is Alibi…but Alidu resigns from NDC in protest
The Ghanaian Times reported that Ex-first Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has said her husband left office without a suitable accommodation because he was committed to developing the living standards of ordinary people, instead of grabbing property for himself.
According to her, some ex-Ministers who, like the ex-President, Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, devoted their time serving the nation did not also have a place to lay their heads after they left office.
Nana Konadu said these on Saturday at New Ningo when she addressed the constituency victory party organized by the Member of Parliament for Ningo/Prampram, Mr E.T. Mensah.
The occasion was her first public appearance at a party function since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the December 28 Presidential run-off.
She said that the new government was only using the issue of vehicles bought by some former Ministers as an alibi to divert attention from very pressing national issues and therefore, urged NDC supporters to remain steadfast because "the truth will prevail even if some people would not accept it."
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What killed RSM Tetteh?
The Public Agenda, writing on the unexplained whereabouts of RSM Andreas Kofi Tetteh, the former aide-de-camp of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings before his reported death, said he first disappeared and re-appeared briefly having visibly lost a lot of weight. A lot of people, it said, kept saying he was very ill and attributed all sorts of reasons for it.
Despite the many rumours, however, no official reaction was forthcoming although the man has been as regular on our TV screens as the former President himself.
So, when his death was announced days after ex-President Jerry Rawlings handed power to the new President, there was feeling of déjà vu, that somehow we saw it coming.
RSM Tetteh, 52, was the aide-de-camp of the former President until about two years ago when he disappeared from public view and on Tuesday, January 15, 2001 there were radio announcements of his death at the 37 Military Hospital.
According to Brigadier Dan Twum, Commanding officer of the hospital RSM Tetteh was admitted on December 28 with a disease condition other than gun wounds or physical assault, in an attempt to dispel the rumours that he was shot or physically assaulted.
"He was not shot. He was not beaten. He had a disease condition and that disease was not from physical assault," Brig. Twum told Public Agenda last Thursday.
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Kufuor's Balancing act
The Ghanaian Chronicle says President Kufuor will, this week, be seeking to answer nagging questions with his choice of Ministers and political appointments.
"The Women's group have made their pitch, but in the shadows, the New Patriotic Party executives at the regional and constituency levels have been shadowing him for positions".
The other political parties that stood by Mr Kufuor's in the December 28th run-off, chiefly the People's National Convention (PNC) which made the most significant showing, are also looking for positions in the Government, with the NDC also set to exploit the talk of an inclusive government.
According to the paper, close sources said Dr. Kwesi Nduom of the CPP, with the chance of picking the Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Integration has just been appointed to the dream position of Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, Africa operations which include South Africa, with a basic $20,000 a month job plus numerous perks.
The Chronicle says if Dr Nduom takes the position of a Minister he stands to lose the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of Chairman of such a renowned global firm for a job that is invariable a thankless one.
The sacrifice, it said, may be too much for Dr Nduom.
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Huge bribes, bogus bonds rule SIC biz
The Chronicle says it's ongoing investigations into the management of the State Insurance Company (SIC) has further uncovered yet more serious fraudulent deals by the management through the Credit Guarantee bonds running into billions of cedis.
Most of the Credit Guarantee Bonds were issued out to people (businessmen) without demanding collateral security, the normal laid-down rules governing credit guarantee transactions all over the world.
The Bonds which were transacted in Dollars range from $1 million to $ 4 million without collateral security. The worse aspect of these deals are that even the premium which also run into hundreds of millions, accrued from most of this transaction which could have cushioned the company's financial base also lined some management pockets.
The paper says it gathered that instead of collaterals, kick-backs were collected by the management staff.
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Kufuor's Ministerial headache
The President, John Agyekum Kufuor is in a tight corner according to the Independent. It said as the anxiety of the populace over the final selection of ministers for the executive arm of government grows, there is mass hysteria within the President's party as people, some trusted aides, push hard the tribal card in the selection process.
As at the close of press time last Friday, President Kufuor has still not named his full team as was hinted by Ms Elizabeth Ohene.
However Independent investigations have revealed that much as choosing from the available pool of talents might in itself constitute a problem to the President, the sudden lull in the nomination process is due mainly to strong agitations amongst party activists who are pushing hard the ethnic card.
The issue, according to party insiders is not about Regional balance, which according to the source, as enshrined in the 1992 has adequately been covered by the President's eleven nominations.
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Ghana Airways goofs big
The Accra Mail reports that the in-flight magazine of Ghana Airways, "Akwaaba", issue 17, has been withdrawn from circulation for carrying an article that presumed Prof. John Evans Atta Mills winning the December Presidential elections.
It said on page 32 of that particular issue is a curious article entitled AN ILLUSTRIOUS SON OF GHANA, an advertisement and a political pamphleteering that was a triumphant paean to what was expected to be the crowning glory of the NDC presidential candidate in the elections.
So sure were the big bosses of Ghana Airways of an NDC victory that they commissioned the article long before the elections.
The article, written by one nana Sekyi II, appearing in "Akwaaba" was arranged to coincide with the declaration of the results which would have seen "Professor John Atta-Mills, Vice president of the Fourth Republic of Ghana" being declared the new President of Ghana.
Ghanaians however, did not put their trust in Professor Mills, first on December 7, 2000 and second on December 28,2000 "to lead them in the ensuing years of this new Millennium." They did that to President J.A. Kufuor, who rightly is entitled to the loyalties of all public officers, the paper said an asked how sure were they at Ghana Airways to have commissioned such an article if they were not part of the NDC rigging machine.
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Rawlings' legacy … Kufuor's inheritance ¢58 Trillion!
The NPP News said state of indebtedness of each Ghanaian young and old, employed and unemployed, currently stands at ¢4 million, the legacy of 19 years of Rawlings rule.
As published last week, the Minister of Finance-designate Hon Yaw Osafo Maafo has put the internal debt at ¢6,000,000,000,000 (six trillion cedis).
Before then Energy expert Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby had revealed the indebtedness of the state owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) at ¢2,000,000,000,000 (two trillion cedis).
Ghana's external debt, which the PNDC inherited at $1 billion, is now in excess of $6 billion. Converted into cedis and added to the internal debt brings the total indebtedness to 58 trillion cedis.
Dividing this by the population of 18 million Ghanaians, boils down to the simple case of each Ghanaian already saddled with a debt of ¢4 million, as it were.
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Asantehene calls for second chamber for chiefs
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, is reported by the Free Press to have advocated a constitutional amendment for a future restructuring that could provide for a second legislative chamber in which chiefs would be adequately represented on a non-partisan basis.
He said chiefs were particularly well-qualified to address issues of communities in their areas of authority. He therefore recommended that appointed members of District Assemblies under article 242 (d) specifically include a fixed number of chiefs.
Otumfuo made these recommendations in his statement at the opening ceremony of the conference on chieftaincy, governance and development at Legon and delivered on his behalf by Nana Dr. Susubribi Krobea Asante, Asokorehene.
He said it would be highly desirable to institute a constitutional convention or promulgate a constitutional amendment, which would unambiguously provide for the effective representation of chiefs in District Assemblies.
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