 | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 …Insists Leading Member Of AFAG! Two leading members of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Mr. Godfred Odame and Mr. Kwabena Bomfeh, popularly known as Kabila, have called on Foreign Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni to resign as a matter of urgency. They have said that with the confirmation that Alhaji Mumuni indeed has an audit report from the Auditor General implicating him in financial malfeasance and wrong-doing, the Foreign Minister is no longer fit to lead this country in international negotiations, particularly in financial matters. Speaking to this newspaper yesterday in various interviews, the two leading members of AFAG insisted that the time has come for Alhaji Mumuni to resign, or for the President to strip him off his post pending the conclusion of the various procedures that would purge Alhaji Mumuni off the various findings against him in the NVTI Audit Report. Speaking to this newspaper yesterday Mr. Godfred Odame, who is a lawyer, said that the laying of the report in parliament goes to affirm the points he and AFAG have been making. “I think that for so long as he has been cited by a report of the Auditor General which has been presented to parliament it would be unfair to the nation for him to continue to hold himself out as Foreign Minister. I say so because he is the Chief Ambassador of our nation, one who is supposed to represent the image of the nation, and the Audit Report is going to create a situation where anytime he mounts an international platform, people would say that he is a person who has been dogged by scandal, and criminality,” Mr. Odame said. He said that until Alhaji Mumuni purges himself fully of the findings in the Auditor General’s report he is not fit to hold himself out as a Foreign Minister of the land. “The question of fitness to represent the nation can be looked at from various perspectives. It is not so much about qualification. It is a question of whether being a public officer he is one that can be entrusted with state resources and power, and reading from the manner in which he conducted himself in office previously, we are sure that he is not one who can be entrusted with state resources and power, that he engaged in conduct that led to the state losing colossal sums of monies,” Mr. Odame said. “We therefore renew our call for his resignation or for the President to tell him to step aside,” he said, adding that Alhaji Mumuni’s continued stay in office was embarrassing to the nation. On his part Mr. Kwabena Bomfeh, who is the National Youth Organizer of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), said that even though they expressed their dissatisfaction with the nomination process in the first place, parliament went ahead to approve Alhaji Mumuni to become a substantive minister. He said that the Constitution was clear on whether a person who has been found liable by a constitutional body can serve as a minister. He said that until those adverse findings are set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction or by the body that made them, the person against whom the findings have been made becomes unwholesome for public office. “This not an individual who can go anywhere as the face of Ghana in seeking anything financially related and for this reason plus the fact that the Audit Report has been properly laid before parliament according to the laws of the land and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament is now going to sit on it and make further pronouncement we feel that the man cannot be a judge in his own court. He should step aside or resign! That is the only way we can be sure that the executive would not interfere with the work of the legislature in coming out with the truth!” Mr. Bomfeh said. |
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Joe Ghartey is assembling a Grand Coalition of anti corruption agencies in the country in an effort to reduce the incidence of corruption in the country.
The coalition, which will include both Government and civil society organisations in the fight against corruption, is to form an interface between the relevant corruption monitoring institutions, Government Spokesperson on Governance Frank Agyekum told The Statesman in response to enquiries on the Government reaction to the report of anti corruption body Transparency International which ranked Ghana high on its Corruption Perception Index.
The coalition, which will be known as the Grand Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition, is due to be inaugurated later this month and will meet regularly in a bid to plug the corruption loopholes in the system.
"In fact, the process has already begun and this is to show how serious Government is, in the fight against corruption" said the Governance spokesperson.
Mr Agyekum, who was "shocked" by Ghana's ranking on the index, said "it is unfortunate and regrettable that we should be ranked at that level."
"We do not even know who they talk to when they come to town and all we hear is that we have been ranked high."
Ghana was ranked 70 out of 163 countries surveyed in the global CPI for this year, a five-step fall from last year when there were four countries less.
Ghana received a score of 3.3 out of 10 on the CPI scale, down 0.2 point from 2005, indicating that Ghanaian society is becoming corrupt slowly but surely.
Ghana"s result, the worst in the past 10 years, is now at par with that in 1999, which was recorded when the Rawlings administration was in power.
CPI relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts, and ranges from scores of 10, which is "highly clean," and 0, which is "highly corrupt."
But according Mr Agyekum, evidence abounds of Government’s commitment to fighting corruption on all fronts, and those institutions will continue to be strengthened.
He mentioned the passage of a law to regulate Government procurements, which, though cumbersome, has blocked many loopholes previous exploited, as well as the Internal Audit Act, which makes it possible for auditors to audit Government accounts at short notice.
He said since no Government official has been indicted on corruption charges, it would be unfair to perceive that the incidence of corruption is high in the country.
Mr Agyekum emphasised that it was perception of a phenomenon which may not be the reality, but assured that Government was studying the report and would soon come out with an official pronouncement.
In the report released yesterday by TI, all low-income countries and all but two African states scored below five points, meaning they face serious perceived levels of domestic corruption.
Botswana is the cleanest ranked African state in 37th place on the list, with South Africa (51st ) and Namibia (55th) in the upper third. Nigeria is among the worst-ranked states at place 142. Guinea was the worst placed Africa nation at 160
Finland, Iceland and New Zealand came first with 9.6 points, while Haiti came in last scoring 1.8 points, according to the report.
Britain was 11th with an 8.6 rating, Germany 16th at 8.0 and the United States 20th with 7.3. Italy mustered only a 4.9 rating in 45th place, while Russia was ranked 121 with 2.5.
Countries with a significant worsening of corruption include: Brazil, Cuba, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the US, said the report.
Countries with a significant reduction in perceived levels of corruption include: Algeria, Czech Republic, India, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Paraguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uruguay.
The Berlin-based Transparency International’s CPI ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is a composite index, a poll of polls, drawing on corruption-related data from expert and business surveys carried out by a variety of independent and reputable institutions.
The value of the results is sometimes disputed because they are based on the opinions of the people polled and the amount of data used in surveys is different for each nation. TI requires at least three sources to include a country in the CPI.
 |
The trial of the first major British company to be prosecuted for paying bribes abroad which was suppose to have taken place at Southwark crown court, London, today has been postponed until August 7th.
The firm is accused of corruptly influencing politicians and officials in Ghana between 1994 and 1999 to land build-bridging contracts.
The firm, owned by one of Britain's richest families, is also accused of corruptly paying €422,000 (£363,000) to Saddam Hussein's regime between May 2001 and November 2002 and is also accused of conspiring to make corrupt payments in Jamaica between 1993 and 2001.
Allegations of improper payments in Jamaica emerged when Mabey and Johnson traded allegations of wrong-doing with former sales executive Jonathan Danos in a civil case. Mabey refused to say how it had settled that case. The firm Mabey has also been accused of corruption in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Dominican Republic and Panama.
Mabey and Johnson's prosecution comes after years of attacks on London for its alleged hypocrisy in criticising poor countries over corruption, while failing to tackle the British companies and managers that feed it by paying bribes to win contracts.
The prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office comes five years after allegations of foreign bribery by the Reading-based company revealed.
|
Evidence available to The Statesman suggest that perhaps as much as $6 million were paid as bribery money to top government officials under the National Democratic Congress in the government’s dealings with one foreign company alone for three projects.
The company is Mabey & Johnson of UK and the contracts involved are “Priority Bridge Programme 1”, “Priority Bridge Programme 2”, and “Feeder Roads Projects”.
According to the charge sheet of case number 0902300773, the first badges of bribery for the first project, Priority Bridge Programme 1, were paid between 01/01/1994 and 01/01/1995, from one year after the nation returned to constitutional rule under President Rawlings.
The second corruption case took place between 01/01/1995 and 01/01/1997 for the Priority Bridge Programme 2.
The third actually took place much later, still under the NDC. But, the details of the corruption case, comes directly under the watch of President Mills. More on that in the next edition.
The case will go on preliminary trial next month. And, high profile names of government officials who were paid huge sums of money are expected to be dropped.
It is the first case in which a British company is being prosecuted in the United Kingdom for engaging in corruption in a foreign country, and Ghana, under President Jerry John RawlingsandVice President John Atta Mills, is one of the countries where this corruption took place.
It takes place at Southwark Crown Court, London on August 7th.
The firm is accused of corruptly influencing politicians and officials in Ghana between 1994 and 1999 to land build-bridging contracts.
The firm, owned by one of Britain's richest families, is also accused of corruptly paying €422,000 (£363,000) to Saddam Hussein's regime between May 2001 and November 2002 and is also accused of conspiring to make corrupt payments in Jamaicabetween 1993 and 2001.
Allegations of improper payments in Jamaica emerged when Mabey and Johnson traded allegations of wrong-doing with former sales executive Jonathan Danos in a civil case. Mabey refused to say how it had settled that case. The firm Mabey has also been accused of corruption in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Dominican Republic and Panama.
Mabey and Johnson's prosecution comes after years of attacks onLondon for its alleged hypocrisy in criticising poor countries over corruption, while failing to tackle the British companies and managers that feed it by paying bribes to win contracts.
The trial is also the next such case in recent years in Europe to which President Rawlings’ name and government have been linked. Ironically, Mr Rawlings is asking for his political opponents to be prosecuted for corruption.
In 2007, his name popped up in a Norwegian court, when former top officials of cement firm, Scancem admitted in court that they paid millions of dollars of bribe money to President and Mrs Rawlings.
Also in the UK last year, Private Eye magazine quoted the head of Biwater company as saying that he used to pay the school fees of Mr Rawlings’ children. This happened at a time that his company was bidding for a major oil contract in Ghana.
Source: The Statesman
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana plus the latest Ghanaian movies plus OBE TV.
Another Nigerian Governor Strikes| Source: Catalyst Newspaper |
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has expressed shock at a media report imputing acts of impropriety on him. The Independent newspaper in its Thursday, May 28th, 2009 edition, reported on its front page that the Finance Minister has suggested to some “donor partners that, donor inflows to the country must be channelled through his bank, Unibank”.A statement by his Media Liaison, Abdul Hakim Ahmed, said Dr Duffuor has stated categorically, "that it is not true that he has ever made a suggestion or even contemplated making a suggestion for donors to channel their assistance through the Unibank or any other private bank. In fact it is not a convention anywhere that anybody can take such a decision." The statement also said it is again not true that the issue has been discussed anywhere in government as speculated by the newspaper, "much less bringing the Minister and President on collision course as the newspaper reported. In any case, GoG does not have an account with the Unibank and does not intend to have one.""It must be put on record that cash transfers from donors to GoG are done through the Central Bank, and when he was even the Governor of the Central Bank and in control of all government’s accounts, the Finance Minister did not do such a thing. So it is unthinkable that he will do that in this different position. "For the sake of the general public, the Ministry would like to explain below the process that loans and grants go through before disbursement by government or the beneficiary Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA)."When the Ministry and a donor, for example the World Bank, have negotiated and reached an agreement on the amount, the interest rate etc, for a facility, the document is sent to Office of the President for Cabinet approval, after which it is sent to Parliament for parliamentary approval as required by the Constitution. Then after these approvals the agreement is signed or executed by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. "After this, the documents are sent to the Attorney General’s Department for final legal opinion. The A-G’s department is required under our laws to certify that all due process had been adhered to. They will then issue a letter giving the government the go ahead, without this letter the loan or grant will not be effective i.e. the World Bank would not release the money for government to use. A copy of this letter is therefore sent to the World Bank Office."If the money is a grant, the account to hold the funds is at the Bank of Ghana (BOG). If it is for budget support it goes straight to the consolidated fund at the Bank of Ghana. However, if it is a credit for a programme or project the money is lodged in a commercial bank selected by the beneficiary MDA and approved by MOFEP. The process is as follows; "After obtaining the A-G’s legal opinion, MOFEP through the Controller and Accountant General then directs the Bank of Ghana to open an account in a commercial bank for the disbursement of the facility. The Ministry would before this ensure that the beneficiary entity has a qualified accountant and adequate staff to manage the project. "It is important to note that the full amount is not paid into the account; only an agreed percentage is paid into the account and is replenished upon submission of statement of account and statement of expenditure on all eligible expenditures showing Government and the World Bank how the money has been used. It would only be replenished when the World Bank is satisfied that the money was used for the purpose for which it was obtained." Source:GNA |
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana, the latest Ghanaian movies and OBE TV.
... Awarded multi-billion dollar contract to "invisible" firmThe MCE is accused of awarding a multi -billion -dollar contract to a newly formed sanitation company (EWS Ghana Limited), which has not been registered with the Registrar General's Department. Dr Vanderpuije was also blamed for having a vested interest in the contract, which inspired him to approve the contract which would last for 25 years.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, Dr Vanderpuije said EWS Ghana limited was formed earlier this month as part of the company's Holdings, which had branches in Germany and the US. He denied being a shareholder of the company. The MCE said the company did not go through the tendering process because it had accepted to bear all the cost of production for which government was not required to pay a penny. The contract would also last for 10 years and not 25 years.
He said the Ministry of Local Government was fully aware of all the negotiations with the company and that nothing was done in the dark. Dr Vanderpuije cited the recycling of waste products to generate electricity as one of the main benefits of the contract. The emotionally charged MCE urged journalists to cross check their facts before publication in order to avoid feeding the public with falsehood.
He said he had the city of Accra at heart and that he would not be deterred by such frivolous allegations.
| Source: GNA |
| | | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana plus the latest Ghanaian movies plus OBE TV.
Vodafone Deal (1): $2000 Bribe For Selected Media Houses| Source: DEMOCRAT |
| | | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana, the latest Ghanaian movies and OBE TV.
| Source: The Enquire |
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana plus the latest Ghanaian movies plus OBE TV.
Kufour Mentioned| Source: Crystal Clear Lens |
