NCAP threatens to sue GWCL, Aqua-Vitens

…for poor service delivery
Posted: The Chronicle | Friday, October 16, 2009

By Charles Takyi-Boadu


The National Coalition against Privatisation of Water (NCAP) is considering the option of dragging the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Aqua-Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) to court for what it describes as poor service delivery.

This option would become effective, if all the petitions and interventions it has brought against the two companies fail to yield the desired results.

The group has already petitioned the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and was in the process of sending another petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate AVRL’s inability to meet their performance targets, as well as the claim that they made about GH¢30million profit, which has been denied by the GCWL.

In an interview with The Chronicle in Accra yesterday, the Southern Coordinator of NCAP, Alhassan Adams, said this was part of its quest to protect water as a public asset, and bring sanity into the sector.

He accused Aqua-Vitens of poor service delivery, and the GCWL of poor supervision.

According to him, only four low-lift pumps which pump water from intake points at the dam to the treatment plant at Weija are functioning.

Alhassan said most of the chemical dosage machines were lying obsolete, whilst filters were not working properly, stressing, “Chemicals are applied through trial and error.”

He stressed: “they do not test for the presence of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cyanide and arsenic.”

To him, recent studies by the WACAM, gives an indication that there are high levels of these heavy metals present in the Western Region.

For this reason, he noted, that there were always chances of over-dosage or under-dosage of chemicals to treat water.

This, according to him, amounts to poor standards in the provision of quality water, whilst exposing consumers to great health risk.

He described as abysmal, the performance in the sale of water, indicating that sales for the year 2007 and 2008 did not meet the annual targets, laying emphasis on the fact that there were shortfalls of 13.4% in 2007, and 20.2% in 2008. “These are unacceptable performances from the operators (AVRAL),” he added.

The NCAP also expressed grave concern over the alleged victimisation of the company’s staff and union leaders who seek to protect public interest and workers rights.

One of the key issues NCAP has raised about the management contract between the GWCL and AVRL is the reduction of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) by 5% each year.

Per the contract estimation, this should have been 40% in 2008, but Alhassan claims that it is 51.7%, that is 11.7% higher than the target.

According to him, there has been only a 2% increase in production, mainly due to expansion works at Dalum (Tamale), Sekyere Hemang and Bafiakrom in the Central Region, with only a 1% increase in installed capacity.

The National Coalition Against Privatisation of Water (NCAP) has thus called on the SFO and CHRAJ to launch investigations into the performance of AVRL and GWCL, using the management contract’s performance indicators.

The group has repeated its call on the government to abrogate its contract with the company, since it had failed to deliver the expected results.

Nunoo-Mensah slams police over Kofi Boakye

Posted: The Chronicle | Wednesday, October 14, 2009

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The Security Advisor to President Mills, Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah (Rtd) has condemned the decision by the Police Council to open a Service Inquiry into the conduct of the former Director General of the Ghana Police Service (GPS), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and Nathan Kofi Boakye who has been recalled after being on interdiction for two years.
According to Nunoo-Mensah, the service inquiry by the police Council was not necessary, because investigations conducted so far have exonerated the senior officer from any wrongdoing. He argued that the decision of the Police Council to recall him, speaks volumes of the fact that there were no adverse findings against Kofi Boakye to warrant another investigation into his professional conduct as a Policeman.

In an interview with ‘Radio Focus’ in London on Monday, the Security Capo, who spoke in Twi, wondered what might have triggered the decision by the Police Council to call for a service inquiry, saying “If you ask me my personal opinion, I will say …, it is not important because we have already looked into the matter and established that he has done nothing wrong.” Asking - “what are we going to investigate during the inquiry?”

Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah cautioned against any such move since it has not been established that Kofi Boakye has indeed flouted professional police regulations. He noted that even if Kofi Boakye flouted the rules and regulations of the Police Service, “this is nothing that should scare anybody, we should allow the chap to do his work.”

He continued, “It is the law that says he has done nothing wrong, it is the law that is working, so if the law says that he has done nothing wrong, so be it. If the Police Council knows that he has done nothing wrong, I don’t see why he cannot come to do his work, so I am confident that he will come back to do his work.”

Even before a Board of Inquiry is put in place, questions have started emerging as to whether the Police Service have a standard procedure for conducting investigations and whether or not it is a crime for a Director General of Operations of Police to meet suspected criminals.

It is believed that some individuals and group of persons in government and the Police Service itself, are making frantic efforts to get Kofi Boakye dismissed from the Police Service.

In the statement recalling Kofi Boakye back into the Service, Information Minister, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi said the Police Council took note of the findings of the Georgina Wood Committee, which investigated the strange circumstance under which some parcels of cocaine went missing on board the MV Benjamin vessel in 2006.

The Board of Inquiry, which is yet to be set up, has been tasked to investigate whether or not the officer in question indeed abused his office, is corrupt, was involved in professional misconduct and unsatisfactory service.

The decision that the Police Service sets up a Service Inquiry is to help enquire into the conduct of ACP Kofi Boakye, as contained in the Georgina Wood Committee report, which adversely affects the image and integrity of the Police Service and the country as a whole.

This process is said to be in conformity with the Police Service Act 350 of 1970 and the Police Service (Disciplinary) Regulations 1974, L.I. 993. ACP Kofi Boakye was interdicted in 2007, following the recommendations of a committee chaired by the current chief Justice, Georgina Wood, which investigated the much-publicized MV Benjamin cocaine case.

The recommendations of the same committee led to the prosecution and subsequent conviction of Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Issa Abass for their involvement in the case, but were later freed after an Appeal Court heard their case. Though the

Georgina Wood committee made recommendations for Mr. Boakye to be prosecuted, the police administration, which was then led by Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, decided to interdict him in order to conduct further investigations.

A day before leaving office, former President Kufuor ordered the reinstatement of Kofi Boakye. He also asked the police administration to pay him all his entitlements.

Don`t` subvert NPP Constitution -Ntim

Posted: The Chronicle | Tuesday, October 13, 2009

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The supposed ‘confusion’ that has characterized the selection and election of polling station executives for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has compelled party faithful, Mr. Stephen Aggrey-Ntim, who is contesting for the position of National Chairman to caution the party against attempts to subvert the spirit and letter of the NPP constitution.
Whilst appreciating the fact that the selection of polling station executives has been generally peaceful, he noted that there were still pockets of incidents and disagreements in certain areas.

This, according to him, does not augur well for the selection process and, therefore, called on that in-charge to be careful not to undermine the constitution of the party.

Mr. Aggrey-Ntim was speaking in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle yesterday, in reaction to concerns raised about the supposed confusion that characterized the selection of some polling station executives in some parts of the country.

To him, judging by the massive numbers of more than 21,000 polling stations across the length and breadth of the country, he was satisfied with the process and awarded a pass mark of 80% to the conduct of the elections so far.

Out of the over 21,000 polling stations nationwide, he noted that there have been incidents and disagreements in less than 200 polling stations and, therefore, could not entirely rubbish the process, as some have sought to do.” These are infractions that are to be expected in every competitive elections”, he emphasized.

In the past, only the polling station chairmen were allowed to vote, but under the provisions of the newly amended constitution of the party, five people who are selected from the polling station level would get the opportunity to vote in the selection of the party’s Presidential Candidate.

Mr. Ntim believes it is this excitement of having the opportunity to be part and parcel of the selection process of the party’s Presidential candidate that has accounted for the few incidents and, therefore, advised NPP activists to allow the party’s constitution to work.

“We should simply allow the constitution to operate and operate freely”, he noted.

Mr. Ntim, who contested and lost the position of National Chairman of the party to incumbent Peter Mac Manu in the last elections, said “If everybody were to adhere strictly to the constitution that we have all agreed upon, the current situation would not have arisen.

“But here is the case where you will find some people trying to bend the rules, setting the constitution aside in order to select their own friends and cronies to become polling station officers, because they will have a say in the election of the constituency officers, MPs, e.t.c.”

According to him, anything short of this has the tendency of stirring more confusion in the party.

Meanwhile, NPP has defended what is happening at the polling station elections, by saying the conduct of the polls so far and the decision to include polling station executives in its electoral college deserve commendation.

A statement signed by party Communication Director, Kwaku Kwarteng, said the move to extend the authority to the grass roots, was not only commendable, but that it would also go a long way to deepen internal democracy in Ghana.