Food and Drugs Board on labelling
of vegetable oils
Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2002- The
Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Tuesday accused the Social Security and National
Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for losing 1.1 billion cedis through the fraudulent
purchase of a house in Accra.
The 2000 Annual Report of the SFO which was
laid before Parliament said in August 1998, the Singer House building in Accra
was advertised for sale by tender, with all encumbrances, by the Divestiture
Implementation Committee (DIC) and the SSNIT put in a bid for 1.5 billion
cedis.
The report said SSNIT had earlier on
commissioned Ben Dwimoh and Co. (chartered Valuer) to assist the Trust in its
bid and the value of the property was put at 1.9 billion cedis.
"Notwithstanding the recommendation from
Ben Dwimoh and Co., SSNIT put in a bid for 1.5 billion cedis and indicated it
would take the property without any encumbrances. SSNIT lost the bid to Mr Mawuli Ababio who also put in a bid for
1.5 billion cedis with all encumbrances".
The report said SSNIT went ahead and began
negotiation with Mawuli Ababio to purchase the property from him for 2.6
billion cedis even though SSNIT was aware that the building had the
encumbrances it had earlier rejected.
It said Mr Mawuli Ababio then requested SSNIT
to make a down payment of 1.6 billion cedis to which SSNIT complied.
"However, the payment to the DIC for the property was effected by the wife
of Mr Augustine Kwame Addo, a member of the Board of Directors of SSNIT.
"It is again on record that when Mr Mawuli
Ababio later sold the property to SSNIT for 2.6 billion cedis, the part payment
of 1.6 billion cedis by SSNIT to Mawuli Ababio was paid into the same account
that belongs to the wife of Kwame Addo".
The report said this act was contrary to SSNIT
law 1991 PNDCL.247 that stipulates that a Board Member must declare his
interest in any contract, which the Trust proposes to make.
It said, "Kwame Addo failed to disclose
his interest. This makes the purchase
of the Singer House by SSNIT from Mawuli Ababio very irregular and a loss of
1.1 billion cedis to SSNIT."
The SFO in a similar vain has recommended that
"the background of all strategic investors in the country especially those
involved in the purchase of divested State Owned Enterprises have to be
investigated to establish the real people behind the purchase of some of the
companies to forestall a situation where abuses and conflict of interest on the
part of the officials charged with the divesture process lead to incalculable
losses to the state." It cited the issue, which the SFO had to stall the
intended sale of the National Investment Bank (NIB).
It said it was significant to note that Messrs
Faith Brothers, which wanted to buy the NIB, was incorporated on March 23, 1999
under the Ghana Companies Code adding, "within a matter of one week after
its incorporation Faith Brothers was able to form companies in the United
States and successfully negotiated with the DIC to purchase NIB".
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2002 - The
State Insurance Company (SIC) of Ghana would soon start a nation wide
restructuring exercise to make the company more efficient and effective.
The exercise, which would begin in two weeks'
time, involves scrapping of some positions, intra-company reposting and
reassigning staff and this would be in three phases.
Professor Isaac M. Ofori, Chairman of the Board
of Directors of SIC, who was speaking at a press conference organised to throw
more light on the exercise, said, "it has nothing to do with
malfeasance." However, he said, should future investigations implicate any
of the affected staffs, the Board would have no option but to allow the law to
take its course.
He said based on the final report submitted in
2000 by Dan Fosu and Associates, the board was currently restructuring the
company to make it leaner, more efficient and effective, more client responsive
and more profitable as a limited liability company.
"Some members of staff will have to be
separated or released from the company while others will be reposted to other
departments." Prof Ofori said the old Executive of the company
commissioned Dan Fosu and Associates in 2000 to review its existing scheme of
service to make it more responsive to current trends in human resource
Management.
He said the Consultant submitted the report in
December of the same year, but the then executive could not implement its
recommendations, probably due to circumstances at the time.
Mr Peter Osei Duah, Managing Director, said
laying-off of staff would be their last resort because they would try to repost
staff to beef up their regional and district offices.
"It is when all these things are put in
place and we are satisfied with the changes before we would lay-off the rest,"
he said. He said about 50 people would be the first group to be affected and
these are mainly senior staff.
Mr Duah said in the case of junior staff, they
would negotiate with the union and agree on a package before a decision was
taken.
He said the Board believed that after the
restructuring, SIC would improve on its customer services and thereby regain
its status among its competitors. The SIC, with a workforce of about 640
throughout the country, did a similar exercise three years ago.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2002-
Professor Bartholomew Armah, Technical Advisor, Ghana Poverty Reduction
Strategy (GPRS) on Tuesday asked Members of Parliament (MPs) to constantly whip
government to spend in line with national goals and aspirations.
"Your monitoring role in governance should
enhance relevant and timeous spending to minimize poverty and achieve
growth." Prof. Armah was leading a round table discussion on the Medium
Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in Accra. Twenty-five members of the Finance,
Local Government and Public Accounts Committees were the other discussants.
The day's activity formed part of a series of
workshops to equip Parliamentarians with the rudimentary knowledge in
interpreting national economic programmes.
It was organised by the Ghana Parliamentary
Committee Support Project (GPCSP), an initiative of the Parliamentary Centre
(Canada) in partnership with the World Bank Institute and Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA).
MTEF, which is a three-year rolling budgeting,
was introduced in 1999 and it primarily seeks to forge effective links between
budgetary planning and resource via a macro framework thus capturing real total
revenue. Prof Armah said:" There was the need to maintain credibility by
ensuring that budgetary ceilings are realistic and that resource flows are
predictable."
He said this would involve co-operation of
donors in respect of the speed at which they disbursed committed funds, greater
transparency in disclosure of both donor and internally generated funds and
improvement in accuracy at the level of macro-economic modelling.
On external shocks that normally threw
projections over board, he said government should set up a contingency fund
exclusively for the purpose of addressing any over-estimation of the resource
envelope.
"To avoid the possibility of a contingency
fund degenerating into a 'slush' fund, there must be explicit rules for its
allocation." Prof. Armah called for a good working relationship between
institutions responsible for the formulation and articulation of national plans
and those charged with budgetary allocations.
"Since Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) view the Ministry of Finance (MOF) as their source of funds,
they are more likely to shift their allegiance to it in the event of a
deterioration in relations between the planning institutions (National
Development Planning Commission) and MOF"
He said: "Ghana's experience with MTEF has
generated important lessons, the key among which is the importance of
harmonizing national goals and objectives and policies of MDAs"
Prof. Armah, however, cautioned that unless the
identified weaknesses in the implementation of the framework were addressed the
implementation of GPRS through the MTEF would suffer.
Mr Sam Kabo, official of MOF, said the next
step of MTEF, which begins in mid-year, would witness key improvements.
He said the monitoring aspect had been
strengthened " and this time we shall go to the MDAs and demand of them
their portion in the planning process.
Dr Abdul_Nashiru Issahaku, Co-ordinator, GPCSP,
said the level of participants and enthusiasm of the MPs was well above
expectation. "We shall be learning a lot about our budgetary systems in
weeks to come and I believe most of the MPs have the requisite experience in
these matters."
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2002- The Food
and Drugs Board (FDB) on Tuesday reminded the public, importers and
manufacturers of vegetable oils that such products, both imported and locally
produced, should bear the plant source of the oil and labelled as such, e.g.
"corn oil, groundnut oil, sunflower oil, soyabean oil."
A statement also reminded importers,
distributors and retailers of vegetable oils that the inscription "No
Cholesterol" or "Cholesterol Free" on vegetable oil labels
issued on April 1st, 2000, was still in force. It, therefore, urged those who
are displaying vegetable oil products with the inscription "No
Cholesterol" to delete the inscription on their products by January 31.
"Manufacturers and importers of vegetable
oils are advised that products, which are in contravention of any regulation on
the labelling, safety and quality of the product will attract regulatory
sanctions" the statement said.
GRi…/
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