John Mahama Spills The Beans

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 31 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
VICE PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama has to some extent explained why his government has been economical in its spending pattern.

He attributes the steep cuts in government expenditure to efforts to narrow the country’s deficit, which has been pursued since the year 2009.

Speaking in Accra at an international conference organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) under the theme ‘The impact of the global financial crisis on West African states: leveraging public-private dialogue for development’, the Vice President noted that the cut in government spending has been the result of the global economic crisis, which has limited government’s borrowing options.

Whereas stimulus packages were pursued in other countries, Mr. Mahama indicated that the option was not available to Ghana since, according to him, major sources of external finance such as Official Development Assistance (ODA), revenue from export and import duties were affected by the crisis, thereby constraining growth through its effects on government spending.

In the case of Ghana, the Vice President indicated that “These effects were so severe that in 2009 Ghana had little option but to turn to the IMF and the World Bank for financial support to close the huge resource gap in government finances and to address the balance of payment weakness”.

This, according to him, was the reason behind the government’s decision to outline a number of strategies to mitigate the effect of the crisis on the poor and restore stability to the economy, including providing deprived basic school pupils with uniforms.

Aside that, he noted that government was also compelled by prevailing circumstance to also rationalize its expenditure by cutting down on wasteful expenses, including those on foreign travel, workshops and conferences.

Furthermore, he said it informed its decision to consolidate 27 ministries into 24 in order to rationalize its expenditure, and reduce the number of ministers from 87 to 72.

The decision to increase capitation grant from GH¢3.00 to GH¢4.50 (50%), provide free exercise books to pupils in all basic schools and the review of petroleum taxes, with the aim of reducing domestic petroleum prices, were all said to have been part of measures to cushion Ghanaians.

Meanwhile, provisional estimates from the Ghana Statistical Service put the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the year 2009 at 4.7 per cent, whilst the Central Bank, the Bank of Ghana, projects a real GDP growth rate of above 6 per cent for 2010.

Vice President John Mahama thus believes that projected increased total revenue grants for the 2010 fiscal year will not only depend on tax policy and the revenue administration system, but on the overall economic activity.

For this reason, he said, “Our revenue targets could be affected if there is a downturn in economic activity as a result of the global financial crisis”.

Under the current circumstance, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Seth Tekper said Ghana, and for that matter the government, is planning to pass a Petroleum Revenue Resource Management Law to regulate and channel the inflow of revenues into specific expenditures.
Whilst appreciating the fact that there appears to be increases in global demand and output, translating into increased exports of primary commodities for many developing countries, he stressed the need for countries within the West African sub-region to adopt what he described as a counter-cyclical and contingency measure to avoid being swept off again should another crisis erupt.

Sammy Crabbe:

GIA Trial Is A Witch Hunt
Posted: Daily Guide | Tuesday, 30 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to have succumbed to mounting pressure from party founder J.J. Rawlings and foot soldiers, to prosecute members of the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime.

The first batch of individuals perceived to have engaged in some wrongdoings in the sale of Ghana Airways (GA) to Ghana International Airline (GIA) is scheduled to appear in court today to be formally charged with their offences.

They include former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani; former Road and Transport Minister, Dr Richard Anane; former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei; and former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, Sammy Crabbe, who was also the former Vice-President of GIA.

Yesterday, former Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo was also hauled before the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to answer charges relating to causing financial loss to the state.

However, even before they appear before the court to be formally charged, Sammy Crabbe, who represented the minority shareholders in GIA, has questioned the basis of government’s decision to prosecute him for his role in the management of the airline.

Speaking to Joy FM’s ‘Super Morning Show’ host, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah yesterday, Mr. Crabbe described the move as a ‘witch hunt’.

According to him, he was not surprised at government’s decision to bring what he described as frivolous charges against him.

He thus expressed the belief that the entire process was politically motivated since, according to him, he was being pursued for the mere fact that he was the former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP.

This, he said, was evident in the fact that even before assuming the reigns of power, the NDC had indicated their intentions to prosecute members of the NPP.

Mr Crabbe has been charged for allegedly withdrawing $1.9 million dollars from government’s account without approval from the government, the majority stakeholder, on June 27, 2005.

Though he has denied any complicity, Mr Crabbe wondered why the NDC waited for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to conduct extensive investigations into the issue before preferring charges against them.

“Nobody has access to the government of Ghana’s account. Who signs that document, who attested that signature, was it authorized…? Can you just stand up and withdraw money from Government of Ghana’s account?” he asked rhetorically.

At the time of the transaction, Sammy Crabbe argued that he was neither a board member nor a signatory to any account number of GIA and also not an employee of the company.

“If a private person should invest in a company that government also has an interest, does it mean that that person’s money immediately becomes public money?

These are some of the things we need to look at. I believe that the government has goofed from all angles.”

Meanwhile, lawyers for former Roads and Transport Minister Dr Richard Anane have indicated their preparedness to defend their client to establish his innocence with regard to the charges preferred against him.

One of the lawyers, George Nimako, told Oman FM yesterday that he and his colleagues were geared up to defend the Nhyieso Member of Parliament (MP) in court.

“We are ready to defend our client through thick and thin. Let me tell you that there is a vast difference between charging somebody and going to court for the trial to begin,” Nimako emphasized.

He however expressed reservations about government’s decision to put the story in the media to create the impression that Dr Anane had been formally charged for willfully causing financial loss to the state.

Mr Nimako emphasized that his client has not been formally charged. “We have not been notified of any charge against our client; we only heard that in the news.

I think that it is not the proper thing to do. We do not charge somebody in the media,” he lashed out at the report carried as the front banner news in yesterday’s edition of state-owned Daily Graphic.

He explained that when Dr Anane was invited to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on Thursday, he was only cautioned and not charged with any offence.

“Let me emphasize clearly that there is a major difference between cautioning somebody and charging him, so the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice ought to have known better,” Nimako stressed.
Dr Anane was for several hours detained at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra last Thursday and he answered questions relating to alleged impropriety at the GIA.

Kwame Peprah Dodges CHRAJ

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 30 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED ruling of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on the preliminary objections raised by some lawyers representing the individuals alleged to have received huge sums of money as bribe from UK-based construction company Mabey and Johnson (M&J) has taken another twist.

Just when the Commissioner for CHRAJ, Francis Emile Short, was about to give a verdict on the substantive legal objections raised in the previous sitting, which compelled them to adjourn till yesterday, Samuel Cudjoe, counsel for former Finance and Economic Planning Minister under the Jerry Rawlings regime, Kwame Peprah, managed to put yet another stopper on not just the ruling on the preliminary objection, but CHRAJ’s ability to investigate the case.

Mr. Cudjoe sought to prohibit CHRAJ from ruling on the matter since he has filed an application at the High Court in which he is seeking to prohibit them from investigating the M&J bribery scandal.

The application, which was filed on March 26 2010, borders on comments the Commissioner was purported to have made on Metro TV, and according to Mr. Peprah’s lawyer are prejudiced.

He quoted Article 212 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic which prohibits a commission from sitting on a case pending before a court to support his claim. He therefore prayed the Commission to suspend its ruling until the High Court finally determines the case.

Aside that, Mr. Cudjoe still insisted that CHRAJ as a body has no mandate to investigate the M&J bribery scandal and therefore asked it to stay away from delving into the case.

Though Mr. Short was initially jittery about the lawyer’s concern, he eventually succumbed after Mr. Cudjoe offered reasons with reference cases to buttress his point.

Mr. Cudjoe bemoaned the Commissioner and CHRAJ as a human rights institution to endeavour not to trample on the rights of others, therefore urging them to suspend the ruling until the final determination by the High Court.

Lawyers for the rest of the accused persons, with the exception of that of Dr. George Adja Sipa Yankey, Kwame Gyan, associated themselves with Mr. Cudjoe’s objection, stressing the belief that a ruling on the subject matter would in one way or the other undermine the decision of the High Court.

The Commission was thus compelled by prevailing circumstance to adjourn sitting until April 7, 2010.

Earlier on, Commissioner Short had cause to question the absence of Mr. Kwame Peprah and Dr. Ato Quarshie since their lawyers had all agreed to ask them to be present at yesterday’s sitting after the former raised an issue about their absence during the maiden sitting.

Mr. Cudjoe argued that his client did not turn up because he was not personally subpoenaed to appear before the Commission.

On his part, Kwabena Forson, lawyer for Dr. Ato Quarshie who represented his lead counsel Nana Ato Dadzie, said he was preparing to appear before the Commission with his client, only for him to be told at the last minute that Dr. Quarshie was indisposed.

At the sitting, the lawyers engaged in a variety of ‘legal assaults and gymnastics’ similar to those used at the maiden sitting, using a host of technicalities on the Commission to salvage their clients from its jaws.

Just as the three-member panel chaired by Commissioner Short was about to commence, lawyers representing Alhaji Baba Kamara, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria and those for former Minister for Roads and Highways, Dr. Ato Quashie, raised technical issues on behalf of their clients.

The M&J scandal involves six current and former government appointees including former Finance Minister and current Board Chairman for SSNIT; Kwame Peprah, Alhaji Baba Kamara; Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, sacked Minister of state at the Office of the President; Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Dr. Ato Quarshie; a former minister of Roads and Highways who received the largest chunk of the bribe money, former Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister; Alhaji Saddique Boniface, former Minister of Health; Dr. George Adja-Sipa Yankey, and Edward Lord Attivor; current Acting Managing Director of Intercity STC.

He was the Board Chairman of STC at the time he allegedly took the M&J bribe.

The NDC officials, who mostly served in Jerry Rawlings’ administration and carried over to Atta Mills’, are accused of taking bribes totaling over £750,000 when M&J took up contracts to build bridges in Ghana in the 1990s.

From the mid 1980s until approximately 1996, M&J’s interests in Ghana were represented by one Kwame Ofori, also known as Danny Ofori-Atta, who controlled a Ghanaian bridge-building company and apparently had influence within the circles of the then ruling NDC government. He formed a political party, the EGLE to contest elections.

It is accepted by M&J that through the creation of the Ghana Development Fund (GDF), its executives facilitated corruption on behalf of the company and that they were in (or sought to create) a corrupt relationship with a variety of decision making Ghanaian public officials.

These funds were purportedly for the development of M&J business in Ghana, but in reality were capable of and were understood to be capable of being used for corrupt purposes.

Mr. Peprah was at that time Minister of Finance. The role of Alhaji Baba Kamara and his value as an agent to M&J is made clear in a document authored by an M&J executive, probably prior to July 1996, and sent to its directors.

Dr. Ato Quarshie, according to the report, received a £55,000 cheque when he visited London in July 1995 for a supposed ‘contract consultancy’.

This cheque was drawn on M&J’s Clydesdale Bank account at the Victoria branch in Buckingham Palace Road, and signed by two of the company’s directors.

The prosecution’s case therefore was that the payment to Dr. Quarshie and the subsequent payments were but examples of a series of bribes to various ministers and officials.

Other relatively junior officials who were also alleged to have received bribes included Alhaji Saddique Boniface, then an ECGD desk officer at the Ministry of Finance.

He had a bank account at the National Westminster Bank in Rickmansworth. On February 29 1996, Alhaji Saddique Boniface received a transfer of £10,000 from M&J to an account at Barclays Bank Plc in Watford.

On October 29 1996, the same account received a transfer of £13,970 from M&J. On October 29 1996, Alhaji Amadu Seidu, the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, received £5000 in his Woolwich account held in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

Dr. Yankey, the Director of Legal and International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, received £10,000 in his Midland Bank account in Hill Street, London W1; and Edward Lord Attivor, also received £10,000 in his London bank account.

Interestingly, it was the same branch of the Clydesdale Bank which was used by M&J.

Alhaji Amadu Seidu received a further £5,000 on March 7 1997, the same date on which Alhaji Saddique Boniface received a further £2,500.

Although the amount was relatively small, the prosecution noted that it is indicative of the nature of the corruption M&J was then practicing.

M&J's payments to Dr. Yankey were not confined to the payment on October 24 1996, since his Hill Street account received an additional £5,000 on August 26 1998 from the former.

Following the revelations, Dr. Yankey resigned his position as Health Minister, ostensibly to clear his name in the matter. And in the heat of the brouhaha, Alhaji Amadu Seidu was dropped as Minister of State at the Office of President Mills, even though it was not clear why he was removed.

A potential appointee to the High Commission to Nigeria, Alhaji Baba Kamara, was however confirmed.

Dr. Ato Quarshie also resigned his position as a chairman of a team tasked to probe the Metro Mass Transit, while Lord Attivor and Kwame Peprah have since held on to their positions as STC MD and SSNIT Board Chairman respectively.

Rawlings:

DCEs Are Useless
Posted:Daily Guide |Monday, 29 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
IF NO less a person than founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Flt. Lt Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd), comes out to say that 40% of the current crop of District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the Mills administration are useless, then there must be cause for concern.

He said a lot of the DCEs in Mills’ administration are simply incompetent and do not know how to do their work.

Speaking to party youth in the heart of the Volta region, Ho, last Saturday, March 20, 2010, former President Rawlings stressed the need for the incumbent President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, to sack these DCEs since according to him, they are not only under-performing but “some of them are outright incompetent”.

He therefore charged the youth to be bold enough to bring some of these issues out before the sitting President because “if you the youth see things and do not say it and I say it then I become an easy target all the time. But the reality of what I say is out there and you have to voice it”.

Mr. Rawlings believes the youth have a responsibility to guide the government with the truth, emphasising that “the government is in power because of the electorate and not vice-versa”.

Furthermore, he grumbled over failure of the Mills administration to re-investigate his claim of persecution that took place within the armed forces and other agencies.

According to Rawlings, he once had cause to counsel President Mills to recall soldiers who had been wrongfully dismissed or retired from the armed forces, but the Number One Citizen was told not to do so by one of his advisors who said recalls were done only during war or state of emergency situations.

“So I asked myself: Does the President not realize we have a state of emergency on our hands? I stated that it did not have to be a forced recall but a voluntary one. Nothing has happened since but today some of our finest soldiers are being processed to be thrown out,” he emphasized.

For this reason, Rawlings asked President Mills not to only listen to reports from his security apparatus but also from recognised interest groups “so that he will know the realistic picture of what is happening on the ground.

“Let the government know the reality on the ground. That is the responsibility I am giving you,” he charged the party youth.

On the recent elections at all levels of the party, the former President said there were too many unacceptable issues with the conduct and therefore noted that “when the people elected do not have the heart of the people there is no way they will fight for such persons”.

This, he said, was because “our party does not survive on money but on our beliefs. People have shed their blood to restore integrity back into the country - integrity that dissipated under the NPP regime”.

Unfortunately however, Mr. Rawlings said, “we have allowed the heat of the election victory to slip away”.

He could not fathom why the NPP, which is currently in opposition, was bold enough to hold its congress at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium whilst the NDC, which is in government, barricaded itself into an indoor venue and prevented the masses from partaking in the process, saying, “The NDC as a mass-based party, cannot succeed if it does not correct the dislocation within the major institutions of state.”

He thus stressed the need for the ruling party and its government to submit to the will of the people or “we will not make it”.

Advertisers Battle Government

...Over Nigerian Company
Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 29 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & Halifax Ansah Addo
MEMBERS OF the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) are up in arms with government over the controversial award of a 6-year multimillion dollar contract to a company owned and controlled by persons closely related to top government officials.

Reports are that no procurement process was followed before the award of the contract and already an amount of USD$ 1 million is believed to have exchanged hands.

DAILY GUIDE has gathered that this has generated bad blood between the Mayor of Accra; Alfred Vanderpuye, and the Greater Accra Regional Minister; Nii Armah Ashittey, and efforts are being made to keep the Castle out of the brawl and the amount involved.

The company, Via Affinity, has been contracted by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) as the only authority that has the right to manage, approve, allocate and control all outdoor adverts in Accra and share the profit equally with government.

Though on record the directors of Via Affinity are one Olusola Abiddum Osinibi; a Nigerian, Pamela Hunter; believed to be a sister of Tourism Minister Zita Okaikoi, and John Yankah; also believed to be a brother-in-law of Zita Okaikoi, it is strongly suspected the company is owned by a chain of highly placed government officials, but is being fronted by some private individuals.

The AMA has accordingly issued a directive to all advertising companies within the metropolis to apply and also pay for advertising rights only through Via Affinity before they can be issued permits to mount any of their billboards in town.

What has generated the uproar between the AAG and the AMA is the swift decision of Via Affinity to increase ‘Permit fees’ by a whopping 700% with effect from March 26, 2010. This decision was unilaterally taken without any consultation with the AAG.

Rather, advertising companies have been told their billboards will be dismantled if they fail to pay the new rates before the deadline.

Several of these advertising companies have told DAILY GUIDE they have already gone for bank loans and made very huge investments into their billboards, and it will take them between four to seven years to recoup the money.

Thus, there is no way they can pay the new fees being demanded by Via Affinity and still remain in business.

Interestingly, credible sources at the AMA disclosed to DAILY GUIDE that the contract was awarded by the Mayor, Alfred Vanderpuje, without the knowledge and approval of a technical committee made up of several institutions and stakeholders who are mandated to approve site permits for the mounting of billboards within the metropolis.

The source disclosed that the AMA had hitherto aptly and smoothly taken care of the approval of billboards, thus there was no need to contract a private company to take over and share the profit with government.

Investigations have revealed that even before Via Affinity was formally registered as a company in Ghana on August 27 2009, it had managed to send proposal to the AMA dated August 25, 2009 to supposedly ‘transform the regulation of signage and advertisement structures’ in the Accra metropolis.

Prior to being given the management contract, a presentation by the management of Via Affinity on how they are going to transform the regulation and signage of advertisement is said to have sparked a heated debate since from indications they are bringing nothing new to the table.

Industry players are therefore said to have raised several issues about Via Affinity’s ability to manage the job since it is only going to use a formula designed by the AAG to work.

A number of Assembly Members DAILY GUIDE spoke to say they remember signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Via Affinity to start talks on the matter, but they are surprised the AMA used the said MoU as the basis for a contract with the company.

Carl Wilson sacked

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 26 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & William Yaw Owusu
Chairman of the Confiscated Vehicles Allocation Committee (CVAC), Carl Wilson, has finally been booted out of office after a group of National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists locked up the party headquarters early yesterday morning.

The mob action, DAILY GUIDE learnt, pushed President Atta Mills to sack Carl Wilson, who had launched a belated PR blitz to save his job.

Apart from the disappearance of vehicles confiscated under mysterious circumstances, Carl Wilson was recently dragged to Parliament for the 18 missing motorbikes he was said to have sold.

However, there are still lingering questions as to why he was really sacked, since the deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia and the President himself, had earlier sought to clear him of any wrongdoing, demanding incontrovertible proof that their darling boy was corrupt.

Alex Segbefia had always sought to defend his protégé, Carl Wilson, whenever allegations of diversion and selling of confiscated cars at extremely cheap prices were made against him.

At a point, Segbefia was rumoured to have sworn to resign his position, pack bag and baggage and head back to London, if Carl Wilson was removed from his position, saying that newspapers could not take decision for President Mills.

This was when several key and influential members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) complained about the bad image the notorious Carl Wilson was creating for both the party and government.

Hours earlier, Head of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, had issued a statement indicating the President’s decision to dismiss Carl Wilson.

The statement, which was dated March 25, 2010, read: “Per a directive from His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills, Carl Wilson’s appointment as Chairman of the Confiscated Vehicles Committee has been terminated with immediate effect.”

DAILY GUIDE stumbled upon another document about how Mr Wilson and another Deputy Commissioner of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), E.S. Ackwerh, allegedly allocated a plush Mercedes Benz 430 S/C to one Charles Odartey of Tema, without a traceable address.

The vehicle, which was a 2002 model, belonged to a foreign expatriate called Elgis and was said to have been given out for a paltry sum of GH¢8,681.00, far below the expected amount of GH¢22,090.88 he was supposed to have paid as duty, whilst the vehicle was valued at GH¢53,644.22.

The expatriate therefore caused his clearing agents, Messrs Cargo Management Services, to write to the Commissioner of CEPS, asking for a 60-day extension to enable him make payment, but received no response, only to realize later that the vehicle had been allocated to the said Charles Allotey for a pittance.

Angry youth of the NDC yesterday besieged the party’s national headquarters at Kokomlemle and locked the main gate to prevent the national executives from working, demanding the head of Carl Wilson.

The mob, who numbered about 50, said they were there to ‘force’ the party’s national executives to sack Carl Wilson since Segbefia had been protecting him.

They, among other things, claimed that Mr. Wilson had been tarnishing the image of the party and needed to be sacked without any delay.

When DAILY GUIDE got to the scene around 7:45 am, some of the angry youth, most of whom came from Nima and surrounding areas, had climbed over the main gate, with others loitering about, chanting war songs, while pockets of police officers positioned themselves at vantage points on the road in front of the office to prevent any eventualities.

They had used two tomato boxes to block the black gate but nobody was seen holding any offensive weapon.

Saddick Abukari, one of the spokespersons for the group, which calls itself Observer Pressure Group (OPG), said they were prepared to face anybody who would prevent the NDC national executive from putting pressure on the President to sack Carl Wilson.

He said, “We know our government is doing its best but we would not sit down for a few miscreants to destroy the party’s efforts.

“We are ready to go after anybody who tries to bring the name of the NDC into disrepute”.

Abukari complained about the way the party’s national executive had blocked communication channels between the party’s hierarchy and the grassroots supporters, saying, “We want them to sit down with us to talk about the future of the party and how things are going.”

Another member of the group, known only as Mozee, said, “President Mills and his appointees have to listen to former President Jerry John Rawlings. All the advice he is giving them is right. They are too slow.

“J.J. is the one who founded the party and today we are all enjoying, so President Mills and his people have to listen to him.

“We have sacrificed so much for the party to come to power but we are without jobs. This is unfair,” he yelled.

Mozee, who looked very angry, threatened, “If the government appointees continue to misbehave, we will go to their offices to remove them.”

The National Organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan, who addressed the demonstrators, told the angry supporters that Wilson had been sacked.

He said if any clandestine attempts were made to reverse the decision, he would join them to demonstrate against the Chairman of the Confiscated Vehicle Allocation Committee and whoever was trying to shield him.

Meanwhile, Information Minister, John Tia, has indicated that if after investigations into the allegations against Mr. Wilson no adverse findings are found against him, he will be reinstated.

This goes contrary to the statement issued by the President that Carl Wilson’s appointment had been terminated.

Somewhere in December 2009, agents of the National Security impounded a 4x4 Chrysler vehicle Mr. Wilson, together with his bodyguard whose name was only given as Daniel, and an Ivorian called Nana Kublan Olivier, had taken from the port, and were attempting to re-spray at Asylum Down in Accra.

Soon after the car was impounded, Mr. Wilson engaged the National Security operatives in a heated debate, during which he claimed that the said vehicle was to be given to ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, an assertion the ex-President refuted when he was reached on phone by the security operatives for verification.

Mr. Rawlings denied knowing Mr. Wilson, let alone, requesting a confiscated car from him.

The former President subsequently sent three of his bodyguards, led by one Dr. Lawson, to disassociate him from the stolen car.

Having been embarrassed by the ex-President’s denials, Mr. Wilson then changed his story that the stolen 4x4 Chrysler vehicle was rather meant for the State Protocol department, much to the amusement of the security operatives.

About two weeks ago, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly called Napo, also accused Carl Wilson of selling some stolen motorbikes imported into the country from the UK, despite incessant warnings by the UK security services.

The Manhyia MP said that subsequent investigations by Interpol and the National Security revealed that some 18 motorbikes imported into the country early last year were stolen and had to be repatriated to the UK.

Kufuor scoffs NDC dark days

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 26 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Barely three hours after agents of the National Security were set on four journalists, three of whom were detained for a number of hours, former President John Agyekum Kufuor had an opportunity to speak on the need to promote press freedom at the plush Alisa Hotel in Accra.

He recalled how Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere and his other colleague journalists fought through thick and thin to restore the country to democratic rule.

President Kufuor was speaking at the launch of the book, ‘Between the Lion and the Elephant- Memoirs of an African Diplomat’ which was authored by Kabral.

President Kufuor recalled that in those days, “it was almost suicidal for one to cough on the wrong side of one’s mouth.

“It was people like Kabral who through their writings, like breadth of fresh air, gave revenge and voice to the people’s resolve to fight for their rights” in the dark days of former President Rawlings’ rule when freedom of speech was curtailed.

The former President revealed that this attribute of boldness and loyalty in the former Diplomat was what attracted him to Kabral long before he was elected President of the nation.

He appreciated the fact that Kabral, who until recently was Ghana’s Ambassador to La Cote d’Ivoire and formerly the High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, did not suffer from the often sterile sloganeering of some of his leftist colleagues.

President Kufuor therefore stressed the belief that Kabral’s writings on topical affairs on the state indeed helped to shape the destiny of Ghana as a nation in more ways than one.

‘Between the Lion and the Elephant’, representing the national symbols of Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, is considered a veritable mix of two professions (journalism and diplomacy) put together to give a good rendition of events as they happened in countries where Kabral served as a diplomat.

President Kufuor thus believes that fate seems to have positioned Kabral where he could see things not only unfold right before his eyes, but had the opportunity to participate in them.

Though Ghana abounds with rich history, the former President decried the lack of penchant for writing by Ghanaians, especially politicians like himself.

He therefore whipped up interest in writing books and memoirs to document lifetime experiences to keep as records for references and studies.

The 2008 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who had the privilege of writing the foreword of the book, also had a similar concern.

He noted that the earlier generation including the likes of Casley Hayford, J.B. Danquah, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Dr K.A. Busia had a knack for writing.

He however stressed that same cannot be said about the present generation of leaders.

For him, “it is good to see Kabral restoring that tradition with his third book”.

This tradition of writing, according to him, sheds light on some of the key problems a particular generation has to contract.

Nana Addo therefore stressed the need to encourage people like President Kufuor, whose political career spans a period of over 45years, and President Rawlings, to write their memoirs.

According to him, some of the issues that are alive in the West African sub region including the nature of transitional justice, the development of democratic institutions, the rule of law and rapid development, are raised in the book.

“Our democratic credentials are now an important part of our national assets,” he said, noting with emphasis, “It is right that we do everything to boost these credentials and look away from any activity that would tend to undermine those credentials.”

This, he said, was not because they guarantee the individual freedoms and liberties of Ghanaians but also because they provide “the best atmosphere in which we develop our economies”.

Present at the programme were high-profile personalities including Vice President John Dramani Mahama, Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Mumuni, members of the diplomatic corps, politicians, Members of Parliament (MPs), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) members, businessmen and people from all walks of life.

The first copy of the book was bought for GH¢4,000.

Gbevlo Boys Arrest Journalists

Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 25 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The dark days of the Jerry Rawlings-led Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC 1) era are here again.

This became evident when agents of the National Security detained three journalists who were going about their normal duties yesterday.

The journalists, Moses Kangah of Joy FM, Prince Menkah of Citi FM and Dennis Boateng of the Daily Searchlight newspaper together with this reporter, had gone to the forecourt of the office of the National Security to cover a supposed demonstration by some of its workers who were dismissed without reason.

Just as the journalists started interviewing the leaders of the group on the car park in front of the famous ‘Blue Gate’, some agents of the National Security who were in plain clothes took their recording devices from them and dragged them into the yard.

In the heat of heckling, one of the agents took the Citi FM reporter’s mobile phone.

They then took the three reporters into the yard where they held them for close to an hour, asking them a series of questions as to what they had come there to do.

The journalists, who narrated their ordeal to this reporter who was equally a victim of the National Security agents’ heckling, indicated that they were interrogated by one Major and Gerald Forson, brother to ace broadcaster, Tommy Annan Forson, who works at the National Security.

After demanding to see their press cards, Gerald was particularly said to have asked the reporters a series of thought-provoking questions including whether their rights as journalists extended to the office of the National Security.

He was said to have also asked them whether they did not know that the area was a security zone and for that matter they could not extend their activities and operations there.

But as and when one of them tried to answer the question with an explanation that as journalists they owe it a duty to report happenings and events to the Ghanaian populace, he narrated that the supposed Major threatened to beat him and his colleagues if they dared challenge his authority.

All this while, the ex-National Security agents who had gone there to meet the Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd), over their concerns were protesting outside the gate because they were being prevented from going in to meet the administrator of the National Security Secretariat as directed by the Deputy Coordinator.

“Don’t push me; you say you will slap me, slap me and see, I will also slap you. We are prepared to die here today so kill us,” screamed one vociferous woman who was among the group.

Spokesperson for the group, Samuel Ansah had this to say: “They should prepare, they should start wearing gloves because they are going to beat us more because we are not going to lie low.

This intimidation is done to children under the age of five, not me who is 47years and had joined army and seen battle before.

This thing is kidding, man. It is something small to me. They should prepare to slaughter me because I will prefer to die than to be a slave in my own country.”

At the same time, other agents of the National Security were heckling this reporter outside the yard.

One of them hit his recorder into a gutter after which he attempted to snatch it from him because he was recording the heated verbal exchanges between the ex-National Security agents and some police officers.

After almost an hour of military interrogation, amidst threats to teach them a lesson, the journalists were asked to go but without Prince’s phone.

This was when one of their kind informed them that the issue about the journalists’ detention was being broadcast by some radio stations.

At this point, they had no option but to set the journalists free but with a note of caution not to see them anywhere near the office when they exit the main gate.

Later, when they were asked to go, the Major was said to have further warned the journalists that if they happened to be picked by their cameras, they would be arrested and flogged.

Meanwhile, the ex-National Security agents have served notice of their intention to take whatever action they deem prudent to get their gratuity since, according to them, they cannot be asked to go home without any form of severance payment.

Most of them who happen to be ex-soldiers have thus threatened to go to any length including putting their lives on line to safeguard their own security.

‘My hands are clean'

-Kufuor
Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 24 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
FOR THE first time since the controversy surrounding the Kosmos/EO group oil deal broke, former President John Agyekum Kufuor spoke about the issue and denied influencing the award of the contract in favour of the company.

The former president said this exclusively on TV Africa’s Matters Arising programme on Monday night.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has sought to link President Kufuor to the EO Group, a partner of Kosmos, because of his alleged close association with owners George Owusu and Dr. Edusei Barwuah.

They have therefore sought to create the impression that President Kufuor influenced the award of the contract to the company, which had partnership with Kosmos Energy to explore oil in commercial quantities in Ghana.

But Mr. Kufuor, who spoke on a wide range of issues including a bit of local and foreign politics, socio-economic developments across the globe, especially Africa and the West African sub-region, denied speculations to the effect that he and his government gave preferential treatment to Kosmos Energy, saying “it’s not true”.

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that “we didn’t go outside the area, the… concessionary laws that we inherited”.

At the time, Mr. Kufuor said Ghana as a country was struggling to get companies to search for oil in commercial quantities, and that it was only Kosmos that was determined to venture into the area and agreed to the terms stipulated for interested companies since they were prepared to take the risk involved.

Other companies were said to have written Ghana off as not having the potential to strike oil, with some even describing it as a ghost town.

Finally, when the company managed to find oil in commercial quantities after several efforts, the former President noted that the whole world’s attention shifted to Ghana, with several companies trooping in with their bids after they realised Ghana’s potential and worth.

According to him, the government therefore signed an agreement with Kosmos Energy, with Ghana holding between 10-15% stakes in the exploration.

“Perhaps we are not being smart but I don’t blame the foreigner who will get it cheap, I will blame ourselves”, he noted.

To be able to get versatile and purposeful, Mr. Kufuor emphasised “I would expect that we as government or as a nation, we should pay special attention to our negotiation capabilities”, saying “we must train our lawyers and team of negotiators; not only lawyers, the economists, the accountants so that when we are meeting the big international…we march them boot for boot”.
This, he said, was because they will bring in the best with technical expertise.

To achieve corporate social responsibility, President Kufuor said a lot more will depend on “our ability and capability of determining our fair share”.

He therefore stressed the need for government, and for that matter which ever individuals and group of persons who would represent the interest of Ghana as a country, to not only understand the market and the oil business, but also “how much we are worth”.

Asked whether his ex-gratia has been paid, President Kufuor said it was a matter he personally did not want to talk about since, according to him, some people are pretending to know better than the forum of the people (Parliament) after the then Speaker of the House and both the Majority and Minority leaders both confirmed they indeed appended their signatures to the approved terms of the payment.

That notwithstanding, he noted that the money has still not been paid to him.

President Kufuor seemed to be enjoying his retirement pretty well, though he still receives a large number of invitations and travels for international assignments.

However, he quoted the former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, who said “there is life after the Presidency” to sum up his life after retirement.

Asabee sues Raymond Archer

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 24 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE WOES of the Editor-In-Chief of The Enquirer newspaper, Raymond Archer, seem to be far from ending as former Information and National Orientation Minister, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, has sued him for a whopping amount of GH¢ 1million in damages for defamation.

This follows a story published in the Wednesday September 23 to Thursday September 24, 2009 edition of The Enquirer newspaper under the headline “Busted: Asabee’s juju act, now see why Attorney General is under spell”.

In an order of substituted service, which was published in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper, lawyers for Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, Sam Okudzeto and Associates, noted that the defendants; Raymond Acher, together with The Enquirer and publishers of the paper, Focal Media Limited, falsely and maliciously wrote, printed and published his photograph in a manner that ridiculed him in the estimation of the right-thinking members of the society, indicating that the former minister is a ‘jujuman’.

In the said publication, the paper made reference that “Asabee arrives @ the Fast Track High Court, and then heads for his car booth instead of walking to the courtroom”, “Asabee then pulls from his bag a yellow bottle which he poured into his left hand as he recites some incantations”.

The paper is also quoted as having written; “Asabee rubs the concoctions on his forehead as he enters into a period of chanting” and “Asabee finally shifts into a higher gear and with a clenched fist goes into more chanting, check side pictures 1 to 4”.

In his statement of claim, Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, popularly referred to as Asabee, is praying the court to place an injunction to restrain the defendants or their agents from further publication of the said untruths or any of them or any other of them or any similar false words or libel against him.

Asabee noted that in their natural and ordinary meaning, the words meant and were understood to mean that he practices black magic, he has by means of black magic cast a spell on the Attorney-General, who is prosecuting him for alleged criminal offences at the Fast Track High Court, to disable her from successfully prosecuting him because she started with 12 charges against him, reduced it to 7 and then 2 charges.

He also averred that the contents of the publication were given wide media attention without any proper investigations or interview with plaintiff to confirm or otherwise deny the allegations, stressing that the said words, which are false, referred and were understood to refer to him.

The plaintiff declared that he is a practicing Christian and that this fact is known to all his friends and family members, both home and abroad, his political party members and other political parties.

By this publication, Asabee claims that he will be seen as a hypocrite who does not practice his religion but rather dabbles in occultism and voodooism, which is an anathema within his community and the class of people he associates with.

Aside that, he noted that not only has his reputation been injured, it has also been brought into public scandal, odium and contempt, indicating that they published the story out of spite.

That notwithstanding, he said the words in the publication were meant to disparage his reputation among the Ghanaian public, who will believe that he did commit the crimes he was charged with and is using black magic to shield himself from prosecution.

For this reason, Mr. Asamoah-Boateng claims that he has been put to public ridicule and made to suffer damage and therefore seeks the reliefs from the court.

He has consequently asked the court to cause Mr. Archer and the paper to retract the said publication and render an apology to be delivered in four issues of the Daily Graphic, the papers that carried the story, as well as on radio stations where the news item were serialized.

2 Chiefs, Wulomo Killed

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 24 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Three persons, including a chief and traditional priest (Wulomo), were reported dead in Denkyira, a village near Weija, on the outskirts of Accra yesterday, in the latest chieftaincy skirmishes that have rocked the country in recent times.

Just Monday evening, a chief was butchered by unidentified assailants in a Tamale suburb over a similar chieftaincy dispute.

Weija District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kwame Afari, told DAILY GUIDE that some of the deceased persons were shot with guns whiles others were slaughtered with machetes in a manner akin to what happened in Tamale.

According to him, the deaths were the result of clashes between two rival chiefs and their supporters over a parcel of land.

In the heat of the clashes, several houses were said to have been torched with people fleeing for their lives.

The town was said to be a ghost town now, with able-bodied men taking to their heels for fear of being arrested.

Though details of the exact cause of the clashes were still sketchy, the District Commander expressed suspicion that an existing chieftaincy dispute in the village could have resulted in the clashes since two factions were laying claim to the stool.

One person was said to have been seriously injured and rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Brother to one of the deceased persons, Emmanuel Allotey Papoe, narrated that his brother and some of his colleagues were on the disputed land, winning sand when the supposed landguards came to attack them without any provocation.

When news reached the Weija Police, they dispatched some men there who managed to arrest seven people in relation to the clashes.

At the time of filing this report, calm was said to have returned to the village whilst a team of policemen was dispatched from the Kaneshie Divisional Police Command to provide reinforcement.

Virtually all the men in the village were said to have fled, leaving behind only women and children, making the village a ‘ghost town’.
Later, the Kaneshie Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Avedetsi, was said to have gone to the village in the company of a patrol team.

Betty Mould Is Hot

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 19 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould Iddrisu has been compelled by prevailing circumstances and pressures from within her own party to explain why she has been unable to prosecute members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, she reaffirmed her commitment to President Mills’ principle of justice within the confines of the law.

Despite unnecessary calls from members of her own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including a former Supreme Court judge, Justice Kpegah, for her to quickly take cases involving members of the NPP administration to court, Betty the ‘sweet-talker’ said she is following the principles of thoroughly investigating cases rather than pushing them to court only for them to fail the litmus test.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu said President Mills has clearly spelt out her duties, and believes she is acting in the best interest of the state and all the people involved.

She noted with emphasis that “even the NPP who made much noise about jailing NDC ministers when they came to power were unable to do so with ease despite the rhetoric”, stressing the cases involving Tsatsu Tsikata and Mrs. Rawlings needed to be both thorough and fair rather than to make mistakes with haste.

Despite talk about several allegations of wrong-doing established by the transitional team against former government officials in the NPP administration, the embattled Attorney-General noted that the investigators have not yet been able to furnish her office with findings for prosecution.

This, she said, was due to the fact that “most of the ministries and agencies that were due to provide information and evidence for prosecution are still investigating these matters to ensure that prosecutions did not encounter any hitches”.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu also indicated that despite a memo from the Chief of Staff to the various ministries to provide necessary evidence to investigate 49 corruption cases arising out of the transitional team’s report, only the Transport Ministry has responded.

She however noted that state investigations departments such as the CID, the BNI and the SFO which are expected to feed her office with facts have so many challenges hampering their work.

The Attorney-General has thus described as unfortunate some of the criticism about her competency.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Betty Mould Iddrisu has recently come under a barrage of criticism from within her own party about her inability to prosecute former ministers of state alleged to have mismanaged or misappropriated public funds.

Some of her critics have attributed her inaction to her close relation with some of them - a suggestion she has denied.
She has however indicated that her office is working together with other state institutions on a government White Paper to commence prosecution on the recommendations of the Ghana @ 50 Commission against Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby and Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani.

Ex Security Operatives Storm CHRAJ

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 19 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Some agents of the National Security who were dismissed by the Mills administration without any tangible reason have threatened to take the law into their hands to fight for their rights.

This was when they stormed the offices of the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to follow up on a petition they had earlier sent to the commission for wrongful dismissal and non-payment of their gratuity.

They have therefore asked government to expedite action on the payment of their gratuity before matters get worse.

The affected staff were mostly made up of officials who were employed between 2001 and 2008.

Their dismissal is therefore seen as political victimization since they were appointed during the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Their gratuity have not been paid since August 2009 when they were dismissed in a letter signed by the Acting Deputy Security Co-ordinator, K.D Dankwa.

What seemed to have provoked the anger of the ex-agents was a comment made by an official of CHRAJ, one Bede Tukuu who is handling the case.

When Mr Tukuu came out to of his office to meet the group, one of the members said, “We are suffering so you people should do something about our case.”

But this comment by the ex-security agent angered Mr. Tukuu who asked rhetorically, “You are suffering so what?”

Though some members of the group became charged, their colleagues managed to calm them down until he finally met two of the ex-security agents in his office.

Minutes after the two leaders including one Sammy, Spokesman for the group came out of the office, the rest became fired up and threatened to march straight to the National Security Secretariat, the famous ‘Blue Gate’ to meet Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey over their concerns since there seemed not be any hope.

This was because Mr Tukuu told them that though he and for that matter, the Commission had written an official letter to the National Security, it had not been responded by National Security Secretariat.

They therefore noted that they were prepared to go and demonstrate at the offices of the National Security for the incumbent government to realise their plight.

Some of them, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, revealed that under the current circumstance, they had no option but to take the law into their hands since “government has turned a deaf ear on their concerns.”

With most of them being former military personnel, they wondered how the government expected them to survive after receiving training in arms and ammunitions.

“After committing our entire lives to serve this nation, if this is the reward we will get; then we will use what we have to get what we want,” an aggrieved ex-security agent noted.

Some of the aggrieved workers claimed they still had their weapons and identity cards with them and could use to at any point in time when the need arise.

“The incumbent government must pay us our gratuity if they don’t want trouble,” they stated.

One could not but asked rhetorically “is this what President Mills promised to be the father of the nation and father for all or is this is the meaning of the ‘I care for you?”

He drives a lot of inspiration from a statement by former President Rawlings when he staged the coup in which he said, “I am prepared to die than to be a slave in my own country. I don’t know much about the law but am prepared to go to the extreme and face the bullet than to be a slave in my own country here.”
The group has therefore served notice that if the government does not addressed their concerns in the next couple of days; they would be compelled to stage a massive demonstration to demand the payment of their gratuity.

Rawlings fed up with Mills

Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 18 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Former President Jerry John Rawlings appears to be fed up with the manner in which President John Evans Atta Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government are steering the affairs of the country.

He told a delegation of Chiefs, Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers, District Chiefs Executives (DCEs) and other identifiable groups from the Upper West Region who paid a courtesy call on him at his Ridge residence, which was razed down by fire a little over month ago, that things were so bad that all seemed lost.

Mr Rawlings said he did not know the message to deliver to the people of Ghana at the next electioneering campaign because of the inability of the NDC government to offer hope to the people.

“What pains me most is the current state of Ghana. I wish I could put you back on the bus and send you to the Castle to ask the President a few questions. I do not know the message of hope he can give the people at the next campaign,” Rawlings told his guests.

The delegation was there yesterday to commiserate with him and his family over their loss in the recent fire outbreak at his Ridge residence.

But Mr Rawlings told the delegation that “what is happening is taking away the sense of hope”, stressing that “the rank and file will desert the government, if it does not act appropriately”.

Like Justice Kpegah and the NDC foot soldiers who were crying for the blood of members of the Kufuor administration, the former President stressed the need for the Mills government to launch thorough investigations into what he described as the shady deals made by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, saying,

“We need to wake up and let the government know what is going wrong.”

He believed that if the NDC as a government kept quiet about some of the actions of members of the Kufuor administration, they would regret in the near future, insisting that “we will suffer more pain than we did in the eight years prior to 2009”.

For him, “the best hope we could have given the people was to give them back the justice they lost in the previous regime. I have mentioned poor enquiries into the Mobilla and other cases and called for more thorough investigations”.

He therefore wondered why people, especially members of his own party, see his criticism of President Mills as a personality clash.

“The sad thing is that when I criticise then they make it a Rawlings versus Mills issue.”

Among the delegation was the Member of the Council of State, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, who said the Upper West Region owed a lot of gratitude to the former President for the efforts he put into the creation of the region and the extension of electricity there when all the experts thought it was not possible.

“We are sad to hear your pain. We should have come earlier but we had to delay because of the outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) in the region. Our chiefs and opinion leaders were working hard to contain the disease. The situation is now under control,” he stated.

The delegation presented the former First Couple with gifts.

Members of the delegation included the Mole Naa, Bole Naa, Jirapa Naa known in private life as Peter Nanfuri, Minister for Works and Housing Alban Bagbin, Deputy Majority Leader Rashid Pelpuo, Regional Minister Mahmud Khalid and NDC Regional Chairman Alhaji Malik Issahaku.

The regent of Tamale, Alhaji Ziblim Abdulai, and a retinue of sub chiefs were also there to commiserate with the former First Family.

The regent expressed his sadness at the loss of the former President’s residence and prayed for strength and success for him and the family.
He also presented smocks, cloths and a cow to the family.

¢220m Bribery Scandal Hits NDC

Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, 18 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
SOME MEMBERS of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Agona-West Constituency of the Central Region have accused the Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa Doe, of collecting ¢220 million (GH¢22,000) to influence the appointment of Jacob Obeng Forson as Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Agona-West Municipal Assembly.

They also allege that she was given a piece of Kente cloth as a gift, in addition to the said amount.

Speaking on Accra-based private radio station Oman FM’s National Agenda and later on Joy Fm, leader of the group and Agona-West Constituency Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Kwesi Dawood, noted that they do not have any confidence in the regional minister.

They have also petitioned President John Evans Atta Mills to sack the MCE.

According to the group, Madam Benyiwa Doe has a hand in the MCEs conduct since the minister has failed to act on the several complaints made to her about his corrupt practices.

For this reason, the constituency propaganda secretary stated, “we here have reason to believe same because this is about the fourth time we are raising this issue.

The last time we met the regional minister at her office was on 2nd November 2009”.

Instead of paying heed to their concerns, he noted that Madam Benyiwa Doe, the MCE and their cohorts have rather resorted to acts of vindictiveness against him and his other colleagues.

What infuriates him the most, he observed, is the fact that the regional minister had referred to him and his other colleagues as hungry people.

Madam Benyiwa Doe has however rubbished Mr. Dawood’s allegation, stating that she has not received any such money from Mr. Obeng Forson as suggested.

Speaking on the same radio station, she noted that Mr. Dawood and his colleagues are only out to cause mischief and drag her good name through the mud, further describing them as hungry people.

The MCE on his part described the allegations as wild and without substance, “it’s all lies”, he shot back to Joy Fm yesterday when asked for his reaction.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dawood and two-thirds of NDC Agona-West Constituency executives have petitioned President Mills and the leadership of the ruling party, citing the MCE for multiple complicity in abuse of office, conflict of interest, corruption and violating the Public Procurement Law among a host of other severe allegations contrary to the Mills administration’s ‘Better Ghana’ agenda.

The group has therefore called for the immediate removal and subsequent prosecution of the MCE since his hands, they allege, are stained in corruption.

Among other things, the MCE is also accused of appointing his wife as the assembly’s unofficial protocol officer, allowing her to makes arrangements for the outfit’s meals at an inflated cost.

Aside from that, Mr. Obeng Forson is said to have made a strange arrangement with his oldest son who is the operations manager of waste management company Zoomlion.

Thus, the Propaganda Secretary has created a situation where contracts between the assembly and Zoomlion are executed according to a special agreement.

In addition, the MCE is said to have made his second oldest son, Neequaye the contractor of the assembly, whilst the third son has been made a city guard who has allegedly been extorting monies from drivers.

“We are saying the MCE has violated our procurement laws,… by appointing his wife to be the one in charge of all catering and refreshment services at the assembly without recourse to tender processes”, Mr. Dawood charged.

He alleged Mr. Obeng Forson “has an arrangement with the assembly by which he is paid GH¢2, 500 from the proceeds of toilet [facilities]”.

Mr. Dawood quoted portions of the 2008 ‘Better Ghana’ manifesto of NDC which states “corruption thrives in a system that is not transparent or unaccountable and unresponsive to the needs and concern of citizens” to buttress his call.

The manifesto further states that “an NDC government will not make any excuses for corrupt ministers, officials and office holders generally”.

He has therefore asked President Mills to remain committed to the aspect of the manifesto which states that “we shall promptly investigate allegations of corruption and allow the law to take its course” since this is what he promised the people.

Eight months after assuming office as MCE, Mr. Dawood claims Mr. Obeng Forson has not been able to help any member of the party.

Instead he always tells them to exercise patience so he can recoup the supposed ¢220million investment money he coughed up to pay for the position.

Furthermore, he alleged that just two months after he assumed office, the MCE managed to put up a building which is currently at the lintel level and has bought a saloon car for his wife.

According to him, whenever the MCE is queried about the property he has managed to acquire overnight, he tells them they are the proceeds of his pension.

Mr. Dawood therefore could not help but ask rhetorically “which NCCE official goes on pension and gets over 800million?

“That is corruption and we told him. Instead of doing what the manifesto says in page 24, they are just sitting there and trying to cover the issue”. Again he asked, “Is this not hypocrisy; is this what we promised Ghanaians?”

The propaganda secretary admitted to being part of a group that assaulted the MCE when he allegedly tried to influence some of their colleagues to change their decision to expose him with money.
“Take it that I am not an NDC member. As a Ghanaian, do I not have the right to fight against corruption, do I not have the right to fight against conflict of interest, abuse of office and misappropriation of state money?”, he wondered.

Betty lies

...as NDC cries for blood
Posted: daily Guide |Wednesday, 17 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The 2008 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has responded to the vicious lies being peddled against him by Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, who appears to be clutching for a lifeline to secure her position.

Betty had alleged on a Radio Gold programme yesterday that Nana Addo played an instrumental role in her decision to resign from the office of the Attorney-General since she was too prominent a member of the NDC, indicating that “what happened was unpardonable”, causing unimaginable pain to her and her family.

But hours after making the allegations, the office of Nana Addo issued a statement describing Betty’s claims as not only vicious but convenient lies.

While Nana Addo empathised with her predicament, whereby influential persons within the NDC are baying for her blood because of her alleged sluggishness in bringing former NPP government officials to trial, he stressed the belief that “there are more responsible ways of handling the pressure than resorting to unnecessary fabrications”.

Far from hounding her out of office, the statement noted that Betty continued to act as Head of the International Law Division during the entire two-year period of Nana’s tenure as Attorney-General.

Nana Akufo-Addo actually left the current Attorney-General behind at the Attorney-General’s Office when in March 2003 he took up his new responsibilities as Foreign Minister.

“Thus, he worked closely with Mrs. Mould Iddrisu and all the other heads of department he came to meet at the Ministry, and she was still at post when he left the Attorney- General’s Office for the Foreign Ministry two years later,” the statement said.

It indicated that even after Nana Addo had left the A-G’s Department, he graciously accepted Betty’s request for a reference letter to support her application for an international job, emphasizing that “he gave her a glowing reference because he was satisfied with her competence and fitness for the job”.

The statement noted: “She approached Nana Akufo-Addo for a reference in his capacity as her former boss and as Foreign Minister of the Republic, and did not indeed indicate at the time that her subsequent voluntary departure would cause pain to her and her family.

“Apart from giving her an excellent written reference, Nana Akufo-Addo personally lobbied the then Commonwealth Secretary General, Don Mckinnon, on her behalf, as he would have done for any other competent Ghanaian seeking an international position.”

When Nana Akufo-Addo was appointed by the then President Kufuor as Attorney-General in 2001, Mrs Mould Iddrisu, then head of the International Law Division, was among the staff he met at the Office of the Attorney General.

Though it was common knowledge that Mrs. Mould Iddrisu was the wife of the former Defence Minister in the previous NDC administration, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, Nana Addo resisted calls from certain quarters for him to reassign her to another portfolio within the civil service and even defended his decision to maintain her at post on the ground that he had no reason to believe that her political affiliation was affecting either her professional judgment or her competence.

“Indeed, Mrs. Mould Iddrisu was given additional duties in charge of the de-confiscation of assets,” it added.

Unlike the culture of partisan cleansing that competent Ghanaians in the public service have experienced under the current Mills Administration, the statement said, “Nana Akufo-Addo stood firm to his principles that insofar as the Constitution of the Republic gave every Ghanaian the right to join a political party of their choice, he was not going to relieve any officer serving under him of their position solely on the basis of their political party membership, affiliation or sympathies”.

This, he said, was because the only relevant consideration was their competence and professionalism and so long as they did not allow their political sympathies to affect their competence, professionalism and judgment, he would work with them.

For this reason, he worked closely with Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu and all the other heads of department he came to meet at the Ministry.
The statement therefore revealed that Nana could not fathom why Betty told the malicious lies.

NPP Rubbishes NDC Tantrums

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 17 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) has rubbished the call for the prosecution of members of the erstwhile Kufuor administration by some activists of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The party has indicated its preparedness to resist any such propaganda trials, describing it as ‘completely baseless’.

Communications Director of the NPP, Kwaku Kwarteng believes that the agitations are “nothing but a product of the campaign of falsehood churned out by the NDC in the build-up to the December 2008 elections”.

In a statement issued to the media, he noted that the NPP is observing with interest current agitations within the National Democratic Congress for the prosecution of appointees of the former New Patriotic Party government for unstated offenses.

He said the NPP as a party believes that the sources of this agitation are the gullible sections of the NDC who seem to have believed their party’s false and unfounded propaganda which sought to create the impression that NPP ministers and appointees were corrupt.

“If former appointees, through due process, are legitimately found to have involved themselves in unlawful conduct, by all means let the law take its course”, he noted.

That notwithstanding, the party’s Communications Director noted that such due process must interrogate the conduct of not just government appointees under the former NPP administration, but also those under the former NDC administration, stressing that “there are many cases involving appointees of the former NDC administration (some of them the subjects of Auditor General’s findings) that require further action”.

It is the belief of the NPP that state institutions must be allowed to work without interference from any political party whatsoever.

For this reason, the party is opposed to the manipulation of the state’s security services and judicial system to persecute appointees of the former NPP government in response to what it described as “useless agitation from gullible sections of the NDC who have believed the falsehood churned out by their party leadership in the last electioneering campaign”.

It has therefore served notice that it will fiercely resist any persecution and politically motivated trials of former NPP ministers and appointees by the NDC government.

The statement comes in the wake of unnecessary pressure being put on Attorney-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu by members of her own party, including the retired Supreme Court justice, F. Kpegah, who has suddenly donned the cloak of the NDC, screaming from the rooftops.

Justice Kpegah claims the supposed inaction of the A-G in the face of what he describes as abundant evidence of corruption and graft against former government officials baffles many supporters of the National Democratic Congress who are now disillusioned.

Though the Attorney-General has called for evidence to enable her proceed to court to prosecute any former government official who may have dipped his or her hands in the nation’s coffers, Justice Kpegah thinks otherwise since, according to him, the A-G has no excuse to not prosecute anybody in the NPP.
Apart from him, supporters of the NDC in the La Dade Kotopon Constituency have equally threatened to demonstrate until the A-G is sacked by the President.

NDC Bribe Scandal

Posted: Daily Guide | Tuesday, 16 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Yesterday’s open hearing of the infamous Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal involving some high-profile members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was characterised by legal gymnastics and acrobatics when several lawyers appeared before the three-member Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) panel investigating the scandal on behalf of their clients.

The lawyers, representing members of the erstwhile Rawlings-led NDC administration who had been named as recipients of huge bribes from the United Kingdom-based construction company, engaged in a variety of ‘legal assaults’, using a host of technicalities to salvage their clients from the jaws of the Commission.

Just as the three-member panel, chaired by CHRAJ Commissioner Francis Emile Short, was about to commence hearing, lawyers representing Baba Kamara, currently Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, and those for former Minister for Roads and Highways, Dr Ato Quashie, raised technical issues on behalf of their clients.

Present at the hearing were only two of the named recipients, Dr George Sipa-Yankey, former Minister of Health, and Brigadier General (rtd) George Lord Attivor, Managing Director of Intercity STC, while Dr Ato Quarshie, Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Kwame Peprah, Abubabar Saddique Boniface and Baba Kamara were absent upon the advice of their lawyers.

Sipa Yankey and Attivor were both dressed in immaculate black and brown suits respectively, with shoes to match.

The venue for the hearing was jam-packed with NDC activists who stormed the place to give moral support to their distressed members. Alhaji Amadu Seidu, who was not there, had some activists wearing his T-shirts.

Counsel for Baba Kamara, Samuel Cudjoe’s objection was that at the time of the alleged bribery, his client was not a public official and therefore could not be probed by CHRAJ, whilst Dr Ato Quarshie’s lawyer, Nana Ato Dadzie, who was most often on his feet, objected to the legal basis of CHRAJ investigating the subject matter since, according to him, the Commission lacked the jurisdiction.

CHRAJ however dismissed the objection raised by Dr Ato Quarshie and his lawyers, since, according to Commissioner Short, their claims were untenable.

A heated argument ensued between counsel for CHRAJ, Thadeus Sory and Nana Ato Dadzie when the latter and his colleague counsel for Baba Kamara, Samuel Cudjoe, sought to question the legal basis on which Mr Sory, who is a private legal practitioner, was made counsel for the Commission.

But Mr Sory ridiculed their objections since, according to him, as an independent Commission, CHRAJ regulates its proceedings and could engage the services of any lawyer to help discharge its constitutionally mandated duties.

He quoted portions of the Constitution to support his argument but the two lawyers were still not satisfied since they appeared not convinced.

At a point, Mr Short had to intervene when tempers were flaring between Mr Sory and Nana Ato Dadzie, to explain that counsel was not a member of the investigative panel which has himself, Anna Bossman and Richard Quayson, both Deputy Commissioners, as members respectively.

He described the objection as not only premature but also untenable and therefore cited numerous instances in which CHRAJ had to engage the services of private lawyers to discharge its duties, with the most recent being Dr Phillip Ebow Bondzie-Simpson who was counsel for the Commission when it was investigating the Road Transport Minister, Dr Richard Anane, to buttress his point.

Though the Commission rubbished the basis of the preliminary objection raised by lawyers for Baba Kamara, it however referred it to the Supreme Court for determination because of the constitutional issues involved.

Thus the Supreme Court is to determine whether or not upon a true and proper construction of Article 218 (e) of the 1992 Constitution, the mandate of the Commission to investigate on all instances of alleged or suspected corruption, applies to private individuals or entities.

It is also expected to determine whether or not the Commission has the mandate to investigate a private individual who is alleged to be involved or implicated in acts of corruption allegedly committed by public officials.

It is however the view of Mr Emile Short and the Commission that “in circumstances such as the case under investigation by the Commission, where a private individual who is alleged or suspected to be involved in alleged acts of corruption by public officials, (the individual) cannot object to the Commission investigating him alongside the public officials, on the basis that he is not a public official”.

The Commissioner was of the view that to uphold such an objection challenging the investigative mandate or powers of the Commission to investigate a private individual is not only untenable but is contrary to public policy.

He therefore noted that “such an objection carries with it the grave danger of frustrating and stultifying the constitutional mandate of the Commission to investigate all instances of alleged or suspected corruption”.

In any case, CHRAJ as a Commission believes that there was nothing in Article 218 of the Constitution which justifies the conclusion reached by Baba Kamara to the effect that its mandate is ousted in such circumstances.

The Commission’s position was that by the very nature of their functions, public officials are appointed to provide public services including serving private individuals and institutions.

Considering the fact that in most transactions involving public officials, private individuals and entities are at the other end of the spectrum, Mr Short emphasised that “invariably, it is the private individuals or entities that pay bribes to public officials, especially in large investment contracts executed by multi-national companies like the contracts awarded to Mabey and Johnson”.

For this reason, he noted that “the private person or entity cannot and ought not to be allowed to successfully prevent the Commission from investigating his or her involvement in the alleged corruption”.

Since Section 241 of the country’s Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) recognizes corruption of a public officer as a criminal offence, CHRAJ said “it would be defeating of the mandate of the Commission, the primary anti corruption agency of the state, if the Constitution were to be interpreted to preclude the Commission from investigating private persons who are alleged to be involved in corrupting public officials especially where monies are involved”.

Mr Short cited several cases of law including the most recent case of Ex-parte Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (Dr Richard Anane case) to buttress his point.

Earlier on, Commissioner Short had questioned the absence of Dr Ato Quarshie, Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Kwame Peprah, Boniface Abubabar Saddique and Baba Kamara at the hearing, threatening to issue a bench warrant for them.

The answer given by Nana Ato Dadzie that “if the panel were to decide today after our submission that the panel does not have jurisdiction, we will not be expecting my client to be here the next day”, somewhat provoked the Commissioner.

His submission compelled Mr Short to say that “the way you stated your case, I think the Commissioner would issue a witness summons for the next hearing irrespective of the outcome of our ruling”.

Meanwhile, hearing has been adjourned until March 29, 2010 when the Supreme Court is expected to have made its ruling on the issues raised.

Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal

CHRAJ Begins Probe
Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 15 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE COMMISSION on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) will today begin public hearing and possibly receive testimonies about some top members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accused of receiving kickbacks in the infamous Mabey and Johnson (M&J) bribery scandal.

CHRAJ Commissioner, Francis Emile Short, told DAILY GUIDE over the weekend that all was set for him and his team to begin proceedings into the bribery scandal.

Mr Short hinted that his outfit had already received all the needed information on the case, and expressed optimism that the commission would take off on schedule since CHRAJ, as an institution, had started the needed contacts to get documents from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK.

It was also revealed that in spite of all the noise about the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu’s trip to the UK to meet officials there to get details of the case, she managed to give CHRAJ only part of what was needed, and that there were still more materials expected from her outfit.

“There are quite a number of documents which she is trying to get for us,” Mr Short said.

Though he admitted meeting the Chief Prosecutor in the M&J case, John Hardy, who was in the country on the invitation of the Danquah Institute (DI) to deliver a series of lectures on money laundering and international corruption, Commissioner Short noted that their discussion mostly centered on the lectures he delivered and not on the M&J case.

This, he said, was because “the main things that we want are the documents but he is not in a position to give us those documents.”

The M&J scandal involves six current and former government appointees including former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah; Alhaji Baba Kamara, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria; former Minister of State at the Office of the President, Alhaji Amadu Seidu; Dr Ato Quarshie, a former Minister of Roads and Highways, who allegedly received the largest chunk of the bribe money; former Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, Alhaji Saddique Boniface; former Minister of Health, Dr. George Adja-Sipa Yankey; and Edward Lord Attivor, currently Acting Managing Director of Intercity STC. He was Board chairman of STC at the time he allegedly took the M&J bribe.

The NDC officials, who mostly served in the Jerry Rawlings regime and carried over to the Atta Mills Administration, were accused of taking bribes totaling over £750,000, when M&J took up contracts to build bridges in Ghana in the 1990s.

From the mid 1980s until approximately 1996, M&J’s interests in Ghana were represented by one Kwame Ofori, also known as Danny Ofori-Atta, who controlled a Ghanaian bridge-building company, and apparently had influence within the circles of the then ruling NDC government then.

It was accepted by M&J that through the creation of the Ghana Development Fund (GDF), its executives facilitated corruption on behalf of the company and that they were in (or sought to create) a corrupt relationship with a variety of decision-making Ghanaian public officials.

These funds were purportedly for the development of M&J business in Ghana but, in reality, were capable of and were understood to be capable of being used for corrupt purposes.

Mr. Peprah was at that time Minister of Finance. The role of Baba Kamara and his value as an agent to M&J was made clear in a document authored by an M&J executive, probably prior to July 1996, and sent to its Directors.

Dr. Ato Quarshie, according to the report, received a cheque when he visited London in July 1995 in the sum of £55,000 for supposed ‘contract consultancy’.

This cheque was drawn on M&J’s Clydesdale Bank account at the Victoria branch in Buckingham Palace Road, and signed by two of the company’s Directors.

It was therefore the case of the prosecution that the payment to Dr. Quarshie and the following payments were but examples of a series of bribes to various ministers and officials.

Other relatively junior officials who were also alleged to have received some of the bribes included Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, then an ECGD desk officer at the Ministry of Finance.

He had a bank account at the National Westminster Bank in Rickmansworth. On 29th February 1996, Saddique Boniface received a transfer of £10,000 from M&J to an account at Barclays Bank Plc in Watford.

On 29th October 1996, the same account received a transfer of £13,970 from M&J. On or about 29th October 1996, Amadu Seidu, the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, received £5000 in his Woolwich account held in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

Dr. George Yankey, the Director of Legal and International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, received £10,000 in his Midland Bank account in Hill Street, London W1; and Edward Lord Attivor, also received £10,000 in his London bank account.

Interestingly, it was the same branch of the Clydesdale Bank which was used by M&J.

Amadu Seidu received a further £5,000 on 7th March 1997, the same date on which Saddique Boniface received a further £2,500.

Although the amount was relatively small, the prosecution noted that it was indicative of the nature of the corruption M&J was then practising.

M&J's payments to Dr. Yankey were not confined to the payment on or about 24th October 1996, since his Hill Street account received £5,000 on 26th August 1998 from M&J.

Following the revelations, Dr. Yankey resigned as Health Minister, ostensibly to clear his name in the matter. And in the heat of the brouhaha, Alhaji Amadu Seidu was dropped as Minister of State at the Office President Mills, even though it was not clear why he was removed.

A potential appointee to the High Commission to Nigeria, Alhaji Baba Kamara, was however confirmed.

Dr Ato Quarshie also resigned his position as Probe Chairman of Metro Mass Transit while Lord Attivor and Kwame Peprah hold on to their positions as STC MD and SSNIT Board Chairman respectively.