SFO uncovers 10billion cedis fraud. Only 1billion cedis so far retrieved
Call for debate on booty from economic crime
IGP cautions cops
Chief to account for 40 million cedis from land sales
The 240billion cedis "cream" elephant
Tension still high in Prison Service
Judges' murder - Interpol to hunt for Amedeka
Ignore Rawlings says Quashigah
Choice for vice: NDC, NPP stalk each other
NMC: Report has embarrassed us
SFO uncovers 10billion cedis fraud. Only 1billion cedis so far retrieved
The Daily Graphic reports in its lead story that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last year uncovered many episodes of financial and economic fraud in public and private sector institutions which resulted in the loss of over 10 billion cedis to the government.
According to the report, the SFO investigated 64 cases in all and has since been able to retrieve only a little over 1 billion cedis.
The report says the fraud involved non-disclosure of contract proceeds, evasion of customs duties, tax evasion, misappropriation of funds, embezzlement and over-invoicing.
It mentions Dr Oti Boateng, former Government Statistician, Dr Atakora, Mr Adjei, all of the Ghana Statistical Service, Mr I. C. K. Nyameshie, Supervising cashier of Ghana Airways, Mr P.O. Sackey, Managing Director of Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Mr Bright Abokyi Damoah, Managing Director of the Mansoman Rural Bank, as being prominent on the list of individuals who have either been investigated or are still under investigation.
The report also mentions the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company as some of the institutions under investigations.
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Call for debate on booty from economic crime
The Daily Graphic also reports in another front page that the acting Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Mr B.A. Sapati, has called for a national debate on how the country should tackle the issue of booty acquired through economic crime.
He said it does not make sense for a criminal to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment only to return to enjoy the booty of his criminal activities. He contended that "if the economic criminal is made to lose the proceeds of his crime, this may serve as a disincentive and cause the reduction in the crime rate".
Mr Sapati, who was commenting on the activities of the SFO in 1999, expressed the view that the punishment of being sentenced to a jail term will never serve as a deterrent, if one can either return to enjoy his booty or his immediate relations and allies can enjoy the booty while he or she is in jail.
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IGP cautions cops
The Daily Graphic again in front-page story, reports the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr Peter Nanfuri, as having cautioned police personnel against indiscipline and non compliance with the regulations and ethics of the services.
He said self discipline and the observance of general neatness, for example, are part of the ethics of the profession and failure to comply with them constitutes a chargeable offence. Mr Nanfuri gave the caution when he presented the 21st anniversary June 4 medals to officers and men in the Eastern Region.
He announced that the service has taken delivery of a new set of uniforms and boots, which have been named "millennium uniform" and will be used by personnel on ceremonial occasions.
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Chief to account for 40 million cedis from land sales
The Ghanaian Times devotes its front-page to the Adum Sub Traditional Council in Kumasi which it says gave Nana Asamoah-Ababio, Odikro of Afrancho-Odumasi near Kumasi, a two week ultimatum to explain how 40 million cedis accruing from the sale of a 40-acre land in the area was spent.
According to the paper, the Council's order for the submission of a full statement of account followed a complaint of misappropriation of funds filed by the youth and some elders of the community against the Odikro.
The complainants, the report says, claimed that the Odikro had failed to initiate development projects in the village despite the huge proceeds accruing from the sale of stool lands.
Nana Asamoah-Ababio is however said to have explained to the Council that part of the proceeds from the sale of the land was paid to the displaced farmers as compensation while an undisclosed amount was used to produce about 4000 cement blocks meant for some development projects.
He is also said to have mentioned that the allegation levelled against him stemmed from sheer malice and hatred.
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The 240billion cedis "cream" elephant
The Ghanaian Chronicle says in its banner headline story that the magnificently equipped Volta Regional Hospital, built at an astronomical cost of 240 billion (twenty nine million pounds), is already becoming a white elephant as a combination of poverty, lack of managerial foresight and environmental happenstance make it the most expensive under-utilised facility in the country.
The paper says as other hospitals across the country struggle to cope with a load of human traffic, the 240 bed super hospital completed recently counts among its challenges a dramatic lack of patients and personnel coupled with a ballooning maintenance cost.
The paper quotes Dr Geoffrey Nyamuame, Senior Medical Superintendent in charge of the hospital to have revealed in an interview with the Chronicle that only 25 percent of the specialised manpower needs had been met.
This, the paper says is attributed to the fact that there are no big clinics or private hospitals to offer doctors part-time jobs for extra income, apparently because of the very low income levels of trained doctors in the country.
According to the paper, apart from the surgical ward that has recorded the highest number of patients, all the other departments have never been filled to capacity despite the relatively low cost of services at the hospital.
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Tension still high in Prison Service
The Public Agenda says in its lead story that despite the public apology by representatives of Prison Officers for their demonstrations last week against poor conditions of service and long-serving Director-General, Brigadier Alex Djangmah, tension remains high in the service.
The paper says Djangmah, who was humiliated during the protests, now sits in his office under armed military guard.
It also says that at the very moment that Emmanuel Segbawu, Senior Chief Officer, was facing the media and reading an "unqualified apology" in respect of the 'unfortunate and misguided incident', a number of officers plainly told the 'Public Agenda' that he was not speaking for them and majority of the personnel. The officers are said to have suggested that the public apology may have been made under duress.
The paper also says the military guard around Brigadier Djangmah is seen by some discontented Prison Officers as underlying his status as an outsider and raises questions about what possible rapport he could rebuild with the Prisons' ranks and file and his long term survival as the head of the Service.
The paper suggests that the demand for the removal of Djangmah and the earlier protest by Fire Service personnel against their head, Brigadier J.E. Addah, has placed a question mark over the Rawlings government's practise of putting serving military officers in charge of non-military institutions such as the Prisons Service and the Fire Service.
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Judges' murder - Interpol to hunt for Amedeka
The Dispatch reports in its front page that as the 18th anniversary of the murder of the three High Court Judges and retired Officers on June 30 nears, credible evidence reaching it indicates that the government is going to ask INTERPOL to help locate L/Cpl Samuel Awuku Amedeka, retired, service number 174826, who the National Public Tribunal described as "the operational commander" of the group which murdered the four Ghanaians.
The National Public Tribunal, chaired by Mr George Agyakum, on August 15, 1983, sentenced Joachim Aamartey Kwei; L/Cpl Samuel Kwaku Amedeka; L/Cpl Michael Komla Senya; Ransford Johny Dzandu and Evans Hekli Tekpor alias Tonny to death for the murder of the three judges - Mrs Cecilia Koranteng Addow, Mr Justice Sarkodee, Mr Justice Agyepong and the retired officer, Major Sam Acquah on the night of June 30, 1982.
The 2nd accused, Amedeka was not present during the trial and after respective notices in the media, was tried in absentia. All the accused persons, except Amedeka, were present at the trial and have since been executed by firing squad.
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Ignore Rawlings says Quashigah
The Accra Mail says in a front-page story that the National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Major (Rtd) Courage Quashigh, has, in a sombre and reflective mood, urged Ghanaians to ignore Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and instead pray to God to intervene and deliver the country from mayhem.
Quashigah is said to have mentioned in an interview with the Accra Mail that Rawlings' June 4 threats at the El-Wak Stadium were meant to instil fear in Ghanaians as this year's crucial general elections draw closer.
He is quoted as saying that Rawlings' June 4 threats and insults directed at Ghanaians are symptoms of a man with dying ideas adding that if someone is eating what does not belong to him he can never be a happy man. He wondered why Rawlings is still angry after 20 years in power during which his personal living standards have remarkably improved.
Quashigah is said to have advised Rawlings and his government to be worried about how to improve agriculture to feed Ghanaians rather than the unbridled importation of food as is currently the case.
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Choice for vice: NDC, NPP stalk each other
The Ghanaian Voice says in its front page that it is reliably informed that although the New Patriotic Party (NPP) chose Kufour as its presidential candidate a long time ago, it is waiting for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to announce the name of its candidate for the vice presidential slot before it makes its nomination public.
According to the paper, sources close to both presidential candidates say both parties are waiting to see the regional and ethnic choice of the other before going public.
The paper suggests that if the NDC goes in for regional balance, the NPP will do the same.
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NMC: Report has embarrassed us
The Ghana Palaver says in its lead story that the National Media Commission (NMC) has in a letter to the Ghana Palaver, stated that it had been embarrassed by a publication in an Accra national daily, which sought to demand an apology from the Palaver to Kufuor, the beleaguered NPP flagbearer.
According to the letter, signed by the Commission's executive secretary, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, the imputations of a so-called professional breach published in the daily, indicating that the Media Commission has directed the Palaver to apologise to Mr Kufuor, has rather embarrassed the Commission.
The Commission says the statement it issued to the media only requested the Palaver to apologise to the Commission and not to Kufuor, for breaking a rule.
The Palaver says it had earlier protested to the Media Commission on its purported statement, in which it asked the paper to apologise to Kufuor. It says it was therefore surprised when almost all the media carried that statement, which sought to impute wrong motives and even accused the paper's editor of "unprofessionalism".
The paper, in its protest to the Commission, expressed the view that if the issue "at stake is the breach of the procedure for settlement, then the Commission should have first called Kufuor to order and ask him to publicly apologise to the Commission when the national daily published Kufuor's letter on 27th May 2000.
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