I Had No Sex With Secretary

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Mubarak
Former Minister for Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak yesterday made his first appearance at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) probing him, admitting that he introduced his supposed ‘girlfriend’ Edith Zinayela to his former Ministry as his secretary.

Muntaka however denied having any romantic or amorous relationship with the said lady, who was a secretary to Alban Bagbin at the time they travelled to Germany together. He also denied influencing the processes that led to her acquisition of the German visa which enabled her to travel with him.

CHRAJ is investigating him for allegedly “fraudulently acquiring a German visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zinayela, under the pretext that she was an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Ms. Edith is an employee of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.”

He narrated the circumstances leading to the inclusion of the lady on the trip to Germany together with then acting Director of the National Sports Council (NSC), Charles Aryeh and one Kofi Kukubor, who facilitated the trip on behalf of the sporting kit company, Puma.

At the time he assumed the position, Muntaka said the Ministry was understaffed and so he could not have taken his secretary along on the Germany trip- a trip which was an all-expense one including flight, accommodation, food and others paid for by Puma with the exception of the visa application fee.

According to the embattled former minister, the trip, which was at the behest of Puma, was to explore avenues for the company to sponsor the national sports associations with kits, emphasizing that all the three persons who went with him on the trip went for a purpose.

The former Minister, who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP)for Asawase in the Ashanti region, said he followed established precedent and recommended Edith whose competence he could vouch for and therefore recommended her for consideration at a management meeting.

Edith, who was then secretary to the Majority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was to serve as their secretary while in Germany.

“It was agreed that if I take my secretary, what it’s going to mean is that my office is going to be closed. So if I take any secretary within the block because we didn’t have enough of them (sic),” he noted.

For this reason, he said, “I just said, okay can that be left with me to deal with and it was agreed at that management meeting. So when I talked to the Chief Director that….can I bring a Secretary from the Majority secretariat (sic).”

An obviously frustrated Muntaka added “and all I did, Mr. Commissioner I know I’m under oath, was to submit the name and the telephone number of this lady. That was all.”

The former Minister said he submitted her name to the Chief Director of the Ministry, stressing that it was the Ministry and not he who applied for Edith’s visa for her since a Deputy Director at the same Ministry, Allen Agbenator was given that responsibility.

He tendered in copies of letters which were sent to the German Embassy to provide the needed assistance to him and members of his delegation for the trip and a copy of letter requesting a visa for Edith as evidence.

Muntaka also denied claims that his supposed ‘girlfriend’ was paid any per diem since no such facility was available.

Instead, he said it was only him and Charles Aryeh who took what he described as ‘abated’ (not full) per diem, indicating that Kofi Kukubor was also not paid anything.

Asked whether it was a standard practice for people who are not staff of the Ministry to be co-opted to travel with the Minister on foreign trips, as in the case of Edith Zinayela who is now at large, Muntaka answered in the affirmative and cited an instance in the year 2007 where a similar thing was done for one Georgina Abankwa, a Marketing and Advertising Manager at the same Ministry.

Muntaka thus tendered in a copy of the request for visa for Georgina Abankwa but the issues that it generated alone made his lawyers, William Kissi Agyebeng, a criminal law lecturer at the University of Ghana, and Kwesi Baffoe Instiful, to withdraw it immediately as evidence.

Hearing has been adjourned to Monday, October 4, 2010.

Konadu House Wahala Deepens

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguide.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The controversy surrounding renovation works carried out on the private residence of the mother in-law of former President Jerry John Rawlings is far from over.

Yesterday, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah appeared before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to answer questions relating to comments he made about the renovation works on former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’s mother’s house.

He virtually contradicted what his colleague deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng had earlier told the Commission that government indeed did some considerable renovation on the said building located at the Nyaniba Estates in Osu, Accra, to enable Konadu and her family to perch at her mother’s place after fire razed down the Rawlingses’ Ridge residence.

Whilst Mr. Agyenim-Boateng had claimed that government only did some painting works on the house, Dr. Omane-Boamah said there was more to it than the mere painting since “it was not just painting but something extra was also done.”

Though he could not give the details of what exactly went into the renovation works, Omane Boamah, a medical doctor-turned politician, told the Commission that apart from the painting, some security features were also put in place.

But sources close to businessman Herbert Mensah, who claims to have paid for the renovation works at the said house and had receipts to justify how much he expended on it, said he was extremely surprised at the spin that government was trying unsuccessfully to put on the renovation.

The source said Mr. Mensah was prepared to produce the receipts whenever the need arose and therefore challenged government to make any such receipts available to the Commission, if any, to back their claim of having painted the house and fitted it with some security equipment.

In a related development, the pressure group, Ghana Youth Movement (GYM) which petitioned CHRAJ to investigate the case has also asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate Herbert Mensah for what they claim to be ‘false misrepresentation’ in the same case for possible prosecution.

A petition presented to the SFO and signed by Nana Prempeh Agyemang, Kwabena Tandoh and Paa Kwasi Boateng said the statement by Mr. Agyenim-Boateng at the previous hearing to the effect that government did some renovation works on the house, contradicted Mr. Mensah’s claim.

GYM said “It will be prudent to investigate his said involvement in this matter and if proven to be false claim, then he should be prosecuted as stated in our criminal code that false misrepresentation is a crime.”

Mr. Mensah however declined to respond to any of these statements when DAILY GUIDE contacted him.

Kufuor Jet Lands

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The much-awaited Presidential jet, Falcon 900EX Easy aircraft whose inauguration was postponed because of a delay in its arrival, has finally touched down at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra.

Sources at KIA told DAILY GUIDE that the aircraft, whose acquisition became the subject of a heated debate between members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2008, arrived yesterday at exactly 5pm.

This was confirmed by Defence Public Relations (DPR) Director Colonel Akintande Mbawine.

At press time yesterday, the DPR was said to be preparing a statement to the media.

The aircraft is thus expected to be outdoored at what promises to be a colourful ceremony any time soon, after officials of the Armed Forces take delivery of it.

In the absence of President Mills, who is currently in Japan in search of financial assistance, Vice President John Dramani Mahama was expected to perform the inauguration of the jet. But it was cancelled at the last minute when the military authorities were not sure of the arrival of the jet.

The Falcon 900EX Easy Aircraft was purchased by the Kufuor administration to replace the Fokker 27, otherwise referred to as the ‘flying coffin’ that the Ghana Air Force had used for the past 37 years as a presidential jet.

It was scheduled to be outdoored on Thursday, September 23, but had to be postponed because the jet could not arrive in the country as earlier reported.

The acquisition of the jet by the Kufuor administration attracted criticisms from the then opposition NDC who questioned the rationale for the plane at a time when the NDC claimed critical sectors of the economy, such as health and education, were badly in need of funding.

However, when Professor Mills took over the reins of government, the plane was configured to his specifications.

President Kufuor refused to use a Gulf Stream Presidential jet acquired by the Rawlings administration because its transaction was shrouded in mystery. He therefore began the process of acquiring the US$37million Falcon 900 presidential jet and an Airbus for the Ghana Air Force in 2007.