NDC DODGES COURT

Posted on: http://dailyguideafrica.com/ndc-dodges-court-over-gh%C2%A25-5m-ec-cash/

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to be running away from a legal battle a dismissed accountant of the party has initiated, even as details are emerging about how the ruling party paid GH¢5,544,630 to the Electoral Commission (EC) - the reason for which is yet to be established.

Mathias Mokono Wilson, the accountant whose dismissal triggered the court action, has not succeeded in serving the writ on the party he served for 23 years, making him seek an order for substituted service.

Wilson is currently suing the NDC over his dismissal, claiming that the party gave him only a week’s notice instead of the mandatory three months to leave the party’s head office at Adabraka, Accra.

According to the lawyer for the aggrieved former NDC accountant, Nii Prince Ashie Kotey of Azinyo Chambers, the court bailiff had gone to the NDC headquarters three times with intent to serve the writ on the party but had not succeeded as the staff had been running away from the service.

Nii Prince said having failed to serve the NDC on February 10, 11 and 12, they were left with no other option than to go back to the court for an order for substituted service.

The court will hear the application on February 23, 2016, he told DAILY GUIDE yesterday.  

Cash To EC

Mathias Wilson had claimed in his suit that the NDC paid the EC an amount of GH¢5,544,630 with no receipt issued on it.

The EC reportedly demanded physical cash instead of a cheque and the NDC, after cashing the cheques, loaded the GH¢5,544,630 in a van and handed it over to two EC staff for onward transmission to the Commission.

 “The EC delegated two people - a man and a woman - with a huge van and collected the gargantuan cash of GH¢5,544,630.00 and as of 5^th February, 2016, the 2^nd Defendant (Asiedu Nketia) had still not accounted for the paid cash,” Mathias Wilson made the claims in the court documents he filed against his unlawful dismissal.

 “Myself and Asiedu Nketia went to the bank and withdrew money on behalf of the EC,” the beleaguered accountant confirmed to Citi Fm in Accra last week.

The plaintiff claimed that he, together with Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC, and Ofosu Ampofo, Elections Director of the party, went to Societe Generale Ghana, Accra Main, Kokomlemle, to withdraw GH¢5,544,630 cash which was paid to the two men and that on 10^th November last year, he drew a cheque of GH¢4,199,340 in favour of the EC.

Cheques Vrs Cash

He averred, however, that the Commission rejected the cheque claiming that “the Electoral Commission does not accept cheques but cash.”

He asserted that when the EC rejected the cheque, Mr Asiedu Nketia subsequently sent him to the bank for the cash.

“The bank manager informed Plaintiff that the cash was so much to be paid over the counter and so she will make payment orders to the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Asiedu Nketia, the 2^nd Defendant, said ‘No’ and that they needed cash so the Plaintiff decided to issue two cheque payment vouchers on 7^th December, 2015 for GH¢2,000,000.00 and the other one on the same 7^th December, 2015 for GH¢2,199,340.00 and the said vouchers, according to the 2^nd Defendant, were received by Gyanu Edgar, an employee of the Electoral Commission.”

No Receipts

According to Mr Wilson, no receipts were submitted to him as the accountant for his records regarding the GH¢5,544,630 payment by Asiedu Nketia to the EC and later the General Secretary informed him that two EC staff had come to collect the huge sum of money on behalf of the Commission.

Wilson claimed that upon receiving the said termination letter, he confronted Asiedu Nketia about the receipts of the GH¢5,544,630 paid to the EC but the General Secretary “walked him out of his office from the 3^rd floor of 1^st Defendant’s headquarters to the gate on 5^th February, 2016.”

Cheque Details

Giving details of the payments to the EC, the dismissed accountant said there were different cheques he withdrew together with Mr Asiedu Nketia on different dates at Societe Generale on behalf of the EC, although he admitted that “I am not a signatory to the NDC account.”

Plaintiff averred, “The first cheque was GH¢630,000; the second cheque was GH¢357,000; the third cheque was GH¢2 million, then followed by GH¢2,199, 340; and then GH¢69,315; GH¢54,975; GH¢140,000 and GH¢100,000, totalling GH¢5,544, 630.”

One-Week Ultimatum

Mr Wilson said that he was protesting the one-week ultimatum given him because “there are a lot of cheques drawn on behalf of the EC which receipts I don’t have,” adding, “I can’t resign like that. I have to collect all the receipts, prepare everything and give out my resignation letter but they are asking me to go.”

He underscored, “If I go, they will tell me that I have embezzled money. They used me as a scapegoat. When I finished issuing the cheques then they fired me.”

Court Action

Apart from the party and its General Secretary, the Plaintiff is also suing Vida Addae, the Deputy Treasurer, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Dr Karl Mark-Arhin, Mahdi Gibril, Emmanuel S. Zumakpe, the Director of Administration, and six others for the wrongful dismissal.

He wants damages for not going on leave for 23 years and loss of gross salary at GH¢3,574.50 per month, multiplied by three months in lieu of notice.

The Plaintiff states that his salary of GH¢3,574.50 x 23 years x 2 will [amount] to GH¢164,427.00, plus the pay for three months (which is GH¢3,574.50 x 3); thus, his entire loss incomes amounting to GH¢175,150.50, excluding his leave allowance for the 23 years.

NDC PAYS EC GH¢5.4 M

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, February 12, 2016

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) accountant who was fired recently by the party has revealed that the party paid huge sums of money to the Electoral Commission (EC).

According to Mathias Mokono Wilson, who claims to have worked with the party as accountant for 23 years, a total amount of GH¢5.544,630 was withdrawn through him and the General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, on behalf of the EC.

Interesting Revelation

“Myself and Asiedu Nketia went to the bank and withdrew money on behalf of the EC,” the beleaguered accountant told Citi Fm in Accra on Wednesday.

On February 10, 2016 Mr Wilson filed a suit at the Labour Division of the Accra High Court through his solicitors from Azinyo Chambers against the NDC for unlawful dismissal, claiming that the party gave him only a week’s notice to leave the party’s head office at Adabraka, Accra, instead of the mandatory three months.

He said that he was protesting the one-week ultimatum given him because “there are a lot of cheques drawn on behalf of the EC which I don’t have the receipts.” He added, “I can’t resign like that. I have to collect all the receipts, prepare everything and give out my resignation letter but they are asking me to go.”

Mathias Mokono Wilson noted: “If I go, they will tell me that I have embezzled money. They used me as a scapegoat. When I finished issuing the cheques then they fired me.”

Cheque Details

Giving details of the payments to the EC, the accountant said there were different cheques he withdrew together with Mr Asiedu Nketia on different dates at Societe Generale, Accra Main, on behalf of the EC, although he admitted that “I am not a signatory to the NDC account.

“The first cheque was GH¢630,000; the second cheque was GH¢357,000; the third cheque was GH¢2 million, then followed by GH¢2.199, 340, then followed by GH¢69,315, GH¢54,975, GH¢140,000 and GH¢100,000, totalling GH¢5.544,630.”

Court Action

Apart from the party and its General Secretary, the plaintiff has also sued Vida Addae, Deputy Treasurer; Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Director of Elections; Dr Karl Mark-Arhin; Mahdi Gibril; Emmanuel S. Zumakpe, Director of Administration, and six others for the said wrongful dismissal.

He wants damages for loss of leave for 23 years and loss of gross salary at GH¢3,574.50 per month, multiplied by three months in lieu of notice.

The plaintiff states that his salary of GH¢3,574.50 x 23 years x 2 will amount to GH¢164,427.00, plus the pay for 3 months - which is GH¢3,574.50 x 3 - bringing his entire loss incomes to GH¢175,150.50, excluding his leave allowance for the 23 years.

Statement of Claim

The plaintiff, in his statement of claim, said he had been employed at the NDC headquarters since October 27, 1993 and had served the party dutifully as an accountant.

As part of his contract of engagement, the plaintiff said he was in-charge of receipts of payments for all financial transactions including petty cash operations, and kept “all books up to final accounts stage, including the preparation of quarterly financial statements.”

He also said he conducted all aspects of banking treasury functions, financial aspects of stores function, preparation and payment of monthly salaries, SSFC and PAYE as well as accounting for the financial returns from the regional and constituency offices.

Signed Cheques

Mr Wilson averred that in the course of his employment, Mr Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito and Kofi Adams, current Deputy General Secretary, signed the cheques every time and he (Asiedu Nketia) accompanied him to Societe Generale Ghana, Accra Main, to withdraw moneys from a particular account.

Sale of Forms

“When it comes to the sale of political nomination forms - both presidential and parliamentary - the 1^st Defendant (NDC) made it mandatory for the forms to be sealed by the Plaintiff and the late WO I Jacob Mensah Bonney. However, for the first time in the 23 years of service to the party, Mahdi Gibril, the 6^th Defendant, breached the rules and sent all the nomination forms to the regions without the requisite seal.

“Sixty percent of the sale proceeds [which was] supposed to go to the constituency offices did not go and 20%, which was supposed to go to the regional NDC offices and the remaining 20% which was for the national office, the 2^nd to 7^th Defendants refused to pay to the appropriate coffers, alleging that the sale proceed of GH¢5,544,630.00 was to be paid to the Electoral Commission,” Wilson revealed.

NCA HOT OVER AFRIWAVE DEAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, February 11, 2016

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has offered to explain the circumstances leading to the award of a monopoly licence to Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited to operate the controversial interconnect clearing house (ICH) for telecom companies, albeit in a bizarre manner.

The regulator says it was ‘some transpositional error’ that led to some of the bidders scoring high marks during the assessment process, but it was later ‘corrected.’

Interestingly, however, the NCA could not tell the public the actual score after the purported ‘correction’ which made Afriwave win the contract on a silver platter.

IMANI Ghana, a policy analysis think-tank, believes some interests were being served with the award of the contract to Afriwave, and has therefore called for its abrogation and a fresh start of the bidding process.

Over-Voting

In what appears to be an over-voting reminiscent of the 2012 election petition where over-voting was described as ‘transpositional error,’ the NCA says a similar thing happened in the bidding process.

A close look at the scores awarded all the competing companies in three main categories indicate that Afriwave scored more marks than the maximum awarded.

 “The NCA in the preparation of the report, transposed the scores from Excel to Microsoft Word and noticed that there were some transpositional errors which were corrected to correspond with the original Excel scores,” it said in a statement issued yesterday to rebut an investigative piece done by IMANI Ghana on an alleged fraudulent manipulation of the bidding process of the ICH.

IMANI is insisting that the processes leading to the award of a monopoly licence to Afriwave is riddled with fraud.

 “The procedure for getting them (Afriwave) that licence was fraudulent,” IMANI boss, Franklin Cudjoe, told Joy Fm yesterday.

He believes someone has a vested interest in Afriwave; thus, the manipulation of figures.

Rigged Process

According to a statement by IMANI, the Application Evaluations Committee that looked into the capabilities of five companies that had put in bids to manage the ICH platform rigged the process in favour of Afriwave.

The companies that put in bid included Afriwave, Subah Infosolutions, Prodigy International Limited, TCMS-GVG Consortium Limited and Channel IT Ghana Limited.

The think-tank alleged that the Albert E. Enninful 8-member panel instituted by the NCA had admitted that they had insufficient information to make informed judgements about the financials of most tenders and wondered what informed the total points awarded under debt and equity.

The evaluation report itself mentioned on page 32 that the financial position of Afriwave was not strong and that their finances were actually negative.

 “The liquidity position of the company was not that strong. On the average, current assets were barely higher than the current liabilities. The working capital was not positive for all three years, 2013 was negative,” the report stated.

The report was received and recommendation accepted by the NCA Board chaired by Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie.

How a company which finances were described as negative by the evaluation panel became the eventual winner is a big question on the lips of observers.

Draft Report

“We are not sure where IMANI got their information from, and we would like to plead with the general public to ensure that they get their information from the right sources, in this case from the NCA,” the authority said in the statement and added that IMANI was misleading the public by basing its analysis on a ‘draft ‘report.’

Transparent Evaluation

According to the NCA, Afriwave is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company with Laurisia Associates as its integration partner, Huawei and Muecci as its technology partners that provided “the most satisfactory responses against four other competitive applicants.”

It said that there was “a comprehensive and transparent evaluation of the bids of the five applicants on 23rd January, 2015,” and the NCA Board of Directors “considered the evaluation report and the recommendations contained therein and endorsed the said recommendations,” adding, “the Board duly adjudged Afriwave Ghana Limited as the winner of the Clearing House licence.”

YARA REACHES OUT TO UNIVERSITIES

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Yara Ghana, a leading crops nutrition provider, says it is committed to engaging the various tertiary institutions in country to sustain the interests of students in the agriculture sector.

The Managing Director of the company, Sergio Godoy said they have intensified efforts to help increase the number of agronomies in the country by targeting students pursuing agric-related courses to explain the prospects in the sector to them.

“We recently had a programme at the KNUST and it was very positive because the students showed keen interests in our engagement with them,” said Mr. Godoy at a breakfast meeting with some selected editors in Accra on Tuesday.

He said Yara, since opening its Ghana branch, has also been working in close collaboration with local research institutions like Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) and other international development agencies to boost agriculture, saying “combining knowledge with local results is vital for the agric sector.”

Mr. Godoy said that since 2007, Yara Ghana has been importing and supplying high quality products for cereal and cocoa farmers, among others, adding that “Yara Ghana has grown to become a market leader in fertilizers in the country.”

He said that Yara Ghana has prioritized technical support for farmers under its Yara Crop Nutrition Concept and was focusing on what he called “crop knowledge, portfolio combination and application competence in order to help farmers to optimize profitability in a sustainable manner.”

The Managing Director said the company now has over 10 sale agronomists covering the different zones in the country.

He said the company was supporting what he called “strong sales and distributorship network while providing agricultural extension support for farmers in respective catchment areas based on our crop nutrition approach.

“Yara Ghana is committed to being the leading provider of sustainable crop nutrition solutions, supporting farmer profitability through knowledge, quality and productivity while minimizing the impact on the environment,” he added.

AFRIWAVE DEAL STINKS – IMANI

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Policy analysis think-tank IMANI Ghana has revealed that the processes leading to the award of a monopoly licence to Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited to operate the controversial interconnect clearing house for telecom companies is riddled with fraud.

According to a statement by IMANI, the Application Evaluations Committee that looked into the capabilities of five companies that had put in bids to manage the Interconnect Clearing House (ICH) platform rigged the process in favour of Afriwave. The companies are Afriwave, Subah Infosolutions, Prodigy International Limited, TCMS-GVG Consortium Limited and Channel IT Ghana Limited.

At the end of the bidding process, Afriwave was handed the golden spoon and IMANI suspects serious foul play.

Rigged Process

“This whole process was rigged to guarantee a perverted outcome that can be seen from the remarks of the panel in various parts of the report,” IMANI alleged, adding, “The panel manipulated its own scoring scheme to ensure that Afriwave came on top, regardless of the actual results, and they did so with a brazenness that is almost farcical.”

IMANI alleged that the Albert E. Enninful eight-member panel instituted by the telecom regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA), had admitted that they had insufficient information to make informed judgements about the financials of most tenders and wondered what informed the total points awarded under debt and equity.

It says the entire process that awarded the prized contract to Afriwave should be scrapped and a new one initiated to mitigate the alleged fraud.

Ample Evidence

As a way forward, the think-tank posited that “Now that there is ample documentary evidence of fraudulent manipulation of the tender results, IMANI feels highly justified in resurrecting its campaign against the current ICH policy, and to reiterate its two demands.

“There is completely no basis to impose a monopoly clearing house on the telecom industry. The ministry should re-open the tender and provide adequate time for best practices to be followed in the evaluation of bids. It should then award three licences for providers of interconnect clearance house services.”

Free To Decide

IMANI said if that was done, “the telecom industry should then be free to decide which clearing house provider to patronise and whether to patronise any at all, at least for the next five years whilst the clearing houses build track record and capacity.”

Foisting what it called ‘untested monopolies’ on the private sector “shall add little value and destroy a vital industry.” The group urged President Mahama and the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, to act without delay “to redeem the credibility of this whole process.”

Interesting Query

Looking at what may be described as padding of scores, IMANI queried, “With a score of 0 on equity, how did Afriwave score more than 75% of the points available on debt equity ratio? Why was the final report of the committee not vetted by the NCA for accuracy and consistency of the computations and conclusions arrived at?”

According to IMANI, Afriwave was awarded five marks in a section where the total available marks was '1', saying, “this is the part where the applicants were to show that their ‘operational support team’ for the planned undertaking was up to scratch by presenting their CVs.”

Subah Angle

According to the statement, Subah Infosolutions, which also put in a bid, won all the two points available in the 'Project Implementation Team' sub-score, compared to Afriwave's score of 1 and that it was highly irregular for Afriwave to have been declared as having a superior 'operational support team’, given how interlinked the two requirements are.

Maximum Sub-score

“Despite the ‘equipment identity register’ sub-score having a maximum score of 1, Afriwave was awarded 4 marks against Subah's 1. Despite evidence of Telco Interconnections having a maximum sub-score of 2, Afriwave was awarded 4 marks,” IMANI said.

The think-tank further said that despite ‘topology scalability’ having a maximum sub-score of 1, Afriwave was awarded 2 marks, adding, “likewise, the requirement to provide a critical bill of quantity could only be scored a maximum of 1; yet, here too, Afriwave was given 2 marks.”

Extra Points

IMANI is of the view that Afriwave was awarded as much as 11 extra points for technical performance it could not have demonstrated since the ratings were above the maximum allowed, observing, “The scoring was a mathematical impossibility.”

Demonstrating its claims in a tabular form, IMANI said that whereas Subah’s scores were consistent with the maximum attainable, Afriwave’s scores exceeded the maximum attainable for the mentioned criteria, raising questions about collusion and favouritism.

“Assuming that Afriwave had the maximum attainable for the criteria, it should attain a total score of 6. Rather, it obtained an additional 11 points culminating in a total of 17 points.”

The statement noted that subtracting what it called “the fictitious 11 points from the total score of 78.2 reported for Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited leaves the final score at 67.2, which is lower than the reported score of 72.7 for Subah Infosolutions.”

No Assessment

In IMANI’s assessment, there were no visits whatsoever to any of the applicants’ operational locations or premises to ascertain their existing capacity; and there were also no client references or testimonials of previous work done in the clearing and general telecom intermediation space.

It also said some of the criteria were blunt instruments of no real relevance to the assessment, explaining for instance that the panel’s idea of preventing ‘conflict of interest’ was to penalise any applicant who might already have a licence with the NCA without regard to the broad range of licences issued by the NCA.

OCCUPYGHANA THREATENS TO SUE AG OVER GH¢3.6M SMARTTYS DEAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Pressure group OccupyGhana says the Attorney General’s (AG’s) refusal to provide detailed information about the circumstances leading to the rebranding of Metro Mass Transit buses shows that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has something to hide from the public.

According to the group, the request to get detailed information on the infamous GH¢3.6 million  bus rebranding transaction involving Smarttys Management and Productions Ltd owned by actress Selassie Ibrahim, was turned down by the AG.

Details about the GH¢3.6 million, cost of the re-branding to the taxpayer, set tongues wagging recently and it also led to the resignation of Dzifa Ativor as Minister for Transportation.

Unknown Principle

A statement issued in Accra by OccupyGhana said members were utterly shocked that the AG would refuse to provide the information regarding the transaction and accused the AG of hiding behind an ‘unknown principle’ to deny them access to information.

“We are saddened by this blatant attempt by none other than the Attorney General of this country to deny citizens the right to know what happened to their money,” the statement posited.

Shocking Revelation

“We are amazed that the Attorney General is hiding behind an ‘unknown principle’ to deny access to information that might reveal that the bus branding job was actually concluded and the figure of roughly GH¢3.6 million communicated to the Ministry of Finance for payment to Smarttys, even before the same Ministry of Transport wrote to Smarttys for a quotation for the job,” they noted.

According to OccupyGhana, the deal was also concluded “even before the same Ministry of Transport applied for approval for single-source procurement from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), proffering what is at best described as dubious, shameful and pathetic grounds for that single-source procurement.”

The group further said it was also saddened that the AG wants to hide from Ghanaians the fact that “the contract document covering a transaction of this magnitude was on just two (2) pages of paper with absolutely no warranties, defects liability period, or events of default clauses to protect the interest of the people of Ghana,”

Dubious Contract

OccupyGhana insisted that the contract was ‘dubious’ and said it was never submitted to the AG before it was signed and added that it was rather a director at the Ministry of Transport and not the sector minister, that signed it.

 “We are amazed that an Attorney General who has discovered and written on all of these grave infractions of our law in her report to the Chief of Staff, would turn around to deny the citizens of this country access to such critical information about our national purse and its use,” it wondered.

Something to Hide

“The vacuous and trifling nature of this excuse fortifies our belief that the government has something to hide, and that all efforts are being made to ensure that the information surrounding this Impugned Transaction, particularly the Attorney General’s own far-reaching report on the matter, is suppressed to protect certain persons who acted in that transaction, from exposure and possible prosecution,” OccupyGhana averred.

Court Action

The group said once the AG had refused it the information, it would carry out its threat to sue the government to compel it to tell the public details about the deal.

“Ghanaians are entitled to know everything about the Impugned Transaction and the Attorney General cannot engage in illegal and unconstitutional stonewalling, to prevent us from knowing the full truth, and consequently prevent us from demanding that erring persons be punished in accordance with the law,” it concluded.

AG HOT OVER GH¢3.6M SMARTTYS DEAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Pressure group OccupyGhana has given the Attorney General (AG) one week ultimatum to provide detailed information on the infamous GH¢3.6 million  bus rebranding transaction involving Smarttys Management and Productions Ltd, owned by actress Selassie Ibrahim.

The group threatened that should the government refuse to provide information relating to the controversial deal within a week, the AG should consider the letter as a notice of intention to sue the government in court.

Contract Details

The GH¢3.6 million being the cost of the rebranding to the taxpayer, set tongues wagging recently, leading to the resignation of Dzifa Attivor as Minister for Transportation.

“We have closely followed the matters surrounding the bus rebranding transaction involving Smarttys Management and Productions Ltd (Smarttys), leading to the investigation conducted by the Attorney General at the request of the Chief of Staff. This culminated in the resignation of the immediate past Minister for Transport, Madam Dzifa Attivor, and the subsequent agreement between the Ministry of Transport (‘Ministry’) and Smarttys for the refund of some GH¢1.5 million to the state.”

Suppressing Information

OccupyGhana said the group is “not satisfied” with the position of the government that the said resignation and refund should conclude the matter, adding, “and we note sadly that the government has not been forthcoming with any information about the Attorney General's investigation and its findings and full details of the impugned transaction.”

The group said it strongly believed that the government was deliberately suppressing information on the matter and it was with the aim of “preventing the proper legal steps from being taken to tackle this serious allegation of corruption.”

It believed that all the information surrounding what it called “the impugned bus branding contract” constituted information “that should be made available to all Ghanaians,” adding, “We are fortified in this belief by Article 21(1)(f) of the Constitution which provides that ‘all persons shall have the right to... information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.’"

Conceivable Public Interest

OccupyGhana said there is “no conceivable public interest privilege that applies to deny us access to that information” and wants the government to give cogent answers to some pressing questions relating to the transaction.

The pressure group would like to know if it was Smarttys that approached the Ministry of Transport with a proposal to brand the buses or the other way round. “If it was the ministry that wrote to Smarttys, did the ministry receive a written response from Smarttys giving quotations for the impugned transaction; and if so, may we have a copy of that letter?”

Other Quotations

It further wants to know if the ministry at any time relevant to the transaction wrote to request for quotations from any other companies or entities apart from Smarttys, or whether it received any quotations from any other entities and whether there was any adoption of public procurement procedure in the selection of Smarttys.

“Did the ministry receive written approval from the PPA for the procurement of services from Smarttys?  If PPA approval was obtained, did the ministry communicate that approval in writing to Smarttys; and if so, may we have a copy of that letter and any attachments to it?”

OccupyGhana would also like to know if the ministry executed a contract in respect of the transaction and a signed contract with Metro Mass Transit (MMT), adding, “When did MMT surrender the buses to Smarttys to begin the actual work of branding the buses, and when was that work completed?

“Did the ministry write to the Ministry of Finance requesting the release of funds for payment to Smarttys for the impugned transaction; and if so, may we have a copy of that letter? Did the ministry receive from the Ministry of Finance an approval in writing to any request to release funds for the impugned transaction; and if so, may we have a copy of that written approval?”

It also would like to know the number of times payments were made to Smarttys as well as the taxes paid or withheld.

GHASALC WORRIED ABOUT MICRO FINANCE LINK

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC) has expressed concern about attempts to lump their activities with that of microfinance service providers in the financial service sector.

They said the recent mishaps suffered by some microfinance companies had created a negative impression that savings and loans companies were involved in the whole unethical practices.

GHASALC therefore sensitised the public on their activities whilst drawing the distinction between the roles of the entities.

At a GHASALC forum for journalists in Accra yesterday, Dr. Emmanuel Owusu, president of the association said “as part of our deliberations, the board, forum of CEOs and the secretariat have identified a number of constraints affecting the image and operations of savings and loans companies in Ghana which have prompted detailed attention to address them.”

Giving an overview of Ghana’s financial sector, Dr. Owusu said that the classification of savings and loans as microfinance firms sometimes create confusion among the clientele and that did not promote the sector.

He said GHASALC was preparing a proposal to appeal to the regulator Bank of Ghana (BoG) to reconsider a change of name for the savings and loans companies under the 2011 notice (BG/GOV/SEC?2011/04) for the microfinance sector since the lack of clarity was having what he called ‘unintended effect’ on their members.

“The savings and loans sector is making significant impact on the unbanked financial sector. It is business we must do but how we do it and how we get the public to have confidence in us is what we are continuously working at.”

Isaac Kweku Arthur, an advocacy team member of GHASALC, said the tier system as defined by the regulator made the services savings and loans companies provide very distinct.

He said measuring activities of micro finance companies on the same scale as savings and loans outfits was an anomaly that the regulator needed to assess once more.

“We have decided to embark on stakeholder campaign to draw the public’s attention to the fact that we play a distinct role from the micro-finance companies.

“We want clients to be clear in their minds where they would like to save.”

Mr. Arthur said “the name microfinance has become synonymous with the system because microfinance itself is a product being offered by the savings and loans companies.

“We have services that cannot be performed by microfinance companies. We don’t suffer limitations in what we can offer but in the course of doing business, we tend to have negative perceptions,” he said.

Eunice Brako Marfo, Executive Secretary of GHASALC said under the current arrangement, micro-finance companies could proceed to operate with a provisional lincense but under savings and loans the license has to be approved by the regulator in its entirety before operation could commence.

OCCUPYGHANA EXPOSES GOV’T OVER GYEEDA SCANDAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

OccupyGhana, a pressure group, has challenged the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to tell Ghanaians how the various Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) service providers paid back the huge amounts they wrongfully received from the state.

A presidential staffer, Sam Nettey George, at the weekend claimed on Joy FM’s ‘Newsfile’ programme that with the exception of one subsidiary of AGAMS Group owned by Roland Agambire of rLG fame, all monies which the service providers received from government illegally in 2012, had been paid back.

Without providing any proof, the staffer said, "Every money rLG owed the government of Ghana has been recovered. The only subsidiary of (the AGAMS Group) that is still owing government is Craftspro. But rLG has paid, Asongtaba has cleared its indebtedness and so this is a government that is not just speaking, but is walking its talk."

However, OccupyGhana is dissatisfied with the claim and wants the government to prove that it indeed retrieved the millions of Ghana cedis from the companies since its (OccupyGhana’s) investigations were showing otherwise.

“OccupyGhana has heard of a claim that the GYEEDA contractors have repaid the public funds that were wrongfully paid to them. These are the amounts as captured in the 2013 Auditor-General’s Report, and OccupyGhana has done quite some work and investigations on these matters,” the group said in a statement yesterday.

According to OccupyGhana, Asongtaba, a subsidiary of AGAMs Group, owed GH¢1,843,225 for their contract in youth in dressmaking, bead making, drum making and carving and owed a further GH¢25,620,075.25 in respect of youth in smock making, tie & dye, soap making, carpentry & joinery.

It said there was ‘interest-free loan’ of GH¢42,268,520 for Asongtaba.

On rLG Communications, the group said there was overpayment of GH¢4,498,593 in Youth in ICT while under the Zeera Group contract, there was an overpayment of a whopping GH¢8,076,490.40.

The pressure group said there was ‘interest-free loan’ of GH¢7,958,807.39 for Craftpro while New Vision Consult received ‘interest-free loan’ of GH¢527,925.

OccupyGhana further said Ghana Young Artisans Movement received a loan of GH¢75,000 to be paid over six years but allegedly converted into working tools which the Auditor-General disagreed, adding “JIOOGIWU ‘set-up fund’ or ‘loan’ was GH¢53,490.”

It also said the Centre For Development Partners received ‘interest-free loan’ of GH¢300,000, adding that “However, by a letter dated 2nd June 2015, from the Centre for Development Partnership (CDP) to OccupyGhana, they denied ever receiving the loan amount” and their demands to the relevant ministries and agencies for a response had been ignored.

 According to OccupyGhana, the Ghallywood African Film Village received a ‘Set-up fund’ or ‘loan’ of GH¢1,320,000 while Goodwill International Group/MDPI, which it said “set up sham consultancy services and oil and gas training” were paid GH¢15,133,596.05 and Seiwa Engineering Works was given an ‘advance payment’ of GH¢278,000.

“Can Mr. Government tell us when these monies were paid, how much was paid and how much interest was paid on them?” OccupyGhana insisted.

Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure has always insisted that rLG and Asongtaba have about GH¢53 million to refund to the state for taking money without delivering the services; and Asongtaba alone is also supposed to pay GH¢15 million of the ‘guinea fowl money’ back to the state, according to the 2013 Auditor General’S Report.

Popular lawyer, Ace Ankomah, who is a leading member of OccupyGhana, was concerned that people could steal public moneys and simply be made to refund them even without paying interests or being punished.

NDC STINKS OF CORRUPTION - NPP

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, February 01, 2016

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government cannot fight corruption and insists the ruling party’s record “is still one of create, loot and share.”

“The NDC government has sought to take some solace from the 2015 Transparency International report on corruption. This attempt amounts to a fantasy, a mere fiddling while Ghana burns from corruption and a poor attempt by President Mahama's government to tickle itself and laugh,” the NPP said in a news release on Friday.

The statement issued in Accra and signed by NPP Director of Communications, Nana Akomea, was a reaction to the recent Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published by anti-graft body Transparency International (TI), which ranked Ghana 56th out of 168 countries in the world with a score of 47 in the fight against corruption.

According to TI, Ghana is the 7^th least corrupt country in Africa after Botswana – 63, Cape Verde – 55, Seychelles – 55, Rwanda – 54, Mauritius and Namibia which scored 53.

The news has been received with glee by President John Mahama who posted on his Facebook wall that the government was on course to tackling corruption in the country. But the NPP has described the government’s position as a ‘fantasy.’

Dubious Comfort

“One basis for the government's fantasy is that it had placed 56th out of 168 countries and placed 7th in Africa. But the government is not able to say if these positions amount to improvement or not,” the statement said.

“In 2008, Ghana ranked 67th but out of a bigger sample of 180 countries. Is 56th position out of 167 countries in 2015 better or worse than 67th position out of 180 countries in 2008? The stark reality is that Ghana actually dropped from a score of 48 out of 100 in 2014 to a score of 47 out of 100 in 2015.

“Quite strangely, while the NDC government seeks some dubious comfort from the report, it is at the same time attempting to pass  it off  as report on perception,  largely caused by false allegations in the media and also due to some so-called ‘paradox of exposure,’” the statement added.

“If the government’s fight against corruption is really great, how can the media reports of this positive and great fight lead to negative perception against the government?” the NPP queried.

False Claim

Nana Akomea said “the government also seems happy about its claim that Ghana and Senegal have been mentioned as making progress in the fight against corruption in Africa,” but said “this claim is also dubious!”

He said “Ghana was mentioned in terms of increased civil society and individual’s activism in anti-corruption activities.  This has nothing to do with government. The credit for this belongs to civil activists like Occupy Ghana and lmani Ghana and to individuals such as Martin Amidu and Anas Aremeyaw Anas.”

On the pledge to continue to implement the national anti-corruption action plan, the NPP had “a little advice to the NDC government: just implement the laws such as AFRCD 58, (as advised by the Attorney General), the financial administration act, the financial administration regulations, the law on causing financial loss, the procurement law, etc.”

Poor Record

The NPP said the poor record of the NDC government in fighting corruption was rooted “not just in perception but in stark reality,” adding, “GYEEDA, Woyome, SADA, Subah, Waterville, Smarttys, etc are not perceptions.”

It said the TI report identified transparency and accountability as well as prosecution as key ingredients in fighting corruption but the NDC government's record on these “is appalling.”

“Major financial dealings such as loans for the GNPC, floatation of ADB shares and the IMF loan agreement were not taken to Parliament.  Value for money audit for the many sole sourced public works is largely not done. Mandatory reports on public procurement to Parliament are not done.”

Record on Prosecution

“The record on prosecution for financial wrongdoing is even worse. Two former ministers of state in another government were prosecuted for alleged infringement of the Procurement Law. 

Ghanaians are  therefore still in a state of shocked disbelief over the twists and turns that have led to the loss/siphoning of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ monies in the Woyome affair, in the Waterville affair,  in GYEEDA, in SADA, in Subah, in Smarttys, etc.

“President Mahama’s government, this time, will not prosecute. Even when court orders to recover taxpayers’ monies are secured through the efforts of others, the NDC government is unable to recover the monies,” Nana Akomea said and added, “even where the government goes into agreements for mere refunds of taxpayers’ monies, very little refund is reported. Massive payments of taxpayers’ monies for no work done have been regular.”

Bus Branding

The NPP further said the bus branding saga involving Selassie Ibrahim’s Smarttys Productions “clearly illustrates the corruption-friendly profile of President Mahama’s NDC government.”

“The Attorney General's investigation into this matter found that the bus branding work was awarded, commenced and completed even before the procurement process was started, and before any contract was signed; and that the sole sourced contract resulted in over payment of nearly two million Ghana cedis (GH¢ 2 million).”

The statement added: “The Attorney General recommended further investigation of all state officials involved in this breach of the various laws on the use of public funds. So far, what has happened is the resignation of the sector minister and President Mahama ordering a refund of the excess looted taxpayers’ monies.”

PROPHET TAWIAH BEMOANS RITUAL KILLINGS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Prophet Kwabena Tawiah, founder of the Church of Rabbi has bemoaned the high level of murders in the country particularly ritual killings.

He said Ghana appeared to be turning into a country where some criminals did not place value on human lives and that is putting fear in the public.   

“We are in trying times in this country and it is up to all religious people particularly Christians to rise up and pray unceasingly for God’s intervention,” he told DAILY GUIDE on Wednesday.

Prophet Tawiah said that as the country gears up for the November general elections some powerful politicians would attempt to incite sections of the public particularly the youth to cause mayhem but in the end they would not succeed.

He said “God will give Ghana a good leader to return the country to its glorious days. What God has said shall come to pass!”

Prophet Tawiah said the peace Ghanaians are looking for would not manifest if the people did not disclaim violent politicians and ‘nation wreckers’.

He suggested a continuous education of supporters of all political parties to tolerate dissenting views

He said the current crop of politicians had been a disappointment to the future development of the country saying “if our forefathers were able to put structures in place for them to become influential people today, then why are they denying the future generation the chance to also prepare themselves for the tasks ahead.”

He said the practice where politicians and parties formed vigilante groups was threatening the survival of Ghana’s democracy.

The Prophet also bemoaned the deafening silence of many influential pastors and other traditional leaders on the rots going on in the country and said the country will continue to sink until they all rise up and pointed out some of the faults.

“Look at what is happening at the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. Sometimes, you feel like there is nobody in this country to punish these treasury looters.”

He appealed passionately to the Electoral Commission Chairperson to ensure transparency and fairness in the November elections.

“You can’t have a situation where the poor and the vulnerable would queue at night to vote only for somebody to sit at the strongroom and change the verdict of the people.”