ACET DIAGNOSES MINING SECTOR PROBLEMS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Economic policy think-tank Africa Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) yesterday organized a forum to diagnose the problems in the country’s mining sector.

The public-private sector dialogue, the second in the series and supported by the Australian High Commission, was attended by representatives from government, civil society organizations, mining communities affected by mining and mining firms.

They discussed how to improve the governance of the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) as well as improvement of public-private partnership to benefit mining communities.

They also looked at the effects and opportunities presented by the small-scale mining industry and galamsey in Ghana, the possible co-existence of small-scale and large-scale mining, the management and most equitable structuring of public private partnerships between the government, extractive companies and impacted communities and how to prioritize socio-economic activities to be targeted by the PPPs.

Case studies and discussion papers were presented to participants.

The dialogue was moderated by Dr. Muzong Kodi of the renowned policy think tank Chatam House in the United Kingdom.

Zebeta Moustafi, First Secretary for Development Cooperation at the Australian High Commission, who officially opened the dialogue, said the Australian government was committed to helping Ghana to improve its mining governance to ensure accelerated development.

“The purpose of these dialogues is to bring key stakeholders and policy-makers together to discuss the complex issues around mining governance, build consensus, and hopefully lead to improved policies that will benefit the wider community,” she said.

She said that the extractive sector in Ghana could play a transformative role and contribute to the achievement of Ghana’s development priorities.

She said with a substantial experience in both mining and development, Australia was well-placed to share its experience with African countries that wished to overcome and reap the benefits of growing a mining sector.

Participants came to a consensus that if managed correctly, multi-stakeholder partnership could offer opportunities for sustainable, long-term benefits and transformational change within mining communities.

They said many of the current risks associated with ASM could also be mitigated through improved regulation so that small-scale mining is able to better contribute to improved livelihood for workers and the communities.

I’M READY TO DIE …AMIDU JABS GBEVLO

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, March 23, 2015

Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Alamisi Ben Kaizer Amidu has sent signals to his detractors that he does not fear death.

Mr Amidu particularly mentioned the sacked National Security Coordinator Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd) who he allegedly used threats on him for daring to continuously speak up on issues of corruption in the country.

“I will not now be cowed and thugs can be sent to assassinate me should the government or anybody wish, for all I care!” he said in another explosive statement released over the weekend in the wake of the much-talked-about Woyome judgement.

Mr Amidu said: “I am sending this rejoinder out at the weekend so that it does not on a working day detract from the real issues of the perception that the Government and the Attorney General were not bent on sincerely prosecuting Woyome and all his accomplices or retrieving the judgment debts ordered by the Supreme Court.”

He had indicted state officials as possible in bed with Woyome for allowing such a gargantuan amount to be paid with no contract in place.

First Salvo

The former security chief reportedly took to Facebook, a social media platform last week, to lambast Mr. Amidu - who has come to be regarded by many as a leading anti-corruption crusader - for making statements that were not ‘entirely factual’ in the Woyome GH¢51.2 million scandal.

Mr Amidu had claimed that he advised the Mills/Mahama administration to persuade his predecessor, Betty Mould-Iddrisu who authorized the Woyome payment to be used as a prosecution witness in the criminal case against Woyome in lieu of prosecution as stated in his recent press release.

“I made a press statement about Ministers of State involved in gargantuan crimes. I also advised the President of my intention as the Attorney General to prosecute Woyome along with all his accomplices and to persuade the then Attorney General to be a witness or be prosecuted. I am then invited by a Member of the Council of State (incidentally Betty Mould-Iddrisu’s husband) at the behest of the President and told to withdraw my press statement accusing members of the Government and its card bearing members who use the NDC as an insurance against prosecutions for crime”, he said. 

“The next day the President true to his demand through Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama purports to dismiss me with immediate effect. Am I, therefore, wrong to contend that I was removed from office to prevent me from prosecuting the offending NDC Ministers and party members that raped the nation”, he asked rhetorically. 

Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey  had stated “that is not a statement of fact for those who witnessed the episode that led to the firing of Martin.”

This might have anger Mr. Amidu who is affectionately called ‘Citizen Vigilante’ firing back, by asking Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey to shut up because he (Gbevlo-Lartey) did not witness every episode that led to his removal from office as Attorney-General by President John Evans Atta Mills.

“There are other things to be said about my latter relationship with Gbevlo-Lartey after I left office should he persist in peddling untruths about me to which he has no personal knowledge,” he warned.

“He had used cajoling with promises, threats, and intimidations on me with the singular intention of shutting me up,” he added.

Seeking Favours

The former AG described Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey as someone who wants government’s favour by propagating lies after his sudden dismissal by Mahama.

“Gbevlo-Lartey after his sudden and unexpected removal from office may be seeking to curry favour with the Government by pretending to know everything that happened before I left office,” he said.

“I would want Gbevlo-Lartey and his type in the NDC to know for the avoidance of all doubts that on 4th September 2014, a High Court entered judgment in my favour recognizing that my alleged dismissal for misconduct was illegal, and wrong as it was without due process of law.”

Gbevlo’s ‘lies’

He said he was letting the public down if he did not react to the security capo’s comment saying “Gbevlo-Lartey threw the first stone and no one can blame me! Suffice it to say that all rational people know that any assertions that Larry Gbevlo-Lartey knew everything that happened in the Mills/Mahama Government just because he was National Security Co-ordinator are patently obvious and irredeemable presumptuous lies.”

He said he had ministerial responsibility for security and intelligence as Minister of the Interior, and as Attorney General he was principal legal advisor to the government and “would not convey legal advice to the President through a National Security Co-ordinator, a subordinate officer under the 1992 Constitution.”

Gbevlo & Woyome

According to Mr. Amidu, Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey had an open and public grudge against Alfred Agbesi Woyome over some party primaries involving the former’s son in the Volta Region prior to the scam going public adding ‘’as the Attorney General, I did not know even Woyome in person let alone to have any personal grudge against him.”

“Should Gbevlo-Lartey not have recused himself from this whole Woyome investigations, the reports, and prosecution when he was in office because of the prior personal and public animosity between them on grounds of conflict of interest?” he asked.

He recounted the incident of January 13, 2012 which led to his removal from office as AG and said Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey was not there during the main discussion and said the security capo was feeding on hearsay.

BNI Arrest

He also confirmed that indeed, on the eve of the Election Day in December, 2012, Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey had sent security operatives to ransack his residence without a court warrant, saying tensions were very high in the country and that could have caused mayhem if “I had invited the media and others to my residence that day.”

“I refused to be used by him as a scapegoat in causing any upheavals that might lead to confusion and God knows what, at the nick of the elections! Does Gbevlo-Lartey know whose votes would have been affected most if I had made his illegal search, arrest, and detention at the BNI public on that day even if the election still went ahead?”

He said he later got to know that the security coordinator did not even have the permission of the President to order the raid.

“The President told my emissaries latter that he was not informed, was not aware, let alone to instruct him on that critical day in the nation’s history: the President undertook to deal with the matter. I prevented whatever unconstitutional intentions, if any, Gbevlo-Lartey might have had to use me innocently for: I preserved the dignity of Ghana as a democracy!”

NDC Attacks

“The intention to overwhelm me with personal attacks by agents of government and the NDC some of whom may selfishly and greedily be seeking only to build their personal stomach infrastructure at the expense of the Republic will not succeed because those who have ever worked with me know that I was a work horse for the governments I served and I still have the same energy to protect and defend the Constitution of Ghana as by law established even during my retirement.”

ASSIBIT COPIED SERBIAN DOCUMENT FOR $2M

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 19, 2015

It has emerged that the document submitted by Philip Akpeena Assibit, CEO of Goodwill International Group (GIG), who is standing trial for his role in the infamous GYEEDA scandal, was a plagiarized youth policy document from Serbia, Europe, for which he managed to claim $2 million from the government.

The court also heard how Assibit requested for payment for preparing the Youth Employment Strategy and Action Plan (the copied Serbian document) because he claimed he had helped the government to secure $65 million facility from the World Bank when according to the prosecution, the claim was false.

Assibit was subsequently paid the amount in 2011 even before the Finance Minister wrote in 2012 to the World Bank requesting for funds towards the preparation of a proposal to access the very $65million facility the accused allegedly said had helped to secure in 2011.

Mrs Diana Adu Anane, an investigator at the Economic and Organized Crime Organization (EOCO) disclosed this at an Accra Financial Court yesterday where Assibit is being tried alongside Abuga Pele, the former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) now GYEEDA.

Led in evidence by Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney, the seventh Prosecution Witness (PW7) told the court that Abuga Pele, who is also NDC MP for Chiana Paga even wrote a memo advising the Ministry of Youth and Sports to pay Assibit’s GIG because the 3% requested was ‘moderate’ since Assibit had earlier requested for 15%.

She told the packed court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe that Assibit’s letter requesting for claims were grounded on three main areas.

“In the first claim he said he launched an effective Exit Strategy for GYEEDA Modules. In the second claim, he said he recruited 250 youth for training and in the third, he said he secured a World Bank facility for GYEEDA,” the investigator said.

Exit Strategies

She told the court that EOCO investigations revealed that Assibit did not design Exit Strategies for any GYEEDA Modules as claimed and said when the programmes started in 2006 on the advice of the National Security it already had its own strategies to exit the beneficiaries.

She said the Modules were further strengthened in 2009 when all service providers were instructed to have exit strategies before being given contracts saying “it is strange Philip Assibit will claim to be the originator of Exit Strategies for all Modules.”

She said when the accused was questioned on the strategies, he told investigators that he (Assibit) verbally advised the NYEP Coordinator (Abuga Pele) on the exit strategies, adding “on the oil and gas training he did not design any exit strategies.”

The witness said that all the service providers denied that Assibit helped them to prepare their Exit Strategies and said some of them even said they did not know Assibit.

Youth Recruitment

Mrs. Adu Anane told the court that Assibit had written to claim payment for recruiting 250 youth for training for the Youth Enterprise Programme (YEP) and said even though some work was done Assibit was subsequently paid for his services.

She said a payment voucher of GH¢59,976 was raised for the exercise and Assibit pocketed GH¢51,000 on February 27, 2011 as Managing Consultant and the cash was handed to him by Mohammed Pelpuo who has already testified in the case saying “he signed and received as per diem.”

She said that even though the claim was that Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) was involved in the recruitment could not be true because the MDPI did not sanction their participation adding “this claim had already been paid for.”

World Bank Facility

The witness said that it is false for Assibit to claim to be the originator of the World Bank facility proposal because when they (accused and others) visited then Vice President John Mahama, he told them about the existence of the facility.

“Philip Assibit gave us a document  with the title: Youth Employment Strategy Action Plan to justify the work he supposedly did with the assistance of MDPI to access the World Bank facility.”

She said they realized that the document had the names of Assibit, Abuga Pele and then Minister Clement Humado but were not singed and when pressed further, Abuga Pele said it was Assibit who prepeared the document.

However, she said Mr. Humado and the MDPI all denied knowledge of the document and when they did internet search they found that Assibit had copied a Serbian Youth Policy document verbatim and replaced every portion where there is the word Serbia with Ghana and presented as the proposal document to secure payment.

She said “as at April 13, 2011 when he was claiming to have secured the facility, Ghana was then in 2012 writing to ask for funds to start the preparatory works for the same facility,” the witness said.

She said on EOCO’s request, the World Bank even wrote on January 7, 2014 that Ghana was at the early preparatory stage to access the facility.

GIG (MDPI Project) account

She said the first installment of GH¢826,000 was paid into GIG (MDPI Project) account at Zenith Bank while the remaining four installments were paid into GIG (MDPI Project) account at UT Bank saying “though the account name was GIG (MDPI Project), MDPI had nothing to do with the money.

She said the signatories to the Zenith Bank account were Assibit, one Lawrence Nsiah and one Isaac while for the UT Bank account, Assibit, the same Lawrence Nsiah and one Daudawere the signatories and added that investigations showed Assibit just used the other signatories to open the accounts.

“We found out that the over $2million went for the benefit of Assibit.”

The court also admitted in evidence the controversial document Terms of work document which the investigator said was supposed to be the working document of the MoU signed between NYEP and Assibit’s GIG

Sitting continues on April 14, 2014 for Mrs Adu Anane to be cross-examined.

ABUGA PELE REJECTS CONTROVERSIAL DOCUMENT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A controversial document yesterday truncated the trial of Abuga Pele, the former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) now GYEEDA and Philip Akpeena Assibit, CEO of Goodwill International Group (GIG) who are charged for their roles in the infamous GYEEDA scandal.

It also emerged at the trial that investigations found that over $2million were first paid for supposed service rendered by Assibi’t GIG  and another over GH¢8 million also paid for oil and gas training run by GIG.

The Attorney General’s Department was trying to tender in evidence a document titled: Terms of work, which they said Assibit had presented to the Economic and Organized Crime Organization (EOCO) during investigations to justify the payment of huge sums to the accused.

The defense teams took turns to raise vehement objection to the tendering of the document and Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe, trying the case, said she needed to give a long ruling on whether or not to accept the prosecution’s document and subsequently adjourned proceedings until today.

Controversial document

Mrs Diana Adu Anane, a deputy investigator at EOCO had mounted the witness’ box as the seventh Prosecution Witness (PW7) and was being led in evidence by Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney when the authenticity of the document halted the trial.

According to the witness, Assibit had presented to EOCO a photocopy of the Terms of work document which she said was supposed to be the working document of the MoU signed between NYEP and Assibit’s GIG but added that “we concluded that it was an after-thought.”

She told the packed court that the document was found to be a creation of Assibit’s and said the MoU was just to make GIG strategic partners.

“The terms on his document contradicted what was on the original MoU between the NYEP and GIG with West Capital Limited,” the witness said.

Objection

When the prosecutor sought to tender Assibit’s document in evidence, the accused counsel Raymond Bagnabu objected saying “this is not the document A1 (Assibit) submitted to EOCO.”

“It is a creation of witness who has simply removed the signature page of the MoU and attached to this (Terms of work) document,” counsel claimed, adding that once EOCO is an institution of record. Assibit would have been made to initial the document as coming from the accused.

Karl Adongo, representing Abuga Pele also objected saying “the last page of the document belongs to a different distinct document.”

He said that all the documents tendered by the prosecution had been signed but the instant document was not endorsed saying “this page is contrived with the ultimate aim to do our clients in and we will resist it with our might and strength.”

He said Abuga Pele had denied ever signing any document at EOCO and added that “the last page before the signature page is 11 and logically it should follow with 12 but the signature page as we have it is 5.”

Prosecution’s Insistence

Replying, the prosecutor said “nobody said his client signed any document. The investigator testified and laid enough foundation as to how they came by the document.”

She said it was Assibit himself who made a reference to the Terms of work in his demand letter and when EOCO asked him to submit it, he brought the document in contention.

“The signature page which is the MoU has been detached and attached to the document A1 brought as Terms of Work. It is the duty of the investigator to make this known to the court and it should be admitted so that if counsel have anything, they can ask during cross-examination,” she told the court.

Assibit and Abuga Pele roles

Commencing her evidence-in-chief, Mrs. Adu Anane told the court that it was a joint team of police and EOCO officers that investigated the matter and found out that the two payments were made to Assibit’s GIG, saying “they were distinct and separate payments.”

She said they found a letter written by Assibit on Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) letterhead and the accused had described himself as a Managing Consultant but when they investigated, they realised it was a false representation.

She said Assibit’s letter had stated that the supposed service was rendered with MDPI and that the work was 70 percent complete and that he (Assibit) had pre-financed it.

The investigator also told the court that Abuga Pele wrote to then Minister of Youth and Sports Clement Kofi Humado to justify the terms and recommended payment for work done by Assibit.

She also said that there was no consultancy agreement between GIG and MDPI in July, 2009 for which Abuga Pele recommended payment and said rather the agreement was between MDPI and Goodwill Solutions Associates Africa represented by Assibit.

The witness further said the 2010 agreement was between GIG and MDPI and another agreement in 2011 with GIG for Exit Strategies for GYEEDA beneficiaries which was duly signed but said it was never operational because it was dependent on the $65million World Bank loan which is yet to arrive.

NATIONAL SERVICE IN EXTORTION SCANDAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 12 March 2015

 A Member of Parliament has blown the cover on what he says is an attempt by the National Service Scheme (NSS) to allegedly extort money from students who are due to register to serve the nation.

According to Kwaku Kwarteng, MP for Obuasi West, the National Service Secretariat recently issued a directive, asking all final year tertiary students to pay enrolment processing fee of GH¢40 before they could access online registration forms but the MP insists the move is unlawful.

The NSS statement had said "Please proceed to any branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and pay your required enrolment processing fee of (GHS 40) in order to access the online registration platform. Note that without the payment you will not be able to register for your mandatory national service"

The move is creating uneasy calm among students since at all material times the payment was spread in the form of deductions from their monthly salaries.

Other are also of the view that it was unreasonable for the secretariat to coerce students who are not even on salaries to be charged for something they did not know about.

The MP wrote to the NSS Director, copied to the NSS Board expressing disgust about the situation saying “it is obvious that this charge is just wrong.”

Extortion of money

“I write respectfully to avert your mind to the fact that this charge by the NSS is wrong and unlawful. It amounts to extortion of money from students many of whom have no income of their own,” he said.

“To begin with, National Service personnel are citizens who are required by law to render mandatory service to the nation after completing tertiary education in Ghana. To force them to pay an "enrolment processing fee" before being allowed to comply with their National Service obligation is unacceptable.

He said but assuming without admitting that this charge is permissible, it would still be required under the Financial Administration Act (2004) and the Fees & Charges Act (2009) that the Minister for Finance brings it to Parliament for approval.”

“The law allows government departments that render service to interested members of the public to charge a fee for rendering the specific service. The law does not allow government departments to slap a fee on young citizens who are rather rendering a mandatory service to the state.”

The Obuasi West MP said that for the purposes of enrolling service personnel and running the National Service Scheme, “an allocation is made in the annual budget to the National Service Secretariat through the Ministry of Education,” adding “this is the state policy for funding the scheme.”

GH¢2.5 million yield

He said that per current figures, “this unlawful charge would yield about GH¢2.5 million,” asking “is this honestly the yearly cost of processing enrolment of service personnel?”

The MP pointed out that prospective service personnel have choice whether or not to join any association saying “indeed, the national constitution grants them the right to join an association and the right not to join an association.”

“Nobody has the authority to impose on them the obligations of an association they have not willingly joined. Come to think of it, they are even not National Service personnel yet; they cannot belong to any National Service association.

There is no lawful basis for this charge on the poor students. I therefore write respectfully to advise that this GH¢40 charge be removed immediately. The cost of enrolling national service personnel should be financed from the secretariat's budget allocation; that all students who have been compelled to pay this unlawful charge should have their monies refunded to them immediately.”

NSS response

In a related development the NSS has issued a statement to justify the GH¢40 processing fees saying “payment for computerized registration and deployment (posting) of National Service Personnel was introduced in 2005 and has been in existence since. It is therefore not a new policy.”

“The amount involved GH¢40 which was paid by serving and previous National Service Personnel remains the same. The breakdown of the GH¢40 is as follows: GH¢10 for NSS ID card GH¢10 for National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) dues GH¢20 for computerized registration per person.”

The statement said the NSS Board approved that starting with the 2015/2016 service year all prospective personnel who intended to avail themselves to the computerized registration will be required to make this payment at the point of enrolment.

The secretariat said the policy was to eliminate all forms of cash transactions and payment at NSS offices and to improve the quality of service rendered by NSS to National Service Personnel by ensuring that their NSS ID cards and other relevant items were ready on time and could be picked at the time of collecting their appointment letters.

NO WITNESS IN ABUGA PELE CASE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 12 March 2015

The much-touted trial of Abuga Pele, the former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) now GYEEDA and Philip Akpeena Assibit, CEO of Goodwill International Group (GIG) could not proceed as scheduled yesterday because the prosecution failed to bring a witness to the court.

As a result, the trial judge, Justice Afia Asare-Botwe, had to adjourn proceedings until Tuesday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 18, for the seventh prosecution witness (PW7) to testify.

It was about the seventh time the trial of the former NYEP Coordinator who is also the MP for Chiana-Paga in the Upper East Region and his co-accused Assibit was being adjourned.

So far, Nuru Hamidan former NYEP Deputy National Coordinator in charge of Operations and now MCE for Asokore Mampong, Gladys Ghartey current Head of United Nations Systems at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mohammed Pelpuo, Head of the Business Development Unit at NYEP as well as Clement Kofi Humado, former Minister of Youth and Sports have since testified and cross-examined.

Dr. Shaibu Ahmed Gariba, who until September 2014 was the Director General of Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) told the court as well as an Accountant attached to the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Eric Sunu have also testified and cross-examined.

Prosecution’s request

When the case was called yesterday, Mrs Evelyn Keelson, prosecuting told the judge that the next witness was still not back from an official assignment.

“Our witness has an official assignment as I indicated to the court at the last adjourned date and unfortunately, he is still not back.”

Mrs. Keelson told the court that the AG’s Department only got to know about the absence of the witness at the last hour and that made it impossible for them to inform the judge ahead of time.

The trial judge was not happy with the prosecution’s ‘tactics’ and complained that she had to adjourn a number of cases she was handling in order to make room for the instant case which could not come off.

Accused Persons

Abuga Pele and Philip Akpeena Assibit are standing trial for the various roles they played, which the Attorney General’s Department said caused huge financial loss to the state.

The 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. They were present in court yesterday.

Charges                                               

The NDC 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) 140.

NCA UNDER PRESSURE OVER TELCOS CLEARING HOUSE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

OccupyGhana, a socio-political non-partisan pressure group is piling pressure on the National Communications Authority (NCA) to get the regulator to reveal more information about the announcement of the award of the proposed Interconnect Clearing House (ICH) for the telecommunications sector.

According to the group which also campaigns against rampant corruption, they never received any acknowledgement for an earlier letter they sent to the NCA relying on Article 21(1) (f) of the constitution to request for clarity on the ICH policy which is scheduled to take off in May, 2015.

ICH policy

The government, through the NCA, is claiming that some telecommunication companies (Telcos) are involved in scams and also underpaying revenue due the government and as a result, said it was in the process of establishing an ICH that would require Telcos and International Carriers to connect their gateways via a clearing house.

Phone Tapping

However, critics say the NCA hurriedly arranged the ICH programme with little or no stakeholder input and contracted Afriwave Telecom Ghana Ltd as a mandatory ICH for all telecommunications service subscribers in Ghana effective May, 2015.

Some have even argued that the ICH policy is a means to tap into people’s privacy by listening to telephone calls.

Court Action

In the ensuing argument, MP for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng and two others filed a suit at an Accra High Court seeking to put a stopper on the whole ICH programme until all issues are put right.

The suit which has one Elijah Adansi-Bonah, a subscriber to the telecommunications services and Development Data, a policy research and advocacy institution as part of the plaintiffs cites the NCA and Afriwave Telecom Ghana Ltd as well as all telecoms service (mobile phone service) providers as the defendants.

NCA’s Snub

“It is most unfortunate that until now, OccupyGhana has neither received an official acknowledgement, nor a response to our letter,” the group said in a statement issued yesterday.

They said per their second letter, they were asking the NCA to provide additional information on the ‘purported ICH policy’ and it should be done within seven days.

The Queries

The group particularly wants the NCA to make available “Minutes, and/or notes of all related meetings and discussions involving NCA personnel, directors, board members, and outside persons, prior to NCA making its policy recommendation to the ministry per within NCA mandate.”

They also requested for “Minutes, and/or notes of all related meetings and discussions involving NCA personnel, directors, board members, Ministry of Communications personnel (including the minister and deputy ministers), and outside persons, whether initiated by NCA, the ministry, or any other person, in which recommendations from NCA or policy goals from the ministry were presented or discussed including without limitation.”

OccupyGhana further wants to know any analysis prior to the policy recommendation from the NCA to the ministry, by or at the request to NCA or received by the authority, including names of persons performing such analyses and their experience in the relevant area prior to NCA making its policy recommendation to the ministry per within NCA mandate.”

They said they want the names and titles of all NCA and other personnel contributing to the authority’s consultation paper, including their qualifications and personal experience with matters presented therein adding OccupyGhana wants “all materials received by NCA to its consultation paper, as received without editing.”

They also requested for “any document showing why and when the NCA decided to renege on its commitment to publish all responses to its consultation paper as it committed to do when it was released,” and further requested for “all applications received in respect of the license, in their entirety, without editing or redaction.”

They further asked for “minutes and/or note of all meetings and discussions regarding selection of the successful applicant for the license.”

CONFUSION AT EC…AS AFARI-GYAN PROCEEDS ON LEAVE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

There appear to be confusion at the Electoral Commission (EC) over who should take over from the outgoing Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan who is retiring very soon.

Dr. Afari-Gyan is due to address parliament today, probably for the last time, as he proceeds on terminal his leave prior to retirement next week.

Even before he retires, there is serious power-play among the deputy commissioners and the issue of who should take over as the acting Commissioner before a substantive one is appointed, has become intense.

The EC boss is going to parliament to explain the botched District Level Elections which should have been held on March 3, to the house.

A source told DAILY GUIDE that Amadu Sulley, a deputy commissioners in charge of Operations is seriously lobbying to be appointed acting Commissioner and possibly substantive when Afari-Gyan finally retires in June.

Sources told DAILY GUIDE that Mr Amadu has a lot of question to answer as he was said to have created the mess in the botched district level election.

As the person in charge of operations, he reportedly ignored calls by Dr. Afari-Gyan to extend the District Level Elections timetable when it became apparent that the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) that was to be used to regulate the election was flawed.

“If there is anybody to be blamed, it should be Amadu Sulley because Afari-Gyan asked him to extend the time for the election but he did not heed to the advice. He caused the election mess,” the source claimed.

“He is busily positioning himself as the Acting Commissioner and the sort of ongoing power-play at the commission is amazing. Dr. Afari-Gyan’s imminent departure has gripped everybody at the commission.”

The source said the cancellation of the election by the Supreme Court has thrown the EC’s budgeted programmes out of gear.

“The EC spent millions of state money to print the ballot papers and made other preparations before the court ordered them to restart the whole process so it is a huge financial loss Dr. Afari-Gyan and his staff caused.”

“It is clear that the commission will have to do another balloting for candidates except in areas where only one candidate will be contesting and all these will be at the expense of the taxpayer.”

The election was called off because Benjamin Eyi Mensah, a fisherman from winneba in the Central region, challenged the maturity of C.I. 85, the instrument used by the commission to attempt to organize the election and the Supreme Court duly affirmed the plaintiff’s reliefs.

EC statement

The Commission later in a terse statement said "in view of the Supreme Court's decision in the matter of Benjamin Eyi Mensah v The Electoral Commission, on Friday, 27th February 2015, with regard to the maturity of C.I 85, the District Level Elections and all activities connected with them have been suspended forthwith until further notice."