GRi Press Review Ghana 20 - 06

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Justice, Nana Kofi Enim Nsefo, on Monday told the Fast Track High Court in Accra that no contract was awarded to Leebda Corporation of the United States to undertake a court computerization project in the country.

The Daily Graphic reports him as saying that the company was initially invited for discussion on the studies of the project but it decided to withdraw and wait for the second phase, which is the implementation stage.

Nana Nsefo was giving evidence for the prosecution in the case in which Mr Victor Selormey, the Deputy Minister of Finance in the NDC administration, is being tried for his alleged involvement in the loss of a total of $1,297,500 to the state.

Mr Selormey is charged on six counts of conspiracy, defrauding by false pretences and willfully causing financial loss to the state.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is currently on a 1.5 billion bail with two sureties to be justified.

Mr Selormey is alleged to have conspired with one Dr Fredrick Owusu-Boadu, a Ghanaian consultant with Leebda Corporation of Texas in the United States, and fraudulently caused financial loss to the state.

More/

I'll count on Council's advice - President

President J.A. Kufuor on Monday assured members of the Council of State that he would respect their constitutional position and count on their unvarnished advice in the governance of the country.

The Daily Graphic quotes him as saying "I will not seek to demean your dignity by using you as my mouthpieces and errand persons," apparently in reference to the widely held view that the council had, in the past, been a tool in the hands of the executive.

The President, who was swearing in 20 members of the council, underscored the importance of the august body, which, he stated, remains persuasive to date.

Among those who were sworn in are Prof Alex Kwapong, Alhaji Alhassan Bin-Salih, Mr Clement Tedam, Mr A.K. Deku, Madam Ama Busia and Madam Adisa Munkaila.

The others are Mr Kwesi Armah, Prof Adzei Bekoe, Mr Francis Afoko, Zosali-Na Tia Sulemana, Nana Ogeabuor Akompi Finam II, Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes and Michael Adusah.

The rest are Naa Abayifa Karbo II, Dr Kofi Amanor Ansah, Nana Prah Agyensaim, Mr Fred Ofori-Atta Asante, Mr Benjamin Dapaah, Major-General Edwin Sam and Mr Kwaku Kyei.

Three others, Prof Albert Adu-Boahen, Mrs Emma Mitchell and Nana Otuo Siriboe were absent. Prof Adu-Boahen is reportedly ill while the other two are said to be outside the country.

More/

Grading systems in the universities

The Minister of Education, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi has stated that his ministry will not interfere with the grading systems adopted by universities in the country, says another Graphic story.

It will be very wrong for the government to influence the grading systems adopted by the academic boards, which are meant to preserve and sustain quality education, he said.

The minister said although the issue of grading has become the bone of contention between the University Councils and students, the matter should be treated as an internal issue for the universities to resolve.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Ghanaian Times

Libya to supply Ghana crude oil

Libya has agreed to supply Ghana 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day starting from August this year.

According to the Ghanaian Times, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, disclosed to newsmen on his arrival Monday from Tripoli, Lybia, where he led a four-member government delegation to deliver a special message from President J.A. Kufuor to his Libyan counterpart, Muamar Gadaffi.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said that details on the crude oil, which would be supplied on concessionary terms, were being worked out.

The Minister said that Libya had also agreed to provide 250 million dollars loan for small-scale business in agro and forestry industries.

The Minister said that discussions on bilateral issues including the way forward to further deepen existing relations between the two countries were extensively discussed.

The fate of the three Ghanaians who were condemned to death in Libya, the African Union and the upcoming OAU summit in Zambia as well as the election of a new Secretary-General of the Union were also discussed.

More../

No more wholesale promotions

The Ghanaian Times reports that wholesale promotion of pupils at the basic and Junior Secondary School levels has been stopped, according to the Minister of Education, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi.

He told the 'Times' in Accra on Monday that the Ministry gave the directive because even with the review policy on education, "there is nothing like that".

Speaking to the 'Times' in an interview on a wide range of issues affecting his sector, he said: "The Ministry has sent word to District Directors of Education that school heads should be told that wholesale promotions should be stopped", adding that "with the reform, there is a percentage that can be repeated".

Prof. Ameyaw-Akumfi explained that the Ministry had a system under which a pupil, had to do at least 85 per cent contact hours (attendance) for the term, otherwise the pupil would be repeated.

If a pupil was present for that period of time and the teacher was present full time and went about normal teaching, there was no way the pupil should fail.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Evening News

Where is the 20 Billion Golden baby cash?

The expenditure pattern of the Department of National Lotteries, whose percentage of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of the nation has reduced considerably over the last decade, is raising eyebrows within certain circles, reports The Evening News.

Of particular concern is the expenditure on the Department's "golden baby", the big glass building from which it hopes to operate.

Originally, the building project was awarded to SEBA CONSTRUCTION of Box 31, Ho at a contract sum of 2,716,276,500 in 1995.

Thereafter, an amount of 2,263,309,160 was paid out to the contractors between October 27, 1995 and December 31, 1996.

For some reasons which undoubtedly must have included inflation and the drop in the exchange rate of the cedi, the original contract sum shot up considerably.

However, subsequent payments made to the contractors for the same project simply go against any grain of comprehension.

For instance, in the succeeding years since the first trenches of billions were dolled out to the company, between February 25, 1997, and December 29, 1997 a total amount of 2,2277,245,978.31 was paid to the contractors.

Again, from April 2, 1998 and December 22, 1998, 3,369,841,978.3 was paid whilst 5,122,541,771.86 was paid between January 28, 1999 and December 30, 1999. In the year 2000 nearly 8 billion was paid for the same purpose.

What is even more baffling is the 200 million already paid out in February this year for the project which many observers do not believe reasonably justifies the huge financial resources already sank into it.

In spite of all these payments already effected, the interior fittings and wiring are yet to be done.

More../

MPs advised to help Parliament

The Evening News in another story says Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on Saturday urged Members of Parliament (MPs) to assert themselves in fields they are knowledgeable in so that their contributions could be effective and enrich parliamentary work.

He said MPs, who are not heard in Parliament normally face accusations from their constituents of not being vocal, although they might be good parliamentary materials.

Nana Akufo-Addo was presenting a paper on practice and procedure of the House on Standing Orders at a two-day induction seminar for the 200 MPs at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

The seminar is being sponsored by Friedrich Ebert Stifung (FES).

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Accra Mail

Awuni clears first hurdle

Preliminary insights into the trial of Superintendent Angwubutoge Awuni gathered by The Accra Mail reveal that the three-man panel, which sat on his case, has found no ground to press charges against him.

Awuni was charged two months ago by the police administration for supposedly making remarks that Ghanaian judges were corrupt. He was also banned from speaking to the media.

A fast track panel was therefore set up to try him for saying judges were corrupt and also for allegedly stealing a video deck. Six journalists were called as witnesses during the trial and vital evidence from one of them cleared the Superintendent. The charge of "causing for publication things that were not true" preferred against him could not stand. The journalist informed the panel that he and his colleagues had engaged in an informal discussion with Superintendent Awuni and that he did not cause for the publication of the story that eventually got him in trouble. The journalist conceded that it was unfortunate that the attribution went to Awuni.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Ghanaian Chronicle

Executive car loans galore at SIC

The Ghanaian Chronicle writes that when the NPP government asked the three top management members of State Insurance Company (SIC) Ltd to proceed on leave in February this year, the impression was that the rot in the national insurance flagship was to be tackled and the company salvaged.

But four months afterward, the mismanagement of the company continues, raising concerns as to whether the government has been up-to-date with the state of affairs in SIC. The fortunes of the company are sinking under the acting Managing Director (MD) Kusi Yeboah.

The decision by the Yeboah, to grant car loans to two General Managers, Mr Clement Vanderpuye, Finance and Isaac B. Hackman Marketing and Field Operations has raised eyebrows among the majority of the workers.

Mr Vanderpuye has a track record of being dismissed from Ghana Airways in the past.

Both Vanderpuye and Hackman were among the six general managers who were given new official cars last year. In 1996, they were also given car loans to purchase the car of their choice, according to the Chronicle.

"They are trading on the company's capital, in 1996 these people were given car loans to buy cars, then in 2000 all the General managers were again given official cars, after the three past executives had bought Grand Cherokees for themselves and only for these same people to be given car loans this year is difficult to understand," an aggrieved worker articulated.

"The official car or car loans are given to workers in every organization worldwide to help them perform their duties effectively but what is happening in SIC is a different ball game or story altogether, why should some one park his personal car or sell it only to be given a new car loan?" an aggrieved Insurance broker who did not believe what is happening to the company is reported to have questioned and called on the government to act promptly to save the company from the rot to win back the lost glory of the company.

More/

Ablekuma!

Chronicle says it's investigations into the activities of the land guards after a shooting incident in which two innocent persons were wounded at Bortianor, Accra this year reveals that more than 20 attacks or assaults have since been recorded in the locality.

Most of the cases were lodged with the Dansoman police, but the police are yet to act on them, Chronicle learnt.

Land guards were again in action on April 21, this year when they broke into the room of two women, Madam Okaikor Mensah and her younger sister, Okaitso Mensah, in a mid night attack and thrashed them.

The two sisters were save by the neighbours, who went to their aid when they heard them screaming for help.

Chronicle gathered that on that fateful day around 12:35am, the two women heard a knock on their door and when they asked who was knocking at that odd hour, there was no response.

According to the women, a few minutes later they heard the knock again and when they asked who it was, someone responded and identified himself as Ahiakwa, who ordered them to open the door or face the consequences.

Before they knew what was happening, Ahiakwa and his team had forced the door open.

The landguards pounced on them and reportedly warned them not make any noise that would attract the attention of their neighbors if they really wanted their lives.

Okaikor and her sister, who could not bear the ordeal that they were being subjected to, started screaming for help. This alerted neighbors who rushed to the scene.

By the time the neighbors arrived, the landguards had fled, leaving the poor women with bruises all over their body and badly shaken.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Daily Guide

Kofi Wayo saves Kufuor

Most Ghanaian women are hailing Mr. Charles Kofi Wayo the NPP parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso East during the 200 elections for importing a "grade 5" rice which is selling at 1,500 per margarine tin, the Daily Guide reports.

The women said due to the high cost of living, they are not able to buy quality rice which cost about 2,500 per margarine tin on the market.

The rice, which is branded Freedom is a Thailand made product and imported by Sallion Industry and Investment, allegedly owned by the cigar chomping and swashbuckling Nima Boy, popularly known as Kofi Wayo.

Talking to the Daily Guide, Maame Rita Boadu a rice seller at Kaneshie praised Mr Wayo and the NPP government for fulfilling their promise of Positive Change.

She said during the 2000 electioneering campaign Mr. Wayo promised that he would import rise to flood the markets of Accra within six months, should the NPP be voted to power. This promise she said Mr. Wayo has fulfilled.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Independent

Bank of Ghana bounced NDC cheques

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) last year bounced almost all government cheques presented to it because borrowing by the former government from the Central Bank nearly depleted the national treasury, reports The Independent.

According to Hon J.H. Mensah, that entrenched position showed that the Bank of Ghana lost confidence in the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This action, according to Mr Mensah, who is also the minister for Government Business created an economic hold up.

As the national treasury was also almost empty it eventually led to a pile up of debts to the nation, the Minister of Government Business, disclosed when he delivered a paper on the Budgetary Process, Public Accounts and Finance Committees at a two-day induction seminar at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

The seminar, which was aimed at equipping members of Parliament with the requisite skills to debate on all issues brought before Parliament was organized by Parliament in collaboration with Fredrich Ebert Foundation (FES).

Hon J.H. Mensah who is also the Majority Leader said that the overwhelming debt situation, which the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) inherited, forced it to adopt a debt relief strategy as a way of salvaging the ailing economy.

More../

Kabral re-elected

Kabral Blay-Amihere the editor of The Independent was last week re-elected to serve on the Executive Council of the international Federation of Journalists (IFJ) at it's 24^th congress in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

According to The Independent, Kabral is one of three Africans elected to serve in the highest body of the IFJ for the next three years. Kabral was first elected to the Executive Council for the IFJ in 1998 at Resive Brazil.

The international Federation of Journalists brings together over one hundred and twenty journalist Associations from all over the world and was established 76 years ago.

Kabral who is also the President of West African Journalist Association is the first Ghanaian to serve on the executive council of IFJ.

Ghana was represented by the President of the Ghana Journalist Association Mrs Gifty Affenyi Dadzie and Kabral Blay-Amihere.

Mrs. Affenyi Dadzie who participated in an earlier workshop on equality and fertility said that African women in the media had been marginalized for too long and called for a positive approach to gender issues for qualitative growth in the media.

The Ghana delegation has since returned home.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

Free Press

Poor conditions of Drivers- Major cause for Accident

The Free Press reports a former commander of the Motor Traffic Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, Alhaji Mustapha Gariba as observing that the rate of road accidents in the country would definitely come down if better conditions of service was designed by the transport union for all commercial vehicle drivers to enjoy after their active services.

This, according to him, would also contribute effectively to the decline in road accidents in the country. "It is the commercial drivers who are sending us into our graves slowly because of frustration, he lamented.

The former MTTU commander was addressing a forum on Efficient Driving organized by the Ghana National Association of Driving Schools (Ghana Drive), at Aseda House in Kumasi last week.

Alhaji Gariba said it was rather said and disheartening to see a car owner snatching his keys from a driver who might have probably served him for more than 10 years without paying him any form of compensation or gratuity as was being enjoyed by their counterparts in government employment.

"There is no short cut in driving and there is no way you could run before learning to speak, one must therefore be trained both theoretically and practically so that you can drive defensively" he noted

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Statesman

Cry for Justice

"Cry Justice," a human rights organization, has thrown its weight behind calls to re-open the murder case of three High Court judges and a retired army officer during the PNDC era, reports The Statesman.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, the spokesman for the group, Nii Yemoh, said nearly two decades after the dastardly act, there are fresh and very important revelations proving that there was miscarriage of justice somewhere along the line, which needs to be addressed.

"Considering the circumstances that surrounded the whole event, the time to finally resolve the matter and lay it to rest in the spirit of national reconciliation is now, especially as the principal actors of the regime under which this crime was committed, are out of power," he said.

Nii Yemoh dismissed suggestions that the group is only out to add fuel to the problem. Instead, he said, the unresolved murders remain a blot on our national fabric and a bother to our national conscience.

The victims Justices Cecilia Kornateng Addow, Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, and Fred Poku Sarkodie, and Major (rtd), Sam Acquah were abducted and murdered on June 30, 1982 by agents of the then PNDC government headed by Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

Weekly Insight

Konadu under investigation

The Weekly Insight says Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings may not be sleeping easy following revelations that the state security apparatus is busily trying to find some dirt in her closet.

At pres time, at least six of Nana's close associates had been dragged before the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to answer questions on the funding of the 31^st December Women's Movement and other monies allegedly paid to the former First Lady.

Some of the associates were detained overnight and others were questioned and released on self-cognizance bail.

Those who have appeared before investigators at the CID include, Dr Albert Barnafo, described as a confidant of the former First Lady, Dan Abodakpi, former Minister of Trade, Madam Shirley Ayittey, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the 31^st Women's Movement, and madam Sati Ocran, wife of a former Deputy Minister.

Sources close to the investigators say that the CID is concentrating its work on how $2 million allegedly belonging to the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) got missing from the accounts of the company.

Some company officials who were interrogated earlier claimed that the money was siphoned for political purposes.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

The Dispatch

Tension mounts at Mobitel

The Dispatch says it can reveal that tension among the over 150 employees of Mobitel in Ghana is reaching spill over point.

The paper says it s investigations have revealed that since 1999, benefits of local staff, not expatriate staff, have gradually been reduced or taken away without any consultation with them. A number of committees, including staff welfare one exist for such consultative processes but have never been used. Many local staff members have endured this state of affairs, mainly because they are afraid of losing their jobs.

Reasons often cited for such changes or withdrawal of benefits include; unavailability of cash and cost cutting. As at the end of last month, total loans, including interests, amounts to about 740 million, a greater proportion to be repaid by staff. The two years rent payment for four expatriate staff is about 2.4 billion.

The 2.4 billion, which will not be repaid, is only part of the huge expenses on the expatriate staff. Millicom (Ghana) Limited, owners of Mobitel also pays their utility bills, drugs for their swimming pools, food/medicine for their pets and even charcoal they use at the company's beach house at Prampram.

Jobs, which were previously done in-house by staff have been contracted out indiscriminately, in this era of the company's cost cutting. The maintenance of some of the company's air-conditioners and generators has been contracted out to for an annual fee of 1.3 billion, paid in full in April.

The new Managing Director, Mr Soban Pasha, has just taken office, with the time bomb at Mobitel ticking.

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top

Ghana Palaver

Kufuor forced to abandon Singapore Trip

The Ghana Palaver claims following its story, listing President J.A. Kufuor's numerous trips abroad (10 outside, 2 inside), the President is reported to have abandoned his intended trip to Singapore.

Instead, Mr Kufuor has delegated Mr J.H. Mensah, Minister for Government Business and Mr Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance, to represent him.

Earlier, the President had last week paid a quick face-saving two-day visit to the Central Region, where he announced the implementation of projects, already initiated by the NDC Government.

Meanwhile, the President's trip later this month to the United States remains on course. It will be followed by another "dash" to Lusaka, Zambia from July 9 to 11.

Mr Kufuor is also most likely to visit France later, following an invitation extended to him, through the French Ambassador, only last week.

With 10 foreign travels already on his credit side, within a period of five months, it is being speculated that the President would manage 20 foreign trips by the end of this year, "selling Ghana abroad".

GRi/

Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com

Return to top