IMF withdraws loan facility to Ghana
'Rally together to fight against political barbarism'
Alhaji Banda courts support for police
Let's review SIB Report - GBA
Nothing wrong prosecuting ex-ministers - Akufo-Addo
One week ultimatum to PAF defaulters
Gender quota not best way
Use divestiture proceeds for debt reduction - IEA Executive Director tells govt
Rawlings should apologise to Ghanaians - Asiseh
"I can vouch for Sahara" …says oil expert
Ghana loses $85m under HIPC
Meteo has only two raincoats
Ghana to save US $558 through HIPC … over next 3 years
Noose to hang on Rawlings' neck
IMF withdraws loan facility to Ghana
The Chronicle says the six-month old Kufuor administration has been ordered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to refund a $34 million loan granted Ghana last year under its Poverty Reduction Programme, which would otherwise not have been due for payment now.
The IMF has also directed that Ghana pay all accrued interest on the loan.
According to the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Eduardo Aninat, the Bretton-Woods institution ordered Ghana to pay the loan because the National Democratic Congress government presented a doctored data on the country's economy.
The paper says it has gathered that a part-payment of the amount has been debited against a $239 million IMF credit line available to the country under the three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility programme.
The other half of the refund would be deducted in December, this year which will leave Ghana $34 million short of the badly needed $239 million loan. The NDC government received $89 million out of the three-year loan scheme, which was established in 1999.
Chronicle gathered over the weekend that $20 million was deducted from a $66 million loan approved for Ghana last Thursday June 28, leaving $46 million available for the short-term projects under the same Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility programme.
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'Rally together to fight against political barbarism'
The President of the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Rev Dr Emmanuel Asante, has urged Ghanaians to celebrate the memories of the slain judges and the retired army officer by rallying together to fight against political barbarism and autocratic rule in this country.
The minister, who addressed the congregation at last weekend's Martyrs' Day Service held at the Kaneshie Presby Church, in Accra, charged individual Ghanaians to help ensure the rule of law and promotion of justice, truth and reconciliation, noting that it was such principles that under-pinned the work and patriotic sense of the slain judges and army officers.
Speaking on the theme: "The Challenges of the Fleeting Life", Rev Dr Antwi observed that "we remember this callous event not to mourn those whose death continue to challenge us to stand for freedom, justice, truth and activism against political barbarism, intimidation and dictatorship but in order that we may resolve to ensure that the rule of law and the promotion of justice and political civility in mother Ghana, reports the Chronicle.
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Alhaji Banda courts support for police
The Executive Chairman of Antrak Group of Companies, Alhaji Asoma Banda, has pointed out that the Ghana Police Service is severely under-resourced and poorly equipped to combat crimes in the country.
According to him, the Police Service also lacks basic logistics, such as modern communication systems, vehicles and equipment with which to attain the purpose of which it was established.
Alhaji Banda made this statement when he launched the Crime Prevention Foundation (CPF) in Accra over the weekend.
The Foundation, he said, is aimed at supporting the Ghana Police Service and other Security Agencies in their difficult task to combat crime in the country.
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Let's review SIB Report - GBA
The Ghana Bar Association has added its voice to the reopening of the Special Investigation Board (SIB) report to address the inherent anomalies in the report as the nation marks the 19th anniversary of the callous abductions and murder of the three High Court judges and a retired Army Officer.
Speaking at the annual remembrance service in memory of the judges at the Kaneshie Presbyterian Church, Accra, GBA President, J.Ebow Quarshie noted that subsequent to the publication of the SIB report and the prosecution of Amartey Kwei, Amedeka and others, a lot of questions are now being asked as to the validity of the report.
"There is a clamour to reopen the SIB report. The people are yearning to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth," the Statesman quotes him as saying.
The three High court judges, Justices Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong and Fred Poku Sarkodie together with Major (rtd) Sam Acquah, were abducted and murdered in cold blood by agents of the PNDC headed by Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings on June 30, 1982, six months after the violent overthrow of the Limann Administration.
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Nothing wrong prosecuting ex-ministers - Akufo-Addo
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has made it clear that there is nothing unconstitutional about former ministers being prosecuted in court on corruption charges.
"The whole process is application of the rule of law, and the due process of law will persist to ensure that wrongdoers are prosecuted in a most transparent manner," state daily, the Daily Graphic quoted him as saying at Berekum at the weekend.
Addressing a meeting of the Berekum Constituency Executive of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo said, "We are not (engaged in) witch-hunt. It only shows our commitment to probity and accountability that all must adhere to."
Nana Akufo-Addo said also that the proposed reconciliation commission whose bill would soon be laid in Parliament would give opportunity to victims of human rights abuses to be heard.
"We have never so far found the opportunity for such victims, and that is what the whole reconciliation exercise is going to be, so that if possible they can obtain some relief from the state," he said.
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One week ultimatum to PAF defaulters
The Agona District Assembly has given a one-week ultimatum to defaulters of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and Youth-in-Agriculture Programme (YAP) to settle their debts or face legal action.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at the Agona Swedru, the District Chief Executive, Mr John K. Agyabeng, said groups and individuals owe a total of ˘428 million and have refused to pay back as required by law governing the disbursement of the scheme.
Mr Agyapong said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development gave directives to all traditional rulers to beat the gong-gong to inform defaulters to pay before May 5 this year, but to no avail.
According to the story carried by the Daily Grapic, he alleged that about 95 per cent of monies disbursed went to some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr Agyapong said the assembly has initiated moves with the circuit court and community tribunal in the district for the defaulters to be prosecuted.
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Gender quota not best way
The Ghanaian Times reports that Mr J.B. da Rocha, a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), has said that the demand by gender advocates for a special quota for women to be able to enter certain institutions, is not good enough.
Such demands give the female gender a more inferior status since the idea is that without this special quota, women cannot measure up to standards in society, Mr da Rocha said in a lecture on building a culture of democracy and respect for human rights, organized by IEA in Accra on Sunday.
Mr da Rocha said "affirmative action" cannot be achieved if from the onset, women take an inferiority stand by demanding a special quota.
"You need to crawl your way into the system since there are equal opportunities," he stated.
He therefore advised gender advocates to educate and encourage women on the need to seek education since that is the only viable way to be successful.
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Use divestiture proceeds for debt reduction - IEA Executive Director tells govt
The Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr G.A. Apenteng, has asked the government to use all divestiture proceeds towards debt reduction as part of measures to resolve the nation's macro-economic imbalances.
According to the Ghanaian Times, the call was made at the weekend during a parliamentary workshop on "Stable macro-economic environment, growth and poverty reduction" at Akosombo.
The workshop which was organized by IEA in collaboration with the Canadian Parliamentary Centre (CPC), Economic Development Institute of the World Bank (EDIWB) and Canadian International Agency (CIA) provided forum for members of the Public Accounts and Finance Committees of Parliament to collate views and options to assist in their deliberations to move the country forward in its development objectives.
Dr Apenteng urged the government to focus its attention on the recovery of domestic and external guaranteed debt from public and private organisations to ensure enough resources to resolve macro economic problems.
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Rawlings should apologise to Ghanaians - Asiseh
The Crusading Guide says Mr Vincent Asiseh, National Press Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed the view that ex-President J.J Rawlings should apologise to Ghanaians.
Answering questions on the need for National Reconciliation on GTV's 'Breakfast Show' last week, Asiseh blamed the current tension in the country on the former President, saying he (Rawlings) should have created a congenial atmosphere for National Reconciliation during his tenure of office, which he did not do.
The NDC Press Secretary conceded that, Mr. Rawlings on his own cannot render the requisite apology to Ghanaians, but the President, Mr J.A.K. Kufuor should create the situation to draw Rawlings into apologizing to the nation.
Asiseh, defining Reconciliation and conciliation said what Ghanaians need at the moment was not reconciliation but conciliation.
He said there was currently too much tension in the country as such a national reconciliation exercise would only provide a forum for people to get at each other.
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"I can vouch for Sahara" …says oil expert
An oil expert, Mr Jean Charles has said he is of the opinion that the whole issue of the oil-lifting contract involving Sahara had been blown out of proportion.
In an interview with The Accra Mail, the oil expert, among whose clients are Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) said after 27 years in the business he would like to work with people and companies with a goal and believes Sahara is one such.
"I have not seen, since the late eighties a company that wants to reinvest and grow as Sahara. Sahara, in a sense for me is the pay off of so many years I have tried to develop the Nigerian flag."
He says of Sahara, "they are ship owners, they are tanker owners, they are partners with professionals. They have two tankers, which they own; they have other vessels on hire for a long period with the option to purchase."
"In the oil business, when someone takes a contract from you, you cannot believe what people can do to put a bad name on you", he said.
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Ghana loses $85m under HIPC
Ghana was formally admitted into the league of Highly Indebted Poor Countries, the Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, disclosed to newsmen on his arrival from New York last week.
According to The Independent, although the spin on the major economic policy has always dwelt on the positive benefit that Ghana stands to derive from the HIPC initiative, it can reveal that the country has started feeling the heat.
It says credible sources at the Japanese Embassy have hinted that the Japanese government has withdrawn all its loans for Ghana.
One of such loans, a source said, is the 85 million-dollar Japanese loan for the Accra-Yamoransa road, which President Kufuor said, would be completed by the end of 2002.
The project is only one of the many Japan supported roads that may not get funding for its construction.
The Independent says the government will thus be compelled to seek assistance from other donors especially, the Western originators of the HIPC idea, however, the source was not convinced that they could help much in that direction because "these guys will always dictate to you what and the areas that their loans should be used for".
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Meteo has only two raincoats
Two raincoats and two pairs of boots are all that the Meteorological Services Department has, as protective gear against the vagaries of the weather for the execution of their duties.
Furthermore, these raincoats and boots are used by all the twenty officers at the Kotoka International Airport headquarters of the service, as revealed by Mr Tsatsu Siameh, Senior Meteorologist of the service, on JOY FM's Breakfast Show last Thursday.
Laying bare the sordid picture, Mr Siameh stated that, "if one has footrot it can affect the others, and furthered that the department needed adequate gear to brave weather in their work.
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Ghana to save US $558 through HIPC … over next 3 years
It has been projected that Ghana will save about US $558 million in annual debt service payments between next year and 2004, through the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) debt relief initiative, writes the High Street Journal (HSJ).
According to estimates drawn up by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, (ISSER), some US $183 million could be saved next year, US $179 million in 2003 and US $183 million in 2004.
In nominal terms, debt service payments of US $397 million in 2000 would be reduced to US $155 in 2002 after HIPC assistance. The assumption of the delivery of assistance is based on a decision point in December 2001 and a completion point in December 2004, at which all creditors would deliver the rest of the debt relief.
Ghana opted to join the HIPC debt relief initiative after an IMF/World Bank team carried out a debt sustainability analysis.
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Noose to hang on Rawlings' neck
The Daily Guide says there is every indication that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under President J.A. Kufuor will re-enact the course of history by setting the tone for the prosecution of all those who had a hand in the abduction and murder of the three High Court Judges, some 19 years ago.
To this end, a call has been made to the public to come up with fresh evidences of their knowledge of people whom they believe, gave the direct order or took part in the murder of Mrs Justice Cecilia Koranteng Addow, Mr Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, Mr Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie and Major Sam Acquah, a retired army officer.
Justice G.E.K. Aikins, a retired Supreme Court Judge and Attorney-General at the time of the judges' murder, gave these broad hints at a Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Kaneshie Presbyterian Church, organized by the Ghana Bar Association.
The Guide says the role of Capt Kojo Tsikata and former first couple, the Rawlingses, as regards the judges murder cannot easily be swept under the carpet because of fresh questions arising that centres around the role of Capt Tsikata.
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