Cop held
suspect in arms supply to robbers
$100,000
support for DR Congo
NDC has no case - Clerk of Parliament
Investigate background of investors - Dr Joe Abbey
Diplomatic Community unhappy with National Security
Abodakpi & Agbodo to be prosecuted
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo, has given the assurance that ex-President Rawlings’ condition in the make up of the Reconciliation Commission will be easily met and, therefore, he will not have any grounds to refuse to appear before it if he is summoned.
Disclosing this in an interview with The Ghanaian Chronicle, Nana noted that if indeed the former President decided not to appear for other reasons, then the Commission, which, like other fact-finding bodies armed with the power of subpoena, will act accordingly.
“The Commission has the powers to compel people to appear and if they don’t there are other powers that the Commission has, like the power to subpoena…the Commission will act accordingly if the ex-President refuse to appear,” he underscored. The former President, according to Nana Akufo- Addo, is not the one to decide the calibre of people who should be constituted in the commission, saying that; that power is solely arrogated to the President of the Republic.
He rebuffed the claims of an absence of quorum by the minority in the passage of the Reconciliation Act saying no official protest has been lodged in the floor of the House. “We have been back now more than one week; no formal protest have been lodged in the Parliament about the impropriety of the passage,” he pointed out.
He noted that the requisite statutory majority that rules required were met in all the proceedings of the Reconciliation Commission Bill. According to Nana Akufo-Addo anyone who thinks that Parliament had acted illegally can take the matter to court. He however made it emphatic that the majority will contest the matter to its logical conclusion.
“Everyone has the right in Ghana to go to court to complain about whatever he likes. If the matter goes to court, it would be met, we will deal with it in court,” he stressed. In a tacit corroboration of Statesman’s story on Monday on the composition of the Commission, the A-G hinted that professionals such as retired officers, trades union leaders, legal practitioners, religious leaders among others would constitute the Commission.
More…/
The almighty Volta River Authority (VRA) is bursting at the seams from the over bearing force and arbitrary control of its Chief Executive, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby. The reckless use of power and bullying tactics of administration has generated so much tension among the workers of VRA that an explosion is imminent.
First project, Tarzan constructs an executive bathroom at his office, then throws a lavish party with live band in attendance, to mark his 100 days in office. To further elevate himself, Tarzan decamps from his Abelemkpe residence, minus his wife, and relocates at the plush colonial bungalow at Akuse, from where he commutes to work daily.
Flanked by two advisors said to be of questionable origin, Reverend R.O. Ankrah and Mr E.D. Boateng, who are each given the whooping amount of ¢10.5 million as monthly emolument.
To further accentuate his power, the Chief Executive arbitrarily dismantles the Management Information System Department and throws out the staff and the equipment of over 50 computers to make room for the renovation of refitting of the place into a secretariat by the Board.
When the Chronicle visited the VRA Headquarters in Accra on Thursday, hordes of computers and other electronic accessories were seen carelessly in cartons at the staff canteen. Members of the MIS section who were interviewed said they were distraught by the move. Some of them sit under the parking lot throughout the entire working period, doing nothing.
He shouts everybody down and does not listen to anyone,” said an irate worker. “He wants to be seen to be working so he is just dislodging everything he met and trying to replace them with what he hardly understands,” said a senior staff member. They claim he is porous and that “his work experience does not support his current role,” adding that, “he is a bad manager.
Some concerned senior officers, this reporter spoke to were emphatic that Tarzan’s behaviour has generated bad blood between himself and his subordinates, culminating in a culture of silence and malicious obedience…” They appear pretty sure this state of affairs could grind the Authority to a halt soon.
Even Senior Management Officers feel the VRA Chief Executive is not transparent with the contract he is awarding. They claim the contracts for the renovation of the Electrovolta Building and the revamping of the VRA subsidiaries were awarded under suspicious circumstances and called on the government to set up an enquiry into it.
At the end of last year, the workers, sympathizing with the precarious financial state of the Authority, said they decided to sacrifice their back pay resulting from a salary review so as to help the Authority. They are angry because of what they see as Tarzan’s snobbish nature. For example, apart from the MIS Department, he is also said to have dissolved that of Corporate Planning without any consultation or input from the very workers whose lives are involved.
Now he has taken over the Finances and the MIS roles,” said a fuming senior member. The workers contended that an instituted inquiry will serve as an avenue for them to air their concerns and views. In the meantime, the workers, resolved to battle Tarzan, have drawn a 11-point charge sheet to prosecute their Chief Executive before any commission set up to probe the Authority.
Among them are his alleged reign of terror and inconsistency of his direction. They claim that VRA has no justification for calling on the PURC to increase tariffs if the Chief Executive could be so extravagant.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle can reveal on authority that, Tarzan is not only astride of the VRA, but is daggers drawn at any perceived form of opposition to his power. Internal memoranda sighted under rare privilege by this paper confirms that a battle is being fought between Dr Wereko-Brobby and his Directors, especially Human Resource over staff Provident Fund and a meeting that was convened in his absence.
In a fiery memo fired to the Director of Human Resources, the Chief Executive said, “I find it extremely dishonest and improper for a meeting of the Trustees to have been convened on December 4, 2001 when it was UNIVERSAL knowledge that I was away on an official mission abroad.” Breathing fire and threatening brimstone, he added that, “Unless coherent and rational explanation(s) can be given for your conduct and that of the Trustees, I intended to take the following actions:
Resign forthwith as the Trustees-In-Chief of the Staff Provident Fund or establish a committee to conduct further investigations. Interestingly, the memo, which was dated December 20, 2001, was expected to “receive response by the close of work on Tuesday, December 11, 2001.
Sources close to the VRA say a committee of inquiry mostly made up of Accountants is probing the finances of the Staff Provident Fund. There appears to be a consensus that Tarzan’s reign of terror is having a severe toll on the morale of the workers. They are crestfallen because of what they see as a master-servant relationship with the Chief Executive.
When the Chronicle confronted Dr Wereko-Brobby with these accusations, he roared back dramatically and forceful, justifying his action. First he said the process of giving out money from the Provident Fund is not being followed. Because of this, he said ¢1 billion has been lost through fraudulent means.” There are no records,” he said.
Dr Wereko-Brobby said he was concerned because every cedi that the workers contribute, VRA adds 2 cedis. He said he knows all those who are agitating, and that it appears they are people who may be guilty of some wrongdoing. “They should stop what they are doing, I have done nothing against the law,” he warned.
Dr Wereko-Brobby said he is not afraid of his detractors, “it doesn’t bother me…I have the full support of the President.” He wondered why huge sums of money have been given to people supposedly to help them put up houses but have no indenture to show.
On why he has been commuting from Akuse to work in Accra, the VRA boss said he sees nothing wrong with it. “I am not the only person who lives outside Accra and come to work here,” he defended. He said it is not true that he has been bullying the workers, because mostly he does not deal with them. I mostly deal with the Directors, if they say I am bullying them, then that is a different thing,” he said.
Dr Wereko-Brobby said there are three things that he will worry about, and these are:
“I have Board of Directors who supervise management, if they are satisfied then I have no problem,” said the VRA boss. Meanwhile, Dr Wereko-Brobby is waiting for an audit report he ordered to find out the number of people who have benefited from the Staff Provident Fund, what the monies were used for and other issues relating to the entire administration of the Provident Fund.
GRi…/
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Twenty-one
companies and three individuals are indebted to the Divestiture Implementation
Committee (DIC) to the tune of ¢38 billion for various reasons. Eighteen out of
the lot have an outstanding balance of ¢34.1 billion to settle.
Among the
companies are SABAT Motors Ltd, ¢1.7 billion for buying ATS, RT Briscoe
properties in 1996; Nafy Timbers, ¢24.8 million for purchasing GPC House at
Koforidua in 1996; Capital Merchants and Industrial Company, ¢509 million for
purchasing GNTC Accra office and Textiles Division.
The rest
are Phyto-Ryker Pharmaceuticals, $816,132 for purchasing GIHOC Pharmaceuticals
in 1996; Tropical Glass Co Ltd., ¢1 billion for purchasing GIHOC Glass factory
at Aboso in 1999; and GNPA, ¢1.2 billion for buying GNTC assets in 2000.
The
remaining companies, although have defaulted, have peculiar problems to be
resolved before they can continue the payment of their debt.
Such
companies are facing land dispute, and so, they have to settle the land
bottlenecks before they can continue with payment of their balances. A company
like International Generics owes 500,000 dollars for the purchase of La Beach
Complex assets and Star Hotel in 1994 respectively.
Nana
Yeboah-Kodie Asare II, also has a balance of 185,000 dollars to pay to the DIC
as a result of the outright purchase of State Fishing Corporation (General workshop).
The DIC has a herculean problem of retrieving the monies from the sale of
state-owned enterprises and is currently pursuing legal action against some of
the defaulters whose debts are long overdue.
Legal
action is currently pending against PSC Tema Shipyard Ltd for a balance of
$1,270,054 from the purchase of Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation. The rest
include Afrique Link Limited and Nana Yeboah-Kodie Asare II for the same
offence.
Documents
that “That Evening News” has sighted, indicate that Norplam ASA Norway, an
investor, which purchased the assets of the National Oil Palm Ltd., at
$2,960,000 dollars after three years is now requesting for a reduction in the
purchased price due to missing assets and diseases that had affected the trees
prior to the handing over of the assets. In spite of these outstanding issues,
there is a balance of $1,480,000 to be settled.
Another
company, Sun Enterprise, which purchased the assets of State Farms Corporation
at Bunso in 1999, has a balance ¢1.8 billion to settle upon eviction of
tenants. The company was sold to Sun Enterprise at the cost of ¢2.2 billion in
1999.
The
divestiture of State Own Enterprises (SOEs) has been fraught with numerous
allegations including the lack of transparency, conflict of interest and in
some cases fraud.
More…/
The
Minister of Economic and Regional Integration, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom has stated
that it will be unfair for Mr Dan Lartey, Leader of the Great Consolidated
Popular Party (GCPP) to say that the government refused to listen to him.
He said all
the suggestions and inputs made by Mr Lartey on various national issues so far
have been taken in good faith and would be injected into the government’s
programme at the appropriate time.
Dr Nduom said
this in an interview with “The Evening News” in Accra in reaction to the
allegations made by Mr Lartey that the government was not taking his
suggestions though he had invited Dr Nduom and laid bare to him, his programme
to assist the government.
Dr Nduom
said he should not think that he is being ignored or his advice is not being
taken by government. The Minister said during the formulation of the Ghana
Poverty Reduction Strategy, political parties including the GCPP were invited
to participate and make inputs.
He said the
GCPP fully participated and made constructive and meaningful contributions to
the whole strategy. “Mr Lartey therefore, should not say that we did not invite
him or his party to take part in national issues,” he said.
Dr Nduom confirmed
that he responded to Mr Lartey’s call due to his position as leader of a
political party and went to him in his house. He said Mr Lartey discussed with
him wide range of issues confronting the agricultural sector and the need to
effectively mobilize resource to ensure self-sufficiency.
He said Mr
Lartey spoke about how things in the agricultural sector were done during the
late Gen Acheampong’s regime, particularly in the field network programme,
which the GCPP leader still thinks is important for the government to
implement.
Dr Nduom
said Mr Lartey stressed the need for the government to introduce policies that
would increase domestic production to avoid unnecessary importation of food. He
said what he deduced from the discussion that transpired between them, was Mr
Lartey’s genuine desire to continuously express his feelings and make his ideas
known to the government.
The
Minister said he also briefed Mr Lartey about what Major (rtd) Courage Quarshiga,
Minister of Food and Agriculture, was doing to bring almost all the ideas of
the GCPP leader into fruition.
GRi…/
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Cop held
suspect in arms supply to robbers
A Corporal
of the Ghana Police Service, suspected to have given his AK 47 assault rifle to
a gang of armed robbers to carry out their operations in the Agona Swedru area,
has been arrested.
Two of his
accomplices are also helping the police in their investigations into the
alleged armed robbery activities while two others are on the run. The five are
suspected to be actively engaged in armed robbery operations that have rocked
some parts of the Central Region recently.
Deputy
Superintendent of Police, Mr J.K. Ackom, Agona Swedru Divisional Police Crime
Officer, gave the name of the policeman as Corporal Charles Asare Mensah,
stationed at Dawurampong, also in the Central Region. They were arrested after
the taxi on which they were traveling for their nefarious operations was
involved in an accident.
Corporal
Mensah has however, denied the allegations. The police have also retrieved the
AK 47 assault rifle with 53 rounds of ammunition, one locally made piston,
hammers, spanners and knives from the taxi.
The others
arrested are Michael Amoah, 27, from Bubiashie in Accra, and another accomplice
known only as Joe, suspected to be a Nigerian.
With Joe’s
condition said to be critical and hardly able to speak, the two are being kept
under a 24-hour police surveillance at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital.
Amoah sustained bodily injuries, while Joe is nursing a broken arm besides his
multiple injuries.
According
to Mr Ackom, their arrest was effected shortly after their taxi had been
involved in an accident and police personnel who rushed to the scene found the
arms and ammunition as well as the other weapons concealed in the vehicle. He
said the police, acting on an information, traced the two to the hospital,
where it was detected that three others on the vehicle bolted.
Mr Ackom
said Amoah told the police during interrogation that the AK 47 belonged to
Corporal Mensah, who, he said, was a member of the robbery team, an allegation
Corporal Mensah has denied. Acting on this information, a team was dispatched
to Dawurampong to effect the arrest of Corporal Mensah.
According
to Mr Ackom, it was not until 9 pm on Wednesday that the Corporal was traced to
a native doctor’s house, where he was apparently being treated for injuries
sustained during the accident. Corporal Mensah is said to have told the police
soon after his arrest that he only joined the taxi as a passenger as he was
traveling to Agona Swedru to transact some business, a claim the police
dispute, more especially when he was not expected to be in possession of the
rifle at the time.
Mr Ackom
said the suspects claimed they were traveling from Apam Junction (Ankamu) to Swedru,
but on reaching Dawurampong, a policeman in mufti and wielding an AK 47 joined
the cab and offered them the rifle with 53 rounds of ammunition.
However, on
reaching Gomoa Akropong on the Swedru-Ajumako road, the taxi was involved in an
accident and since they sustained serious injuries, they could not see what
happened to the police.
Police
investigations have established that all five occupants of the vehicle were
members of an armed robbery gang, which has been terrorizing and robbing
residents of the region and that the two others at large escaped unhurt and
even assisted in conveying the victims to the hospital before bolting.
Mr Ackon
said police have intensified investigations and already notified the Inspector
General of Police (IGP) about the alleged involvement of Corporal Mensah in the
activities of the gang.
More…/
$100,000
support for DR Congo
Ghana has
donated $100,000 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist
victims of the volcanic eruption at Mount Nyirangogo. This follows an
authorization given by President J.A. Kufuor for the donation to DRC.
A statement
issued in Accra by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and signed on behalf of the
sector Minister by Mr B.G. Godwyll, Chief Director, said the gesture to the
government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Ghana’s contribution to
the ongoing efforts to help assist the victims of the volcanic eruption of
Mount Nyirangogo in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It said the
President’s action is in response to the tragic situation in the country and
has called on the international community to offer humanitarian assistance to
the DRC. The statement said the President has already sent a message of
condolence to President Joseph Kabila, conveying deep sympathies and condolences
of the government and people of Ghana for the tragic losses.
Since
January 17, 2002, the city of Goma, capital of the North Kivu Province of the
DRC, has witnessed tragic volcanic eruptions from Mount Nyirangogo in the
eastern sector of the country. The lava that swept through the town of Goma has
caused great havoc to property and led to loss of lives.
GRi…/
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NDC has no case - Clerk of Parliament
A potentially embarrassing episode for the NPP has been reversed completely, raising serious suspicions about the NDC’s claims of the NPP’s misconduct regarding the National Reconciliation Act, with the Clerk of Parliament insisting that Parliament had more than the necessary quorum to take a vote on the Bill on December 21.
This is in direct contradiction to a Crusading Guide report that Edith Haizel, NDC Member for Evalue Gwira, made a recent request for the Attendance Register but could not be provided by Parliament.
This also appears to vindicate The Statesman’s warning of Tuesday, January 8 that the NDC plans to sabotage the Reconciliation Commission. On Wednesday, The Statesman, in a scoop, revealed the men and women who will sit on the Reconciliation Commission, chaired by retired Supreme Court Judge E.K. Amua Sekyi, with Bishop Charles Palmer-Buckle and Malvi Wahab Adam, among others.
Whiles the groundwork is being put in place by the government to get the Commission working in the next few weeks, the second largest party in the country, the National Democratic Congress, is pugnaciously looking for technicalities to derail the exercise.
The famous words of the German poet, Christian Morgenstern perhaps depicts the actions of the NDC. They were basically “Searching the nothing for something substantial.”
It may be recalled that reports in the Ghanaian Voice of 21-23 January claimed that the attendance register for the date of the Bill’s passage had gone missing. Furthermore, the paper alleged the required quorum for passing a bill was not present at the time of passage, “It puts the credibility of the National Reconciliation Bill seriously in doubt,” then, claimed Minority Whip Edward K. Doe Adjaho.
Just on Thursday the Clerk of Parliament, Kenneth Tachie, though, denied any allegations that the Register has gone missing or that anyone had even come to him in order to find it. “I have not heard about a missing register at all,” he said.
The Minority, for their part, refused to say who had gone to the Clerk in search of the Register. “Go and ask the Clerk if he’ll show it to you,” Adjaho said, when approached.
The register, however, is not a public document, the Clerk said, but only a private record created solely for the purpose of writing the votes and procedures, which acts as the official record of Parliamentary proceedings. Furthermore, the votes and Procedures of that day recorded a vote of 103 Members required for the quorum.
Tachie added that it was also “too late” for any such claims to be brought up. The appropriate time to raise such questions, he said, would have been in the next meeting of Parliament - in this case January 16 of this year - but no one from either side of the House raised any objections to adopting the votes and procedures for December 21 at that time. The Register, therefore, is “irrelevant” at this point because the votes and procedures now stand as the official register of the House.
Majority Leader, Papa Owusu-Ankomah said that the NDC is simply “trying to stir up trouble” for the National Reconciliation Commission. “The Bill has been passed and signed by the President,” he said, “but the Minority will continue to bandy this about in order to undermine the credibility of the reconciliation process. It’s very unfortunate, he added.
GRi…/
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Investigate background of investors - Dr Joe Abbey
The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Dr Joe Aggrey has warned the government against the practice of doing business with foreign investors without knowing the background of such companies.
He said that before the government enter into such partnership, “it is important that we know their balance sheet and how much assets they have, who is on the board and whether the accounts is credible”.
Dr Abbey said these at a just ended national workshop to define the policy directions and strategies for achieving the Golden Age of Business held at Elmina. He was contributing to a discussion on whether foreign businessmen needed to parade the corridors of political power to gain favours. It is also desirable, he added, that the investor’s partners were known.
Earlier Mr Kris Kapour of Continental Goldfield Limited, Dunkwa, who raised the issue complained that he was being frustrated by some people in government who perceived him as pro-NDC.
He said that he had invested about 300 million dollars in a mobile cassava project but some government officials were frustrating the project because they believe he had connections with the previous government.
To this, Dr Abbey blamed Kris for attaching himself to politics. He recalled that during the past years, the country had witnessed similar scenarios in which foreign businessmen had gone “to the powers that be” and promised them ‘heaven’ if they are given favours.
He also recalled the days of Cal Plotner, later to become Construction Pioneers (CP), seem to be close to political power, promising that it could help the government to access funding abroad. That, he explained, could develop problems for such businessmen especially when the parties which they had linked themselves with, were no longer in power.
More…/
The Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU) has paid only ¢6 billion out of the total amount of over ¢16 billion of the Indian loan granted it by the government in 1996 to purchase 200 Tata buses. The Acting General Secretary of the Union, Mr Alando Sidik, disclosed to the “Times” in an interview in Accra on Thursday.
The terms of the agreement elapsed last year. Mr Sidik said that Parliament also in 1999, approved a German loan of ¢1.8 billion to the Union to enable it to acquire 18 Neoplan buses. However, the government decided to repurchase the buses upon their arrival in the country. The amount has since not been credited to the Union’s accounts, he said.
Mr Sidik said that the Union was considering the situation whereby it could use the cost of the 18 Neoplan buses to defray part of the total cost of the Tata buses purchased earlier on. “If that is done, then it would be left with about ¢8.7 billion cedis to pay.
GRi…/
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Diplomatic Community unhappy with National Security
The diplomatic community in Ghana according to our sniffers, has expressed the fears of its members about the continuing deteriorating security situation in the country. Theses fears were expressed by a delegation of the diplomatic community at a meeting with President Kufuor held recently.
The meeting, according to the “sniffres”, took place in Accra at the instance of the resident diplomats. It was not publicised because the Kufuor government felt embarrassed by what the diplomats had to say. They sought assurances that members of the community were safe to go about their lawful business in Ghana. The diplomats also warned that unless the NPP Government improved the security situation, investors would hesitate in coming to Ghana.
The Minister of Interior, Alhaji Malik Yakubu, who was summoned to the meeting to hear the complaints of the diplomats, was said to have enumerated a number of factors, which hamper the NPP Government in its efforts to improve the security situation. He gave a long shopping list of items and equipment required to bring the security situation to an acceptable level.
Members of Parliament, after observing the security arrangement of the House, last Tuesday, expressed concern about the inadequate security arrangements and wondered why even the main gates were normally closed to members.
The Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey in an immediate reaction to the members’ concern asked the leadership of the House to constitute a five-member committee to come out with suitable security arrangements for the House and its environs.
In another development, Alhaji Malik Yakubu, Minister of Interior, told the South African High Commissioner to Ghana during a courtesy call on him that security was one of the main concerns of the NPP government but stopped short of addressing the concerns of the High Commissioner, which is the government’s complacent attitude to security in the country.
Meanwhile, all attempts to get the Minister’s confirmation on the matter, since Monday, proved futile. He was on all occasions, said to be busy, presiding over security meetings. When the Palaver asked for an appointment with the Minister, his secretary asked the paper to do so with the security men at the entrance of the ministry.
GRi…/
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Abodakpi & Agbodo to be prosecuted
Former Trade Minister Dan Abodakpi and his co-National Democratic Congress stalwart, Emmanuel Agbodo, the former Chief Executive of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), are not sitting too pretty. They may be the next line of former officials of the Rawlings administration, to answer for some of their actions in court for causing the nation the loss of about ¢17 billion.
A forensic audit report into the dealings of the DIC, gleaned by Weekend Agenda, has recommended that Agbodo and Abodakpi should be made to refund the sum of ¢2.8 billion and prosecuted for transfer of that sum of money to Goldshield Contact Services Ltd, for no services provided.
That is not the only likely suit hanging on the neck of the former Chief Executive of the DIC. The audit report has also recommended that Agbodo and his associate, S. Sedziafa, Public Relation Officer of DIC and their accomplices, a London-based firm owned by Nigerian journalist, Everest Ekong, should be prosecuted for exceeding payment for the company’s services to the tune of ¢12 billion for advertisement carried by Business in Africa Magazine published by the company.
The authors of the forensic report also recommended that an amount of ¢2.6 billion should be surcharged to Agbodo for the release of excessive sums to the tune of that amount for the Pan African Investment Summit in Accra, without the approval of the Board of the Divestiture Implementation Committee.
The Board Members of the DIC were not left out in the forensic audit report. The audit recommended that Board members at the time should refund seven months (¢120 million) of allowances they received. The report said Board members were paid 12 months sitting allowances though there were only three sittings in the year.
This is not the first time Emmanuel Agbodo and the DIC have been the subject of controversy. On the eve of the transition of January 7, 2001, Agbodo was accused of picking up a brand-new Benz for a pittance as his end-of-service benefit (ESB).
The Ghana Film Industry Corporation (GFIC) was also a casualty of the DIC. There were wide differences between the price tag the new owners put on the property and what the NDC government actually sold the company. Also, the then government refused to consider any offers even if the bidders promised better deals.
Barely a year after the state sold GFIC for $1.3 million, the new owners reportedly repackaged the 14 cinema houses formerly owned by the state and allegedly sold them for $14 million.
The Black Star Line (BSL) was another casualty of the dealings of Agbodo and his DIC. The core assets of the shipping line were sold out piecemeal either by the DIC or in conjunction with BSL management for a pittance leaving questions about the quantum and whereabouts of the proceeds.
“We have been forced to sell the property in bits and pieces which is not the normal way of disposing of properties of companies to be divested,” Thomas Benson Owusu of Pernell Kerr Foster, consultants commissioned to make an inventory of the company’s assets scattered around the world and give a picture of its true position, wrote to the Ministry of Roads and Transport then. Other casualties of the DIC include the Tema Steel Company, Sabat Motors and the Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC).
More…/
Mr Moses Asaga, a former Deputy Finance Minister has dismissed the Kufuor government’s optimism that the country’s fragile economy is stabilised enough for a take off this year.
Asaga, also the Minority spokesman on Finance, in an interview with Public Agenda on Wednesday pointed out that under the present circumstance, Ghana will not see any “appreciable economic growth” in 2002. “Why, when the rest of the world is expecting a economic slide, should Ghana expect to grow?” he questioned.
He also shredded figures presented by the Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Finance Minister as economic gains made in the first year of the current administration.
Asaga’s prognosis comes in the wake of the government’ upbeat-low inflation, interest rates, borrowing rates, and a stabilisation of the Cedi-assessment of its performance in 2001 in several public fora across the country largely through the “People’s Assembly”.
According to government, inflation declined from the end-year 2000 figure of 40.5 percent to 25.6 percent at the end of November 2001. The figure has since come down a couple of notches.
The Cedi also depreciated by only 2.5 percent by the middle of 2001 as against 30.6 percent for the same period in 2000. By end of the government’s first year, interest rates had declined by about half. Against this backdrop, the government anticipates to consolidate the economy for it to take off this year to deliver on all its promises to the electorate.
In response, Asaga concedes that some gains have been made while pointing out that such achievements are not unprecedented. Indeed, between the financial year 1998-9, the NDC government, Asaga claims, made gains, reducing interest rate to as low as 19 percent and inflation rate to 9.8 percent.
“Although some appreciable tasks have been achieved, it simply doesn’t paint the complete economic picture”, further stating that the government has failed to measure up to many of its manifesto promises.
For Asaga, the economy can be divided into three sectors, the macro, real and social. Given the present global climate, for instance whereby external factors have dictated low crude oil prices, Asaga felt that “macroeconomics have been easy to control and manage.” In parallel, he is concerned by the fact that the government has failed to meet its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target of four (4) percent.
In other areas, the government promised 100,000 extra jobs to be created, “but we haven’t seen them yet,” said Asaga searchingly.
On the question of the impact of the HIPC agreement, Asaga restated the minority’s line that the parabolas for success are “quite uncertain.” The Minority still asserts that the government “rushed in to the agreement far too soon”, which acted at the detriment to other donor partners such as the Japanese, who have stalled work on the Accra-Cape Coast road for instance.
Asaga’s major concern stemmed around when Ghanaians would see the benefit of the HIPC. For him, the government set out two dates for entry into the agreement, the Decision Point, planned for last December, expected six months after the decision date.
Already and well into January 2002 and with no definite Decision Point reached, it is unclear to the Minority when the physical benefits of the agreement will begin to manifest in the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. At the moment, with alternative sources of international investment being withdrawn, due to the agreement, and no formal agreement in place, a sector of the economy appears to have the conundrum of a financial vacuum.
Essentially, the Kufuor administration sought to stabilise the rather battered economy on assumption of office on January 7,2001.
“The bad state of the national economy on the assumption of power by the NPP Government needed nothing short of immediate, bold, imaginative and determined efforts to bring it back on track,” states a document dubbed “Positive Change: A good beginning”. The 80-page book details the achievements and challenges of the NPP Government from January to December 2001.
Looking into the future, Asaga suggested that the production industry needs both investment and improvement, a suggestion Prof. Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, an economist and Director of University of Ghana’s Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) shares.
GRi…/
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