15 more nominations out
Suspend payment of benefits – to ex-government officials –UGM
Nanfuri replaced
41 cops to face trial
GNPC, BOST kill Ghana – they leave huge debt
Parliament to spend ¢1.3 billion
Return the cars - angry Ghanaians cry out
Kufuor in more diplomatic blunders
NDC sanctions cars loot
Is Dan Botwe lost in action?
Students to go on Demo - they accuse their VC of ignoring their plight
Ghana Insurance Market to hit US$3000m Gross income in 2010
15 more nominations out
The Daily Graphic reports the nomination of 15 more Ministers on Monday for consideration by Parliament as Ministers of State.
A statement issued from the Office of the President, named Mr J.H. Mensah, MP for Sunyani East and Majority Leader as the Minister of Government Business and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission; Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Chief of Staff as Minister of Presidential Affairs; Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, Minister for Manpower Development and Employment.
Others include Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, MP for Afigya Sekyere West as Minister-designate for Energy, Mr Kwamena Bartels, MP for Ablekuma North as Minister-designate for Works and Housing, Mr K. Owusu Agyapong, MP for Akyem Swedru, Minister designate for Communications, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Director-General of the Ghana Education service (GES), Minister designate for Education, Dr R.W. Anane, MP for Bantama, Minister designate for Health, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, MP for Sunyani West, Minister-designate for Roads and Transport and Dr Kwesi Nduom, financial consultant as Minister-designate for Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation.
The rest are Mallam Ali Yusif Issah, Vice Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Minister-designate for Youth and Sports, Madam Hawa Yakubu, MP for Bawku Central; Minister-designate for Tourism, Mr C.O. Nyanor, MP for Upper Denkyira as Minister of State, Presidency (Private Sector Development), Ms Christine Churcher, MP for Cape Coast, Minister of State at the Ministry of Education (Primary, Secondary and Girl-Child), Mr Ishmael Ashitey, MP for Tema East, Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture (Fisheries) and Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State, Presidency Imedia Relations).
The President had earlier made 12 nominations for Parliament's consideration, bringing to 27 the total number of nominations so far made by President Kufuor, the paper said.
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Suspend payment of benefits – to ex-government officials –UGM
A front-page capture of the Graphic says the United Ghana Movement (UGM) has called for immediate suspension of all actions on the payment of end-of-service benefits to officials of the ex-government.
The UGM also called on President J.A. Kufuor to order the return of all public vehicles, which have been sold and re-registered in the names of former ministers and senior public officials.
A statement signed by Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, leader of the party said, “notwithstanding the recommendations of the Greenstreet Report, and with the singular exception of the former President, there appears to be no legal basis for the institution of the end-of-service benefits to retiring public officials”.
It contended that despite the fact that the Greenstreet Report was long in gestation and went through at least two reviews, its recommendations were never laid before Parliament for debate to give full constitutional and legal backing to the final decision.
“In a democracy with a written Constitution such as what exists in Ghana, there is absolutely nothing like ‘established convention’ to be used as the basis for justifying the clearly self-serving actions taken by the outgoing fovernment,” it said
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Nanfuri replaced
A front-page capture of The Ghanaian Times says the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Peter Nanfuri, has proceeded on leave with effect from January 22.
In his place, the President, Mr. J.A. Kufuor has appointed Mr Ernest Owusu-Poku, Director of Passports, to act. A release signed by Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of Media affairs designate said Mr Owusu-Poku, who has been a Commissioner of Police since 1987, is the most senior officer in the Police Service.
In another development Mr D.K. Osei, acting Ambassador to Denmark, has been appointed as Secretary to the President.
Mr Osei, who has been temporarily seconded from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is a career diplomat.
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41 cops to face trial
The Central Disciplinary Board of the Police Service has set up a three-member panel to try 41 policemen in the Ashanti Region for allegedly misconducting themselves while on operational duties at Wa in the Upper West Regiion last July, reports the Times.
The cops – five Inspectors, a District Sergeant, 14 Corporals and 14 Constables – were said to have misconducted themselves by forcibly entering the Office of the Regional Commander, Mr F.K. Agyemang, to demand ration. Dependable police sources told The Times on Monday that the affected policemen had started submitting their statements to the enquiry panel chaired by Superintendent Charles Brew, Commander of the Police Training School in Kumasi.
The policemen were dispatched to Wa last July 30, to assist their local colleagues and those from the Brong-Ahafo and Northern Regions to maintain peace in the wake of the Wa chieftaincy dispute.
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GNPC, BOST kill Ghana – they leave huge debt
Whatever fiscal policy plans that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had in mind before assuming the reins of government need to be reviewed. This is because President Kufour’s government is currently faced with a herculian task of dealing with the country’s external debt, says the Evening News.
The external debt position, which had for a long time not been disclosed to Ghanaians by the previous government and shrouded in secrecy, paints a gloomy picture of the economy.
With inflation at its peak in the history of the nation, it has been disclosed that the country’s external debt stands at six billion US dollars.
This mind-boggling figure was disclosed by Dr Kwesi Nduom an economic consultant and member of the Transitional Team.
Giving the breakdown of the debt, he said three billion dollars was borrowed from the World Bank while the remaining came from some developed countries.
Dr Nduom told a durbar organized by students of the Opoku Ware Hall of the University College of Education Winneba (Kumasi Campus) at the weekend that “Before the accounting exercise is over the nation’s debt will hit over ¢10 trillion” he said.
Dr Nduom attributed the huge debt to improper planning by the past government and mismanagement on the part of officials of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company (BOST) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) headed by Mr Tsatsu Tsikata.
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Parliament to spend ¢1.3 billion
The Independent reports that after the shameful and greedy manner in which former ministers of state and other functionaries acquired vehicles at give-away prices, the nation is being asked to pay for yet another round of extravaganza.
Investigations conducted by the paper confirmed by parliamentary sources indicate that the nation shall be spending about 1.3 billion cedis on accommodating 51 members of parliament for the next four months. According to the sources the nation is paying about $30 a day on each of the 51 MPs currently living in two hotels in Tesano and Abeka.
Although the nation has flats designated for each of the constituencies, present occupants who lost their seats have up to March to relinquish their flats.
Consequently, the 51 MPs from all the parties who hail outside Accra have been given the temporary hotel arrangement.
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Return the cars - angry Ghanaians cry out
Several Ghanaians, some describing themselves as NDC supporters are reported by 'The Guide' to have furiously called on the ex-Ministers and their agents to hand back the vehicles which they took at prices well below the market value and collect their monies back.
Reports indicate that four of the vehicles have so far been returned to the Chief of Staff, including the 2000 Mercedes Benz bought at ¢25 million bought by the Chief Executive of the Divestiture Implementation Committee, Emmanuel Agbodo.
Meanwhile, an economic consultant and leading member of the Convention People's Party, Dr Kwesi Nduom has added his voice to the growing concern over settlement of government officials who leave office.
He has stated categorically that the principle where people work for the government and expect to be compensated at the end of their term of office must be done away with because it is not even done in advanced countries.
The economic consultant who was speaking on Joy FM, an Accra private radio station, disagreed with any principle of settlement for public officials adding that the number of years that public officials work should be calculated and given to them accordingly.
He blamed the previous government for not instituting conditions of service under which previous public officials including former heads of state should be settled and said if such benefits and ex-gratias had been started and had been sent to Parliament long ago, "we would have settled these issues long ago and all this problems would not have arisen".
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Kufuor in more diplomatic blunders
Top men in diplomatic circles in Accra are surprised at the rate at which President J.A. Kufuor is committing blunders with the Government's official representation at three foreign functions in the name of Ghanaians as a whole … and all within two weeks in office, writes the Ghana Palaver.
The surprise stems from the degree of importance attached to the functions, in an obviously descending instead of ascending order, in assessing the composition of the delegations.
The trips, which have also caused a stir amongst students of politics, are the ones to Togo, Cameroon and the United States.
In the case of Togo the President himself found it expedient to head a delegation to the 34th anniversary of the coup, which brought President Eyadema to power despite President Kufuor's known views against any kind of celebrations, which marked a military take-over in Ghana.
The second was the surprise dispatch of the Vice-President to head a Ghanaian delegation, as observers, at the Francophone-African Summit, which ended in Yaounde, Cameroon, at the weekend. Ghana's unprecedented deep interest in that affair, according to the paper, remains a puzzle.
Sources said it was the composition of the delegation to the inaugural ceremony, marking the assumption of office by George W. Bush as the 43rd President of United States of America, at the weekend, was the most serious blunder of them all.
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NDC sanctions cars loot
It is now clear that the fraudulent act of under-pricing state-owned vehicles for purchase by NDC Ministers and others was deliberately carried out by the former regime, says The Statesman.
According to the paper, sources said the initial valuation of the vehicles by the official valuer, F.K. Allotey put their prices between ¢30 million and ¢70 million. This was based on dollar prices and after depreciation had all been factored into the exercise.
But on being prevailed upon to use the cedi as the basis of valuation, Mr Allotey went over the exercise and arrived at prices ranging between ¢15 million and ¢35 million.
It was after pressure was allegedly mounted on him by the former Chief of Staff, Nana Ato Dadzie, that he lowered the prices to such ridiculous levels of between ¢4 million and ¢15 milion.
Overwhelmed by the give away nature of the vehicles, a free for all party resulted, with NDC appointees of all shapes and sizes swooping like birds of prey, on the vehicles, many of them outside the range authorized for purchase.
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Is Dan Botwe lost in action?
The Ghanaian Democrat says the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Dan Botwe must be in some serious trouble.
After he was reported to have been eliminated from the Kufuor Electioneering Campaign Team as a result of a sharp misunderstanding between Mr. Botwe and his boss, President J.A. Kufuor, a few days before the last elections, the general secretary has not been seen where he should belong since January 7, 2001.
Investigations by the paper revealed that President Kufuor would not allow Mr Botwe to come anywhere near him after the NPP general secretary dared "to tread where even angels feared to" by saying publicly that President Kufuor "is not competent enough to lead the country."
The paper however reports of efforts being made to gag the unpredictable general secretary so that he does not malign the Kufuor administration.
The Democrat gathered that Mr Botwe had been accused of embezzling foreign moneys meant for Kufuor's electioneering campaign and that the general secretary had retorted that he used the funds to renovate the party's headquarters.
Mr Botwe according to our sources may remain the general secretary of the NPP but would not be allowed to get near the corridors of Presidential power.
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Students to go on Demo - they accuse their VC of ignoring their plight
The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the External Degree Center (Workers College) have stated that they would resort to demonstration as a result of the total neglect of their plight by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ivan Addae Mensah.
In an interview with 'The Crusading Guide', the students, who for the past two years have been urging the authorities of the University of Ghana to reconsider their decision of forcing students of the Centre to pursue their 4 year undergraduate courses on their Campus (Workers College) which lacks facilities, accused the Vice Chancellor (VC) of giving them a "raw deal".
The SRC President Samuel K. Andoh submitted that the VC on a Radio Univers current affairs programme sought to create the impression that students of the Centre were being favoured.
"The VC said that they had helped us, that meant that under normal circumstances, we wouldn't have had admissions. There are some of us here who have equally good grades like 7,8,9,10 etc like the students in the mainstream of the University of Ghana. Now if you are telling us that you are favouring us, are you telling us we are unqualified?
His comments were very unfortunate because we are all students on the basis of merit and not favour", the SRC president fumed.
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Ghana Insurance Market to hit US$3000m Gross income in 2010
The High Street Journal (HSJ) said there are strong indications that the Ghana Insurance Market may hit a gross income target of US$300 by the end of 2010 according to a business plan released last week by the National Insurance Commission (NIC).
In the business plan, the NIC will be expecting the targets for the growth to move as follows: Minimum real growth rate of 25% per annum for the period 2000-2003, 20% from 2004-2007 and 15% from 2008-2010.
The plan also indicates that if these percentages are achieved, gross income of the market will reach a cedi equivalent of at least US$100m by the end of the first period of growth in 2003, while it will double to US$200 million in 2007 and further increase to US$300 million by 2010.
However, the business plan states that to achieve these set targets, all new applicants for registration as insurance companies will be required to have a minimum capitalisation level of the cedi equivalent of US$1 million.
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