Inside story of the Buduburam Madness
House to probe use of 10m Euro grant
K’si Liberians condemn colleagues over riots
Keep your hands clean
Call for lecturer’s resignation
CEPS pays 50bn cedis to private company
Bombshell in Parliament
FBI, IRS hunt $20m quality grain ‘loot’
Ex-minister, others, hit by SCOA liquidation
Rawlings sent me “juju”
Deputy Ministers’ vetting today
HIPC will fail – University Lecturers
The Independent
Inside story of the Buduburam Madness
Ghanaians last Friday woke up to a nasty Liberian mob action that vandalized Police and Fire Stations at Gomoa Buduburam, alleging that the police was covering a Ghanaian who had inflicted severe wounds on a Liberian.
“The latest act is one of the many acts of misbehaviour by the refugees,” one policeman told The Independent, a private owned newspaper, his story being corroborated by a colleague. In the recent past, there have been reports of some Liberians extracting monies from unsuspecting citizens some of who are fellow Liberians.
Investigations by the paper revealed that the behaviour of the refugees is perhaps, buoyed by the high level of security that they enjoy in Ghana.
Apart from being covered by the United Nations charter on refugee status, most of them are also covered by their relationship with the custodians of the Buduburam land-the Royals of Gomoa Fetteh, a nearby town, and other surrounding Gomoa villages.
Most of the Royals are married to the Liberians where wives and children from such marriages have been given lands by their Ghanaian fathers from the Royal families.
“Many of the acts committed by the Liberians have some undercurrent”, one indigene of Fetteh who spoke on condition of anonymity hinted.
Most of the Liberians through the intermarriages now see themselves as Ghanaians when it comes to issues bordering on rights with some seeing themselves as more Ghanaian than the indigenous Ghanaians.
“After all, most of them are backed by the Chiefs of the area”, a fuming Fetteh indigene said.
The Liberians, even those with Ghanaian parents, are however said to play the Liberian card first when it comes to disputes between a Liberian and a Ghanaian.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
House to probe use of 10m Euro grant
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, on Monday directed the Majority Leader to investigate allegations by Dr Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Cooperation, that an European Union (EU) grant, 10 million Euro, meant for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) projects has been misapplied by the NDC government, reports the state-owned Ghanaian Times.
Dr Nduom made the allegation on March 16, 2001 when contributing to the government’s 2001 budget statement in Parliament but escaped attacks from the Minority Group when he was asked to provide proof.
He said that the EU had written to the government to demand the refund of the loans since its review had indicated that there were malpractices.
Numerous points of order from the minority did not yield any result to compel Dr Nduom to come out with the proof or otherwise of his allegation.
But on Monday, the issue was again raised by Mr Kosi Kedem (NDC-Hohoe South) while he was contributing to a motion for the House to approve the estimates for the Ministry of Education for the year ending 31 December 2001.
This time, the Speaker initially said that Dr Nduom should be contacted on the matter.
But upon a second thought, he said that the allegation was very serious and should not be allowed to rest so everything should be done to find out the truth or otherwise of it.
This was after Papa Owusu Ankomah, the Deputy Majority Leader asked Mr Kedem to let the matter rest since it had already been dealt with.
More…/
K’si Liberians condemn colleagues over riots
Liberians in Kumasi have condemned their colleagues at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in the Central Region for their recent riots, resulting in the destruction of the UNICR office, which also houses the Police and Fire Stations.
In a statement issued here on Monday, they reminded their colleagues all over the country that as foreigners, they were bound to respect and abide by the laws of the country.
Signed by Mrs Marie Richardson and Mr Amos Gibson, spokespersons for the group, the statement said: “It was unfortunate for our colleagues at the Buduburam camp to have attacked the police and not allowed the law to take its course”.
It urged the Ghanaian authorities to ruthlessly deal with all those who took the law into their own hands.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Keep your hands clean
The state-owned Daily Graphic reports that President J.A. Kufuor has cautioned ministers to guard against the trappings of office and instead, keep their attention focused on the main task ahead of them.
“We cannot allow anybody to ruin this great opportunity that we have. Let us keep our hands clean, our heads clear, our hearts charitable and let us work to justify the trust reposed in us,” President Kufuor said.
The President, who was addressing an orientation workshop for ministers of state and other high ranking government officials at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) at Greenhill near Legon, Accra, at the weekend, said the first thing they ought to do is for them to exercise power with humility.
He said the trappings of power are very seductive and unless they keep their attention focused on the main task ahead, “we can soon become masters of form rather than of substance”, he stressed.
President Kufuor noted that any act of corruption will sink the government and stressed that he would be unforgiving with any minister who will be involved in such practices.
He reminded the ministers that the quickest way for the government to lose the goodwill that it has is for members to treat the people without due sensitivity.
Rather than that, he said, “let us be humble, let us not be ostentatious and let us show deference to those we govern”.
More…/
Call for lecturer’s resignation
Students of Sarbah Hall for the University of Ghana, Legon, on Monday staged a peaceful demonstration to demand the immediate resignation of their Senior Hall Tutor, Mrs Margaret Amoakohene.
This was after a vote-of-no confidence had been passed on her by the “Sarknesset”, the highest decision making body of the Hall, at an emergency meeting last Saturday.
The students, after the low-key demonstration, presented a resolution passed by the “Sarknesset”, to the Hall Master, Professor Kwasi Yankah, to act on their demands.
The resolution, signed by the Secretary of “Sarknesset”, Ms Mildred Amah Erskine, said the students find the attitude of the Senior Hall Tutor to be very unpleasant and unfortunate.
“We wish to state that the safety of the Senior Hall Tutor cannot be guaranteed. It would be at her peril if she goes contrary to students’ wishes and acts as Senior Hall Tutor”, the resolution cautioned.
It called for the reversal of the decision to confiscate refrigerators and make those using them non-residents.
The students said the actions and inactions of the Senior Hall Tutor are detrimental to “the interest of the Viking spirit”.
Giving a background to the student’s action, Mr Yunus Abdul-Hamid Dumbe, Welfare Secretary of the students, said Mrs Amoakohene gave a 24-hour ultimatum to students using refrigerators at the hall, to get them out or they would be removed by force.
He said the directive, which was given without any consultation with the students, infuriated them and they called for a meeting with her to discuss the issue.
Mrs Amoakohene could, however, not be traced on campus for her to react to the allegations made by the students.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
CEPS pays 50bn cedis to private company
Some officers of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), are at pains to understand why the present government should continue to allow Gateway Services Limited (GSL) to conduct destination inspection of imported goods through the Tema Port, according to the state-owned ‘The Evening News’.
GSL, a private company set up by people with strong connection to the NDC, was contracted by the former government to operate a scanner at the Tema Port and carry out destination inspection.
Last year, the company made a cool 50 billion cedis on its operation representing its fee of one per cent of the Cost Insurance Freight (CIF) value of the imported goods, which it tied to the declaration on entries for payment of revenue by importers.
In a letter to the paper, the officers who described themselves as concerned CEPS officials said it was wrong for the previous government to have ceded the constitutionally mandated functions of CEPS to a private company.
They quoted Article 176 of the Constitution, which in brief says all revenues or other moneys raised or received for the purposes of or on behalf of the government should be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
It said, it is only an Act of Parliament that such moneys are payable into some other fund establishment for specific purposes.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Bombshell in Parliament
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Techiman, Hon Prince Ernest Oduro-Mensah, last Friday threw a bombshell in the House when he declared that chairs meant for the Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadia were grossly under-supplied by the then Sports Ministry, headed by Hon. Enoch Teye Mensah, now shadow Minister for Sports, reports the independent daily, ‘The Daily Guide’.
According to Hon Oduro-Mensah, who was contributing to the debate for the approval of the 2001 budgetary estimate for the Sports Ministry, under the recent renovation arrangement of the two stadiums, the Accra Sports Stadium was to be supplied with 25,000 pieces of plastic chairs, while the Kumasi Sports stadium receive 45,000 pieces of the chairs.
However, after the renovation, the Accra Sports Stadium has only 10,000 realizing a shortfall of 15,000 pieces while the Kumasi Sports Stadium has 8,000 also, grossly under supplied by 37,000 pieces.
The MP’s claim, was however challenged twice by the former Minister E.T. Mensah who stated that the figures being given by Hon. Oduro-Mensah were wrong but he maintained that his figures were right and that he had physically been to the two stadiums to count the chairs himself.
According to the Techiman MP, the Sports Ministry decided to build an Olympics sports stadium for which a land had been acquired with feasibility studies costing 1.8b cedis sank into it. Sadly not a single block has been laid thereby throwing the scarce cash down the drain.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
FBI, IRS hunt $20m quality grain ‘loot’
The private-owned Ghanaian Chronicle reports that American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), their Inland Revenue Services (IRS) and one gutsy African American are in the centre of a relentless push to unravel and possibly recover part of Ghana’s $22 million that had been bilked by an African American lady, Ms Juliet Renee Cotton in the Quality Grain scandal that rocked the country last year.
The Rawlings Government facilitated her access to the staggering sum to grow about 22,000 acres of rice at Aveyime and other parts of the country.
Currently less than 550 acres have been developed at the Aveyime site where Mr Vincent Asiseh, the bent Press Secretary of the NDC and ex-Labour Minister who acted as brokers or got their spouses to be block contractors were implicated.
Not a cent of the $22 million is remaining, much of the money having evaporated in an incredible orgy of corrupt acquisitions.
Ms Cotton blew the Ghanaian taxpayers money on haute couture, mansions and world class automobile marques, follow-ups by the paper have revealed.
More…/
Ex-minister, others, hit by SCOA liquidation
The former minister of Roads and Highways and current MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA), Dr Ato Quarshie is among a number of individuals and institutions affected by the surprise liquidation announced by SCOA, an automobile company that provided Peugeot cars for MPs in the last Republican Parliament.
Dr Quarshie turned up at a liquidation meeting following winding up proceedings that revealed that the Ghana Fire Service had paid a deposit of $200,000 for a Fire tender that was not delivered up to the time the company went into receivership.
Records tendered by Nii Quaye-Mensah and Associates, consultant to the official liquidators showed that Dr Quarshie paid a deposit of 20 million cedis for one of he Peugeot 406SR cars.
Other individuals and institutions who had paid deposits and those owed by SCOA include the Midwives Council of Ghana $41,900.00, Ghana Textiles - $33,000.00 for a van, Ghana Post Company Ltd. - $19,800.00, Environmental Protection Agency - $60,000 for one Iveco bus, Adra Ghana Ltd. - $12,100, Association of African Universities – 60 million cedis, Opportunities Industrialisation Centre – 121 million cedis for a chevy blazer.
Other sundry creditors include AMA, ECG, Enterprise Insurance, Vanguard, MPMG, Total Ghana Telecom, Ventures and Acquisitions and FMO – Netherlands, a finance house, which is owed $411,824.00.
SCOA, originally a 60 per cent owned French company was acquired controversially in a storm of protests by a group calling itself the SCOA Oppressed Shareholders led by Messrs S.A. Sowa and A.N. Kwabi.
They were rolled over by the Boss of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Mr Yeboa Amoah who suspiciously, allowed an offshore company called Amica Holdings to buy the shares after a demonstrably questionable de-listing exercise from the Ghana Stock Exchange regulations, the paper gathered.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Rawlings sent me “juju”
The Crusading Guide, an independent newspaper, carries that Mr Alex Asabere is one of the many sons of this land who had to flee the country to escape the hatchet of the erstwhile PNDC government.
As chairman of the erstwhile Ghana Democratic Movement (GDM) based in the United Kingdom – a movement that had overtly demonstrated a stiff opposition to the illegitimate military rule of J.J. Rawlings – Mr Asabere said he had suffered all sorts of harassments.
Alex last Friday told a cross section of the Ghana press that Mr Rawlings and his accomplices tried to implicate him by mailing to him a stuff believed to be cocaine and ‘voodoo’. He alleged also that the PNDC government attempted bribing him with a $250,000 dollar purse to keep his mouth shut.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the chairman of the erstwhile GDM revealed how he was placed under surveillance, and his telephone lines bugged by cohorts of Mr Rawlings.
He also spoke of how his wife, who visited Ghana in 1996 to bury her father, was arrested, drilled and detained for three months, adding that it was the intervention of the late Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II that secured her release.
According to Mr Asabere, his passport was confiscated by the Rawlings regime and released to him only this year.
He used the forum to admonish Ghanaians to rest assured saying that the Almighty God had removed once and for all the fears that had gripped them for 20 years.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Deputy Minsters’ vetting today
The Appointments Committee of Parliament will today vet some of the 34 Deputy Ministers nominated by the President, and the rest during the recess, which commences on Friday.
Disclosing this to The Statesman, a private newspaper, a source close to the committee said the decision to shift most of the vetting to the recess was the best in the present circumstances when the House is heavily loaded with business.
“We couldn’t do away with the most important business of debating and approving the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government during the past few weeks.” Thus the five-week recess would be the most convenient period to vet the new Deputy Ministers, adding “The exercise is likely to take almost two weeks”.
The source, however, noted that the approval of the committee’s report by the House would have to be delayed until Parliament resumes on May 8, 2001.
Reacting to last Friday’s Weekend Statesman publication that the vetting would be done during the Second Meeting in May, our source said the Committee’s report would be ready for approval immediately Parliament reconvenes from the recess.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
HIPC will fail – University Lecturers
A group of lecturers in the Economics Department of the University of Ghana have come out in the open to declare that the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, imposed on the country by President J.A. Kufuor, will fail.
According to the Ghana Palaver, a mouthpiece of the opposition NDC, the group, after a careful study of what HIPC holds in store for the country, they have come to the firm conclusion that the ‘deal’ will rather favour the promoters and not the receivers.
“Ghana is only being asked to postpone her debt commitments. In effect, nothing is being erased, so long as the world trade pattern, which favours the developed countries continues,” the leader of the group said.
He particularly cited the case of Britain, the most vocal HIPC advocate, “which with one hand is promising grants to Ghana, and grabbing all it can from the proceeds it is gathering from its gold reserves it is flooding on the world market, as a typical example of inflicting more wounds in Ghana’s economy, while at the same time offering prescriptions for their treatments”.
The so-called HIPC, he said, has nothing in its programme, which will strengthen the productive sectors and thus help reduce the country’s reliance on imports.
“Besides, there is no guarantee of these latter-day friends of Ghana assisting the developing countries to get a fair deal in world trade, including fair prices for our primary products, especially on cocoa and coffee”, he pointed out.
Instead, he noted, Britain and her economic allies are doing nothing to discourage the plans to step up the production of synthetic chocolates, a more seen as a direct act of economic sabotage against the producer countries.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com