Confusion in Parliament…As Apraku files motion against Peprah
Sam Jonah says AGC was reckless in hedging policy
Rawlings Jet in trouble
‘Rawlings Tape’ palaver deepens…Independent probe demanded!
Arkaah haunts Rawlings
Confusion in Parliament…As Apraku files motion against Peprah
The Ghanaian Times in its top story, says the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Justice D.F. Annan, yesterday has a tough time in deciding whether a motion calling on the Minister of Finance to resign for incompetence and mismanagement of the economy, could be accepted for debate in the House.
The Times says the Speaker, after a heated debate interspersed with heckling, on the propriety of the motion, based on Article 82 of the Constitution and Parliamentary Standing Order 108, admitted the motion for the debate to commence.
The motion standing in the name of Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minority Spokesman on Finance, read: "That this House recognising the serious economic crisis that has resulted from the incompetence and mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy by the Minister of Finance, hereby calls on the Minister to resign".
An amendment motion sponsored by Mr Doe Adjaho, Majority Chief Whip, Squadron-Leader Clend Sowu, NDC MP for Anlo, Mr A.S.K. Bagbin, NDC MP for Nadowli South and Mr John Tia, NDC MP for Talensi, was also tabled. It read: "That this House recognising the current economic difficulties facing the nation due largely to unfavourable external economic factors, such as the falling cocoa and rising crude oil prices, hereby calls on the Minister of Finance to introduce as a matter of urgency, measures to alleviate the said difficulties."
According to the Times, the Majority Group insisted that a motion calling on a Minister to resign amounted to a vote of censure, in which case, the motion needed to be supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all members of Parliament.
The group said this was not done, so the motion was not properly before the House and should, therefore not be accepted for debate.
The Minority side on the other hand said the motion was a moral appeal to the Minister to resign, considering his poor handling of the national economy.
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Sam Jonah says AGC was reckless in hedging policy
The Daily Graphic reports the Chief Executive of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), Mr Sam Jonah, as conceding that the company’s hedging arrangement was a reckless venture.
"We took a bet on the price of gold. We thought it would go down and we took a position", Mr Jonah is quoted as saying in the "Financial Times" of London November 8 edition.
The Graphic, quoting the Financial Times report in its lead story, says Ashanti went into hedging by buying cheap and high risk derivatives which AngloGold, the South African gold miner said it would not buy because the risks were unquantifiable.
The Graphic refers to an article n the Financial Times, which said Ashanti, the Ghanaian gold mining company that almost defaulted in October, was brought to its knees by holding cheap, high risk derivatives known as ‘exotics’. The article, the paper says, stated that "several investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, a long-standing corporate adviser to Ashanti, sold the company the exotics as an insurance policy against the falling price of gold".
It said a sudden turnabout in the gold price caused by a declaration by European Central Banks, limiting sales and loans of gold. Left Ashanti and several other gold producers dangerously exposed and in some cases, vulnerable to cash calls from the banks.
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Rawlings Jet in trouble
In a front-page banner headline story, the Guide says the Minister of Finance, Mr Kwame Peprah, is exposing further, the shady circumstances surrounding the purchase of a presidential jet for President J.J. Rawlings.
The paper says two months after the Minister told Ghanaians that the jet was leased from "Wings Aviation Inc." of the United States, he has ‘turned round 360 degrees’ to say the Gulf Stream III aircraft with the state of the art technology, was leased from a company called Gallen Limited "an affiliate of HSBC".
The Guide says in a memorandum sent to Parliament and signed by Mr Kwame Peprah, he has invited the Members of Parliament to consider and approve the lease of the aircraft.
The paper says its investigations have it that the lessor of the jet, Gallen Limited, is located in the Cayman Islands, one of the known offshore islands for drug barons and money launderers.
According to the Guide, the offshore countries of Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man and Panama, are known in international circles as havens for corrupt and dubious business practices and corrupt politicians. The paper says Mr Kwame Peprah, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency and published in the September 6, 1999issue of the "Daily Graphic", put an outright purchase cost of the jet at $16.3 million.
The Guide says in the memorandum presented to Parliament, it puts the figure at $16.680 million.
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‘Rawlings Tape’ palaver deepens…Independent probe demanded!
The Crusading Guide says three leading Opposition politicians, Mr J.H. Mensah, Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Kojo Armah, Convention Party (CP) Parliamentary Leader and Professor George Hagan, CP presidential aspirant, have added their voices to the call for a proper independent investigation into and identification of those who featured in a conversation recorded on a tape that has become known variously as:
"The Killer Tape", "Tape from the Rawlings Episode", "Rawlings Tape" "TapeGate" and "The Statesman Tape". The paper says Mr J.H. Mensah expressed surprise at the ‘red herring’ method being employed by the police in ascertaining the veracity of the tape, which had already been dismissed as forgery, but conceded that it had always been the ‘modus operandi’ of the NDC in such matters.
"As the man ‘Albert’ was allegedly taped, confessing to a crime, have the police been able to get down to identifying the voice with the man and so on and so forth", Mr Mensah is said to have asked. He is quoted as adding that "it is the job of the police to follow all clues, instead of worrying about journalists".
The paper says Mr Kojo Armah insisted that there is the need to set up an independent inquiry into the alleged ‘forged’ tape and the allegations contained in it.
According to Prof. Hagan, the investigation of the tape via an independent inquiry, would be in the interest of the government. He is said to have also suggested that if he were in charge of the government, he would have brought experts from outside Ghana to carry out the investigations, concludes the Crusading Guide.
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Arkaah haunts Rawlings
In a front-page story, the Independent says one of the lowest points of the Rawlings Presidency since Ghana returned to constitutional rule, is when the younger President is alleged to have beaten his Vice-President, Kow Nkensen Arkaah, on December 28, 1995, at a Cabinet meeting.
The paper says that pugilistic display climaxed months of turbulent relations between the two leaders of the nation and earned Ghana a negative image abroad.
The Independent says haunted by that sordid past, President Rawlings, who today has very cordial relations with his Vice-President, Prof. John Atta Mills, is introducing a "Vice-Presidency Succession Bill" that would make it easy for the removal of a sitting Vice-President if he and the President are on any level of collision.
The bill, the paper says, seeks to make a Vice-President resign if he so conducts himself in a manner that brings him into direct conflict with the President. According to the paper, the Minority Leader, Mr J.H. Mensah, has already condemned the proposed bill, saying that it will undermine the integrity
of the Vice-President.
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