National Democratic Congress and Corruption in Ghana

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ghana@50 Probe Ends


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Justice Isaac Duose-Chairman of the commission
AFTER TAKING evidence from 238 witnesses comprising suppliers, contractors and service providers, the public hearings of the Commission of Inquiry probing the activities of Ghana @ 50 Secretariat finally drew to a close yesterday.

The public hearings commenced on July 23 this year, after the Commission had done preliminary work which included visits to some Ghana @ 50 project sites and organizing volumes of memoranda and petitions it had received at the time.

The Chairman of the Commission, Justice Duose, who announced this soon after three officials from the Office of the President testified before it, said the Commission would be writing its report as required by law.

He said recommendations from the Commission would indicate the way forward for the 60th anniversary or any other public event so as to avoid malfeasances that were exposed during hearings. Besides, he said, reports will help move the country forward.

“As to what kind of advice to give the President, the Commission will be rising now and start writing its reports. In a few weeks you will hear about the report,” he stressed.

He gave the assurance that the Commission would consider in its report views of those who are against the conduct of the commission.

Justice Duose pleaded for forgiveness from any individual or group that the Commission might have caused any displeasure during the process, adding, “We are humans and capable of making mistakes, forgive us if we have said anything that may cause your displeasure”.

While expressing appreciation to all and sundry for their support, Justice Duose promised: “We will do our best to ensure the report covers everything. We will be as fair as possible”.

Earlier, three officials told the Commission that to date the Office of the President has not yet determined the salary of the Chief Executive of the defunct Ghana @ 50 Secretariat, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby.

According to them, the Office of the President was not aware of the CEO’s letter of appointment that would inform government as to how much he should receive as salary.

The three officers were Samuel Azu Aziako, Director of Administration, responsible for budget at the Office of President; Annor Kissi, Chief Internal Auditor and Naa Yussif Mumuni, Chief Treasury Officer.

It would be recalled that the CEO, during his appearance, told the Commission his appointment letter, by which he was to be paid a monthly salary of $5000, is at the Office of the President.
He also said the government owed him salary arrears of $146,000.

However, Mr. Aziako, who confirmed that the Office of the President raised an advance payment of $75,000 to the CEO for medical check-ups, said there was no basis for the CEO to demand salary arrears from the government, since the Office was not aware of his appointment letter.

Mr. Aziako pointed out that the CEO was not being paid alongside staff of the Secretariat.

When asked why the Office did not do so, he remarked, “It is not our making, whenever he takes the claim to them for payment his name was not added to the list”.

He told the Commission that as at Wednesday, the Office of the President had released an amount of GH¢7,448,028.56 to the Secretariat while the Office has an amount of GH¢7,522,115.97 which has not been pre-audited.

The Office of the President, he added, also spent an amount of GH¢39295011.43 between November 2006 to December 2008 during the celebrations, pointing out that no payment was made without the knowledge of the CEO.

Confirming to the Commission that they have no idea whether or not monies were released to Ghana’s Mission abroad for the celebrations, Mr. Aziako said as at December 2008, there was an outstanding debt of GH¢11million and a cash balance of GH¢622626.28.

On whether or not the Secretariat indeed made any surplus as alleged by the CEO, he said he would not be able to tell the Commission.

During cross-examination, the Chief Internal Auditor at the Office of the President, Annor Kissi told the Commission that the Secretariat did not supply accounts for annual auditing; adding that his outfit has no record of the Escrow account. “The Escrow account was controlled by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning”.

According to him, the Office of the President’s records or figures of transactions might not exactly reflect that of the Secretariat because in his view, payments were made directly from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and therefore the Office might not have direct documents covering all transactions.

“Records in our custody are that of the treasury and the internal audit unit. You will not get documents of internal payment of the Secretariat from the Office of the President”, he elucidated.

When the Commission Chairman enquired from the three officials what roles they played during the celebrations, Mr. Aziako explained that none of their officers was an employee of the Secretariat, whether directly or indirectly, and that their role was to convey executive decisions to the Secretariat and counter sign cheques.

They also prepared pay vouchers and subject matter for action, he added.

By Sheilla Sackey/Daily Guide

Wereko-Brobby Paid $75,000 As Salary Advance


Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby
The Director of Administration responsible for Budgeting of the Government Machinery, Mr Azu Sam-Aziakor, has told the Presidential Commission probing the activities of the Ghana@50 Secretariat that $75,000 had been paid to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, as salary advance.

Making his submission at the final public hearing of the commission in Accra, Mr Sam-Aziakor said the payment had been approved by the former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani.

The Chairman of the commission, Mr Justice Isaac Duose, asked the basis for which that amount had bee paid to Dr Wereko-Brobby, since it had been stated that his salary had not been determined when he was engaged.

Mr Sam-Aziakor responded that although Dr Wereko-Brobby’s salary had not been determined up to date, the CEO had sent a memorandum to him some time in 2008 asking if a process could be initiated to pay him his salary.

He said Dr Wereko-Brobby further stated that he had to seek medical attention abroad and would need some money from his salary to undergo treatment.

According to the director, the request was approved by Mr Mpiani and the CEO was subsequently paid $75,000.
Mr Sam-Aziakor told the commission that at the moment money available at the treasury which could be used to settle debts owed contractors was GH¢7,448,028.56.

He said GH¢1,163,499.50 was owed to contractors, while payment vouchers which had not been pre-audited at the treasury amounted to GH¢7,522,115.97

He said as of December 31, 2008 there were no funds to settle the outstanding debts of the contractors and that the funds had been released in the early part of 2009, by which time the government had placed an embargo on such payments.

Mr Sam-Aziakor said no funds had been released to any Ghana mission abroad for the celebration of the Golden Jubilee.

A member of the commission, Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh, asked Mr Sam-Aziakor whether or not he had raised any queries in respect of claims brought before him by the secretariat.

In his response, Mr Sam-Aziakor said on a few occasions he had raised queries in respect of some vouchers, explaining that that occurred when the vouchers did not include some requirements, such as award of contract letters, offer and acceptance letters and evidence of the execution of contracts.

He said his office instituted rigid control measures before it effected payments because it knew the implication of payments as far as celebrations of that nature were concerned.

Mr Prempeh again asked Mr Sam-Aziakor whether the secretariat had handed over fully to his office. Mr Sam-Aziakor said there was nothing to indicate that the secretariat had handed over finally.

Asked about the measures he had taken to ensure that the secretariat handed over fully to his office, Mr Sam-Aziakor said he had not taken any measures to that effect.

Mr Prempeh said it was unfortunate for him not to have ensured that the secretariat properly handed over to his office.
Asked what role he had played in the preparation of the budget of the Ghana@50 Secretariat, Mr Sam-Aziakor said he had played no role.

Mr Justice Duose asked him about the one who had controlled the escrow account of the secretariat, to which he responded that it was the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning which had done that.

In his remarks to round off the work of the commission, Mr Justice Duose said 238 witnesses had appeared before it to give evidence and make submission of statements on the activities of the secretariat.

He said any member of the public who wished to submit a statement in response to the abuse that had been exposed during the sittings was free to do so.

He thanked all Ghanaians who had supported or disagreed with the establishment of the commission and its work.

Mr Justice Duose also thanked the media for their reportage, whether positive or negative, and expressed the hope that the commission’s report, which would be submitted to the President in a few weeks, would cover everything that had transpired at the sitting and help push the country forward.

Rawlings Must Apologise To Ghanaians!!!

Related Stories
The Mabey and Johnson scandal came as a shock to many Ghanaians especially at this time of the NDC party being in government. The NDC, is the offspring of the then “PNDC”, which had "hawks" who paraded themselves as monarchs and apostles of anti corruption under the ambit of Probity and Accountability and so forth.

But today these crusaders have brought shame to us not only that, but an embarrassment to the good people of this noble country. We the youth want to state categorically that the government, for that matter the president who campaigned on the platform of whipping the crack should not shield any one found culpable and allow those involved face the full rigorous of the law.

We ask of the Muntaka fiasco, what happened after been forced to resign? Now is the turn of the beloved son (Hon. Dr Sipa Yankey Min. Of Health) and uncle (Alhaji Seidu Amadu Min of State,) also joining the queue of resigning syndrome, we wonder if it is not another antics or a “smart one’’ to bury the matter again? Oh! God save Ghana.

The youth of this country are learning from the statesmen of this land, and we are wondering if this is the Nationalism, Patriotism, and Selflessness they are teaching us to grow up with, certainly not!

We were in this country when some personalities made so much brouhaha about others integrity calling them all sort of names such as “”Atta Ayi, thieves and so on. This Mabey and Johnson scandal is one of the most contagious official corruption fiasco in the annals of Ghana’s political history, and interestingly, under the PNDC/NDC government.

A party that was formed under the cover of Probity and Accountability. They used these principles to prosecute officials and hardworking entrepreneurs at the time, for illegally acquiring wealth and thereby confiscating, canning, killing and some going on exile, etc under the watch of ex-President Rawlings. This Mabey and Johnson scandal is alleged to have started in the 80’s.

We therefore ask Mr. Rawlings and his executors; what justification does the apostles of anti corruption government have to have committed such outrageous, inhuman, and sacrilegious act. Or is it that, the man who orchestrated the act did enjoy the booties of Mabey and Johnson, which is why he has kept silent all this while? If the above is anything to go by, then I think that Mr. Rawlings should as matter of necessity apologize to all the families of the victims who suffered the brutalities caused under his watch.

Because, if this revelation and the most unfortunate event is something to go by, then, the PNDC/NDC have deceived Ghanaians. Not only that, they have also robbed the country of progress and development. Because the people who at the time, suffered these casualties, were the light of this country in terms of their entrepreneurial expertise. They might have grown their companies and businesses to reduce the abject poverty in this country by employing a number of graduates in the system that are left in a jungle of struggle.

This perception by some group of persons that it is wrong to acquire wealth must from hence forth be something of the past. It is sheer hatred and envy which retarded growth and the cause effect is lies, back-biting, and vindictiveness of innocent citizens. After all, “the pious have turned out to be corrupt" quite contrary to what they made Ghanaians believe all this while.

Long live Mother Ghana! Long live the Good People of Ghana!! Long live our Great Grand Fathers!!!

ANNAN ERIC OHENE-AGYEKUM (ALL NATIONS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE KOFORIDUA)
Source: Vasco, Eric Annan

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Revealed: Names Of M&J Bosses Who Okayed Bribes


FOR THE FIRST time, a Ghanaian newspaper can reveal that the 48-year-old son of Mr. Bevic Mabey, the only living founder of the British bridge building company, Mabey and Johnson, was part of the directors the company says put in a bribery scheme to pay public officials in Ghana, Jamaica and a host of other countries.


David Mabey, the only son of Bevic, is identified in the British papers as the Company Secretary and part of the duo –the other is his father – who “have at all material times been in exclusive control of the affairs of M&J. Whilst directors within the Mabey group could be appointed or removed at the behest of the shareholders, those same shareholders were David Mabey and his family” the SFO noted.

David’s family’s company, Mabey Holdings, which is the parent company of M&J, was estimated by the Construction magazine, a UK publication in 2007, as the 312th richest company in the UK.

The family at the time has assets of £205 million and, with dividends and other wealth, was worth £260 million. Today it is estimated to be worth £400 million

Though David’s role in the bribery affair was hidden, this paper’s sources in London have confirmed that he is the one identified as Director B in the SFO probe,

The other directors whose identity were withheld are Messrs Charles Forsyth, Richard Glover, Allen Daliday and one man who rose through the ranks from an executive position of manning affairs in Ghana (where M&J had its African head office) and the Philippines to become a Director.

He is nobody but Miles Potter, the British citizen admitted by M&J and admitted by the UK crown court to have managed the bribery scheme put in place in Ghana. Mr. Potter lived in Ghana for almost four years (see other story).

Together, these directors whose identities were withheld by the Southwark Crown Court were alleged to have put in place a bribery scheme that has seen the resignation of at least one serving minister of state, Joseph Hilbert, in Jamaica and two in Ghana.

The plea bargain agreement by M&J, however, allowed the court to withhold their identities as some of the former Director of M&J men are reported to be insisting that they did not commit any crime under UK law at the time of the said acts.

Source:
GYE NYAME CONCORD

Mabey and Johnson: Mr.Miles Potter (Director D): The Man Who Paid Sipa Yankey & Co

EARLY THIS PAST Monday morning, Dr George Sipa-Yankey, who had resigned his post as Ghana’s Health Minister 48 hours earlier, was seen arriving in London.

Barely 24-hours earlier, he had had a row with the nominated Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria, Alhaji Baba Kamara, over allegations reportedly made by him on radio that the later was the one who collected his passport to facilitate payment to him from M&J.

Sources say Kamara had not taken kindly to the allegations and minced no words in telling the troubled Yankey to go and check his records well before speaking loosely.

Shaken and under criticism from NDC party supporters, some of whom had earlier supported him but were now turning on him, Sipa Yankey decided to do the wisest thing. He flew the next available flight to London to call on his bank to call all records of his transactions within the period under review to be able to speak properly to the issue and to possibly meet the other man who could help refresh his memory on the scandal threatening to end his political career.

Unfortunately, Gye Nyame Concord can authoritatively reveal that the man who could have helped refresh his memory was not in London.

Mr Miles Potter, the Mabey and Johnson man who dealt with and largely paid a number of top Ghanaian officials accused of receiving bribes from the British bridge building company, and who is identified as “Director D” was no longer in London. He now lives on the Asian continent, sources in London told this paper.

The then fresh university graduate spent almost four years in Ghana in the 90s and managed to worm his way into the heart and minds of top public officials through the doling of ‘freebies’ in cash.

Those freebies transferred to various accounts in London and elsewhere are what the soft-spoken 56-year-old head of the British SFO, Richard Alderman (picture on the front page), now says were part of a deliberate bribery scheme put in place by M&J to corruptly procure contracts.

M&J, according to the Queens Counsel for the SFO, John Hardy, paid “a wide-ranging series of bribes” totalling £470,000 to politicians and officials in Ghana, with Dr George Sipa-Yankey, Messrs Amadu Seidu, Ato Quarshie, Boniface Abubakar Saddique and Edward Lord-Attivor allegedly travelling to Britain to collect various sums of money from bank accounts in London.

In the eyes of the SFO, M&J paid public servants modest sums which were relatively small in proportion to the commercial gain the company got.

What the SFO, however, stopped short of doing was to disclose the identity of the man it said oversaw the Ghana situation and whom it only identified as “Director D” in court.

Truth is, the late Danny Ofori Atta had a running battle with the young Englishman with an expertise in finance, who had been brought into the country to supervise the work of M&J and who was to rise as an executive officer to become a Director of the company after a successful stint much later in life in the Philippines.

According to the evidence led by QC John Hardy in court, on April 3, 1996, the late Ofori-Atta stormed the Twyford offices of M&J in London with a relative to meet with the Office Manager of M&J following his frustration with Potter in Accra.

The records show that the complaint from the late Danny Ofori Atta, a former kingpin of the EGLE party, was that he did not have total control of the 15 per cent commission due him and some of which should be shared to public officials.

Miles Potter, who was then in Accra, was not delivering on the bribes to him, the SFO suggests.

In the words of the SFO, Danny Ofori Atta had problems with Potter’s presence in Accra and did not believe Mr Potter was distributing “5% to the “relevant personnel” or “local personalities”.

Records sourced from M&J by the SFO noted that Danny, who is identified in the documents as Mr Ofori, complained that he had been sidelined by Potter, who was now dealing directly with other Ghanaians and that when he (Danny) was involved in the payment scheme of the total amount of the “15% commission the present difficulties would not have existed”.

This was because he had dealt with the situation ably in the past.

Again it was about Miles Potter on whom Danny wrote a letter dated March 14, 1996 and sent via fax on a “Danielli Mabey Ltd” letterhead marked for the attention of his wife, Mrs Margaret Ofori, in Accra to be passed on to M&J head office.

In the fax, Danny complained that “the situation in Ghana has been deteriorating gradually ever since Director D (Potter) came into Ghana.”

Potter according to the SFO had equally sent a “confidential memo” dated 25 March 1996 directly to Director B (David Mabey)) rebutting Mr. Ofori’s assertions, and detailing how it was that he had had a meeting recently with the only person who “can guarantee M&J’s position in this market”: Kwame Peprah.

All these disputes occurred because the Mabey family firm, whose worldwide empire is based on exports of steel bridges, had decided at the time in the word of the British SFO to “sideline” Danny and “to impose more direct control over the payments made to “local personalities” by” Potter “supervising and control from 1994”.

Significantly, after his stint in Accra, Potter was assigned a duty post in the Philippines where he successfully managed to change the fortunes of the British firm by bringing in more than a billion British Pound bridge building contracts.

The story on his Philippine exploits, which nearly marred the presidency of that country’s president, was captured in the following terms by the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

“A little-known family who became one of the richest in Britain have been accused of making excessive profits in an aid project, by building what their critics call “bridges to nowhere”.

A Guardian investigation has discovered that steel bridges costing more than £400m have been sold to the Philippines by the Mabey family, all secured with UK government-backed loans and grants. But many of the crossings, which were supposed to open up the flood-prone jungle terrain, have no roads to go with them.

The British construction company, Mabey & Johnson, owned by the Mabey family, has been handed virtually all the supply contracts for the bridges, despite being more expensive than its competitors. Accusations of corruption and overcharging are now being made in the Philippines. Mabey denies any impropriety, saying the allegations are made by rivals or are politically motivated.”

Source:
GYE NYAME CONCORD

PSC Tema Shipyard: Former IGP is furious

Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong
Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong
The former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, has reacted with fury over bribery allegations leveled against him by the Chief Financial Officer of the PSC Tema Shipyard Company, Mr. Mohammed Ismail Bin Lebai Suleiman.

According to Mr. Acheampong, he does not know the operations of West Africa's biggest dry dock company and neither does he know any individual working at the place, to mention that he was bribed by the company.

In a witness statement submittal by Mr. Suleiman to an internal audit on the accounts of the company, he alleged that 'protocol payments' were paid to some 60 policemen who were maintaining security at the shipyard, when unionised workers of the company were interdicted for carrying out an industrial action against what they said were poor conditions of work, in December last year.

Further, he stated that the police officers, including officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), were paid GH¢9,000 in lieu of chicken and rice for the Christmas celebrations last year.

He stressed that some GH¢ were used as "payments to the Regional Commander and his deputy," adding that the then IGP, during the period of the interdiction, first received GH¢10,000 to ensure security at the yard, and that the IGP subsequently ordered the then Tema Regional Police Commander, Mr. Adeloya, to beef up security at the shipyard.

The infuriated ex-IGP, who said, "these people can't be serious; what do they deal in? I have never had any contact with that company, as a corporate body, or with any individual in that company; I'm not even aware that they had an industrial unrest, and as many as 60 policemen were released to them."

He said in December last year, the attention of the police administration was focused on how to ensure a peaceful election, noting that security was released to some flashpoints in and outside Accra, as a result, under no circumstances would the police administration release the limited number of police at the headquarters to beef up security at the shipyard.

He remarked that during the elections, the number of police officers was not adequate, as a result they depended heavily on the military, lamenting that he was concerned with the lack of security in some parts of the country, including Upper East and Upper West.

Mr. Acheampong clarified that there could be internal arrangements by the Tema police to provide security, if any, as is done in all the regions, emphasising that police from the headquarters come in when the situation deteriorates.

"I don't remember that we, from Accra, ever sent anybody to help Tema to solve those problems; it is never true that I ordered any Mr. Adeloya, and the period they are referring to, it was Mr. Kudalor who was the Tema Regional Commander; I am not even aware that 60 police officers were released to them, but why would 60 officers be released to only this company?" he queried.

He welcomed the decision of the Minister of Transport to set up a committee to investigate the allegations that have been leveled by Mr. Suleiman, and the operations of the company.

"I am prepared to cooperate with the committee should they invite me, because I don't know anything about the allegations, and this would enable me to clear my name," he reiterated.

Mr. Patrick TimbilIa, the then Director-General of Police Operations, denied ever releasing police officers to Tema, adding, "I don't even know any company called PSC Shipyard, and I have never done any operations with them."

He said if the headquarters had to release police officers, there should be a request from the Tema Regional Commander, through the IGP.

The then Regional Commander, Mr. Kudalor, told the paper that he was also not aware of any payment made to him, or the region, as was being alleged.

However, the Deputy Regional Commander, ACP Ninson, confirmed releasing some police officers to the Tema Shipyard, but denied receiving monies from the company.

"There were some labour issues there, so we sent some- officers from the Buffalo Unit here in Tema, but no money was given to us, it was our official duty," he reiterated

The Minister of Transport, Mr. Mike Hammah, on Tuesday inaugurated a seven-member committee, chaired by Mr. Chris Ackummey, to investigate the operations of the company, and submit its report within eight weeks.


Source: Chronicle/Ghana

M&J saga: CHRAJ writes to 'accused'

Mr Short: the material obtained from the Attorney General was insufficient.
Mr Short: the material obtained from the Attorney General was insufficient.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says it has delivered letters to some of the public officials implicated in the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal, as a first step towards a full scale investigation into the matter.

This, it said, was in accordance with regulations in the investigation of complaints contained in the Complaint Procedure Regulations, Constitutional Instrument No 7.

CHRAJ, however, said it had encountered some difficulties in its attempt to serve the letters on Alhaji Abubakar Siddique Boniface and Lord Attivor, two of the officials mentioned in the case, as they could not be found.

Mr Emile Short, the commissioner, said preliminary investigation was underway to gather evidence to determine whether there was some substance in the allegations made.

"If satisfied there is some substance to the allegations, we shall conduct a full investigation which would involve setting up a panel to investigate the allegations," he told the Daily Graphic.

"At the moment, we do not have all the information we require to make that determination," he added.

Mr Short said the material obtained from the Attorney General was insufficient for CHRAJ to decide whether the case merited a full scale investigation or not.

By the Complaint Procedure Regulations of CHRAJ, a complaint to the Commission is to be made in writing or orally to the national office of the Commission or to a representative of the Commission at the regional or district branch of the Commission.

In its preliminary investigations, CHRAJ must contact the people against whom the allegations have been made with a request for their response and they in turn shall respond within 10 days from the day of the receipt of CHRAJ's request.

Although the regulations stipulated how a complaint is to be made to CHRAJ, the President's request is not being considered as a complaint nor is the President himself considered as a complaint, Mr Short Said.

Rather, the President's invitation was being considered as a request to an independent body like CHRAJ to conduct the investigation to avoid any allegation or perception that an investigation by the Attorney General would result in a cover-up or whitewash of the whole affair.


Source: Daily Graphic








Tuesday, October 20, 2009

P.V. Obeng denies involvement in Tema Shipyard rape

Former presidential advisor, P.V. Obeng
Former presidential advisor, P.V. Obeng

A leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. P.V. Obeng has denied any involvement in the PSC Tema Shipyard financial malfeasance.

He has consequently pledged his readiness to submit to any inquiry relating to the matter when he spoke smoke to Joy FM's Super Morning Show host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah Tuesday morning.

Mr Obeng, a presidential advisor during the Rawlings-led administration has been cited in an audit report on the accounts of the PSC Tema Shipyard - West Africa’s biggest dry dock facility.

The internal audit was commissioned following agitations by workers of the company that the facility was being mismanaged by its Malaysian managers.

The audit uncovered several financial irregularities with hundreds of thousands of dollars dispensed under questionable circumstances leading to the suspension of the Chief Financial Officer of the company, Mr Mohammed Ismail Bin Lebai Sulaiman.

The audit report said PSC Tema Shipyard for instance, entered into a deal in which it paid SBT Resources Associates a sum of $285,000 ostensibly to facilitate the operations of PSC Tema Shipyard.

The auditors said SBT Resources Associates had no track record of providing the sort of services the company was engaged to provide and that the payments made were questionable.

Responding to the queries of the auditors, Mr Sulaiman admitted that “the scope of work or services to be rendered by SBT in the contract was not carried out.”

He named Mr P.V. Obeng as one of the people he met with through one of the owners of SBT, one Ben Tetteh in an attempt to block moves by the then NPP government to take back the SPC Tema Shipyard which was divested to the Malaysians in 1997.

Mr Obeng admitted knowing Ben Tetteh and meeting with the Malaysian managers of the dry dock company but explained that the Malaysians came to him during the transition to ask of him to facilitate a meeting between their president in Malaysia and the then newly elected president – Prof. J.E.A. Mills.

“I had then heard about the developments at the shipyard because I also live in Tema, so I told them straight away that I did not find that meeting necessary and that surely I didn’t think that was the time to have a meeting” with the president.

The former presidential advisor added; “I advised them to go back and improve their own image as a company that intends to take that national asset and develop it for the national good and I assured them that once they had done that to my satisfaction, I will facilitate any meeting with any member of government if that became necessary.”

Mr Obeng stated that meeting between him and the Malaysians took place in the presence of other people, but could not readily recall any of them.


Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Letter To Jomo: The killers and stealers on easy street


I scurried frantically about like a headless chicken when I found myself getting late for an assignment the other day, and managed to leave home without shaving off my whiskers.

On the way to my destination, I glanced in the automobile mirror and found a strange beast from some unknown planet staring morosely at me.

I have never had the mindset of the bloke who wrote Ecclesiastes but hey, I have on occasions like that found myself wondering whether what we get in return, is really worth the daily sweating and scurrying about.

These days, fiercely competing demands on a working bloke’s monthly budget make rank nonsense of the concept of personal budgetary planning.

Amid all that, Jomo, some fellows just keep getting all the luck, oh yes they do. Minister of Health Dr. George Sipa-Yankey who resigned his position this week over the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal for example, admits having been the lucky beneficiary of a “free” gift of £15, 000 from M& J.

Consider what a splendid existence ours would be if we all got £15, 000 gifts everyday, Jomo. Gone would be the splitting headaches over children’s school fees, the landlords’ rent, and the murderous electricity, water and other domestic bills.

There would be more than enough left over from settling the bills for some bush-meat pepper soup and an apotoyuwa full of cassava and yam fufu everyday. These guys must be kidding, Jomo. The question is: kidding who?

Everyone knows this Papa Bronya fellow is only a fictional character and free meals have never really existed, not even a free breakfast of corn mill porridge and some bean cakes (kose).

They say money can do everything except change a man into a woman, but they are dead wrong, old chap: Money can change a fellow’s gender at the drop of a hat or rather the flash of a surgeon’s scalpel.

The technology is now available. What money can never ever do, Jomo, is hide! There is absolutely no way money can ever hide.
Looted cash may indeed hide for a while but it eventually resurfaces in the form of property: mansions, cars, freewheeling personal and family expenditures, investments and a lavish lifestyle.

There are other reasons illicit wealth can never hide: Information leakage by political and business rivals and surprise, surprise, accountability! A semblance of it still exists even in societies with sky high levels of corruption like ours, you know.

By the by, some professed anti-corruption campaigners are not helping the fight against corruption at all, Jomo. They keep diluting the discourse on corruption with a hypocritical definition of corruption which says from shoe shine boy to CEO everyone is corrupt…

Don’t mind them. We are not talking about people who pinch bananas in the market place but those who help themselves to our cash and suddenly become richer than the Sultan of Wetincall –call-the-place.

Truly, who is corrupt, Jomo? It is certainly not me. It must be the next bloke. That is the prevailing attitude. In the wake of the M& J bribery scandal, officials of the former and current political administrations are brandishing kilometer-long lists of alleged cases of corruption each side says the other is guilty of.

Let us investigate them meticulously so that in the end the public will see how many clean men and women in politics are left standing!
I told you a couple of weeks ago that the prevailing deceptive peace and calm and the apparent lull in armed robbery in the country should be making everyone uneasy didn’t I?

Those who are trapped irredeemably in the world of robbery as a lucrative means of livelihood are not going to crawl into holes and lie down to die just because of the recent police offensive against them.

When a very dangerous menace attacks society ruthlessly and goes into hiding, you do not have a premature sigh of relief and go to take a snooze. You pursue it and if it runs into the fortress of its cave, you prod the cave violently with a stick until it re-emerges.

If rather than surrender, it runs off again, you keep pursuing it until you catch up with it, then you wrestle it to the ground and flog it mercilessly into total submission and then you can have some peace. There is simply no other way the war against the robbery menace is going to be won.

There is another reason for the limited success of the war against armed robbery: Members of the Police Service are paid shameful salaries, work in tiny, stuffy, crammed offices with cracked floors and broken window panes and believe it or not, have nowhere to sleep at night.

These are the kind of police personnel who must patrol the streets and fight the robbers. Corporate sponsors in Ghana are a weird breed if you ask me. For being pretty and acting up before crowds at pageants, young girls have mansions and cars showered on them.

Yet it has not occurred to these sponsors, to help support the police with patrol vehicles and housing facilities or set up a fund to care for the dependants of police personnel killed in the line of duty.

Hey, do you reckon corporate business can thrive where armed robbery is a virtual social contagion?

After gun battles with police across the country left several armed robbers dead, human rights activists grumbled about the infringement of the robbers’ right to life.

Robbers killed a cop this week at Ashaiman near Tema during a brazen, broad daylight attack on a bullion van belonging to a bank.

There was not a single word, not even a syllable; from human rights activists about the right of the young cop to life! What kind of activism is this?

On Tuesday the police public relations and communications chief grumbled on radio, that the police would not sit down and let the robbers keep killing them. It suggests that human rights activists may have to brace up for another round of arguments regarding robbers’ rights!

What do you make of this argument about armed robbery being a by-product of poverty, unemployment and general social inequalities? It all sounds like a rational argument from the point of view of social psychology alright, but wait a second buddy:

Do the feelings of anger and desperation arising from poverty or unemployment diminish the responsibility of every human being to behave as a child of God and obey his commandments?

Hunger and deprivation are very painful, agonising experiences, trust me, but do you just grab guns and go killing, raping and maiming people because you have experienced both?

Only God knows what some people trying to live decent lives as law-abiding citizens have been through in this troubled existence of ours. This bloke knows what he is talking about, oh yes, I do!!



Credit: George Sydney Abugri /Daily Graphic/Ghana

Politicians, others milk PSC Tema Shipyard dry

Grim revelations from an internal audit on the accounts of West Africa’s biggest dry dock facility, PSC Tema Shipyard, have been livened by the Chief Finance Officer of the company in his response to major issues raised in the audit report.

In a 115-point response statement issued by the Chief Finance Officer, Mohamaed Ismail Bin Lebai Sulaiman, who is currently on suspension, the company set up dummy companies through which thousands of dollars and Ghana cedis were paid to some highly placed people.

These companies, after they were set up, never delivered any service to the PSC Tema Shipyard but only served as conduits for the payment of money to mainly politicians and the police.

Mr Sulaiman's 115-point statement was in response to queries raised in the internal audit report on the company's business transactions.

In the internal audit report, the company is alleged to have entered into a deal in which it paid SBT Resources Associates a sum of $285,000 ostensibly to facilitate the operations of PSC Tema Shipyard.

These included facilitating the dry dock company’s expression of interest as an operator of Takoradi Port Shipyard for a fee of $150,000, reviewing and identifying outstanding obligations of a Joint Venture Agreement between PSC Tema Shipyard and the government of Ghana for a fee of $10,000 and submitting records to government for free zone status for PSC Tema Shipyard for a fee of $100,000.

According to the report, “apart from the fact that the fees payable [were] excessive in relating to the services to be provided, it is doubtful if the consultant [had] the capacity to do all the work involved.”

A check on the background of SBT Resources Associates indicated that they are mainly registered to deal in Agriculture Technology, agricultural machinery, distribution of agricultural equipment and debt collection, the report indicated.

But in the Chief Finance Officer’s response, “the scope of work or services to be rendered by SBT in the contract was not carried out.”

In fact, the money paid to SBT Resources Associates was not for any services but to enable a certain Ben Tetteh to block a supposed bill drafted by the then NPP government to be placed before Parliament for the take-over of the company which was divested to some Malaysians in 1997.

According to Mr Sulaiman, Ben Tetteh produced documentary proof to show that the government was going to place a bill before Parliament to take over the company and advised him to make some money available for him (Ben) to 'see' some people to block the bill.

He claimed Ben Tetteh even took him to meet with Mr P.V. Obeng at the International Conference Centre sometime in December last year as part of efforts to block the so-called bill.

The Chief Finance Officer also intimated that Ben Tetteh also took $10,000 - captured in the books as facilitation for free trade zone application - to try and influence the National Labour Commission to get the then agitating workers off the backs of management.

The Maritime and Dock Workers Union at the time had been advocating the expulsion of the Malaysian managers of the company accusing them of running the company down and failing to inject capital into it contrary to the acquisition agreement in 1997.

To get the workers off the back of management, they paid $10,000 to Ben Tetteh to go and 'see' the labour commission to probably issue a fiat to the workers to 'leave management alone'.

Christmas rice and chicken for police

Suleiman’s witness statement also admits “protocol payments” were paid to some 60 policemen who were maintaining security at the shipyard when unionized workers of the company were interdicted for carrying out an industrial action against what they said were poor conditions of work in December last year.

Additionally, the police officers, including CIDs, were paid GH¢9,000 in lieu of chicken and rice for the Christmas celebrations last year. It further admitted that some GH¢3000 was used as “payment to the regional commander and his deputy.”

According the Chief Finance Officer these payments were necessary as the regional commander and his men had been threatening to pull out police force maintaining security at the shipyard.

Another dig the finance officer revealed was that the Inspector General Police (IGP) during the period of the interdiction first received GH¢10,000 to ensure security at the yard.

The IGP is alleged to have subsequently ordered the then Tema Regional Police Commander, Mr Adeloya, to beef up security at the shipyard.

Ameyaw Akumfi fingered

In its investigations on the establishment of the Keta Shipping Service, the internal auditors stated that the company “was given a vague description of service – provide professional, skilled and unskilled labour upon written request of PSC Tema Shipyard.”

According to the auditors, “within two months a whopping sum of GH¢53,500 had been paid to Keta Shipping Service under very suspicious circumstances.” The auditors maintained the nature of the business of the Keta Shipping Service was completely at variance with the services allegedly rendered.

The company, according to the audit report, was formed to as means of getting funds to some highly-placed political figures.

The Chief Finance Officer in his response mentioned the former Minister for Ports and Habours, Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi who had been asking him “for money or donations especially prior to the elections.

“With that in mind, Keta was formed,” Suleiman said in his reaction to the audit report, adding “some of the profits from this business [could] be channeled to the former minister.”

According to the audit report, although the shipyard has the potential to make appreciable profits, several flagrant violations of internal control systems and procedures have resulted in what it called an “economic haemorrhage.”

Meanwhile Joy News sources can confirm that the Commissioner for the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has expressed interest in the internal report and could launch an investigation into its findings.


Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Mpiani "disappointed" as Ghana@50 commission defers hearing

Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani
Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani
Former Chief of Staff in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpianim, has expressed disappointment at the failure of the commission reviewing the Ghana@50 celebrations to hear his testimony.

Mr Mpiani was scheduled to present his testimony to the commission today Tuesday as the chairman of the National Planning Committee of the Ghana@50 Secretariat, but the hearing could not come off because one of the commissioners was not present.

The commissioner, Osei Tutu Prempeh, is reported to have been caught up in a “domestic emergency.”

Speaking to Joy News after the deferment, media liaison for the commission, Ato Kobby, said the hearing was postponed because the commissioners present did not form a quorum.

Mr Kobby indicated that although the commission had suggested hearing be deferred till Tuesday, counsel for Mr Mpiani, Mr Egbert Faibille, objected and eventually hearing had to be postponed to Friday.

Speaking shortly after the deferment, Mr Mpiani said he was “prepared to help the commission do its work” dismissing suggestions that the postponement would give him enough time to prepare.

“I am prepared to meet the commission. I came here fully prepared to meet the commission,” he told Joy News’ Sammy Darko.

The appearance of the former Chief of Staff comes after the hearing of the Chief Executive of the defunct secretariat took his turn last week.

Dr Wereko-Brobby answered questions on various issues bordering on the secretariat and the celebration of Ghana’s 50th birthday.

Mr Mpiani’s appearance has however generated a lot of interest as he was the main figure in the management of the affairs of the Ghana@50 secretariat.

Meanwhile the commission has hinted it would soon issue letters inviting former District Chief Executives (DCEs) and other persons implicated in the testimonies of earlier witnesses.

Several DCEs and regional ministers were cited in the testimonies of earlier witnesses as taking certain unilateral decisions.

Mr Kobby said the commission would be doing “internal work” while it awaits its public sitting on Friday.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Multinational corporations: The new colonisers in Africa






Before the end of the first period of colonialism African nations were properties of their colonial masters who did what they could to rape the continent of whatever resource they deemed good for the development of their citizens in Europe.

Out of nowhere and without any consultation with the people of the African continent, the Europeans met and divided the continent amongst themselves in what has been termed 'The Scramble for Africa'.

Through this scramble France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all went on a looting spree, raping Africa of her resources without putting any of the proceeds back for the development of the continent.

When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Gambia on 13 January 1943, he was so appalled by the conditions of Gambians that he made this lamentation:

'It's the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life… The natives are five thousand years back of us… The British have been there for two hundred years – for every dollar that the British have put into Gambia, they have taken out ten. It's just plain exploitation of those people.'

He continued, telling his son Elliot, 'I must tell [Winston] Churchill what I found out about his British Gambia today. This morning, at about eight-thirty, we drove through Bathurst to the airfield.' (Elliott notes that it was here that his father began speaking with 'real feeling in his voice'.) 'The natives were just getting to work. In rags … glum-looking…They told us the natives would look happier around noontime, when the sun should have burned off the dew and the chill. I was told the prevailing wages for these men was one and nine. One shilling nine pence. Less than fifty cents.'

'An hour?' Elliott asked.

'A day! Fifty cents a day! Besides which, they’re given a half-cup of rice. Dirt. Disease. Very high mortality rate. I asked. Life expectancy – you’d never guess what it is. Twenty-six years. Those people are treated worse than the livestock. Their cattle live longer!' Source:US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943, The American Heritage

And the exploitation was not peculiar to Gambia. The Gold Coast (now Ghana), Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), Namibia, South Africa, Congo and Angola all suffered from the same colonial exploitation and underinvestment.

For almost 300 years the Europeans, who were supposedly civilised, devout Christians, irresponsibly looted Africa’s resources and made slaves of its natives without developing their colonies. When the local population protested against this exploitation without reciprocal investment, they were brutally crushed, as happened in the Congo, where King Leopold II of Belgium looted the resources, made slaves and killed close to 10 million Congolese.

In 1904 to 1907 the German, led by Commander-in-Chief Lothar Von Trotha, committed their first genocide of the 20th century by killing 90 per cent of the Herero and the Namaqua people of South West Africa (now Namibia) when the people protested against the exploitation of their resources. And the sad stories of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Namibia, Kenya and Angola, where people were denied access to land, citizenship and basic rights and had to take up arms before they were granted independence, are in many history books. We know how Nelson Mandela (now a hero in Europe) and a number of freedom fighters endured long prison sentences, torture, exile and deaths in the hands of their 'devout Christians' and 'civilised' European colonisers. The idea was that through The Scramble for Africa they had bought Africa and had power to do as they wish, hence the rape, torture, genocide and mass killings.

While Europeans became richer, Africans became poorer. For example, with the looting of the Congo’s resources, enslavement, the amputations of hands and 10 million deaths, Brussels – which now doubles as the capital of the European Union – and Belgium were built.

When they were given their ‘freedom’, the fathers of independence inherited nothing more than empty treasuries. They realised that after more than 300 hundred years of colonial rule their colonial masters had left them nothing; no money and no infrastructure.

This bad situation and their eagerness to improve the lives of their peoples forced them to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for assistance, and when they went lo and behold their former colonial masters were there waiting for them. The colonisers used their majority votes to dictate to the World Bank and IMF about how these former colonies should be helped. Of the 185 members that make up the IMF, six colonial masters and their allies – comprised of the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Italy – control 42 per cent of the votes.

The colonial masters dictated to the IMF and the World Bank that for Africans to be helped, they had to open their economies to allow European corporations in. This underscores the numerous conditionalities that are associated with loans from these institutions. The conditionalities are nothing more than a smokescreen designed to ensure that Europeans never lose their grip on the resources of their former colonies. Some of these conditionalities include instituting secret memorandums of agreement, subsidies to foreign corporations and massive tax concessions (such as income tax, usage fees and property tax) – the primary source of revenue for 'export-oriented', developing countries.

The sad thing is that Africans thought independence would give them respite to develop, but this was never to be as the colonial masters used their corporations and intelligence services to deliver vengeance on the people. They encouraged and financed civil wars, unashamedly polluted rivers, wells and the soil through their oil and mineral activities, deliberately understated their profits and falsified profit documents, as well as undervaluing their goods, indulging in smuggling, theft and the falsification of invoicing and non-payment of taxes, and employing kickbacks and bribes to public officials. They also overpriced projects, provided save havens for looted funds, promoted the sale of guns, overthrew African leaders, supported dictatorships and assassinated those who disagreed with them. We know, for example, the tragedy of Patrice Lumumba and the support the West gave Mobutu.

The corporations forced onto Africa by the IMF, the World Bank, the US and Europe have been implicated in a number of cases for corrupting African leaders and stealing trillions of dollars worth of resources. Global Financial Integrity says that '$900 billion is secreted each year from underdeveloped economies, with an estimated $11.5 trillion currently stashed in havens. More than one quarter of these hubs belong to the UK, while Switzerland washes one-third of global capital flight.' Of this $900 billion, $150 billion comes from Africa.

'The idea that Switzerland has a clean economy is a joke; it is a dirt-driven economy,' says Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research LLP. The Swiss Bankers Association claims that four-fifths of the nation supports banking secrecy, which reveals a society deeply embedded in a culture of impunity and exploitation. The fact is that those who steal must find a way to hide their loot, and Switzerland provides the ideal environment for such crimes to take place. And it is not Switzerland alone that does not have a clean economy. Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg can all be described as vampires.

In her article 'Capital flight: gingerbread havens, cannibalised economies', Khadija Sharife writes:

'This policy is especially lethal for developing countries where the poor are now caught in tax brackets, courtesy of the IMF and World Bank’s structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), instituting policies ranging from “tax holidays” to the privatisation of state services [and] carving out huge slices of natural capital at corporate auctions… Africa has collectively lost more than $600-billion in capital flight, excluding other mechanisms of flight including ecological debt (globally estimated at a potential $1.8-trillion per annum), the cost of liberalised trade (just under $300-billion) … and the list goes on…'Source:www.greenleft.au

Thus with the support and collusion of the IMF and the World Bank these corporations are paying close to nothing for the resources they take from Africa.

Africa has been labelled the world’s most corrupt region because multinational internal mis-pricing makes up 60 per cent of capital outflow, with corporations declaring profits in tax havens, as opposed to the country of performance. Corporations declare about 40 per cent of their profits in the African countries where they operate, siphoning the rest into their safe-haven accounts in order to avoid paying tax which could be used to eradicate poverty. And this is not the end of the corruption and the story of daylight robbery.

We know how Elf operated as an arm of the French state supporting dictators, looting resources and establishing a flush fund used to bribe African leaders to look the other way while the corporation looted Africa’s oil and gas.

The author of Poisoned Wells Nicholas Shaxson wrote of the subject: 'Magistrates discovered the money from Elf’s African operations supplied bribes to support French commercial, military and diplomatic goals around the world. In exchange, French troops protected compliant African dictators.'

This explains why there are so many more corrupt dictators in French-speaking Africa compared with elsewhere in Africa. Gabon's Omar Bongo, Togo's Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, Guinea's Lansana Conté, Côte d'Ivoire's Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaoré, Congo's Sassou Nguesso and Chad's Idriss Déby are some of the compliant leaders who were or have been protected by France. And what happened to the non-compliant African leaders? Your guess is as good as mine. Please find time to read more about Bob Denard, a Frenchman who made a career as a mercenary overthrowing African leaders. French author Jean Guisner says: 'Denard did nothing that was contrary to French interests – and he allegedly acted in close cooperation with French intelligence services'.

In the Elf corruption case André Tarallo, the real boss of Elf-Afrique, 'told the court in June 2003 that annual cash transfers totalling about £10m were made to Omar Bongo, Gabon's president, while other huge sums were paid to leaders in Angola, Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville. The multi-million dollar payments were partly paid to ensure the African leaders' continued allegiance to France. In return for protection and sweeteners from Elf's coffers, France used Gabon as a base for military and espionage activities in West Africa.Source:'The Guardian, November 2003.

The real deal is that Elf, Shell, BP and their counterparts in Europe and America pay bribes to African leaders to induce them to look the other way when they plunder resources. Ask any Gabonese or Congolese whether they have benefited from the oil and diamonds and the answer will be a big no. What is so tragic is that the people know they have oil, diamonds and see these companies processing them everyday yet do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds go.

In Norway Scancem, a company specialising in cement production stands accused of paying millions of dollars in bribe to top government officials in order to have a monopoly in the production of cement. During the trial of one of Scancem's executives (Mr.Tor Egil Kjelsaas) in an embezzlement case in 2005 it came to light that Scancem paid former Ghanaian president Jerry John Rawlings, his wife and his adviser on presidential affairs in the person of Paul Victor Obeng (P.V. Obeng) more than 4 million dollars through two bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Papers from the court reads "In the mid 1990s, there were two anonymous bank accounts in Unibank SA in Luxembourg and Barclays Bank SA in Geneva, Switzerland that were earmarked for Ghana. Considerable sums were paid in dollars from Scancem’s headquarters in Oslo. From 1993 to 1998 a total of US 1,690,000 dollars was transferred to the account in Barclays Bank. A total of US 2,460,000 dollars was paid into the Unibank account during the same period". It is out of these accounts that the bribes were paid to the officials in Ghana. Similarly it came to light that the same bribery method was adopted by the company to influence officials in Liberia, Togo, Tanzania, Congo, Sierra Leone, Niger and Gabon which often gave it a monopoly in cement production. While corrupt officials enjoyed their ill-gotten wealth the citizens paid dearly as cement prices were artificially increased by Scancem for no other reason other than profit.

In the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of selling a device based on ageing technology to Tanzania. 'The UK sold a useless air traffic control system to Tanzania in 2001 in a scandalous and squalid deal, the House of Commons was told.' Clare Short, an minister of parliament, said, 'The deal was useless and hostile to the interests of Tanzania.' She continued, 'Barclays Bank had colluded with the government by loaning Tanzania the money, but lying to the World Bank about the type and size of the loan.' Short said, 'Tanzania could have paid much less for the same equipment which cost them £28m'. Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said 'BAE had used ageing technology and said the system was not adequate and too expensive.' Source:BBC News, 31 January 2007.

And it all happened after they had bought Tanzania officials to look the other way while a device based on ageing technology was being sold to the country. BAE colluded with Tony Blair and Barclays Bank to sell a useless commodity at an exorbitant price to Tanzania. This is nothing but a continuation of the contempt and impunity with which Europeans have traditionally treated Africa before, during and after colonialism. BAE is indirectly saying that Africans do not deserve the latest technology even if they pay a cut-throat price. It is also a message to Africans that they must develop their own technology and not rely on the generosity of others.

And it is not BAE and Barclays that have been involved in corrupt and shady deals in Africa. On 25th of September 2009 in a case brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office againstMabey and Johnson, a bridge building company firm, it came to light that several Ghanaian politicians were bribed by the company in exchange for contracts. The same company was found guilty for bribing officials in Jamaica, Iraq and other places

It is no secret that the Shell oil company colluded with Nigeria's corrupt Abacha regime to steal oil, pollute the country's rivers, wells, creeks and soil and render millions of farmers and fishermen in the Niger Delta jobless. '[Shell] admitted that it inadvertently fed conflict, poverty and corruption through its oil activities in the country. Nigeria contributes to about 10% of Shell's global production and is home to some of its most promising reserves, yet the country is steeped in poverty and conflict.'BBC News,18 June 2004. So Shell, in addition to stealing Nigeria’s oil and polluting its rivers, wells and soils, also promotes corruption, poverty and conflict.

In the DRC about five million people have died in a war, the underlying motive for which is the satisfaction of the West's insatiable appetite for high-quality, low-price cell phones, laptop computers, Playstations, jewels, diamonds and coltan. And in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, New York or Washington, who cares about five million deaths anyway? Why has the DRC's war not ended? Who supplies the rebels their arms and who buys the minerals they mine illegally? Why have Ugandan and Rwandan forces crossed several times into DRC? And whose agenda are they pursuing? A report by the UN says it all.

The panel calls for financial restrictions to be levied on 54 individuals and 29 companies it says are involved in the plunder, including four Belgian diamond companies and the Belgian company George Forrest, which is partnered with the US-based OM Group.

The individuals named include Rwandan army Chief-of-Staff James Kabarebe, Congolese Minister of the Presidency Augustin Katumba Mwanke, Ugandan army Chief-of-Staff James Kazini and Zimbabwean Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, BBC online reported.Source: BBC News, 21 October 2002. The report also accused 85 South African, European and US multinational corporations – including Anglo American, Barclays Bank, Bayer, De Beers and the Cabot Corporation – of violating the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) ethical guidelines on conflict zones.

The guidelines they were accused of violating relate to arming Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese rebels and profiting from their illegal looting of Congo’s minerals, as the following excerpt shows:

'Despite the recent withdrawal of most foreign forces, the exploitation of Congo's resources continues, the report says, with elite networks and criminal groups tied to the military forces of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe benefiting from micro-conflicts in the D.R.C. "The elite networks derive financial benefit through a variety of criminal activities, including theft, embezzlement, [the] diversion of public funds, [the] undervaluation of goods, smuggling, false invoicing, non-payment of taxes, kickback[s] to public officials and bribery," and added that such pillaging is responsible for much of the death and malnutrition in eastern D.R.C.Source:www.unwire.org

And so while millions die in Africa with the complicity of these corporations, European and North American citizens, with all their hypocrisy, live to enjoy lavish holidays. And when Africans try to reach Europe the citizens say 'Europe is full. No more immigrants.' Where do the queens and kings in Europe get the diamonds and gold that they show off? Is it not from the blood diamonds from Congo, Sierra Leone and other conflict zones in Africa that are smuggled out and sold in Brussels, Zurich, London and New York?

And this is not their only crime. We know how Halliburton established a $180-million flush fund and bought Nigerian officials to secure a $10-billion oil contract. We know Acres International of Canada paid $260,000 to secure an $8-billion dam contract in Lesotho. We know Swiss, British, German and French financial and banking institutions have made fortunes by providing safe havens for funds looted by Abacha, Mobutu, Bongo, Conté, Kenya's Daniel arap Moi and the rest of the dictators in Africa. And it is no secret that Belgium is angry with the DRC government for inviting China into the country because they are privy to and beneficiary of all the daylight robbery going on in the resource-rich but economically impoverished country.

Africans know that these corporations are making fortunes but they see none of the benefits from these fortunes. Ghanaians know gold and diamonds are being mined at Obuasi and Akwatia but they do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds end up, and the same is true of the oil in Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Algeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. And as for the DRC, a nation with one-third of world’s natural resources, the less I say the better.

This corrupt, daylight robbery is what has been promoted as globalisation, with Africa and the Third World being encouraged to join by Europe, America, the IMF and the World Bank. My question is whose globalisation? Is it the globalisation that only those with blue eyes enjoy or what? If the answer is no then the IMF and the World Bank should explain why the world is divided between the 'white haves and the coloured have-nots'. Is this not a second colonialism dressed as globalisation?

Susan Hawley says it all:

'Multinational corporations’ corrupt practices affect the South (i.e. Africa, Asia and Latin America) in many ways. They undermine development and exacerbate inequality and poverty. They disadvantage smaller domestic firms and transfer money that could be put towards poverty eradication into the hands of the rich. They distort decision-making in favour of projects that benefit the few rather than the many. They also increase [the] debt that benefit[s] the company, not the country; bypass local democratic processes; damage the environment; circumvent legislation; and promote weapons sales. Bribes put up the prices of projects. When these projects are paid for with money borrowed internationally, bribery adds to a country's external debt. Ordinary people end up paying this back through cuts in spending on health, education and public services. Often they also have to pay by shouldering the long-term burdens of projects that do not benefit them and which they never requested. Source:The Corner House, June 2000.

And in all these, the Western media has kept silent and has not raised a voice against what its governments, intelligence services, corporations and businessmen are doing to Africans. They prefer instead to criticise China for courting the same African leaders Euro-Americans have been protecting for decades. A clear hypocrisy isn’t it? These are the same criticisms King Leopold II levelled against the Arabs who were competing with him for resources and slaves in Congo, and we know what Leopold II, the 19th-century Hitler, did in the DRC in the name of Christianity and 'civilisation'.

With China as a fierce competitor, Africans now have a choice not to go to the World Bank and the IMF for conditional loans. They also have a choice to either give their resources to Chinese companies or European and American cartels. It may be the beginning of the end of colonialism, slavery, instability, dictatorships, corruption and all the ills that Europeans and Americans have been promoting in Africa.

It may be the beginning where Africa’s resources will be bought and payment made to the people and a new chapter that will usher in Africa’s development and close the poverty gap from 5,000 years to perhaps 100, as observed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

* Lord Aikins Adusei is an activist and anti-corruption campaigner. He blogs atwww.iloveafrica2.blogspot.comand can be contacted atpoliticalthinker1@yahoo.com.
* Please send comments toeditor@pambazuka.org or comment online athttp://www.pambazuka.org/.

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