Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
It has emerged that majority of
Ghana’s Missions abroad are totally broke, making activities at standstill.
Salaries of the staff of the various
embassies are not regular with some receiving the salaries piecemeal.
As a result, the NDC government as
part of cost-cutting measures, is taking steps to close down some embassies.
Embassies believed to be cash-strapped
are United States, South Korea and Brazil among others where office stationery
are hard to come by with landlords lurking around to eject them from their
office accommodation.
Sources at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs told DAILY GUIDE that the government was almost ready to close down some
of the consulates and South Korea and Brazil were likely to be the first
casualties.
According to the source, salaries
are not being paid and if paid staff only received half payments. Some
embassies are not able to purchase even stationery and other basic tools for
administrative work.
“Landlords are ejecting us from our
houses for nonpayment of rent. Our health insurance have been suspended for non-payment.
Telephone lines suspended for non-payment. Infact we are really suffering…we
need help,” an agonizing embassy staff confirmed from a country in the Asia
Tigers.
When reached via telephone, L.K.
Christian, Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he had
already granted an interview on the issue to a radio station in Accra and said
he could grant further interview to DAILY GUIDE the next day since he was
out of the office.
It will come as a shock to many if it
was confirmed the embassy in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital was to close down
judging from the Ghana’s new-found-love for contracting loans from the South
American giant.
Ghana seems to be shifting its
attention from China to Brazil
for financial support and the number of high-profile companies queuing to
undertake contract in the building and construction industry cannot be over
looked.
Leading
the pack is Queiroz Galvao Construcao, an energy and construction firm, which
has won the heart of the John Mahama-led NDC government with juicy and dodgy
contracts.
The
company is currently constructing the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange and has
also been given the contracts to execute the Kasoa Interchange in the Central
Region as well as the ambitious Tamale International Airport in the Northern Region
and the Kumasi central market is in the pipeline all at high costs.
The
Kwame Nkrumah Interchange is priced at €74.88 million, and is jointly financed
with credit from the Brazilian Government and the Ghana Government.
The Tamales Airport project is expected to be
executed at the cost of $100million while the Kasoa project is fixed at $172.6million.
Embreaer
In July 2011 the Mills-Mahama government decided to purchase
an Embraer 190 executive jet to serve as a “Strategic Airlift Aircraft” for the
Ghana Airforce and at the time of completing the transaction, Ghana was quoted
to have agreed to pay a basic price of $55 million for the jet, as opposed to
Embraer’s price quote of $28.5million-$40million, irrespective of enhanced
accessories.
Whilst Ghana’s deal had indicated that the government
was buying the Embraer 190 aircraft at $55,264,000, the deal had also requested
the option of configurations to convert the luxury jet into a military
aircraft, bringing the total amount to $88million.
Configurations to the Embraer 190, as proposed by
the Mills-Mahama administration, to convert the luxury jet into a military jet
included an extra fuel tank costing $8 million; air staircase costing $1
million and in-flight entertainment of $1.4 million.
It is not clear if the deal went through since
Martin Amidu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice claimed that the
then President Atta Mills wanted the transaction to be probed.
No comments:
Post a Comment