Overdrawn
Govt Account – BOG clears the air
Bartels
saves water situation at Okponglo
WB won’t
dictate to Ghana
Songhor law
to be abrogated
Yes! We
chopped 900b cedis
Former Vice
President in Motor Accident
How a
Minister lost 322 million cedis
Filipinos
seize Atimpoku school
Akwasi
Agyeman refuses to surrender keys to Residency
I was asked
to kill the Nungua Mantse
Asiehofo on
rampage in the north
Overdrawn
Govt Account – BOG clears the air
The Daily
Graphic carries a story that says a top official of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Mr
Gyebi Donkor, on Tuesday broke the bank’s silence over the controversial 900
billion cedis overdrawn government account.
Donkor,
Banking Department Head of BOG, said in an interview that over 600 billion
cedis of the amount was for crude oil imports, effected between September and
December, last year when banks in the country were not prepared to lift crude
oil for the Tema Oil Refinery.
He
explained that the transaction for the crude import was so structured on the
instruction of the Governor with the Ghana Commercial Bank in such a manner
that there was no way it could have exerted inflammatory pressure on the economy.
Mr Donkor
said the Governor made it clear that “the transaction should be held in a
margin account with the GCB and be isolated from the money supply system”.
Consequently,
he argued that any suggestion that the transaction could have fuelled inflation
has no merit because it never flowed into the system.
In a
related story, the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, on Tuesday stated
that the government has initiated action to audit the alleged overdrawn amount
by the former government from the Central Bank.
The
Minister, in an urgent statement to Parliament in reaction to a publication in
the Ghanaian Chronicle of Monday, March 12, said the government will do
everything possible to set the records straight and find out how the money was
used.
More…/
Bartels
saves water situation at Okponglo
Following
the directive by the Minister of Works and Housing to the management of the
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to stop water tankers from fetching water
from the Accra booster station of the company at Okponglo, a suburb of Accra,
the water supply situation to the eastern part of Accra has improved.
This is
because the reservoir which hitherto was always half empty because of
interruptions by tankers, now gets full and, therefore, the company is able to
pump water to areas where pipes have been laid.
The acting
Chief Manager of the Public Relations Department of the company, Captain Victor
Ansah, who announced this at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday, however
noted that although the flow to areas like Adenta, Madina, Taifa, Agogba, and
their environs, has drastically improved, the flow will not be for 24 hours and
seven days a week but ration will continue to enable a fair distribution of
water to the areas involved.
GRi…/
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WB won’t
dictate to Ghana
‘The
Ghanaian Times’ states that the World Bank has assured the government that
Ghana would be allowed to draw up its own poverty reduction document without
interference from any quarters as the nation moves to join the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
It has also
assured the government that the bank and the international donor community
would not dominate affairs as the country makes the move.
Mr Peter
Harrold, the World Bank Country Director, gave this assurance at the opening of
a three day harmonization workshop in Accra on Tuesday on the development of
the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy organized by the Ministry of Economic
Planning and Regional Cooperation.
Mr Harrold
gave the assurance that the World Bank would continue to “support the country,
morally and financially as it makes a move to take advantage of the HIPC
Initiative.
He called
for an institutional framework to put value and meaning to consensus arrived at
deliberations arrived at between government departments, civil society
organizations and the international donor community.
He appealed
to civil society organizations to fully participate and contribute effectively
to the debate to build a solid consensus on the poverty reduction strategy
being prepared as one of the requirements to join the HIPC Initiative.
Opening the
workshop, the Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation, Dr Kwesi
Nduom, said that the previous government, did not achieve the targets set in
the Ghana Vision 2020 document because structural and fundamental economic
problems such as debt management, lack of fiscal discipline, inability to
produce more food and lack of long term capital for small and medium scale
enterprises were not resolved.
“Our agenda
as a nation has changed dramatically over the past week, with the measures
introduced as part of the budget to build a sound foundation for the economy,”
he said.
More…/
Songhor law
to be abrogated
The
government will abrogate the law that appropriated the Songhor Lagoon and give the
land back to its original owners, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Lands, Mines
and Forestry, stated during a visit to the Ada Traditional Council to brief the
chiefs and people about the government’s position on the lagoon, over the
weekend.
By that
decision, he said the chiefs have to be paid royalties as pertained in other
parts of the country, while the government would also have to refund an amount
of four million dollars to Star Chemical.
Dr Afriyie
stated that there was the need for the government and the traditional council
to search for a strategic investor to mine the salt to avoid the situation in
which the lagoon would become a ‘free range’ for all and sundry.
Responding,
the chiefs supported the government’s position on the lagoon as elucidated by
the Minister and appealed to his Ministry to be circumspect in dealing with
people of the council.
They called
for steps to be taken for production of salt to begin in earnest.
GRi…/
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Yes! We
chopped 900b cedis
The
ex-deputy Minister of Finance Moses Asaga has admitted that the NDC government
actually overdrew 900billlion cedis from the Bank of Ghana, reports ‘The Daily
Guide’.
The
admission sharply contradicts the positions of Kwame Peprah the former Minister
of Finance and one of his deputies, Victor Selormey, all of whom have denied
any such withdrawals and challenged the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to produce
evidence to that effect.
However
last Sunday, March 11, 2001 when the minister for Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo
insisted that the NDC withdrew that huge sums of money on a GTV current affairs
programme, Talking Point, Asaga admitted that the NDC withdrew the amount which
was used for the settlement of deferred payments to contractors and those ow
workers salaries.
More…/
Former Vice
President in Motor Accident
Former Vice
President, Kow Nkensen Arkaah, has been involved in a motor accident.
The accident,
which occurred in the Cantonments area, a suburb of Accra, has resulted in the
former Vice President having a fractured arm and lacerations on the face. He is currently receiving treatment at the
37 Military Hospital.
Arkaah
served as Vice President to Rawlings in 1993 when he went into an unsuccessful
alliance with his National Convention Party (NCP) with the NDC.
He was
later to be assaulted by Rawlings at a Cabinet meeting in the Castle.
Arkaah was
seen recently at the inauguration of President Kufuor at the State House.
GRi.../
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How a
Minister lost 322 million cedis
The Dispatch
says Mallam Yusif Isa, the Minister for Youth and Sports, is in a fix but asks
whether his situation has any bearing on a betrayal from within his
Ministry? Over $45,000, about 322
million cedis, which would have been paid as winning bonuses to the Black
Stars, had they won in the Sudan two weeks ago, reportedly, got missing from
his suitcase which arrived after his arrival in the Sudan but without the
money.
Mallam Isa
telling his version to the paper said when officials of the Ghana Football Association
(GFA) could not get the Stars money before leaving, they asked him to bring it
since he was leaving Accra a day later.
He
expressed his reservations, “I was reluctant to collect the money because I
reminded them that when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power, we
criticized Mr. E.T. Mensah that he was doing the jobs of other people”.
The
Minister said he delayed for another day, just to collect the Black Stars’
bonuses. He said he then put the money
in his suitcase, which he sent to the airport, with another box of kit for the
Stars. On arrival in Sudan, only the kit box arrived but his suitcase was
nowhere to be found.
The
Minister in his narration named Mr Kojo Bonsu, who is gunning for the Ghana
Football Association’s chairmanship job, as having expressed his willingness to
undertake the trip with him, including purchasing at his own expense, two
different tickets linking him to Sudan.
Bonsu,
according the Sports Minister, came to him 30 minutes before their departure
from Sudan that he saw the suitcase on the conveyor belt at the airport.
“When we
opened the suitcase, some of my clothes and the monies, in a brown envelope
were missing,” he said.
GRi…/
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Filipinos
seize Atimpoku school
“Even in
our own country, we are treated like slaves who have been captured from the
war-front and should, therefore, be treated with contempt,” quotes ‘The
Ghanaian Chronicle’ of a member of the Aduana Royal Family of Atimpoku summing
up their plight.
Three
Filipinos, said to have strong connections with the former NDC government are
said to have hijacked a school building at the town and incorporated into a
modern hotel, Akosombo Continental Hotel, without the knowledge, let alone,
consent of the residents who put it up through communal labour.
Following
the persistent we-careless attitude being demonstrated by the three – Messrs
Marcelo, Lee and Roy – the youth of Atimpoku have vowed to use all means at
their disposal to reclaim their school building.
The paper
reports that about three years ago, the people of the town woke up one morning
to realise that a parcel of land lying adjacent to the former Presbyterian
Primary School, had been cleared.
When they
made inquiries, they were told that some white men had acquired the parcel of
land near the school to put up a hotel.
As the work
progressed, they were taken aback when they realised that a six-classroom block
and office belonging to the Presbyterian Primary School had become part of the
hotel.
The
six-classroom block and the office were to be used by the town or give to the
Asuogyaman District Assembly as offices for some of the departments of the
district.
All
attempts by the head of the Aduana family and some royal family members to
contact the encroachers for the past two years have been thwarted by some
notable NDC members like one, Kwabena Sarpong, who is believed to be a
consultant to the Filipinos.
Chronicle
gathered that during the 2000 elections, Marcelo and Roy contributed
substantially to the NDC campaign at Asuogyaman constituency and even donated a
campaign Land Rover for the party's use in the area.
GRi…/
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Akwasi
Agyeman refuses to surrender keys to residency
The Evening
News says almost eight months after leaving office as the Kumasi Metropolitan
Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman is yet to hand over the keys of the
official residence of the Metropolitan Chief Executive.
Investigations
by the paper indicate that though Nana Agyeman personally never occupied the
official residence throughout his tenure of office, his son, Dr Nana Prempeh
Agyeman, a medical officer with the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, popularly
known as Ogyam occupied it.
All efforts
by authorities of the Ashanti Regional co-ordinating Council (ARCC) and the
Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to get Nana Agyeman to surrender the keys
and for inventory to be taken have so far yielded no fruitful results.
Dependable
sources close to ARCC say that Mr Joe Issachar, Ashanti Regional Co-ordianting
Director and Mr Micheal Kobina Essandoh, the Metropolitan Co-ordinating
Director made numerous personal contacts with Nana Agyeman asking him to hand
over the keys but all he did was to keep on postponing the date.
Unconfirmed
reports say that Nana Agyeman is unable to surrender the keys because some
valuable items at the residence disappeared either before or soon after the
transfer of power from the NDC to the NPP.
GRi…/
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I was asked
to kill the Nungua Mantse
The Weekly
Insight says Mr Nyeya Yen, a leading cadre of the June 4 Movement and the
Interim National Co-ordinating Committee (INCC) of Defence Committees may
become a principal witness in the probe into extra-judicial killings under
Rawlings' rule.
"Mr
Yen is the first official of the Rawlings government who has publicly admitted
that some leaders of the 'revolution' knew about the extra-judicial
killings."
According
to him, some of the killings were ordered by people at the very top of the
“revolutionary” structure.
Mr Yen who
now lives in self-exile in London, United Kingdom recounted his own experience when
he was ordered by the leadership of the “revolution” to kill the Nungua Mantse
in 1982.
Mr Yen’s
account appearing the book “The Struggle for Popular Power” written by Mr Zaya
Yeebo, a former PNDC Secretary for Youth and Sports indicates that after complaints
from cadres in Nungua that their chief was obstructing the revolutionary
process, the INCC ordered that he should be arrested and placed in custody for
investigation.
Each time
the chief was arrested and placed in custody however, he managed to get some
soldiers to free him.
Yen claims
to have met a leader of the “revolutionary process” at the Gondar Barracks in a
discussion and, after briefing, the leader, run his forefinger across his own
throat indicating that the Nungua Chief should be killed.
Mr Yen said
he was shocked by this development because he had always believed that the
leadership did not know about the exra-judicial killings.
GRi…/
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Asiehofo on
rampage in the north
The Free
Press says information available to it indicates that the return of ‘prodigal
son’ Major (rtd) Suleimana Abubakari from exile to his hometown Tolon in the
Northern Region has created a state of insecurity for NDC members and
supporters at Tolon.
"Following
the return of the former Commander of the Recce Regiment a forthnight ago, all
NDC billboards and flags have been pulled down and destroyed, whilst two
offices belonging to NDC have been repainted in NPP colours making Tolon a
no-go area for the NDC."
Sources at
Tolon indicate that these actions were undertaken by the youth of Tolon to
express their anger at the prolonged exile of their royal, Major Suleimana by
the PNDC/NDC clique.
Suleimana
in 1979, was the Commander of the Recce Regiment, and was instrumental in
putting down the abortive May 15, 1979 uprising of then Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawings.
Therefore,
after the successful June 4, 1979 coup, he was one of the officers targeted for
instant justice but he escaped by the skin of the teeth and he was destined to
spend the next 21 years in exile.
Whilst in
exile, his father, the Tolon Na died but despite appeals from international
bodies such as Amnesty International, the NDC government refused to allow Major
Suleimana to return to Ghana to attend the funeral of his late father.
GRi…/
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