Arthur K. dons new cloak

…Throws away party colours

… To pursue national cohesion
Posted: The Chronicle Friday, April 03, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

A leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy has set the tone for a serious national debate, which could possibly linger on for the next couple of weeks as he tries to find a solution to the seeming victimisation of former leaders in the country.
Dr. Arthur Kennedy said he found it difficult to understand why Nelson Mandela could for instance walk out of prison after 27 years and still bear the then Apartheid regime no grudge. He therefore couldn’t understand why Ghanaian governments would not cherish the good deeds of their predecessors?
In looking for a lasting solution to the culture of victimisation that has often characterised Ghanaian politics in an extensive interview with The Chronicle, he said he could not fathom why Ghanaians should allow such a political canker to creep into their politics.
He also expressed his worry on why Ghanaians neglect and despise their former Presidents, citing the examples of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister Busia and President Limann.
Despite the country enjoying democratic dispensation, he noted that Ghanaians still seem to be struggling with carving the proper roles for their former Presidents. To him, not only have we continued to demonise and disgrace the country’s former Presidents, we have also by our treatment of the ex Presidents been washing our dirty linen in public before the whole world.
“When we make it a habit of calling our leaders crooks, sooner or later the world will conclude that we elect rogues to the highest office of the land”, he emphasized, and asked rhetorically “are our leaders more interested in the pursuit of personal vendettas than in developing the nation’s business?”
In finding a solution to the problem, Dr. Kennedy stressed the urgent need for the government to extend basic respects and courtesies to their predecessors as a mark of their own decency, whilst embracing a spirit of conciliation amongst the major political parties.
He chastised those he described as ‘extremists’ in the major political parties and urged the “moderates to raise their voices for the betterment of our country.”
He posed a rhetorical question about why “our national leaders cannot resolve petty issues on the quiet, like how many vehicles a former President is entitled to or where his office should be, or the issues of Dagbon?”, stressing that “we have spent the first three months of the Mills, Presidency exacting revenge for real or imagined actions, while finding little time to engage ourselves across the broad political divide on the big issues of the day.”
Furthermore, the affable NPP kingpin, who has a penchant for speaking his mind freely without any form of fear or favour questioned why as a nation we dissipate our energies on trivial issues.
Dr. Kennedy advised the religious and traditional leaders in the country to publicly comment about state matters that go wrong.
In effect, he lauded the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for his well known diplomatic efforts concerning his visits to President Mills and his two predecessors, and urged other religious and traditional rulers to join the effort.
The former NUGS President also had cause to caution the media against their gladiatorial tendencies which is geared towards destruction of characters.
He also stressed the urgent need to condemn the increasing ethnic awareness into the country’s politic which can damage our national cohesion.
His word of advice to the former Presidents was that they must also refrain from public criticism of their successors. Furthermore, they must remember that Ghana is a poor nation and that some of these things could offend the sensibilities of the majority of the poor people in the country.
Dr. Kennedy said he looks forward to the inauguration of what he described as the ‘Association of Former Presidents’.
“The nation will benefit if President Mills uses the expertise of President Kufuor in dealing with the international communities while using President Rawlings’ knowledge in security. That will not only bring ‘Asomdwe but also Nkoso!” said Dr. Kennedy.
During the last eight years, Dr. Kennedy stressed that former President Rawlings had some of his privileges withdrawn.
Dr. Kennedy described what former President Kufuor appears to be going through as “a deliberate, long, carefully orchestrated, drawn-out exercise to publicly humiliate him.”
In the eyes of those who are orchestrating this public humiliation, the NPP kingpin said it is nothing but pay-back time and as former President Rawlings once said “Abaa a yede bo Takyi no, eda ho”.
Dr. Kennedy thus asked “how President Mills could openly confess his faith to religious leaders one day, and the next day watch the humiliation of his predecessor without any Christian compassion?” For him, therefore, President Kufuor actually deserves better from those Ghanaians who wish him ill.
He recalled that as a result of his good works, 11.7 million Ghanaians now enjoy health insurance, saying that it would be enough justification for any Presidency. He further emphasised that under Kufuor’s leadership the country’s road network was significantly improved whilst poverty dropped by a third, with the economy expanding more than at any comparable period in Ghana’s history.
On former President Rawlings, he noted that after a decade as a dictator, he was legitimized by all Ghanaians with two mandates which enabled him to do some good things, saying “that is why he too, deserves better treatment.”
Whilst appreciating the fact that Mr. Rawlings’ treatment was not appropriate, Dr. Kennedy stressed that he (JJ) has become indifferent to the visitation of humiliation on his successor (Kufuor), indicating that he (JJ) would do well to accept the wisdom in the saying that “an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind”.
Surprised by the turn of events in the country, he wondered why President Mills has been mute over the humiliation of his predecessor, saying, “He watched as President Kufuor’s cars were taken away. He has stayed silent as the controversy raged on over Mr. Kufuor’s office accommodation issue.
He (Mills) has rather established a committee to review the ex-gratia decisions of his predecessor when clearly he lacks the authority to do so”, wondering why this attitude to the country’s former Presidents has been extended to the former Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes.
Whilst admitting that he does not for a moment condone corruption by former or current office-holders, Dr. Kenndy stated that “if the due processes of investigation establishes that someone was corrupt or has broken any laws, he must face the full rigours of the law.”

CJA orders Mills to bite

...as it uncovers massive looting at Ministries

Posted: The Chronicle Wednesday, April 01, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

A report commissioned by the Auditor-General, Edward Dua-Agyemang into the books of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) covering the period of the year 2005 has uncovered massive corruption. Based on this, the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) has called on President Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to recoup every pesewa that the nation lost during the NPP era.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, a Spokesman for the CJA, Duke Tagoe quoted portions of the audit report commissioned by the Auditor-General, Edward Dua-Agyemang, in the year 2006, covering the year 2005 to back their calls for a possible prosecution of any member of the former administration who had dipped his hands into the national coffers and dissipated its resources.
“Though the Kufuor government has been shown the exit through the ballot box, we firmly re-state that officials within the then regime who supervised and in a large measure aided and abetted in the dissipation of state funds should be made to face the full rigours of the law”, he emphasized. He therefore, called on the current administration to review the acquisition of the two Presidential jets and other related deals to ensure that every pesewa lost to the Ghanaian taxpayer is recovered.
The said audit report found evidence of fraud, thieving and disregard for existing procurement laws (Procurement Act 2003) at the various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs). At the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, the report noted that accountable imprest of ¢46.3 million were not accounted for on the completion of the assignments for which the amount was given, whilst Valued Added Tax (VAT) receipts amounting to ¢33.2 million were not obtained from three companies for goods purchased.
In spite of that, eight other officers who were given accountable imprests totaling US $33,300 between January 2004 and March 2005 to undertake various international assignments did not account for them. Contrary to provisions of the Financial Administration Act, it was also realized that an amount of ¢72,210,000 was paid to four firms and one officer of the Ministry but were not recovered by receipts to authenticate the transactions.
At the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing five laptop computers valued at ¢142.5 million could not be accounted for since at the time of the audit they had vanished from the Ministry without any trace whilst at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, it was realized that an amount of US $106, 168 had been misappropriated at Ghana’s Embassy in Cote d’ Ivoire.
It also came to light in the course of the audit that at the Ministry of Education that no official receipt was obtained from the West African Examinations Council for ¢65.9million, being claimed payments of Basic Certificate Examination (BECE) registration fees that had been collected from students, compelling the Auditor-General to comment on “the genuineness of the transaction could, therefore, not be ascertained.”
Furthermore, it was uncovered that the Department of Urban Roads in Kumasi under the Ministry of Transport failed to present payment vouchers totaling ¢13billion that they claimed had been paid to contractors for audit. The propriety of payments of the amount involved could, therefore, not be ascertained.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives was said to have spent ¢995, 398, 812 on garments to promote the ‘National Friday Wear Programme’ which officials claimed were distributed for free, however, there was no evidence of the persons or organizations that were given these garments since there was no distribution list to that effect.
At the Finance and Economic Planning Ministry, it was detected that Security agencies including the Ghana Army, Ghana Navy and the Ghana Police Service were indebted to the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to the tune of ¢78.42billion.
The explanation given was that due to the sensitive nature of the work of the Security agencies, it was difficult for CEPS to collect the above stated taxes. That notwithstanding, cheques amounting to ¢17.2billion, issued by three Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in settlement of petroleum taxes on the lifting of oil from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) bounced, whilst no attempt was made to reclaim it
The report also unearthed issues of serious corruption and lack of transparency relating to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in which Axis Advertising Agency secured a government contract to monitor and review media campaign and advertisements for the NHIS but for some inexplicable reason, the same contract was awarded to two other companies called Media Touch Production Ltd and Media Plus for fees totalling ¢359, 925, 286.
A financial consultant of the NHIS, Mr. Foster-Folson and the scheme’s Cordinator, Kofi Adusei were reported to have breached financial discipline when they falsely and illegally certified that work contracted to Adams Advertising, totalling ¢2, 271, 204,000 to mount 123 billboards nationwide had been completed.
However, it was later uncovered that only 19 and not 123 billboards were mounted. It also came to light that contrary to the Procurement Act, Adams Advertising did not possess the capacity to undertake the job. Having secured the contract, the company sub-contracted it to another company called Design Display and Publicity (DDP) and thereby made a whooping profit of ¢296, 206, 650.
The report uncovered other serious breaches at the NHIS whilst there were also similar issues bothering on massive looting at the School Feeding Programme in which school enrolment figures were said to have been inflated.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu spills the beans

How Majority betrayed Minority

...After secretly agreeing to reject Fiifi`s appointment

Posted: The Chronicle Tuesday, March 31, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Though he admits that in democracy Majority always carry the vote, Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu believes that in the case of the approval of Mr. Fiifi Kwetey as a Deputy Minister of Finance, the Majority in Parliament did a lot of disservice to themselves and the nation.
According to him, the Majority National Democratic Congress (NDC) members themselves admitted that Mr. Fiifi Kwetey was not a man of integrity, and yet they went ahead to approve of his nomination.
In a telephone interview with this Reporter, the Minority Leader noted that during the vetting of Mr. Fiifi Kwetey, the latter made certain statements which raised a lot of questions about his integrity.
This, according to him, compelled some members on the majority side, who spoke to him on phone, while some even proceeded to his office to admit that what the Minority said about the nominee was the truth, given the deputy Finance Minister’s performance at the vetting before the Appointments Committee, and they gave him their assurance to vote against Fiife Kwetey.
“Yet, when it came to the crunch, they all chickened out, that to me is unfortunate on the part of all those who came to give me their assurance”, he emphasised.
Commenting on Fiifi Kwetey’s statement that if given the opportunity he will do what he did again and again, referring to his propaganda peddling role when the NDC was in opposition, Mr. Kyei Mensah Bonsu noted “if it is difficult for him to reconcile himself with the truth, then its going to be difficult for such a person to be Deputy Minister, particularly at the Ministry of Finance, after alleging that all the gold reserves have disappeared and that the NPP government had them.”
For him therefore, “such a person is not a man of integrity and that is what we were really concerned about”. For this reason, he trusted the Majority would have done the right thing by voting against the approval of the man in question, but at the end of the day they decided to give him the nod.
Meanwhile, a source close to the Majority in Parliament has confided in The Chronicle that their decision to vote in favour of Fiifi Kwetey’s nomination was informed by the fact that they did not want to be seen to be undermining the authority of the President who made the nomination.
According to the source, any such move would have constituted an affront to President Mills’ integrity. Due to this, though some of them were against the behaviour put up by Fiifi Kwetey before the Appointments Committee during his vetting, they could not but pass him to suit the will of the President.
Fiifi Kwetey’s nomination as Deputy Minister of Finance was approved by Parliament last week by a vote of 117 for and 106 against.
This was after several weeks of political manoeuvres and back and forth lobbying to strike a compromise deal between the Majority NDC and Minority NPP.