Where is our share of the booty? - Rambo questions President Mills

According to some members of National Democratic Congress (NDC), the President’s reshuffling exercise is a step in the right direction, while others have also expressed misgivings for being left out of the government.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper Manya, Hon. Michael Teye Nyaunor, aka Rambo, commended the President’s reshuffle exercise, but has expressed worry over his home region, the Eastern region, having been sidelined in the ministerial appointment.

“We must admit that when sharing ministerial appointments, it is not going to be a permanent thing. The President has tried to bring experienced people on board, to inject new ideas into the government. In spite of this, I am virtually not happy that nobody is coming from the Eastern Region.

“I am wondering whether the Eastern Region did not contribute to the winning of the elections by the NDC? I am very sad about this situation. They have not treated us fairly at all,” noted the disgruntled MP in an interview with The Chronicle.

According to him, the Eastern Region also deserves a place in government, since they also contributed immensely to our winning back power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Mr. Nyaunor’s argument stems from the fact that the only person from Eastern Region, Mr. Stephen Kwao Amoanor, was sacrificed in the reshuffle exercise. “Look at the first ministerial position giving to a true son of the Eastern Region, Mr. Stephen Kwao Amoanor. What is it at that Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare that he could use to help his constituency, he asked. He however consoled himself with the fact that things will get better soon, saying “It is not yet over.”

However, The Chronicle’s observation in Parliament yesterday revealed the impact that it has had on the affected ministers. After sitting, MPs who are holding ministerial positions but were not affected by the reshuffle were congratulated by their colleagues.

That notwithstanding, ‘Rambo’ could not hide his emotions over the vacuum created by the Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin, who has been nominated as Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

He was however quick to recommend Mr. Cletus Avoka to fill that position. Avoka must muster courage to fill the vacuum created,” he added.

Gov't blows ¢210m on drinks

The minority members of parliament were yesterday taken aback when the Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, told the house that as much as GH¢21,600 was spent on refreshments alone during the various educational fora that discussed the duration of the Senior High School programme.
The Minister, who appeared before the House to answer questions relating to his ministry, further told the house that the amount represented almost fifty percent of the total amount spent on the programme.

Before the minister could finish his submissions, an unidentified member from the minority side, screamed at the top of his voice “Eei, GH¢21,600 spent on tea alone?”

The minority became jittery about the Minister’s disclosure, and began asking probing questions to know how much was spent on other items. “Madam Speaker, I would like the Minister to give the full details of how much was spent on other items,” asked the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asunafo-North, Robert Sarfo-Mensah. But, Majority Leader Alban Bagbin intervened to give the Minister a lifeline. “Tell them, tell them the number of people who attended the fora,” Bagbin whispered from behind.

With this intervention, Tettey-Enyo told the House, “Madam Speaker, this expenditure was spent on about one thousand participants.” To prevent being heckled by the minority members, who were fired up to ask questions, the Education Minister declined to give further details on the expenditure.

Earlier on, Mr. Tetteh-Enyo told the House that his ministry had communicated the outcome of the fora on the duration of years for Senior High School, in the form of a memorandum to Cabinet for approval.

This, he said, was to enable the government reverse the duration for Senior High School education, from the current four years, to three years. “Cabinet accepted the proposed reversal to three years, and indicated that school enrolment for the three-year program should commence in September 2010,” he told the House.

According to him, Cabinet had also approved the implementation plan for the reversal to three years.

He further told members that the three-year SHS program was still in the preparatory process for its implementation, but gave the assurance that, “the reversal will still take place.”

However, the question of whether or not Parliament would approve the reversal of the four-year duration to three years still remains unknown, since the House appears divided on the issue.

The minority New Patriotic Party (NPP), then in majority, had reversed the duration from three years to four years during their second term in office. Upon assumption of office, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government decided to change the duration, in fulfillment of its party manifesto and campaign promise.

The NDC criticised the NPP for rushing to make the duration four-years without putting the needed infrastructure, including syllabi and textbooks, in place. However, those in support of the four-year duration argued that increasing the number of the years would help reverse the high number of students who were unable to qualify to the universities and other tertiary institutions, because of inadequate preparation.

The first batch of four-year SHS students, under the reforms introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is expected to enter the fourth year in the 2010/11 academic year.

Pix: Mr. Alexander Teye-Enyo, Minister Education.

Ghana:Pressure group drags former Youth & Sports minister to CHRAJ

The Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), an Accra based non-governmental organisation (NGO) has petitioned the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to probe the conduct of the former Youth and Sports Minister, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka, whilst in office

The organisation alleged abuse of office and conflict of interest by Alhaji Muntaka when he took office as Minister of Youth and Sports. It further accused him of fraud, after he allegedly used false information to secure a German visa for his girlfriend, Ms Edith Zineuali, together with using the Ministry’s (Youth and Sports) resources to finance their trip to watch the CHAN tournament held in Cote d’Ivoire last year.

According to the PNF, in a petition dated January 1st, 2010 and signed by its spokesperson, Richard Kwesi Nyamah, to CHRAJ, Alhaji Muntaka had till date, failed to produce receipt of US$10,000 he received from some government officials, upon his request to settle landing charges for the aircraft the local national team used for the CHAN tournament.

Muntaka is also blamed for an irregular transaction he executed to secure an amount of GH¢1,410,051.58 from the National Sports Council, for its expenditure incurred in April, 2009, without being processed through the Office of the Chief of Staff.

“Detailed actual receipts, which should have been processed through the office of the Chief of Staff, were not attached, but Alhaji Muntaka signed a covering letter addressed to the Hon. Minister of Finance for the release of the amount. It was an irregular transaction, which the minister knowingly signed,” noted Kwesi Nyamah in the petition to CHRAJ.

The PNF also questioned the conduct Alhaji Muntaka in personally arranging for the accommodation of the Black Stars players and officials in Navaisha, Kenya, in a pre-match camping against Sudan, without the involvement of any other official of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Alhaji Muntaka was also reported to have done the same in Khartoum, Sudan.

He was also accused of wrongful act, for requesting a refund of GH¢674.02 in respect of baby oil, baby food, mouth wash and other household items from the imprest cashier of the ministry.

In addition, the former Youth and Sports Minister was cited for wrongful act, by requesting for a refund of GH¢15,200 with a receipt in the name of Zinabu Mubarak, in respect of meat and other food items purchased from the market.

Again, he was accused for collecting US$25,000, but released only US$13,000 to the Ghana Football Association (GFA), for the payment of protocol, when the GFA had actually spent US$18,000 on the exercise.

Furthermore, the PNF accused Alhaji Muntaka of requesting GH¢1,000 for the services of a ‘Mallam,’ and also allocating a VW Passat, with registration number GT 1351 Z, to his wife.

He is also accused for requesting a payment of GH¢12,000 for the purchase of gifts for his constituency, on a trip to Kumasi.

The petitioner is claiming, among other things, a declaration that the former minister indeed abused his office, and engaged in acts of conflict of interest for his personal gain, at the expense of the Republic of Ghana.

The PNF is again seeking a declaration that the former minister abused the trust the people of the Republic of Ghana reposed in him, and his oath of office. It is also seeking that criminal charges are preferred against the former minister, where he has been found to have acted in a fraudulent way.

It will be recalled that in June 2009, Mr. Adim Odoom, Principal Accountant of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, petitioned the President of the Republic of Ghana, on allegations of corruption against Alhaji Muntaka when he was in charge of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

National Health Insurance Authority collapses Apam Catholic Hospital

Authorities at the Apam Catholic Hospital have appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), managers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), to settle its bills with the hospital, to save it from collapse.
“ They haven’t paid us for the past six months. Because of this, we are running out of stock, and the hospital is on the verge of collapse. Most of the medicines are not there, and that has forced us to prescribe for the patients to buy,” noted Dr. Ebenezer Amekah, Acting Medical Supt, Apam Hospital, in an interview with The Chronicle.
This was after an executive team from General Electrics (GE), made up of the African American Forum (AAF), had paid a familiarisation tour of the hospital over the weekend, to inspect medical equipments and machinery it provided the hospital sometime ago.
The NHIA is believed to be indebted to the Apam Catholic Hospital to a tune of GH¢80,000 for medical services it provided to patients under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
The situation is said to be having a adverse effect on the hospital, looking at the numerous communities the hospital is serving.
Established in 1959, Apam Hospital is the only hospital serving the people of the Gomoa West and East Districts.
But, authorities of the hospital say, in spite of the huge financial gap, they would still go ahead to provide free medical services to patients under the scheme.
“We will continue to manage with the limited resources at our disposal,” Dr. Amekah told The Chronicle.
The hospital is also said to be faced with acute water shortages, and has to depend on water tanker supplies provided by General Electric (GE).
But, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Gomoa West, Mr. Theophilus Adu Mensah, told the paper that plans were far advanced to address the water situation that has plagued the entire Apam community.
According to him, the district has already secured pipes from funds it raised in the various communities under the district, and would soon lay them to enable the people enjoy potable drinking water.
He pledged his outfit’s continuous support to the Apam Catholic Hospital and other institutions to foster growth in the region.
Mr. Mensah however assured the delegation that his office would work enormously to waive taxes on equipments imported to support the district in its development.
In 2005, the Apam Catholic Hospital was put on a GE program by then Director General of the Ghana Health Services, Professor Agyemang Badu Akosah, to receive medical equipment support.
In 2006, the hospital was supplied with a standby generator, an overhead water reservoir, X-ray machine, incubator, body warmer machine, as well as internet facility.
Since the introduction of the medical equipment, authorities of the hospital say healthcare delivery has improved significantly, with more referrals coming into the hospital cue to better health delivery.

AMEYAW EKUMFI DISMISSES ALLEGATIONS OF LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

The former Minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Ekumfi, has refuted allegations over the lack of transparency in the procurement of two Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) commuter trains that was awarded to Amandi Holdings, an Israeli-based firm in the country. “Procurement was done properly.

It went through due process and received approval by the Procurement Board,” he noted. Prof. Ekumfi was reacting to some media publications that alleged lack of transparency in the procurement of the DMUs by Amandi Holdings Limited, which was awarded the contract by the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways. According to the former Minister, although some companies had in the past assisted his outfit in securing funds for numerous projects by the ministry, it never swindled any of them in the award of the procurement of the two DMUs. In explaining how his outfit got in touch with V. D. Swami and Company Limited, Professor Ekumfi said the company was initially supposed to provide the Ministry with coaches using an Indian facility, but because his outfit didn't agree with their specifications, a financial facility (amount not quoted) approved to execute a number of projects by the Ministry was never released by the Indian government, after initially granting the ministry a US$13million loan facility, hence the intervention of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, with HIPC-sourced funds. “Swami was initially to provide the ministry with coaches, using an Indian facility, but because we didn't agree with their specifications, we didn't get the facility. That is the reason why the Ministry of Finance came to our rescue to finance the project locally. For you to use that facility, you need to use an Indian company. When we got US$13million from the Indian Government, we had already agreed that this cannot be produced by an Indian company. We had also gone through the process to get Amandi Holdings to produce the commuter train,” he said. According to him, the US$13 million loan facility, granted to the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways, was used to procure other rehabilitation items to revamp the railways sector. Touching on why V. D. Swami and Company Limited was refused the contract, the former minister said his outfit was nearly deceived by the company in awarding the contract to them, but after detecting some foul play, had to refuse them with the contract. “Swami almost deceived us. We provided them with draft specifications, but they came back after making adjustments in those specifications. We got to know that when our people had identified that they'd changed a few things. The most significant one was the speed in delivery. It was going to crawl, and we said that no, we are not going to accept this arrangement. You get us the money, only to provide us with sub-standard coaches,” noted Prof. Akumfi. On why Angelique International Limited also failed in the tender process, Prof. Akumfi said that company also provided specifications which were far below the expectations of the Railways Company. Prof. Ekumfi also refuted allegations that he lobbied for funds intended for a water project for the procurement of the commuter train, and advised anyone who was not clear about the whole process, to go to the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways to crosscheck their facts. On March 26th, 2009, two Diesel Multiple Units (commuter trains), meant for the country, were shipped at the Tianjin seaport by the manufacturer, China Northern Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry (CNR) Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company Limited, on board a Beluga Sky Sails Vessel. It arrived in the country the following month, May 24th, 2009 as scheduled. This was after a short ceremony held in CNR Tangshan, of which the President of AMD, Ghana, the Vice-Mayor of Tangshan city and Vice-President of the CNR were present. The DMU is composed of 2M +4T. It has a seating capacity of 616 (each coach has 104 seating capacity) with a design speed of 80 Km/h. The specifications are as follows: Cars per unit 2M+4T Wheel arrangement Bo-Bo Transmission AC/AC Rated output per motor 150 kW Design speed 80 km/h Weight per car Mc48.3, T39.5 t Seating capacity per car Mc40,T134 Length per car Mc17,800,T17,200 mm Customer Ghana AMD Track gauge 1,000 mm The Ghana Railways Company has for the past three decades been struggling on its feet to catch up with time, but as each day passes by, the company's situation keeps on deteriorating. The importation of these DMUs has therefore been hailed by many as a step in the right direction by the government in its bid to revamp the ailing company. The DMUs are commuter trains that would ply the Accra-Tema rail lines when commissioned.
Source: Stephen Odoi-Larbi - Ghanaian Chronicle

Kofi Annan Center Guzzles Gh¢850k Yearly

Investigations conducted by The Chronicle into the operations of the Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (AITI-KACE) has revealed that the institute is running at a loss of GH¢ 500,000.00 annually.The Centre, which was established in 2003 and became operational in 2004, has an annual expenditure of GH¢ 850,000.00 (including emoluments) against an annual income of GH¢350,000.00.This development, The Chronicle learnt, is weighing heavily on the economy since the financial assistance from the India government has also seized to flow without any reason.As a result of this, the performance of the Centre is below average in meeting its stated objectives of increasing students’ enrolment to 1,200 by end of 2009, increase revenue base to US$1,000,000.00 by the end 2009 and to explore the potentials of six institutions-two from the Economic Community of West African States for Information Communication Technology training whilst entering into partnership in 2009.Since its inception, no strategic plans have been set for the centre to operate on.At a recent visit by the Minister of Communications, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, to the prestigious AITI-KACE, he stated that “the attrition rate at the centre was uncalled for” and needed intervention. The Chronicle also gathered that staff moral at the Centre is low and most staff that were trained abroad by the Centre from government treasury have all left without any apparent reason.Mrs. Dorothy K. Gordon, the Managing Director of the center, when contacted rather requested for the source of the information and declined to comment on the story when the reporter refused to disclose the source. She directed the reporter to talk to the Ministry of Communications since she is only an employee of the Government of Ghana.“You will have to give me the source of that information because everybody is entitled to their opinion. I cannot really comment on this story and I will suggest that you call the Ministry of Communications which will be in a better place to comment on this”.“I am officially giving you no comment on it. If you wish to run the story and say you’ve done an investigation and this is what you arrived at, that will be your opinion. I repeat, I am not going to comment on the story. I am only an employee of the Government of Ghana”, she told the paper.

Each Ghanaian Owes $350

Ghana's estimated population currently stands at 22 million people. Out of this population, each Ghanaian owes US$350 to the country's creditors, both internally and externally, as against $359 in 2008.
Ghana's total public debt has declined slightly from US$7,918.1 million, a 54.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, to US$7.742.4 million, representing 49.2 per cent of GDP for the first quarter of 2009.
Out of this figure (US$7.742.4m), the stock of domestic debt, which stood at GH¢4,778.1 million at the end of last year (2008), increased to GH¢5,083.5 million, representing 23.7 per cent of GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2009.
External debt also stood at US$4,010.2 million at the end of the first quarter of this year (March 2009), up from US$3, 982.6 million (28.1 per cent of GDP) at the end of last year (2008).
This was made known by the Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Paul Acquah, at a press briefing in Accra yesterday.
According to him, provisional banking data on fiscal operations during the first quarter of 2009 indicate that domestic revenue growth continued to be strong at a slower pace than it was at same time the previous year (2008).
Ghana's total revenue and grants for the first quarter of 2009, amounted to GH¢1,308.1 million, representing 6.1 per cent of GDP, compared with GH¢1,129.2 million (6.4 per cent) for the same period in 2008.
"This was however, higher than the historical average of 5.8 per cent of GDP between 2004 and 2008," Dr. Paul Acquah noted.
Dr. Paul Acquah observed that total revenue and grants in year on year terms, increased by 15.8 per cent, compared with 11.0 per cent recorded in 2008.
Grants to the country amounted to GH¢244.3 million (1.1 per cent of GDP) in the first quarter of 2009, as against GH¢225.5 million (1.3 per cent of GDP) recorded for the same period in 2008.
This means the country, in the first quarter of 2009, saw an increase of GH¢18.8 million in grants, as compared to the same period last year.
Ghana's total expenditure, excluding foreign financed capital expenditure for the first quarter of 2009, amounted to GH¢1,249.2 million, representing 5.8 per cent of GDP, compared with GH¢1,265.3 million (7.2 per cent of GDP) for the same period in 2008.
Wages and salaries amounted to GH¢558.5 million, compared with GH¢549.1 million for the same period in 2008.
According to Dr. Paul Acquah, the fiscal operations during the first quarter in 2009, resulted in a deficit of GH¢194.7 million, a 0.9 per cent of GDP (excluding foreign financed capital expenditure), compared with a deficit of GH¢275.6 million for the same period in 2008.
Dr. Acquah said the deficit of GH¢194.7, in addition to a foreign loan repayment of GH¢48.7 million were financed from domestic sources to the tune of GH¢243.4 million, representing 1.1 per cent of GDP.