Friday, October 31, 2014

LAWYER FIGHTS GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday, October 31, 2014

A private legal practitioner has petitioned the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts over the General Legal Council’s refusal to pay him his entitlements for work done for the Ghana Law School.

John Yaw Opoku who was Deputy Registrar from 2000 and acted in that position till around 2003 at the Law School told Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau that he decided not to make the case public but the attitude of the General Legal Council, the apex body for judicial and legal administration in the country, towards the case had compelled him to file the petition.

Narrating his ordeal yesterday, Mr. Opoku said whilst acting as Registrar following the retirement of the substantive head, the council published as advertisement in the dailies and he duly applied and subsequently applied formally and attended an interview.

He said he never heard anything from the panel until November 21, 2003 when he received a letter terminating his appointment at the Law School saying “I therefore filed a suit in court against the General Legal Council challenging that decision in July 2004.”

He said in the General Legal Council’s statement of defense filed by Hayibor, Gyabeng & Co, they averred that he (Opoku) had planned to seek greener pasture and that was one of the reasons his appointment was terminated.

The petitioner said the High Court presided over by Justice E.F. Dzakpasu on February 25, 2011 delivered judgement in his favour and he subsequently filed entry of judgement in March, same year.

He said in May 2011 he received letters from the Law School acknowledging receipt of his entry of judgement and reminded him that they were sending the process to the Attorney General to study adding that when it delayed, he wrote to the Chief Justice who heads the General Legal Council as well as the AG reminding them of the judgement debt.

Mr. Opoku said when he did not get any response from the defendants he filed a revised entry of judgement in November 2012 from GH¢383,219 to GH¢414,987.25 saying “as at today, I have still not been paid.”

Chief Valuer in charge of Compensation Schedule at the Lands Commission, Kwesi Kobea Bentsi-Enchil also testified on the Volta Basin compensation claims and said from the records, there was due diligence in the whole process.

He said apart from the work of Lands Commission, other state agencies including investigative bodies like the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) now Economic and Organized Crime Organization (EOCO) investigated the backgrounds of the claimants and filed their reports.

Kwadwo Awuah Peasah, Director in charge of Resource Mobilization (Bilateral) at the Ministry of Finance also testified in the Volta Basin saga and said the ministry’s duty was only to send release letter to the Controller and Accountant General after every investigation had been done by the relevant bodies.

Cabinet Approval
Cabinet, in July 2008, approved a consolidated amount of compensation totaling GH¢138 million for various stools/families in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas and about 57 groups were said to have benefited from the amount.

Records at the commission revealed that GH¢71 million has been paid so far to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH¢67million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.

The records indicate that most of the processes for compensation were done between 2004 and 2008 even though some claims dated back to the 1970s but the actual payments started in 2009.

Some of the witnesses who appeared before the commission have been tendering in evidence site plans that did not have dates but had purportedly used the same documents to claim the money from the Lands Commission.

Some of the documents also bore the names of individual claimants but the witnesses have claimed they were making the claims on behalf of families or clans, a move the Sole-Commissioner has described as ‘irregular’.



Thursday, October 30, 2014

LANDS COMMISSION BOSS DENIES PAYMENT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Executive Secretary of Lands Commission Wilfred Kwabena Anim Odame has said he never got involved in the payment of huge sums as compensation to the Volta Basin claimants following the construction of the Akosombo Hydro Electric Dam in the 1960s.

He said the only time he got close to the payment was in 2012 when he supervised the processing of the payment of the fourth tranche for the claimants as Acting Executive Secretary.

The Executive Secretary was testifying in Accra yesterday at the Commission of Enquiry chaired by Sole Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau which was set up by the President to investigate the payment of judgement debts.

Cabinet approval
Cabinet, in July 2008, approved a consolidated amount of compensation totaling GH¢138 million for various stools/families in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas and about 57 groups were said to have benefited from the amount.

Records at the commission revealed that GH¢71 million has been paid so far to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH¢67million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.

The records indicate that most of the processes for compensation were done between 2004 and 2008 even though some claims dated back to the 1970s but the actual payments started in 2009.

Some of the witnesses who appeared before the commission have been tendering in evidence site plans that did not have dates but had purportedly used the same documents to claim the money from the Lands Commission.
Some of the documents also bore the names of individual claimants but the witnesses have claimed they were making the claims on behalf of families or clans.

Executive Secretary
Mr. Odame told the Sole-Commissioner that he did not have the chance to vet the documents submitted by Kojo Abban & Co who were consultants and surveyors for the claimants because the verification processes took place before he became head of the commission.

He complained to Justice Apau about a report released by a professional group tasked to investigate the Volta Basin claims and said “the content is damaging both local and international,” and wanted the judge to ask them to apologize.

However, Justice Apau said the commission was not in any witch hunting business saying “we will study the report and give a fair assessment.”

AG & Sabat Motors
The case involving the Addy Family and the Attorney General together with Sabat Motors was also brought before the commission.

Kweku Yamoah Paintsil, a private legal practitioner who represented the Addy Family in the initial stages of the suit told the commission that his clients leased the property to R.T. Brisco and during the revolution the company’s assets were confiscated by the government.

He said the government proceeded to put the company on divestiture which was subsequently acquired by Sabat Motors but when his clients tried to claim accrued payment for rent Sabat Motors refused them.

Counsel said at one point they got judgement in default in 2004 against the AG but later the brief was taken from their chamber and said he did not know what transpired eventually.

“RT Brisco itself was a tenant until the government confiscated it and put it on divestiture for Sabat Motors to acquire it. Once Sabat Motors was in possession they claimed everything belonged to them including the land,” he said.

Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, a Chief State Attorney representing the AG told the commission that the last time an action was taken on the suit was in 2007 when the plaintiffs filed a motion on notice for an order to set down the legal issues for the factual issues in the case to be determined.

“There is no indication on the file that the legal issues were argued. Plaintiff’s counsel set down the legal issues for the factual issues and it is presumed that the entry of judgement has been overtaken by events.”





Tuesday, October 28, 2014

'ABUGA PELE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GYEEDA FRAUD'

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Former Minister of Youth and Sports Clement Kofi Humado yesterday said the former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) Abuga Pele should be held responsible for any financial loss caused to the state.
He said some of the memos and invoices submitted by the National Coordinator of the NYEP now GYEEDA, to request for release and payment of huge sums for supposed consultancy service turned out to be deceptive and could therefore not be held responsible for Abuga Pele’s wrongdoing.
“I can’t be held responsible for a claim which is deceptive and later turned out to be false. I based my judgement on the credibility of Abuga Pele. The deliverables he claimed were done I do not know for a fact what he had done,” he told the court.
Mr. Humado was concluding his cross-examination yesterday at the ongoing trial of Philip Akpeena Assibit, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIG and incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga, Abuga Pele in what has become the GYEEDA Scandal at an Accra Financial Court presided over by Justice Afia Asare Botwe.
The $522,882 Payment
Concluding his cross-examination by Carl Adongo, counsel for Abuga Pele, Mr. Humado who is also the immediate past Minister of Agriculture and MP for Anlo said that he was only two months in office when the National Coordinator raised the memo requesting for payment of a whopping $522,882 for consultancy services rendered by the Management Development and Productivity Institute/Goodwill International Group (MDPI/GIG) consortium.
He admitted approving the $522,882 payment but said the approval was supposed to pass through what he called the ministry’s due diligence process starting from the Chief Director and the Internal Auditor.
Asked why he approved the $522,882, Mr. Humado told the court that there was a memo from Abuga Pele justifying work done and that persuaded him to make the approval saying “I approved because of the claims made by the National Coordinator not that I knew the deliverables had been done. I was barely two months in office. As a colleague MP I believed that he was doing the right thing.”
Salary approval
Mr. Humado who is the 4th Prosecution Witness said that as minister, he had oversight responsibility over four agencies including NYEP/GYEEDA but insisted that he did not approve their salaries but rather they had developed a payment plan to take care of all expenses.
“I did not approve GYEEDA monthly salaries. I asked them to submit monthly payment plans and salaries were included.” He told the court.
He said it was the National Coordinator who approved salaries for GYEEDA because GYEEDA was almost autonomous saying “approval for payment plan does not mean that specific payments can be done.”
Crossfire
When counsel asked him why he claimed GYEEDA was autonomous but approved its payments, Mr. Humado said inflows from them was outside the ministry’s account and he could only monitor with the aid of the payment plan.
Counsel again put it to him that the $522,882 was not on the payment plan but went ahead to approve the payment but the witness insisted that the approval was made to allow due diligence to commence before the payment.
Mr. Humado admitted that it was his Chief Director who had given a working instruction that the amount be paid into MDPI account and added the funds were from the NYEP but the memo had to be submitted to the ministry for approval.
He insisted that Abuga Pele did not comply with the ministry’s directive not to authorized payments exceeding GH¢20,000 saying “initially, there was no problems but later at EOCO, they said there were problems with all the payments authorized by the National Coordinator.”
Court’s question
When the judge asked him if it was his evidence that the NYEP Coordinator was not supposed to spend beyond the threshold of GH¢20,000 as directed by the ministry, Mr. Humado said that was the case but added that Abuga Pele crossed the threshold.
When asked again what he did as minister after his directive was breached, the witness said whilst he was minister, the issue of overspending by Abuga Pele never come to his notice.
Charges
The Chiana-Paga MP is facing six counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state under Section 179A (3) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29, two counts of abetment under Sections 20(1) and 131(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and one count of intentionally misapplying public property, contrary to Section 1(2) of the Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD) 140.
Mr. Assibit, who is the first accused person on the other hand, is facing six counts of defrauding by false pretences, contrary to Section 131(1) of the Criminal and Offences Act 1960 (Act 29) and five counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property contrary to Section 2(1) of the Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD) 1.

Accused persons
The accused persons are on trial for the various roles they played, which the Attorney General’s Department said caused huge financial loss to the state.
The NDC MP is accused of wilfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of GH¢3,330,568.53 while Assibit is being tried for defrauding the state of an amount equivalent to $1,948,626.68.

The two have pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail.

Monday, October 27, 2014

GH¢2BN PENSION SAGA DEEPENS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, October 27, 2014

The Tier Two Pension funds which have compelled an amalgamation of associations within the health and education sectors as well as judiciary and the civil service to embark on indefinite strike, is taking a new twist as labour claims that the funds have accrued to GH¢2 billion.

The government has already gone to court but the striking workers have called the bluff insisting that they will meet them in court.

The government last week announced that the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) or the Tier 2 Pension funds which is being held in trust at the Bank of Ghana had accrued about GH¢450,000 million.

However, unknown to both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu and Baba Jamal who had disclosed the figure at a news conference, then Deputy Minister of Finance Fifi Kwetey had said somewhere in December 2013 that the Pension Fund had accrued a whopping GH¢1.2billion since 2010.

Interestingly, the government through the central bank was said to have calculated the amount at 2.2% to arrive at the GH¢450,000 million instead of the Treasury Bill Rate of 15 plus 2% at the time and when Baba Jamal was told that Fifi Kwetey now the Minister of Agriculture had mentioned a higher figure, he said the media could ‘go’ with the higher figure.

It was unclear why the BoG decided to calculate the interest rate at 2.2% instead of the prevailing TB rate which has currently reached 24% in addition to 2% as the negotiated price making it 26%.

The workers are even speculating that the Tier 2 Pension funds have reached almost GH¢2 billion, going by the prevailing TB rates since they claimed the interest itself accumulated additional value.

The workers say they want the Pension Trust Alliance being trusted on them by the government saying that they the right to select where they want to invest their funds.

Sources say the government has been reluctant to allow the workers to singlehandedly select their own fund managers due to risks involved after it realized that the amount is getting huge by the day and it feared once the money gets into the hands of private fund managers, they might be financially powerful.

Another reason is that government was not ready to pay the actual interest pegged at the prevailing TB rate of 24% plus 2%.

However, the workers have reiterated their resolve to stick to the fund managers of their choice who are already registered with the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and asked the government to desist from undue interference.

IMANI On Fortiz
As the strike entered its second week, policy analysis think tank IMANI Ghana has taken on Fortiz, a private equity fund which controversially bought state-owned Merchant Bank now Universal Merchant Banks (umb), over the Tier 2 Pension funds.

In a mind-blowing article titled “Fortiz can answer questions over where millions of Second Tier Pensions may be held”, IMANI threw a challenge to one Mawuli Hedo, a director of Fortiz who they claimed was also a director at First Banc, the Tier 2 administrators of the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) with the Bank of Ghana serving as the custodial bank to come out clean on the raging debate.

NPRA & TPFA
The article said in January 2010, the TPFA was set up to provisionally administer the Tier 2 contributions, pending the licensing of Trustees and the registration of the Pension Schemes and employers since January 2010 remitted 5% (Tier 2 contributions) of their employees’ salaries to the TPFA.

IMANI said NPRA which has the mandate to license Corporate Trustees, Fund Managers and Pension Fund Custodians after almost a 3-year wait without much information to workers and service providers, registered Pension Schemes at the end of October 2012 and full implementation under the pension reforms Act 766 started in November 2012.

Poor Investment
“Even though the NPRA indicated that it was going to invest the Temporary Pension Fund Account, which was being administered by First Banc, in Treasury Bills pending the registration of Pension Schemes, provisional statements released by NPRA in October 2012 indicated a return on investment of 2.75% per annum.” At that time Treasury bill rate was around 15% raising questions about who pocketed the balance of over 12% interest.

“This was disappointing,” IMANI said adding “given that the average Treasury bill returns between January 2010 and October 2012 was around 15% per annum.”

“Besides the provisional statement issued back then covered a period of 18 months instead of the 34 months period (January 2010 to October 2012) over which contributions had been made into the TPFA. This raises fundamental questions as to what was done with the proceeds from the TPFA administered by a director of FORTIZ.”

54 Years And Above
IMANI said one of the serious implications of the situation was that “people who were 54 years and younger when implementation started in January 2010 will not get the full value of their lump-sum benefits, upon retirement at 60.”

“Thus, all Ghanaian workers - both private sector or public sector workers - who were 54 years old or younger as at January 2010 will not get their full lump-sum benefits from Tier 2 Pension Schemes as NPRA is still holding on to 58 months of workers contributions and accrued benefits. There is no word from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority as to when these funds will be paid to the contributors or even how it will be paid.”

IMANI recommended the auditing of all TPFA activities by an external auditor and accrued contributions in the TPFA should be transferred into the registered Tier 2 Pension Schemes selected by the various employers, asking the BoG to “submit a report on its stewardship of the TPFA.”

SSNIT Chickens Out
Just as the debate was reaching boiling point, Ernest Thompson, Director General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) made a desperate appeal to striking public sector workers to return to the negotiating table and come up with a road map that would solve the current impasse with government.

According to Joy FM, Mr. Thompson believed strikes were not the panacea to the ongoing controversy, hinting the situation might get worse if a lasting solution was not found as soon as possible, preferring to blame the impasse on the law.

He claimed the law was passed in a rush in December 2008, at a time when the appropriate structures were not put in place to execute the policy saying "custodians were not registered; trustees were not registered at the time."

He said at the time the law was passed, the capacity of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority was even in question and wondered why the necessary due diligence were not corrected before the passage.

"What has come now is just a tip of the iceberg," he warned, adding we need patience to resolve the problem.

Sources said if care is taken SSNIT may also be opened up over dodgy investments, hence Ernest Thompson call for truce.

AG Sues
The government through the Attorney General on Friday filed a suit at an Accra High Court to compel the striking workers to resume work.

Dr. Dominic Ayine, Deputy Attorney General confirmed the legal action when he said “as government, we cannot dump the consequences of taking them on. We are keenly aware of the consequences and we will be taking measures to address those consequences as events unfold.”

He also added that “there is nothing wrong with having a collision with labour. When labour believes the government is wrong they don’t back down so I do not see anything wrong with having a collision with labour; but we have to be fair to ourselves that organized labour can also go wrong from time to time.”

Kpessah Whyte’s insults
An NDC member and presidential staffer Dr Kpessah Whyte almost found trouble for himself when he said on Joy Fm’s newsfile programme at the weekend that leaders of labour unions lacked the expertise to negotiate forcefully on pension related issues.

Immediately he made the statement, President of NAGRAT, Christian Addae-Poku called into the programme and condemned Mr Whyte for his insensitivity.

He had to eat a humble pie when he finally apologized saying “I don't think the comment was intended to malign or was intended to cast doubt on anybody. It was made in the context of a specific policy issue...If they feel insulted then I apologise.”



SECRET RECORDINGS: EXPANDING THE FRONTIERS OF POLITICAL MISCHIEF

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Saturday October 25, 2014

The era of secret recordings appear to have come to stay and it is messing up everybody. It is clearly expanding the frontiers of political mischief.

It is said that one’s ‘freedom of speech’ ends at another person’s ‘right to freedom of peace and tranquility’. However, both rights are severely curtailed when one’s freedom to privacy and ‘secrecy’ is disrespected by others.

Clearly, every Ghanaian has a right to privacy as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. However, this critical constitutional provision seems to be endangered by the release of so-called secret tape recordings that have rocked the nation of late.

Interestingly, it heightens when we are in the political season preparing for general elections. This clearly suggests that it is the politicians who are behind most of the recordings of their opponents. They run quickly to their friendly media especially the radio stations and try to ‘destroy’ you once and for all. Even in instances where it becomes obvious that you are not the one whose voice is being aired, they foist it on you using their ‘hawkers’ popularly called social commentators sometimes aided by quack journalists.

In fact, it is only in the Ghanaian political landscape that an accuser is forcibly asked to prove his/her guilt or otherwise. The media, particularly radio has allowed itself to be used as conduit for the propagation of this act whether atrocious or unalarming.

In the era of technology where gadgets have become sophisticated, you do not take your interactions with others for granted. I mean, your security should never be compromised because you do not know who is recording your conversation. Once the radio stations highlight it, trust the propaganda tabloids to feed on it the next day.

We have witnessed disturbing trends in such acts but nobody including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) whose members are fronting such ungodly operations or the regulator National Media Commission (NMC) seems to have found antidote to these things, not even the courts!

Some of these recordings have shaken the foundations of our fledgling democracy and impaired the expansion of the frontiers of media freedom.
Dou you remember the secret recordings of Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South, Baba Jamal a deputy Minister and MP for Akwatia, Anthony A.  Karbo former NPP Youth Organizer, Kofi Adams Spokes person for former President Rawlings, Yaw Boateng Gyan NDC National Organizer, Sammy Awuku NPP Youth Organizer, Victoria Hammah the sacked Deputy Minister of Communications, Minority leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu among others?

Atta Akyea’s troubles
In lawyer Atta Akyea’s case, Radio Gold’s ‘The Gold Power Drive’ on Friday, December 21, 2008 in the heat of the elections, aired a tape that some NPP stalwarts (Atta Akyea and Alhaji Malik) where they were contemplating on why a judge who adjudicated a case had ruled in favour of the Electoral Commission while giving them the indication that he was on their side when they spoke to him prior to the ruling. The MP never got the chance to clear himself even though the NDC used the information for propaganda purposes for many months.

Baba Jamal’s ‘Black & White’
Baba Jamal’s tape of August 2011 brought heated debate. Do you remember the ‘Say white when it is black’ tape attributed to, then Deputy Minister of Information and now with Local Government? He was caught on tape luring a group of journalists to 'kill' stories which will negatively affect the government and rather highlight the positive ones. Allegedly recorded at Bolgatanga, Baba Jamal was supposedly heard telling the journalists that they had been put on National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) now GYEEDA payroll and that they would be paid monthly for dancing to the tune of the government. He came back fighting hard, saying that that the series of such tapes were the handiwork of the NPP and were being circulated to impugn the integrity of himself and other government officials.

Fonkar Games
Kofi Adams was also a victim in 2011. It would be recalled that a tape recording emerged after the Get Atta Mills Elected (GAME) and Friends Of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (FONKAR) contest in Sunyani where the late President John Evans Atta Mills retained the 2012 flagbearership position with 97% win over Mrs Rawlings who later broke away to form a new party called the National Democratic Party (NDP) on account of claims of being cheated at the polls in Sunyani.

Karbo’s cross
Anthony Karbo was allegedly caught on a secret tape planning to recruit mercenaries for purposes of the December 2012 general elections. It had been brought up by the defunct NDC ultra group Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) led by Felix Kwakye Ofosu who is now a deputy minister and sent to the Police CID for investigation. Karbo denied the voice in the tape, saying it was a manipulation but the NDC would not accept the defence of the NPP members.

Yaw Boateng Gyan ‘police’
National Organizer of the ruling NDC, Yaw Boateng-Gyan was also heard on a secret tape conspiring to hire thugs to disrupt the December 7, 2012 general elections. Indeed, the exposé in the tape caused intense fear and panic among Ghanaians because Mr. Boateng-Gyan was heard hatching plans to use the thugs to infiltrate the security agencies.

In the controversial tape, the NDC organizer was heard confirming high-level governmental support for the activities of the thugs who would be conscripted to pose as security operatives during the election. Their modus operandi would be to cause mayhem during the elections in a bid to favour the ruling party. When the tape went viral in August 2012, a clearly shaken Boateng-Gyan publicly admitted that the voice indeed belonged to him. He also admitted to the diabolic plans attributed to him in the tape, but tried to diffuse impact of the content.

Sammy Awuku on air
In August 2013, an alleged leaked secret audio tape of Sammy Awuku was aired by pro NDC radio stations. A male voice, purported to be that of the enterprising young politician was heard telling some party communicators in the UK that the party’s ‘attacks’ on the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court hearing the landmark election petition had been ‘targeted at a particular individual’.

He later reacted in a statement: “I state very emphatically that the said tape and whatever by-products arising are totally fabricated and doctored and that I have never made the kinds of statements contained in the said tape anywhere. I know absolutely nothing about it and I would entreat the general public and the media to treat the supposed tape with the contempt it deserves.”

Vikileaks scandal
In November last year, a tape which came to be known as Vikileaks and which more or less ended Victoria Hammah’s political career was played variously by the media. On the said tape she was heard telling a female interlocutor that she will quit politics as soon as she was able to make at least $1 Million. On the same tape, the then Deputy Communications Minister, was heard saying Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Nana Oye Lithur who is wife of the President’s Lawyer, Tony Lithur, in the election petition hearing, might have influenced the final verdict on the election petition case. The expose’ ended the young lady’s ministerial ambition when she was subsequently sacked by the President.

Intra party scuffle
Sometimes, the battle is fought internally among party members and the urge to ‘destroy an enemy within’ has always been very high. Recent so-called secret tape recordings of Mohammed Amin Anta and Minority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu in the run up to the just-ended NPP flagbearership primary point to that fact.

Amin Anta’s voice
Amin Anta was recorded on a tape saying that Nana Akufo-Addo gave him US$5,000 and offered him three positions to choose from. He later reacted and said it was being facilitated by the NPP flagbearer’s opponents who were dazed by the overwhelming endorsement he (Nana Akufo-Addo) was receiving from the NPP fraternity.

Minority Leader
Minority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu was not spared either, he was said to have criticised people close to Nana Akufo-Addo, for displaying extravagant lifestyle in the run-up to the 2012 elections. On a secret audio recording which was aired variously, the Minority Leader alleged that some people around Nana Akufo-Addo spent lavishly during the campaign when the candidate was modest. He later reacted, describing it as mischievous.

NDC Minister shouts NPP slogan
Deputy Easter Regional Minister Mavis Ama Frimpong has had her share of this unholy practice when she was recorded secretly at an NDC meeting in Koforidua. She was caught on tape as chanting “Kukurudu!” the slogan of her party’s bitterest rival NPP. The incident occurred when she was addressing a meeting organised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as part of the campaign for NDC Chairman Dr. Kwabena Adjei who is seeking re-election.

She later threatened to invoke Antoa Nyamaa, the dreaded river deity on her attackers ostensibly to clear her name.

Living in denial
Almost all the people attributed on the tapes have denied except a few. Yaw Boateng Gyan was able to admit that it was his voice but denied all the motives behind the recordings even though it was clear he was gathering thugs to disrupt the 2012 general elections. Amin Anta also admitted recognized his voice on the tape but also rejected the motive behind it.

Security agencies indifference
Curiously, the security hierarchy do not seem to see anything wrong with the content of the tapes especially when it involves a member of the ruling party. Then National Security Coordinator, Larry Gbevlo Lartey, shockingly dismissed the Yaw Boateng Gyan tape, saying it was not worth his while. However, anytime a member from the opposition party was caught on tape, the security agencies made frantic efforts to investigate the matter even if there has not been any complaint as it should. Conversely, when the tape is about a member of the NDC, the same agencies especially National Security and the Police CID develop cold feet and show clear indifference.

Stemming the tide
Godfred Yeboah Dame, an attorney at the Akufo-Addo Chambers in Accra, offered his expert advice on the secret recording saga saying even though there are strict rules of people’s privacy as a constitutional right, the Ghanaian legal system simply has not seen enough precedents to tackle the abuse of covert recordings of private or public personalities. He says the acceptance of such evidence from secret tape recordings becomes a dicey call for judges.

“Some courts may say that however the evidence was brought in, it is still valid, whether the evidence was stolen or not, it is still evidence,” he said, adding, “Many courts are however leaning towards the protection of privacy,” he said. 

According to Lawyer Dame, even security personnel require special court orders to be able to listen in to people’s conversations Apparently, the politicians know the complex legal technicalities involved in using evidence from covert operations to prosecute anybody, so at the moment, they freely use the tool to deal irreparable damages to their opponents.

Some have described the perpetrators as ‘irresponsible’ – that is if you are affected by the expose’ or there is damage to your reputation - while others who are in favour of such acts have called it ‘the evils men do in our society’. Can we trust their motive especially when the majority of these tapes only seem to indict or undo one political bigwig or the other?

Many so-called secret recordings might pop up as the political temperature rises but with their credibility now experiencing a nose-dive their days are definitely numbered as tools of political mischief.




Friday, October 24, 2014

KUFUOR CLEARED IN VOLTA BASIN COMPENSATION

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday, October 24, 2014

Nana Agyei Ampofo, the immediate-past Chairman of the Lands Commission has said former President John Agyekum Kufuor did not err in approving compensation for the various communities whose lands were inundated by floods following the construction of the Akosombo Hydro Electric Dam in the 1960s

According to the legal practitioner, President Kufuor had acted based on information passed to his cabinet by all relevant state institutions including investigative bodies and cannot be said to have acted wrongly.

Nana Agyei Ampofo flanked by Nana Ato Dadzie a former Chief of Staff who is his lawyer was testifying at the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts, presided over by Justice Yaw Apau of the Court of Appeal.

Nana Ato Dadzie is also the lawyer for Betty Mould-Iddrisu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice who might also appear before the commission for approving dodgy judgement debts to individuals and organizations including Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

The Commission has few weeks to wind up public sitting and its expected the Ms Mould-Iddrisu would be summon to tell the commission what she shows about the questionable payments.
Cabinet Approval
Cabinet, in July 2008, approved a consolidated amount of compensation totaling GH¢138 million for various stools/families in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas and about 57 groups were said to have benefited from the amount.

Records at the commission revealed that GH¢71 million has been paid so far to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH¢67million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.

Records at the commission indicate that most of the processes for compensation were done between 2004 and 2008 even though some claims dated back to the 1970s but the actual payments started in 2009.

The Sole-Commissioner has variously expressed shock at how the Lands Commission could proceed to order the release of the various amount of money to the claimants based on the documents the witnesses are tendering before the commission.

He did not understand why communities that were resettled by the government in the 1960s, given communal lands and paid compensation for crops destroyed by the Volta River floods could turn around to claim compensation almost 50 years later.

Nana’s testimony
Nana Agyei Ampofo told the commission that as Chairman of Lands Commission he was not involved in the processing of the documents for the claimants since it happened before he was appointed but admitted that he was paid as solicitor for one of the claimants.

“I was engaged in 1987 by Nana Kwaku Anokye, Omanhene of Adjaade Traditional Area. When I assumed duty on August 21, 2009, the processing of their application had been done and completed and the first release for the payment had been made before I became Chairman,” he said.

“When I was in office, there was no processing and the payments were made by the Land Valuation Division of the commission,” adding “I never authorized any payment.”

When asked by the Sole-Commissioner to explain the reason by some of the claimants requesting that 15 percent of each claimant’s entitlement be deducted and put in a reimbursable account to help facilitate speedy payment of the outstanding claims, the former chief said a memo on the issue came before him.

“Leaders of the claimants appeared before me with the then head of the Valuation Division and believing upon reasonable grounds that they were leaders of all the groups and after considering all the money due to be paid as their own money I agreed that the deduction was legitimate and deduction could be made,” he said.

“The money had been approved and the state had indicated how they were to be paid in tranches. I asked them what they were trying to facilitate and they said that between them there were often some disagreements which delayed further movements so they decided that when they had the 15 percent they would use it to settle disputes and discrepancies between themselves,” he added.

He said he checked to know all the leaders had consented to the deduction that was to be made saying “I was satisfied that those who appeared before me represented all sections of the claimants.”

He said he did not do further checks as the commissioner on his former client’s case because he knew Adjaade, lands were owned by families and not the stool.

“In fact, the approval had been made before I assumed office after it had been vetted by the SFO, AG and the sector minister and President Kufuor sitting in cabinet had approved it. The first tranche had been released by the Ministry of Finance and under my chairmanship, I didn’t approve any payment.”

He said the body tasked to investigate irregularities in the payment had made bogus findings against him saying “I thought that if they had spent even five minutes to talk to me they wouldn’t have fallen into an error and go ahead to conclude that during my time I engaged in improper conduct.”











Thursday, October 23, 2014

VOLTA BASIN CLAIMANTS PRESENTED FORGED DOCUMENTS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, October 23, 2014

The head of surveys and mapping at the Lands Commission says the maps presented by claimants listed to be paid compensation in the Volta Basin Flooded Area were all forged.

Wilson Kwasi Opoku who is the acting Director of Surveys at the Lands Commission told the Commission of Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts yesterday that the authorities should not have sanctioned payment to the claimants based on the documents they presented especially the maps indicating where their lands were flooded when the Akosombo Dam was constructed.

Cabinet Approval
Most of the processes for compensation were done between 2004 and 2008 even though some claims dated back to the 1970s but the actual payments started 2009.

So far, about GH¢71 million has been paid to the various claimants and the disbursement of the remaining GH¢67million has been put on hold to enable the government deal with discrepancies in the payments.

Cabinet in July 2008 had approved a consolidated amount of compensation totaling GH¢138 million for various stools/families in Pai, Apaaso, Makango, Ahmandi and Kete Krachi Traditional Areas and about 57 groups were said to have benefited from the amount.

Discrepancies
When Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau showed Mr. Opoku some of the maps the claimants used to secure the huge sums, the Chief Surveyor responded that his department did not vet the maps submitted by the Volta Basin claimants.

“If the a licensed surveyor has not looked at the maps there is no way the Regional Lands Surveyor will even approve it,” he insisted.

He said although some of the maps had been approved by a Licensed Surveyor, it did not bear the Regional Lands Surveyor license saying “there is no way such documents should have been approved.”

Fake Maps
Mr. Opoku, flanked by George Okwabi Frimpong, a Geomatic Engineer in charge of Operations, further told the commission that it was impossible for the claimants to extract a map indicating their land size from a topo sheet and present them for payment as they did.

“There should be pre-existing maps to be able to get current maps out of the submerged areas,” adding that “the documents before the commission suggested that there was a general valuation for all the inundated areas irrespective of the nature and value of the lands.

“The whole situation is baffling. The Volta Basin job was not properly done.”

Some of the witnesses who have appeared before the Sole-Commissioner have been tendering in evidence site plans that did not have dates but had purportedly used the same documents to claim the money from the Lands Commission.

Apau Shocked
The judge has variously expressed shock at how the Lands Commission could have proceeded to order the release of the various amount of money to the claimants based on the documents the witnesses are tendering before the commission.

He did not understand why communities that were resettled by the government in the 1960s, given communal lands and paid compensation for crops destroyed by the Volta River floods could turn around to claim compensation almost 50 years later.

Asetena Mensah factor
All the witnesses have been telling the commission that one Nana B.K. Asetena Mensah, a leader in the communities in Krachi, was the one who had commissioned Kwadwo Ababio & Co, a consultant and surveyors to survey the submerged area out of which the individual plotting were done.

The commission has made it clear that Nana Asetena Mensah never came forward to make any claims. Rather, he delegated the Krachiwura Nana Mprah Besemuna III, a retired Police Commissioner, who he said had no stake in the lands, to lead the chase for the compensation.

The Krachiwura has since testified saying that he represented the Kantakofore Clan in the whole transaction.