Ghanaians Are Dying

Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 2010. Daily Guide
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) doubts whether existing conditions in the country supports President Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s promise of a ‘Better Ghana’, two years after they assumed the reins of government.

AFAG believes the NDC government has failed to fulfill several promises it made to Ghanaians which influenced them to vote for the party during the 2008 general elections.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, chaired by the former Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, James Apeatu Ankrah, spokesman for the group Steve Amoah aka Sticker challenged government to show a sense of commitment towards achieving those promises since Ghanaians were reeling under the shadows of economic hardship.

He recalled how President Mills and the NDC promised to neither increase nor introduce new taxes.

However, when the party assumed the reins of governance and in its 2011 budget statement, the government introduced a number of these taxes, AFAG said.

This, according to AFAG, “Clearly demonstrates to the nation, the heartless and wicked nature of the NDC government.”

AFAG believes that “the NDC government has reneged on its promises to deliver the so called Better Ghana Agenda”, insisting that “the NDC has worsened the quality of life of the average Ghanaian.”

Whilst noting that it was not against tax adjustment, AFAG said increases in taxes should be done in a way that would not increase the hardship of Ghanaians but boost private business growth and make them competitive.

Under the current economic conditions and business climate, they believed tax increases could hardly be a positive job creation strategy.

“Indeed, the wide range of taxes and tax increases levied on the private sector appears to be deliberate,” said Steve Amoah.

This, he said, was because the Head of Policy and Monitoring at the seat of Government (the Castle), Dr Tony Aidoo, recently described the private sector as a parasitic sector that deserved to be taxed for development.

AFAG stated, “This demonstrates that the NDC is not committed to the private sector”, adding, “It is important that the government recognizes that the market women, taxi and trotro drivers, shoeshine boys, cocoa and other farmers, carpenters, chop bar owners, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs, etc. are at the heart of the private sector.”

“Undoubtedly, the government is taxing the private sector to death. This would kill the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector and bring the sector to its knees. It seems the government does not care. It has lost touch with reality as it continues on this tax epidemic,” it said.

The group stated that “tax stamps for the informal sector including Makola women, kiosks owners, Kejetia market women would make the poor Ghanaian poorer.”

Steve Amoah noted that the 300% increase in debt recovery levy had given rise to controversy as to whether the President was still committed to reducing fuel drastically, with the fear that this would have resultant increase in the price of petroleum products which the President promised to reduce drastically.

It could also not fathom why a whopping 20% tax had been placed on plastic products, which is targeted at companies using plastics such as those in the food, drinks, pharmaceutical and sachet water industries.

They noted that these areas of the economy, particularly the sachet water bus sector, employed mostly the ordinary Ghanaian, stressing that it was unacceptable and a clear aberration from the NDC’s mantra of not introducing new taxes.

AFAG has asked government to come out with a strategic solution to the challenges associated with the plastic or rubber waste management which could help employ more people in the society.

The leadership of AFAG could also not comprehend why talk tax had now been extended to all data and internet service companies since it would make internet browsing more expensive.

Steve Amoah said, “It is disingenuous or absurd for any government to claim that this policy would create jobs,” since “This tax would make internet browsing more expensive at a time the industry is struggling to survive.”

He said, “The internet service providers (ISPs) are finding it difficult to stay afloat and the last thing they need is another tax”, asking rhetorically, “Is the President Mills NDC government really aware of what is happening to the ISPs.”

“These taxation policies of this government are clearly dysfunctional to the aggregate performance of the private sector which plays key roles in economic growth and job creation in Ghana,” it stated.

Cocaine Barons Use VVIP Lounge

Published: Thursday, December 16, 2010. Daily Guide
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
While President J.E.A Mills was publicly submitting to a body search at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) shortly after assuming office, to signify his battle readiness for drug war, behind the scenes, he was bemoaning corruption within his own ranks and feared his appointees were seriously involved in Ghana’s burgeoning drug trade, new Wikileaks documents have revealed.

On Tuesday, the influential London Guardian newspaper published on its website cables from Wikileaks about the illicit cocaine trade in the country, especially at the Kotoka International Airport, stating that President Mills suspected some of his men might have become involved in the drugs trade and therefore wanted them searched ‘under cover’ outside the prying eye of the public.

The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, reportedly told the Americans that certain pastors, bank managers and their wives also used the VVIP lounge despite suspicions that they were trafficking drugs.

Mr. Sarpong, former National Democratic Congress (NDC) propaganda secretary, could not deny the leaks except to say that the publication was a “combination of truths, half truths and people’s own personal perceptions.”
He has threatened to no longer share intelligence with Western partners over drug trafficking between the two regions.

Mr. Sarpong wondered how confidential discussions he had with some US embassy officers over the worsening narcotics problem in Ghana, as well as leaked discussions between Ghana’s President and the Assistant Secretary to US President Barack Obama, would leak.

President Atta Mills had told Johnnie Carson in 2009 that he feared ‘a bleak future for the Ghanaian people’ since “Ghana is struggling with drug trafficking and increased drug use”, adding that traditionally, God-fearing Ghana was "becoming a user country."

Mr. Sarpong is also quoted to have asked "how $700,000 mansions could be built in the poor region adjacent to the main Ghana-Togo border crossing” and “how a single Nigerian woman could buy large parcels of beachfront property but that no one questions the source of her funds.”

In a US Embassy cable dated November 9, 2009, President John Atta Mills is quoted as telling the United States authorities he wanted equipment installed in the presidential lounge of the airport to screen his entourage for drugs when leaving the country.

“Mills wants these officials to be checked in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs,” the cables, released on December 14, 2009, read.

One of the leaked confidential document was dated Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 09:04, titled, CONFIDENTIAL ACCRA; SUBJECT: GHANAIAN CONCERN OVER DRUG SMUGGLING BY VIP PASSENGERS Classified By: Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum.

A British operation to stem the flow of cocaine through Ghana had been beset by corruption, with local drug police sabotaging expensive scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers to avoid detection, the leaked US Embassy cables revealed.

In June 2009, President Mills told the US Ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum, "elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there."

Officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) working together with British officials were noted to have actively helped traffickers, even telling them the best time to travel to avoid detection.

In some cases, they were said to have channelled passengers, including pastors and bank managers and their wives into the security-exempt VVIP lounge despite suspicions they were trafficking drugs.

For this reason, smuggling was touted to have become so blatant that on one flight last year, two traffickers vomited drugs they had swallowed and subsequently died. Parcels of cocaine were also found taped under the seats of another KLM plane even before boarding.

US Embassy contacts in the Police Service and the president's office "have said they know the identities of the major barons," but "the government of Ghana does not have the political will to go after them,” a December 2007 cable said.

The cables said Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board believes the VVIP lounge at the airport had been a source of drugs leaving the country, while Ghana was increasingly becoming a hot area of concern in the fight against illicit international drug trade.

President Mills is said to have expressed interest in acquiring ‘itemizers’ [portable screening devices] for the Presidential suite at the airport in order to screen his entourage for drugs before boarding any departing flight.

This was when he had discussions with Roland O’ Hagan, the Project Manager of Operation Westbridge, a one million-pound sterling British-Ghana government initiative which was intended to clamp down on the use of Ghana as a drug trafficking point.

As narrated by O'Hagan, President Mills wanted these officials to be checked in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they were caught carrying drugs.

The itemizers, similar to those provided several years ago by the US Embassy through INL funding, are supposed to be sensitive, portable screening devices that can detect the drug content in droplets of human sweat, after recent external contact or for up to three weeks after ingestion.

All the four itemizers provided to the Government of Ghana to detect drug smugglers among airline passengers are now non-functioning.

O'Hagan believed that the itemizers at the airport were deliberately kept in a dusty, un-air-conditioned room that caused them to break down frequently.

He believed the machines were sabotaged because they were in a storage room, and the filters were removed since the knowledge required to remove the filters exceeded the basic knowledge of the operators.

The report also captured the Executive Secretary, Mr. Sarpong, also making an open admission on October 5, 2009 that though he was a staunch supporter of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), party politics had no place at the NACOB.

That notwithstanding, he indicated that traffickers were using the VVIP lounge of the KIA to avoid searches.

Passengers leaving the lounge, according to the reports, were driven directly to the plane and were not searched before departure.

While President Mills had been outspoken in his determination to combat drug trafficking, Sarpong said that the NDC government had failed so far to provide NACOB with adequate resources, and stressed that low salaries made law enforcement personnel highly vulnerable to drug traffickers.

He claimed to track all drug dealers, regardless of their political affiliation, yet simultaneously made disparaging categorical remarks about drug connections in the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The United Nations estimates that up to 60 tonnes of cocaine are smuggled through West Africa, mainly to Europe, each year.

The previous Kufuor administration was also indicted for its lack of strenuous action against drug trafficking through Ghana.

As far back as October 2007, the document indicated that there were high concerns about the increasing drug trafficking through Ghana, charging the government as being “largely clueless as to how to combat it.”

“All sources agreed that if the present trend continues, Ghana would likely see a corresponding rise in crime and drug abuse present in most transit countries,” it noted.

O'Hagan said that he believed the airlines might be willing to pay for the itemizers to be repaired, and specifically mentioned KLM and Delta. In recent times, the drug couriers have allegedly been arrested in connection with the two carriers.

He noted that the cost of maintenance on the itemizers was less than the cost of diverting flights on which passengers suffered drug overdoses.

Within the last few months, said O'Hagan, KLM had diverted to Spain two flights from Accra to Amsterdam because passengers started vomiting drugs. In both cases, the passenger died.

The statistics from Operation Westbridge are quite striking. The ages of arrested persons ranged from 16 to 55 and hailed from Ghana, Nigeria, Romania, the Netherlands, the UK and New Zealand.

Many carriers swallowed pellets and one Ghanaian died in July when a pellet burst.

Others have attempted to conceal narcotics in herbal tea, pictures, hair gel, or suitcases.

Perhaps most disturbing was when Westbridge officials found, before passengers boarded the plane, 1.8 kg of cocaine taped under passenger seats on a KLM flight.

Seizures seem to occur daily when the Westbridge team was present. In total, since November 2006, the operation has seized 350 kg of cocaine, nearly 2,200 kg of cannabis, and 1.3 kg of heroin with a total street value of over $120,000.