EYE FOR EYE: JB KILLER MUST DIE! SAYS RAWLINGS

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By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Incensed by the rising trend of gruesome murders in the country, former President Jerry John Rawlings has proposed revisiting the Mosaic law whereby whoever kills by the sword must also die by the sword.

A worried Rawlings said killings, including that of Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region, call for the strict application of the death penalty to serve as a deterrent to would-be murderers.

A 20-year-old mobile phone dealer at Madina Zongo Junction, Daniel Asiedu, has been arrested in connection with the murder of the MP.

Daniel Asiedu, aka Sexy Don Don, has been charged at an Accra district court for allegedly murdering the MP.

However, the people he named initially as his accomplices, in the persons of Avenger and Junior Agoogo, have still not been arrested.

Mr Rawlings said applying the death penalty rule which has not been enforced for many years could help reduce the unnecessary killings in the country.

The ex-military ruler’s comment is likely to meet strong opposition from human rights activists who have virtually succeeded in pushing for the end to death penalties.

Former President Rawlings made the suggestion when the family of JB Danquah-Adu, who was brutally murdered in his Shiashie, East Legon home in Accra recently, paid a courtesy call on him to inform him about the funeral arrangements.

“Because we have refused to exact the ultimate punishment, the police will arrest, the courts will sentence but the situation (spate of murders) will continue to rise,” the ex-president complained.

“We cannot sit here in the security of our circumstances while others remain vulnerable. I feel very disappointed about this. It will continue if we do not put the fear of God into them. If America can have that power at the level of the State, why not us?” he wondered.

He urged Parliament to consider the need to amend the 1992 Constitution so that regional security councils will have the power to approve the execution of convicts sentenced under the capital punishment rule.

His wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, who was also in the meeting, said there are a lot of crimes of similar magnitude which have not been investigated to their logical conclusions.

She called on the security agencies to step up their game as she said the wave of murders was frightening. “We need to investigate all the murders so they do not recur.

“Why are they happening? We need to feel that we are secure in our individual homes. The investigating authorities owe it to not only the family, but also to Ghanaians to explain exactly what is happening,” she added.

Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, their daughter who is fighting a legal battle at the court of law over her election as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Klottey Korle, said the news of JB’s death “shook everyone.”

She said there should be no delay in investigating the MP’s murder and similar unresolved ones.

 “A crime of this nature must not be allowed to fade away. The truth must be uncovered to give closure not only for the family, but also for the whole country,” she underscored.

Frank Adu Jnr, a banker and elder brother of the deceased MP, said “We miss our departed JB dearly. He was like a pied piper catering for many of his constituents.”

He was concerned about the level of poverty and unemployment in society and said it was important that government gave hope to the ordinary people.

 “If as a government does not give hope, then these young boys and girls without hope commit some of the crimes we see today. They are easily swayed, easily convinced just to feed themselves and like any other animal backed into a corner, will fight. We have to blame the governance that we have and the politics that we have. We have to deal with this social problem, social upheaval of inequality, etc, taking place,” he observed.

A member of the family, Opanin George Amoah, expressed disquiet about the failure of the police to communicate adequately with the family on the status of their investigations, and sought the former president’s support in calling for openness from the investigating authority.

“We are a family in pain. What we expect is not what we have seen. As things stand now the police have gone mute. We are careful not to mix politics with a criminal case and have stopped short of making any statements, but justice delayed is justice denied. The police have a responsibility to let us know where the investigations are headed. This is a heinous crime and we demand justice from the authorities,” Opanin Amoah charged.

He stated, “We are urging the authorities to speed up investigations into the matter. The axe of justice must fall. We need to know the truth. It will soothe us.”

SADA BLOWS GH¢5M ON BLOCK MACHINES

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By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is in the news again following the expenditure of close to GH¢5 million on block making machines.

The Hydraform Interlocking block making machines, numbering 50, which are said to have no commercial viability, are said to be locked up in a warehouse; and they cost the taxpayer GH¢4,653,513.

This was contained in the 2014 Report of the Auditor-General on the accounts of the country’s public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions.

Sole Sourcing

Interestingly, the contract, given to an entity called MZI Company Limited for the importation of the machines in October 2012, did not go through competitive tendering process.

According to the report, the SADA management also failed to produce the contract documents such as service agreement and bill of quantities for examination by auditors.

“We further observed that all the 50 machines were still locked up in a warehouse at SADA premises, two years after they were procured,” the report said, adding, “The continuous keeping of the machines in the warehouse defeats the purpose for which the taxpayers’ money was committed into the project.

“It said the management’s failure to think through the commercial viability of the project and its implementation before procuring the machines accounted for the anomaly,” the report underscored.

It further said the SADA management told auditors it had advertised and received bids for the sale of the equipment after management had earlier been entreated to develop strategies to put the machines to good use to avoid waste or be sanctioned for causing financial loss.

No Supporting Documents

According to the Auditor-General, the SADA management made payments totalling GH¢508,940.00 without the necessary expenditure documents including receipts and memos, among others, in contravention of the FAR 39 (2).

Giving the breakdown, the report said SADA management paid GH¢469,000.00 on December 3, 2014, being 70% of corn shellers to an unknown company, and GH¢35,820.00 to MZI Co. for training materials for the use of the Hydraform on January 6 the same year as well as another GH¢4,120.00 as payment for janitorial services to Top Zone Co Ltd on May 29, 2014.

“The Finance Director’s failure to ensure that supporting documents were obtained before making the payments accounted for the irregularity,” it noted, adding, “This practice could be an avenue for financial impropriety.”

Farming Inputs

The SADA management, the report said, also failed to recover GH¢21,849,175.85 given to Technical Service Operators (TSP) as the cost of farming inputs for farmers’ groups.

It said only GH¢995,924.00, representing 4.36% out of a total amount of GH¢22,845,099.85, released to the company was recovered.

Furthermore, the report said two companies in Ejura and Kumasi delayed the payments of GH¢816,000 to SADA and the continuous delay in the payments could constitute bad debt if the authority did not act fast.

Overpayment

According to the report, there was overpayment of mobilisation fees to 30 TSPs, totalling GH¢284,433 from SADA, claiming, “Our audit discovered that management relied on the expected, instead of the actual hectares of land cultivated, to pay mobilisation for the 2013 farming season.”

It noted, “The situation is locking up the much needed capital of the authority for other important projects.”

It also said that the TSPs again failed to pay 2013 and 2014 instalments of the sale of corn shellers, totalling GH¢272,000.

The SADA management again embarked on procurements without VAT invoices from six suppliers, amounting to GH¢57,060, and as a result, the government was denied tax revenue of GH¢8,883.75

GITMO 2 FAMILIES COMING TO GHANA

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By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 17, 2016

It is emerging that family members of the two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees brought to Ghana on the orders of the United States government, are fighting hard to come into the country to visit them.

They are desperately pushing to enter Ghana at a time the security apparatus has issued a high alert over a possible terrorist attack following the attacks in Grand Bassam in neighbouring Ivory Coast that left about 22 people dead on March 14, 2016.

The arrival of the two Al-Qaeda suspected terrorists - Muhammad Bin Atef, 36, and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby, 34 - from the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, has sparked unending and heated debate in the country.

Some security experts have said that the acceptance of the Gitmo 2 ex-detainees which Foreign Affairs Minister, Hanna Tetteh described as Al-Qaeda foot-soldiers by the NDC government is making Ghana susceptible to terrorist attacks.

Security Alert

President John Mahama, who chaired the National Security Council meeting on Tuesday which reviewed the security situation in the country following the rising insurgency by Al-Qaeda militants in the West African sub-region, especially Mali, Burkina Faso and lately, La Cote d'Ivoire, later emplaned to Scotland.

Saudi Mission

DAILY GUIDE is reliably informed that the Ghana Mission in Saudi Arabia which has oversight responsibility over Yemen where the Gitmo 2 are citizens, had received visa applications from family members of the two men but was said to have referred them to the Foreign Ministry in Accra for clearance.

It is also emerging that the four Yemenis who were arrested for arriving in Ghana with fake visas appeared to have hands in the arrival of the Gitmo 2 former detainees in Ghana.

Government Sources

Government officials have been tightlipped on the issue; however, Deputy Minister of the Interior, James Agalga, recently said on radio that the NDC government could not prevent families of the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees from visiting them in Ghana.

 “The decision that was taken was for the two to be admitted into this country. Family members, whether they are Yemenis or whatever, if they have to come to Ghana, there are laid down procedures for the entry of foreigners into the country,” he underscored.

He said that the two would not be denied their freedom of movement such as visiting the mosques, among others, although they would be closely monitored.

US Senators’ Threat

Even though the Mahama-led NDC government had variously insisted that there were no strings -   whether financial or otherwise - attached to the deal for Ghana to host the two suspected terrorists, four US senators called on their Appropriations Committee to cut foreign aid to Ghana if the West African country failed to hold and monitor the two former-detainees.

The Senators, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Roy Blunt of Missouri, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Steve Daines of Montana, stated this in a letter to State and Foreign Operations and Related Programs Chairman Lindsay Graham and the Appropriations Committee Chairman, Thad Cochran.

A statement on the US Senate website said the Senators requested for a reduction in assistance to Ghana by $10 million per detainee “in the event either of these detainees escapes from confinement or re-engages in terrorism while in Ghana’s custody.”

Their basis was that about 30% of terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay were known or suspected to have returned to their terrorist-related activities.

Fake Visas

The four Yemenis who allegedly arrived with fake French passports as well as fake visas, have already been remanded into the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) by an Accra circuit court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh.

They are Esmail Yahya Zey aka Evra Allerson, Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer aka Ciro Carlos, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard - all students - and Eissa Yahya Airier, a businessman.

ASSIBIT STOPS GYEEDA TRIAL

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By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

The case of Abuga Pele, NDC MP for Chiana Paga, and his co-accused, Philip Akpeena Assibit, in the infamous GYEEDA scandal could not be heard yesterday due to a pending appeal application filed by Assibit.

Mr Assibit was expected to open his defence yesterday following the dismissal of his interlocutory appeal by the Court of Appeal presided over by single judge Justice Barbara F. Ackah Yensu on February 17.

However, his lawyers told the Accra Financial Court 2 presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe that Mr Assibit has an application at the Court of Appeal that is seeking to challenge the trial court’s decision ordering him to open his defence.

When the case was called, the trial judge confirmed that there was a notice of appeal pending at the appellate court filed by Mr Assibit. But Chief State Attorney Evelyn Keelson said the AG’s Department had not yet been served with the process.

Halaali Nchuakung, who is representing Raymond Bagnabu as counsel for Mr Assibit, however, told the court that they filed the application on Friday, March 11, 2016 and that the document could be on its way to the AG’s Department.

Justice Asare Botwe, as a result, adjourned the proceedings until April 21, 2016 to enable Mr Assibit pursue his application that is seeking to review the decision of single judge Justice Ackah Yensu.

Justice Ackah Yensu, in dismissing Mr Assibit’s application for stay of proceedings pending the appeal, had said “the applicant has not established or shown exceptional circumstances for the grant of a stay of proceedings.”

Financial Loss

Abuga Pele, who is the former National Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), now GYEEDA, and Mr Assibit are standing trial for the various roles they played at GYEEDA, 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.

Specific Charges

On the charge sheet presented by the Attorney General’s Department, the two men are facing a total of 19 counts ranging from defrauding by false pretences to wilfully causing financial loss to the state.

Assibit alone is charged with six counts of defrauding by false pretences to the tune of $2.028,605.20 and another five counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property to the tune of GH¢3.305,568.53.

Abuga Pele, the second accused, on the other hand, is charged with two counts of abetment, one count of intentionally misapplying public property and five counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, all to the tune of GH¢3.305,568.53.

Prima Facie Case

On Friday, June 19 last year the Financial Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe ordered the MP and Assibit to open their defence after the court held that the prosecution had been able to establish a prima facie case against the two.

The two had filed ‘Submission of no case to answer’ applications separately but the court dismissed them and said they had a case to answer at the close of the prosecution’s case in April.

STAN DOGBE SENT TO PROTOCOL

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By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Reports reaching DAILY GUIDE indicate that embattled Presidential Staffer Stan Dogbe has been reassigned to the Protocol Department at the Presidency.

This was contained in the letter of the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, which relieved the acting Information Services Department (ISD), Francis Kwarteng Arthur, of his duties after the mess caused during the 59^th Independence Day celebration.

Interestingly, the aspect of the letter of the Chief of Staff on Stan Dogbe was not made public.

This means he will be working closely with the President and the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau will be handled by the Ministry of Communications until a new head is appointed.

Stan Dogbe has been accused of committing errors in the brochure, with allegations that the printing job was given to his wife’s company- EventPR.

However, Mr Dogbe, in a post, denied the allegations, claiming that he had never executed any printing contract for the Office of the President.

“The EventPR undoubtedly has one of the best concept, design and publishing teams in the country, but the company has never produced any document or publication for the Office of the President,” he stated.

OccupyGhana Goes To Court

Meanwhile, pressure group OccupyGhana says it is going to sue the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government over the error-ridden Independence Day anniversary brochure that has subjected Ghana to international disgrace and ridicule.

The group has given Mr Debrah three working days to explain circumstances that led to the production of the brochure or face it in court.

The production of the badly edited brochures that were distributed to guests at the 59^th Independence Day parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6, which depicted visiting President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya as the President of Ghana, has set tongues wagging, with many questioning the calibre of the appointees of President John Mahama.

OccupyGhana’s letter, written yesterday to the Chief of Staff and copied to the Minister of Communications, said: “We have closely followed the matters surrounding the printing of brochures for the 59th Independence Day Celebrations and which have culminated in the relieving from office of Mr Francis Arthur as the acting Director of the Information Services Department, and the placing of the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau under the authority and supervision of the Ministry of Communications.”

According to the group, there was more to the story of the brochures that the government was not telling the public, in spite of the sacking of the Acting Director of Information Services Department who had claimed responsibility for the shame brought upon the country.

“As citizens of this country, we are not satisfied that this is the end of the matter. We believe that there is more to this matter than meets the eye, and that there is more information that the people of Ghana deserve to have, with respect to this matter.”

OccupyGhana, as a result, demanded to know which company or companies was or were invited to submit bids for the publishing, production, and/or printing of the brochures and requested for copies of any relevant letters or other communications.

“Were any quotations received from the company or companies; and if so may we have copies of such quotations and their covering letters, if any? Which public procurement procedure was adopted in selecting the winning bid? If it was single-source procurement, was the approval of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) sought? May we have a copy of any letter requesting approval and all attachments to it?”

OccupyGhana further wants the government to tell Ghanaians whether any public procurement approval was obtained, adding, “Was a contract entered into with the company with the winning bid?”

“Has the Ministry of Finance been requested to release funds for payment to the company with the winning bid; and if so, may we have a copy of any such letter? Did the Ministry of Finance approve any payment in writing; and if so, may we have a copy of that written approval?”

The group also wants to know if any payments were made to the company that undertook the transaction, adding, “Were any taxes paid or withheld, as the case may be, particularly with respect to withholding tax, value added tax and the national health insurance levy; and if so, may we have copies of any relevant invoices?”

Basing their request on Article 21(1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution, OccupyGhana said “considering the urgency surrounding this mater, we respectfully request that you supply the information requested herein within three working days of the date of this letter, failing which you should consider this letter as the written Notice of Intention of Civil Action under section 10 of the State Proceedings Act, 1998 (Act 555), effective as at the date hereof.”

ISD BOSS SACKED

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, March 11, 2016

Circumstances surrounding the production of the 59^th independence anniversary brochure which was full of errors and has subjected Ghana to international disgrace and ridicule continue to unravel.

At dawn yesterday, the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, issued a statement claiming that the Acting Director of Information Services Department, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, had been relieved of his duties.

What the terse statement failed to tell Ghanaians was whether Mr Arthur, a lawyer by profession, who was on secondment to the ISD from the presidency, was returning to the Flagstaff House or being sacked completely.

The statement also announced that Flagstaff House Communications Bureau under Stan Dogbe would be under the control of the communications minister, with unconfirmed report that Stan Dogbe, a presidential staffer, may be reassigned.

The two presidency officials are said to be neck deep in the brochure mess that continues to dominate national discourse.

ISD Staff

The sacked ISD boss had apologised on behalf of the staff of the department when his outfit was clearly not part of the preparation of the error-riddled brochure.

Later, the staff descended on the embattled acting director, who was the Chairman of the Communications Sub-Committee of the 59^th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, for creating the impression that the department had produced the shameful brochure and called for his immediate removal from the place.

Mr Kwarteng Arthur was also accused of using a forged letterhead of the department in writing the apology letter.

It later emerged that the brochures were done under the supervision of President John Mahama’s trusted staffer, Stan Dogbe, at the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau and printed at a press house of a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), sidelining the ISD which had been handling such jobs with finesse over the years.

Raising Of Eyebrows

The statement issued by Dr Omane Boamah in itself raised a lot of eyebrows when it quoted Chief of Staff Julius Debrah as issuing and signing an earlier statement to the ministry, which had directed that Mr Arthur be relieved of his position.

Strangely, the statement was silent on Stan Dogbe, who at all material times, was reported to be the mastermind behind the mess.

All it had to say was that the Ministry of Communications “assumes responsibility for the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau.”

Interestingly, a similar statement was issued in February last year when Ben Dotsei Malor, then Senior Communications Advisor and Head of Communications at the Presidency as well as the Executive Secretary at the Presidency, Dr. Raymond Atuguba, left the seat of government.

The statement, which was signed by Prosper Bani, then Chief of Staff and now Minister of the Interior, also said that the Ministry of Communications had taken over the Communications Bureau and stated categorically that the Minister of Communications was to serve as spokesperson for the president.

In the ensuing confusion, the statement does not mention where Stan Dogbe, who has been the head of the Flagstaff House Communication Bureau since the exit of Mr Dotsei Malor, would be placed, even though there are speculations that the president is set to reassign him away from the presidency.

EventsPR

It has been gathered that a company registered under the name EventsPR is deeply involved in the mess at the seat of government. It was reportedly given the contract to print the error-laden anniversary brochure.

The company is alleged to have Stan Dogbe and the sacked ISD acting boss as directors; and in his Facebook profile, Mr Arthur posts boldly that he is General Manager at EventsPR, while Stan’s wife, Seyram, is also listed as a director.

There are allegations that the company took over majority of the jobs done by the ISD, which the staff continuously complained about.  “…since Stan Dogbe assumed his current position as a presidential staffer at the Office of the President, the work of ISD in relation to the national event has stalled. The core mandate has since been handled by Mr Dogbe ever since,” the petition read.

It was the strategic connection between the ISD and EventsPR that compelled sacked Kwarteng Arthur to issue the apology when he knew very well that the department was never involved in the transaction.

Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) had persistently been against the appointment of Mr Arthur and expressed happiness over his sack when its Executive Secretary, Isaac Bampoe Addo said, “He should not have been there in the first place because he didn’t qualify for the job.”

NPP Calls For Probe

Meanwhile, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked the government not to hesitate to investigate the matter since the public need to know the truth about what really happened.

“To say that the deficiencies in the content and text of the March 6, 2016 Independence Day brochure are bewildering is an understatement,” NPP Communications Director Nana Akomea said in a statement.

“How the official brochure for perhaps the biggest national event (outside the 2016 general elections ) can be so full of mistakes (on literally every page) calls into question the competence of government and public officials at several levels, including the Ministry of Communications,  the Information Services Department,  state protocol department and the Flagstaff House communications office,” the statement said.

The party said that under normal circumstances, “The drawing up of the programme and any additional notes and information  to form the contents of the official brochure for such a national event  will be agreed at the national planning  committee level drawn from these public offices and signed off by the minister of communications and the director of state protocol.”

The NPP wants to know how Mr Arthur was appointed when he did not qualify for the job as well as the charge by ISD staff that their work had been usurped by the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House.

They also want investigation into the propriety of statements issued and signed by the minister of communications, announcing the contents of "a statement signed by the Chief of Staff," when that "statement signed by the Chief of Staff" is not in the public domain as well as which public official actually signed the final draft of the brochure before it was sent for printing.

They also want to know which printer was selected and proceeded to print such a document with such obvious errors and the veracity of reports that the Chairman of the Independence Day Planning Committee has laid the blame on the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House and not on the committee or the ISD, which might have led to the  minister of communications  assuming responsibility  for the directorate.

Poor Job

The brochure, distributed at the Black Star Square where visiting presidents were in Ghana to witness the momentous occasion, was filled with poor grammar, awful spelling, badly constructed sentences as well as shocking colloquial expressions with the description of the green colour in the national flag as ‘dark green.’

The most shocking mistake in the brochure is the reference to the visiting Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

ERROR BROCHURE SAGA: MAHAMA TO SACK PRESIDENTIAL AIDES

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 10, 2016

There are strong indications that President John Mahama is set to relieve some of his appointees who have become a source of embarrassment to the presidency of their posts.

The latest embarrassment is the error-ridden brochure for the 59^th Independence Anniversary celebration.

A very reliable source told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that the president was becoming increasingly worried about the way and manner some of his aides had been bringing the name of his office and the entire country into disrepute and had decided to finally crack the whip on them.

What broke the camel’s back was the production of the error-prone brochure distributed to guests at the 59^th Independence Anniversary parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6. One of the major errors in the brochure was the claim that President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya is the President of Ghana, which has since made the country a subject of international ridicule.

Main Target

The person whose name is on the lips of many Ghanaians is Stan Dogbe, head of the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau, who DAILY GUIDE learnt is being reassigned from the presidency.

Francis Kwarteng Arthur, Acting Director of Information Services Department (ISD), on secondment from the presidency - who apologized on behalf of the ISD in respect of the poorly prepared brochure when his outfit was clearly not part of the document’s preparation – is also expected to be relinquished of his post.

It later turned out that such brochures are prepared under the supervision of Stan Dogbe and printed at a press house of a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), sidelining the ISD which had been handling such assignments with finesse.

“The president has become sick and tired of the daily blunders of his appointees and is set to do something about them without any further delay,” the source hinted DAILY GUIDE.

Some NDC officials as well as government appointees are also calling for heads to roll in the error-riddled brochure saga.

The individuals responsible for the printing of the brochure should be sanctioned, according to former national security advisor, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah.

The former military officer wondered how such mistakes could have eluded officials mandated to carry out the planning and execution of the Independence Day programme.

According to him, “The problem we have in Ghana is that we don’t punish people who go wrong.

“Next time, whoever gets the job will ensure that he or she performs properly; but we don’t punish people and they get away with it and repeat the mistakes of the past,” Gen. Nunoo-Mensah told Class Fm yesterday.

NDC MP for La Dadekotopon, Nii Amasah Namoale, also believes sanctioning all the people involved in the mess will send a strong signal that the government is serious with sloppy lapses.

He said sweeping the matter under the carpet will not help the NDC government.

Missing Speech

The president had been exposed to a series of public embarrassments, including missing pages in his official speech at public events. At an ECOWAS leaders’ Summit in Accra in May last year, he was left stranded in the middle of his speech when some pages were found to have gone missing. “I’m missing some pages here… well, I’m missing some pages here; I wonder when that happened…,” he said as the dignitaries looked at him with dismay.

Mahama Chocolate

A branded Golden Tree chocolate produced for the first family by the distressed Cocoa Processing Company during the last Christmas also had the name of the Mahamas wrongly spelt. Instead of Mahama, it was spelt Mahaha, causing huge embarrassment to the family on social media. 

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the contract for the branding of the chocolate was also grabbed by an unnamed presidential staffer.

Poor Grammar

Last Sunday’s event brochure, distributed at the Black Star Square, where visiting presidents were in Ghana to witness the momentous occasion, was filled with poor grammar, awful spelling, badly constructed sentences as well as shocking colloquial expressions with the description of the green colour in the national flag as ‘dark green – apart from the reference to

the visiting Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

ISD Staff

Later, ISD staff descended on their Acting Director, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, who was the Chairman of the Communications Sub-Committee of the 59^th Anniversary Planning Committee, for creating the impression that the Department had produced the shameful brochure and called for his immediate removal from the place.

Even the ISD boss letter of apology was wrongly dated January 12 when it was supposed to be March 7.

The ISD Acting Director also used an alleged forged letterhead of his outfit in writing the apology letter.

Meanwhile, the staff had petitioned President Mahama to sack Mr Arthur.

The workers said as far as they were concerned, the Department was not involved in the publication of the brochure that had caused embarrassment to the country.

The staff argued that the Department would have saved government and Ghanaians from the embarrassment if it had been involved in the process of producing the document.

“It is important to note that ISD has competent human resources who over the years handled national events with competence to the pride of all. If the Department had been involved in the process of the production of the brochure, it would have saved the government and the people of Ghana from the embarrassment,” the staff maintained.

They further accused their director of disrespecting both the management and the employees of the ISD.

“Since Mr. Arthur’s appointment to ISD, his style of administration has been autocratic and has shown gross disrespect to both management and other staff members of the Department,” the staff alleged.

GHANA MISMANAGED - SAYS KONADU

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyaman-Rawlings, has observed that Ghana is being managed by incompetent group of people.

Wading into the much-talked-about poorly-compiled 59^th Independence Anniversary brochure that has made Ghana a laughing stock around the world, Nana Konadu said common errors in the document reflect the general incompetence in the administration of the country.

“We live in a mismanaged country,” the former first lady told Accra-based Atinka FM yesterday adding, “What happened last Sunday (6^th March) was so embarrassing; this has never happened in the history of Independence Day celebration before.

“Fifty-nine years down the lane, Ghana is beyond such mistakes therefore it is very unpardonable. If you see the sort of things happening in the country, it is not surprising at all.”

She also condemned how organizers of the event treated journalists at the anniversary parade and said it was time for them (journalists) to speak up.

“The treatment journalists received at the event was what they asked for. You have been given a place to stand and cover an event and you don’t complain about it, nobody will do anything about it for you. They were the right people to voice out what was good for them,” Nana Konadu pointed out.

Fulani Saga

The former first lady also commented on the protracted Fulani herdsmen issue at Asante Akyem Agogo in the Ashanti Region and called on the government to drive the nomads away without hesitation in order for peace to prevail in the area.

 “When my husband was president, they [Fulanis] were sacked. Nigeria did the same thing, so why can’t the current government do the same thing? Since the Fulanis are killing, we can only best classify them as criminals and we have to deal with them as the law says we do to criminals,” she charged.

In the alternative, she suggested that the local assembly should create ranches where fodders could be served to the cattle.

 “It is quite unfortunate that the security agents and the government by extension, have sat down and allowed the issue to assume a fever pitch. We have always known these nomadic herdsmen to carry a rod in herding their cattle. However, these days they are seen to be wielding guns. When did we get here as a country - an era where foreigners have superiority over the local people? This cannot happen anywhere in the world.

“The government must immediately work with the security agents and make the laws of Ghana work,” Nana Konadu entreated.