Disaster at K’Bu Cardio
BOST boss interdicted
Reconciliation process not a vendetta – President
Budget for Govt Business stopped
Atta Mills is my man
Spio Garbrah wants shares in Guide
NDC fails to pay 12bn cedis Loan
Bank of Ghana neglects parliamentary order
U.S. Company RIPS Ghana of Billions of cedis
Ex-ministers against court order
Disaster at K’Bu Cardio
The state-own Daily Graphic reports that intermittent power outages at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra have destroyed equipment valued at millions of cedis and thousands of Deutschmarks at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the National Cardiothoracic Centre of the hospital.
The destroyed equipment include an automatic switch and transformer in a dialysis machine, the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) of a ventilator, both valued at 65,000 Deutsemarcks and 12 air conditioners which cost 96 million cedis.
Apart from this loss, the hospital could have suffered a major disaster when a ventilator – an artificial breathing machine at the unit – caught fire as a result of the persistent power cuts last Sunday.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, who conducted the paper round the ICU of the centre on Thursday explained that with the presence of oxygen tanks in the ward, if the fire had not been controlled as fast as it was, the oxygen could have aggravated the fire, causing it to spread to other parts of the hospital.
Dr E.A. Aniteye of the ICU said on Saturday March 24, the ward suffered continuous power outages and he, as a result directed that all patients in that ward be transferred to another ward and that was what saved the lives of the patients.
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BOST boss interdicted
A centrespread story of the Graphic said the Government has ordered the immediate interdiction of Dr Kwabena Donkor, acting General Manager of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company.
A statement issued in Accra and signed by the Minister of Energy, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, asked Mr Donkor to surrender all official property and vehicles in his possession to the company.
According to the statement, the action is part of ongoing investigations to establish the full scope and magnitude of the malfeasance, which occurred at BOST.
It said the ministry has constituted a three-member team to investigate all contracts entered into by BOST since its inception in 1998.
The statement mentioned members of the committee as Mrs Naomi Agram, Chartered Accountant (SSNIT) and Mr Sefa Dankwa, Quantity Surveyor (ECG), Mr Samuel Ntsiaba, a lawyer who works with the Ghana Supply Commission (GSC), is the chairman.
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Reconciliation process not a vendetta – President
President John Agyekum Kufuor said on Thursday that the nation’s reconciliation process should be conducted with great care and circumspection so that it would only lead to the establishment of a better future for the nation, and not to settle old scores or re-open old wounds, says state own daily, ‘The Ghanaian Times’.
He gave the assurance that the National Reconciliation Committee to be set up for the purpose, would be mindful of this in its work to avoid revenge and vendetta.
President Kufuor was responding to a suggestion contained in a document presented to him by a delegation of the Muslim leadership across the country, who called on him at the State House in Accra.
The document touched on national reconciliation, as well as other topical issues of national concern, and matters affecting the general progress of the Muslim population in the country.
The delegation was jointly led by the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, and the Ameer and Missionary in-charge of the Ghana, Maulvi A. Wahab Adam.
The President said that the necessary resources would be mobilized to fight corruption on a massive scale, adding that the government considered the war against corruption as a necessity.
“Corruption,” the President said, “distorts everything that is beautiful in social life”.
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Budget for Govt Business stopped
The budget of the Office of the Leader of Government Business has been withdrawn. This followed opposition from the Minority Group that the way some ministries had been placed under the Government Business was not proper.
The Minority noted also that the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) was a constitutional body, and that under article 86 clause (3), the National Development Planning Commission shall be responsible to the President.
When Mr. J.H. Mensah, Leader of Government Business, was moving the motion for the approval of the 2001 Annual Estimates for his office, it came to light that the NDPC, Regional Planning and Economic Co-operation and Integration, Parliamentary Affairs and Private Sector Development had all been put under the leader of government business.
The Minority argued that the other sectors other than the NDPC, have Ministers appointed by the President, and they should therefore have separate budgets.
After Mr Kosi Kedem (NDC-Hohoe South), Mr Dan Abodakpi (NDC-Keta) and Mr S.P. Adamu (NDC-Bibiani) made their submissions, Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance, suggested that the budget estimates should be reviewed and brought back to the House.
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Atta Mills is my man
The former minister for Education, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has given hints that Prof. J.E. A. Mills would be re-packaged to lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2004 election., reports the Daily Guide, a private daily.
Spio-Garbrah said Prof. Mills still has the hearts of many in the NDC as their leader for 2004 except that this time around the party’s national delegates congress has to approve of him.
He emphasised that even though those who were opposed to Prof. Mills had the opportunity to do so at the party’s congress in ho last year, they did not do it because Mills was very popular.
Spio-Garbrah who is at the moment the chairman of the party’s Media Relation Committee said they have identified 20 reasons why the NDC lost the last elections.
Consequently, a 16-member committee has been set up to tour the nation and help re-organise the party for the 2004 elections, he disclosed.
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Spio Garbrah wants shares in Guide
The former Minister of Education in the out-gone NDC government, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has advocated for a share of a percentage of the sales of the “Daily Guide” March 27 2001 issue.
According to him, the paper had used his “modest” name to boost sales of that edition, by publishing an untrue story about him.
Mr Spio-Garbrah made the claim on a “Joy FM” programme last Thursday morning.
He asserted that the story published by the paper that day was a concocted one. What is more, he said, the letter in reference was not signed and so it could not be a true story.
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NDC fails to pay 12bn cedis Loan
The failure by the defeated NDC to re-pay a twelve billion cedis ‘loan’ contracted from Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL) during last year’s electioneering campaign has landed two of the company’s management staff in trouble, reports the Weekend Statesman, a private weekly.
The board of the company has forced the Managing Director, Etienne Popeler, to resign and sent the Financial Controller, K.A. Asante on indefinite leave.
The loan to the NDC was discovered earlier this year, during an audit of the company’s accounts and the bewildered and angry board had no option but to descend hard on the two men.
The statesman has learnt that during last year’s electioneering campaign, the cash-strapped NDC approached Popeler for a loan to fund its activities. Sure of victory, the party promised to repay the money immediately after the election.
Obviously fearing for his position, if he did not play ball, the ex-MD directed his financial controller to pay the amount to the party. But since the elections, all efforts to get the NDC to pay back the money have been unsuccessful.
Our reporter saw a letter on a notice board at the company’s premises at the harbour area in Takoradi, informing the workers of the ex-MD’s resignation on February 19.
The letter, signed by his secretary, assigned no reasons for the resignation, but stated that the board had appointed Patrick Berny-Tarente to act as Managing Director.
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Bank of Ghana neglects parliamentary order
The total recovery of about ten million pounds (£10m) loan facility granted by the Midland Bank Ltd of UK to some Ghanaian “entrepreneurs” which was guaranteed by the Bank of Ghana has become a mirage, the Free Press, an independent paper, reports.
This follows the inability of Bank of Ghana, which guaranteed the loan for the beneficiaries to fully recover the loan mainly because of laxities on the part of the bank and lack of transparency and discipline in the financial sector during the last administration.
The Bank of Ghana in 1994, during Governor Agama’s time, guaranteed a £10m short-term credit from Midland Bank of UK for some Ghanaian businesses. Majority of the beneficiaries, some of whom cannot be easily traced, for lack of proper records are refusing to pay.
Investigations conducted by the “Free Press” revealed that as at December 1997, only 1.4 billion cedis out of 4.6 billion cedis, representing about 20% had been received by the Bank of Ghana even thought the loan was supposed to be a short-term one.
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U.S. Company Rips Ghana of Billions of cedis
The Dispatch says the government should maintain the GNPC shares in Westel and rather stop Western Wireless International, (WWI) a US company from ripping Ghana of billions of cedis. WWI and GNPC jointly own Westel.
Dispatch says its investigations have revealed that it is the policy of WWI to pay its employees overseas net of tax. Westel has had to pay tax on behalf of WWI expatriate staff who have been seconded to Westel to the tune of over 2 billion cedis within two years. Several trips to Ghana by some WWI personnel were charged to Westel accounts.
Sources close to WWI have confirmed that negotiations with Lucent Technologies of Germany for GSM mobile cellular system worth over $25,000 was conducted by WWI without GNPC’s participation. The Lucent team was in Ghana for over six months and Westel bore a lot of the expenses.
Against all sound advice, Westel’s head office is in rented premises, costing nearly $180,000 (1.3 billion cedis) a year, instead of buying a house. Again, Westel, at the insistence of WWI, rented accommodation for its expatriate staff and paid $60,000 (420 million cedis) as two years’ advance payment at a time when a similar house could be bought for $48,000 (336 million cedis).
The GNPC has its problems but WWI has been ripping Ghana off, the private paper concluded and asked the Kufuor government to look-out for WWI’s tactics.
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Ex-ministers against court order
The dispute over the purchase of official cars by 17 former ministers of the NDC government took a different turn with the complainants petitioning the Court of Appeal after their attempt to stay an Accra High Court order had been defeated, reports the state own evening paper, The Evening News.
The High Court presided over by Mrs Justice Georgina Wood of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court Judge had affirmed her earlier orders to the ex-Ministers to pay the differences being the actual cost of their official vehicles or to surrender them to the registrar within seven days.
She had explained that the court order was meant to keep the properties complained of or any moneys alleged and due and being owed paid into court so that the successful party at the substantive trial will not be left with empty or useless victory.
Dissatisfied, the ex-Ministers, led by Mr Mike Hammah, NDC MP for Effutu had repeated the motion for the stay of execution at the Court of Appeal.
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