Sports
Minister gets the sack – As he refused to resign
Illegal tax
exemptions cost state 55% revenue
Money
wasn’t in suitcase – claim 2 key witnesses
I never
carried cash – E.T. Mensah
Election
2000 cost 86.2 billion cedis
FIDA wants
women DCEs
Elizabeth
Ohene is lying
Amedume’s
ghost haunts Spio Garbrah
Castle men
came for gold bars
Sports
Minister gets the sack – As he refused to resign
President
John Agyekum Kufor has revoked the appointment of Mallam Yusif Isa as Minister
of Youth and Sports, ‘The Ghanaian Times’ reports.
The
Government Spokesperson and Minister of Media Relations, Miss Elizabeth Ohene,
made this known at a news briefing at the State House in Accra on Thursday.
She was
reacting to a counter statement by Mallam Isa on a radio programme that he had
not resigned his position.
The
ex-Minister’s action was in response to an announcement contained in a
statement issued by the Office of the President on Wednesday night, signed by
Ms Ohene, to the effect that Mallam Isa had resigned his position over the
45,000 US dollars that got lost during his recent visit to Sudan, which
received wide media publicity.
Ms Ohene
said at a news briefing on Thursday that the President would have hoped to
allow Mallam Isa to leave office with some dignity, adding that, “this explains
why the President had persuaded him to resign.”
She said
that having agreed to the text of the announcement of his resignation, and
having since then gone on the airwaves to claim he had not resigned, Mallam Isa
left President Kufuor with no other choice but to revoke his appointment.
Throwing
more light on the issue, Ms Ohene said that the President had at a meeting with
Mallam Isa, impressed upon him that he was dissatisfied with the events
surrounding the loss of public funds that had been entrusted to his custody
amounting to about 46,000 US dollars, during his recent trip to Sudan.
“Whiles not
accusing the Mallam of having taken the money, the President was of the view
that Mallam had displayed a fundamental lack of judgement in the events leading
to the loss and particularly, his handling of the situation since then,” she
said.
More…/
Illegal tax
exemptions cost state 55% revenue
The
activities of corrupt tax collectors who illegally grant exemption and
loopholes, which make it possible for some businesses to avoid payment of
taxes, rob the country of 55 per cent of tax revenue.
To ensure
sanity and greater efficiency in the collection, therefore, the Ministry of
Finance is to restructure the entire tax administration system.
Finance
Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, stated at a three-day annual management seminar for
64 participants of the Internal Revenue Service drawn from regions in the
southern sector of the country, that the breaking down of the service-wide
objectives into specific targets and holding low-level manager’s responsible
would ensure the creation of a result-oriented climate.
He urged
the participants to set up concrete and measurable performance targets that
would contribute meaningfully towards achieving their objectives.
GRi…/
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Money
wasn’t in suitcase – claim 2 key witnesses
The Daily
Graphic says the Whirlpool of controversy surrounding the loss of $46,000
(Forty-six thousand US dollars) entrusted in the care of the Minister of Youth
and Sports, Mallam Yusuf Isa, has assumed a mind-boggling dimension as by
mid-day Thursday, it emerged that the amount, which was to be paid o the Black
Stars as winning bonus, was after all not put in the Minister’s luggage as was
widely reported.
The
Protocol Officer of the Ghana Football Association, Mr Alex Asante, has
debunked the Minister’s claim that the money was put in his luggage.
In an interview
with the paper on Thursday, Mr Asante disclosed that at about 6:30 pm on
February 22, the Minister called him and the GFA General Secretary, Mr W.K.
Agra, to come over to his office o see to the conveying of his luggage to the
airport to be checked in.
He said
when they got to the Minister’s office, they found two other persons – a lady
and a gentleman with him. Mallam Isa informed them that the $46,000 he was
taking to Khartoum was in one of the two bags he was taking along and he sought
their advice on whether that was all right.
Mr Asante
said both he and Mr Agra told the Minister that it was a dangerous thing to
keep so much money in a luggage that was going to be kept in the baggage
compartment because anything could happen on the way.
Based on
this advice, Mallam Isa asked the gentleman who was with him in the office to
open the green suitcase with a combination lock for the money to be taken out.
According
to Mr Asante, the money, which was in a black carrier bag, together with some
documents, were brought out and placed on the Minister’s table.
The GFA
Protocol Officer asserted that after the money had been taken out of the bag,
he took the minister’s luggage to the airport to be checked in. The story was
later confirmed by Mr Agra in a telephone interview.
In a
related development, however, Mallam Isa has stated emphatically that that the
missing $46,000 was part of the contents of his bag, which the Protocol Officer
of the ministry, Mr Alex Asante, took to the Airport to check in on a KLM flight
to Amsterdam en-route to Khartoum, Sudan.
He has,
therefore, described as a vicious and wicked fabrication the allegation that
the bag did not contain the money.
“In the
presence of Alex Asante and Worlanyo Agra, Secretary of the GFA, I loaded the
money, which was obviously too bulky for me to carry on me, into my bag which
contained my clothes and other items and closed it right under their eyes,” he
told the Graphic.
GRi…/
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I never
carried cash – E.T. Mensah
Mr E.T.
Mensah, the former Minister of Youth and Sports has denied ever carrying money
on him on official trips abroad, writes ‘The Daily Guide’.
He said
during his tenure of office, he followed laid down procedures on the transfer
of money outside the country.
The former
Minister was reacting to the suggestion that Mallam Isa carried the $46,000
cash because that has been the procedure of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Mensah said
his critics can confirm with Nana Brew Butler and Alhaji Jawula, if he ever
carried such colossal sums of money when travelling. “I never did that”, adding
that his outfit also did make sure that there was an accountant, somebody
highly placed who did handle the money, prepare the vouchers and then come back
to account for such money.
E.T. Mensah
said in some of the approvals for trips abroad if money had to be carried the
person who was carrying the money was indicated in the letter of approval.
However an
official of the Sports Ministry, Mr Kojo Fianoo, the Administrative Officer of
the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) and the Welfare Officer of the
National Team, the Black Stars, who travelled with the team to Sudan has
confirmed that it is usual to carry cash to pay as bonus to the players
immediately after the match. He said the matter of who carried the cash varied.
“Sometimes it is the team leader who carries the money, other times it is the
General Secretary of the GFA”, but he said the circumstances changed according
to the ready availability of the money.
The missing
$45,000 money was to be used to pay the winning bonuses of the Ghana Black
Stars players who met their Sudanese counterparts recently in the World Cup
qualifier, and lost by a lone goal.
GRi…/
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Election
2000 cost 86.2 billion cedis
The
Dispatch reports that the December 7 and 28, 2000 Parliamentary/Presidential
elections cost an estimated 86,258,809,649 cedis, (about 86.25 billion cedis),
the equivalent of $15,794,153 ($15.79 million).
Sources
close to the donor community indicated that the government contributed 35.8% of
the total cost - $5,654,487.
Other
contributors are UK DFID - $2,627,400 (16.6 per cent) DANIDA - $1,841,040 (11.7
per cent) E.U. - $1,412,640 (8.9 per cent); CIDA - $1,398,600 (8.9 per cent);
USAID (all contribution) - $1,386 ,110 (8.8 per cent); UNDP - $500,000 (3.2 per
cent); Italy $200,000 (1.2 per cent); Japan - $184,089 (1.2 per cent) and
Germany - $90,000 (0.5 per cent).
China
reportedly, also presented some equipment to the Electoral Commission but the
value was unknown.
GRi…/
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FIDA wants
women DCEs
The Weekend
Statesman reports that the International Federation of Women Lawyers,
FIDA-Ghana has called on President Kufuor to appoint more women to the position
of District Chief Executives (DCE) and District Assembly Members.
The
Federation also appealed to Baah Wiredu, Minister for Local Government and
Rural Development, to consider the appointment of at least 20% women on merit
to the position of DCEs.
According
to FIDA, there exist a large number of competent, qualified and efficient women
in the country who have demonstrated considerable leadership in the community
and informal organisations and have a lot to offer in public office. However, discriminatory attitudes,
perceptions, practices, unequal power relations between men and women will
continue to keep these competent women at bay, unless the President exercises a
positive action to appoint such women to public office.
The
involvement of women in decision-making and public office is also essential for
the achievement of both government and administration and sustainable
development in all areas of life.
FIDA also
observed the lack of express commitment in the budget statement to address the
issue of maternal mortality even though the manifesto of the NPP expressed the
Government’s commitment to reduce maternal mortality by 50%.
Complications
related to pregnancy and childbirth continue to rank among the leading courses
of mortality of women in this country and the maternal mortality rate is
sometimes as high as 1,140 deaths per 100,000 births in some hospitals in the
country. The high incidence of maternal deaths deprives families, communities
and the nation of the contribution of women in their productive years.
“The
government, is therefore, called upon to expressly support and implement its
commitment to reducing maternal mortality in the budget by providing for,
planning and giving particular attention to affordable and high quality
maternal and emergency obstetric care services,” FIDA said.
GRi…/
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Elizabeth
Ohene is lying
The Ghana
Palaver carries that residents close to the private house of President J.A.
Kufuor at the Airport Residential Area in Accra have described the statement
form the Office of the President, denying the use of state funds in the
renovation of the President’s residence as a “Cock and Bull” story.
Reacting to
the denial, the residents challenged Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Government
Spokesperson, to state whether the new airconditioners and other gadgets,
conveyed in government vehicles to the site, were all purchased by Mr Kufuor on
the open market.
According
to Ms Ohene, although state funds are being used for works outside the house,
including the construction of a new car park and the installation of security
lights. “No state funds have been used in any of the works in the house”.
“All the
work has been and is being done under the supervision of Mrs Theresa Kufuor…The
President does not need state funds to renovate his house,” she added.
Debunking “all
the jazz” as lies, the residents insisted that if even some minor jobs, such as
the fitting of curtains, were being undertaken by some private persons, they
wondered how Mrs Kufuor, a nurse by profession, could suddenly become either a
forewoman or a Works Superintendent overnight, to direct the renovation works,
being undertaken by skilled technical men.
“Even the
fact that the projects (both inside and outside the house) are taking place
simultaneously without even a pebble crossing the ‘border line’, must raise
eye-brows”, a security man in a neighbour’s house pointed out, adding.
“It is
interesting to observe the workmen, both within and outside, moving as a group
from the same establishment.”
The Palaver
says the case of the presidential house renovation is still open.
GRi…/
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Amedume’s
ghost haunts Spio Garbrah
The ‘Free
Press’ says Shakespeare’s philosophy that “we but teach bloody instructions
which, being taught, return to plague the inventor,” without doubt is haunting
the former Minister of Education, Mr Ekow Spio Garbrah, twenty years after his
mentor, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings caused the execution by firing squad of
three former heads of state and five commissioners, one of them, Rear Admiral
Joy Amedume, accused of using his position in government to contract a bank
loan of fifty thousand cedis.
Mr Spio
Garbrah’s subtle act to contract a loan of about $40,000 and cunningly ran away
from fulfilling his financial obligation has reportedly, left sour grapes in
the mouths of many Ghanaians and is under pressure to repay the mortgage loan
he acquired from the Home Finance Company (HFC) after he reneged on payments.
Confidential
documents sighted by the paper revealed that as at September 8, 2000, Mr Spio
Garbrah was indebted to the tune of $39,952.74 to the HFC.
Reliable
sources at HFC revealed that about four years ago, Mr Spio Garbrah negotiated
with the HFC for a loan to put up a building. As a collateral for the loan, Mr
Garbrah used a mortgage protection plan Insurance scheme with the Vanguard
Assurance Co Lt.
However,
after collecting the loan, Mr Spio Garbrah started reneging on the regular
repayments and this prompted the HFC to fire a warning letter to Vangurard
Assurance, the guarantors of the loan to ensure that it is repaid. The said
letter, dated October 4, 2000 and signed by Mrs. Emily Clegg Lamptey stated that
his balance now stood at 39,952.74 dollars.
Efforts to
get Mr Spio Garbrah to resettle the loan had proved futile.
GRi…/
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Castle men
came for gold bars
The
Ghanaian Chronicle says soldiers attached to the Osu Castle, the seat of the
ex-NDC government, carted away four bars of unrefined gold from the residence
of Alhaji Shehu Jack Bebli, as their share of the 2.4 billion cedis gold
robbery operation.
The
disclosure was made by the investigator of the case, Hansen Gove, who was
testifying in court on Thursday.
He said he
could not identify the names of the soldiers, except one Tetteh, of the Castle
Security.
Gove told
the court that some soldiers attached to the Castle and a white man went to the
residence of Jack Bebli, at New Achimota, the day after the robbery and took
four bars of gold which were in the custody of Jack Bebli, as their share.
He said his
investigation showed that the names of the soldiers at the Castle made
available to him did not exist.
The witness
said that even Tetteh could not be identified at the Castle, because soldiers
attached to the seat of government bearing the name Tetteh all denied knowledge
of the robbery.
Philip
Asamoah, alias Agingo; Isaac Frimpong, alias Nii Baby Tei; Patrick Boakye Mpra,
Ex-Corporal James Doli, Augustus Oko Odartey, Jack Bebli and Kofi Bokor, alias
Kofi Bebli, are charged for their involvement in the gold robbery and they have
all pleaded not guilty.
Gove in his
three-consecutive-day appearance before the trial High Court Judge, Justice
Richard Apaloo, said that further investigation he conducted revealed that the
remaining gold bars were shared among those who participated in the operation
and that Philip Asamoah and George Acheampong, who are at large, received their
share of the loot.
GRi…/
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