Ex-Ministers under Probe

Although officials of the President Mills-led administration have not categorically stated the government’s official position as to whether they will soon commence prosecution of officials of appointees in the Kufuor-led administration, it has now been established that ex-officials are currently under investigations for various alleged offences during their tenure in office.Irrespective of the fact that the number and names of the ex-government officials are not known now, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould Iddrisu, have confirmed that investigations into alleged corrupt activities of some former government officials are underway.The Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s confirmation on Accra-based Citi fm on Monday came shortly after reports in certain media circles that the Mills-led administration was fast preparing to embark on massive prosecution of officials who served in the Kufuor-led administration.Even though she declined to disclose the current state of investigations, GO can report that the government’s investigations follow submission of the Government Transitional Report a couple of months ago to President John Evans Atta Mills. GO can authoritatively report that the report contains damning revelations about the activities undertaken by some former officials in the previous administration while in office.“The process has started for investigations. There were allegations made against public officials including some former government officials and these are being investigation,” she revealed.The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, however, revealed that no only ex-government officials are being investigated, saying that all other allegations of malfeasance made against any public officials are also being examined.Recently, the National Security Advisor, Brig. Gen. Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, told the media that government was preparing to start processing documents for the prosecution of public officials who allegedly burgled the stated during the Kufuor administration.Meanwhile, some ex-government officials whose names have come up in certain circles of the media for possible prosecution by the Mills-led administration are Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, former Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing among others.

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Hype Over Skype

Internet phone company is returning to its founders, which could make it a bigger competitive threat.Telecom companies such as British Telecom and AT&T have suffered from reduced consumer spending amid the downturn -- and now a rejuvenated Skype could add to their woes.
eBay , which admittedthat it paid over the odds for the Voice Over Internet Provider, particularly since it doesn’t offer many synergies with the auction titan's existing businesses, could be on the verge of selling it back to the very people it bought it from. Scandinavian entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who sold Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion, are preparing to buy back the business, backed by some $1.0 billion in funding from private equity companies Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Forbes investor Elevation Partners, according to TheNew York Times.A sale would be a potentially worrisome development for telecom providers. Though under eBay the business has grown nearly eightfold to around 40.0 million users, Skype has not soared as much as expected. "The spinning back of Skype could allow the new owners to focus on the core business of Skype instead of integrating it into eBay," said Gartner analyst Leif-Olaf Wallin. "The initial purpose of Skype was to provide low-cost communication to both consumers and small- and medium-sized companies."
Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell thinks the new owners would be keen to push its product with businesses, especially paid for services. Skype has announced a number of recent developments, including the forthcoming use of Skype "lite" on BlackBerry Bolds and Curves. But taking it to the next level in order to take advantage of mobile platforms fully would require more investment.
The current economic environment could also be advantageous for enticing businesses keen to optimize costs to Skype.

Omanhene calls for more information on albino killings

The Omanhene of the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Area, Obrifo Ahunaku Ahor Ankobea II has called for more information on reported albino killings allegedly by some politicians during the 2008 elections.In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Obrifo Ankobeah requested that the office of national security should invite Sheikh Salawati Imam Rashid Qutubu Zaanam, the Spiritual Leader of the Salawati Mission of Ghana who was reported to have made the allegation. An Accra Daily on May 20, 2009 quoted Sheikh Zaanam, a one-time Imam in the Ghana Armed Forces as saying "during the elections, not only were animals slaughtered and sacrificed, but some human beings were buried alive, including albinos, deep in the forests." The paper also quoted the Imam as saying; "The spirits of these innocent souls that were killed or buried alive will unquestionably haunt the country because they did not die natural deaths." The Imam allegedly predicted road accidents and other calamities in the country unless a spiritual atonement was sought. "Until President John Evans Atta Mills considers having the country exorcised, all his efforts at putting things right will come to nothing," he said with robustness and confidence, the paper said. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Apam on Wednesday, Obrifo Ahor Ankobea described the revelation by the Imam as so serious to be swept under the carpet.He must be made to assist the security apparatus to identify the perpetrators of the wicked crime for them to face the full rigours of the law. "As a spiritual leader of a religion, he knows what he was saying," the Omanhene stated and added that the allegation must be cleared to forestall albinos from living in fears in their own motherland.
Source:GNA

BoG to re-think pesewa denominations

…endorses police action for rejection of one cedi coinPaul Aquah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana has indicated the central bank’s preparedness to mull over suggestions on the introduction of a two pesewa coin or the re-minting of the one pesewa coin to deal with the case of the now defunct one pesewa coin.Dr Aquah also endorsed the suggestion of reporting persons who rejected the one pesewa coin to the police, saying that the one pesewa coin “is legal tender and remains a medium of payment accepted by law”.He acknowledged that the dislike for such lower denominations of currency was not peculiar to our country, saying that even in the UK, many people kept large collections of the penny until they moved residence, during which they deposited them at the bank. “But an outright rejection of the penny is not in their vocabulary, and it constitutes a breach of the law”, he told the Financial Intelligence in a chat last week.On the usual excuse that the coin was of inferior quality, the governor explained that it was a matter of principle that the physical value of a currency should not exceed its exchange value to forestall its usage for other purposes.He nevertheless indicated the bank’s preparedness to re-mint the coin to a preferable size if it finds that to be a major area of concern.The one Ghana Pesewa coin was one of the currencies introduced by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in its redenomination exercise in July 2007, but it appeared to have lost its value as legal tender shortly after the exercise.Many reject the coin on the grounds that it is difficult to handle because of its smallness, whilst others complain that it easily gets corroded. The outright rejection of the coin, though illegal, has become an accepted practice today, and many grumble about the monetary authority’s failure to address the situation in time.Among other criticisms that greeted the redenomination exercise was concerns about the omission of an equivalent for the old ¢200 (two pesewa coin) and ¢20,000 (two Ghana cedi note), units of currency which are common with most international currencies.Also of much concern was the failure to introduce an equivalent for the old ¢50, which per the setting of the old ¢10,000 to GH¢1 became 0.5 pesewa. Fears of fuelling inflationary tendency by this omissions gained grounds when most traders began rounding-off all prices below the old ¢500 to 5 pesewa.Mr Asuo Afram of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) told this reporter last Friday that the likely effect of the redenomination exercise on inflation cannot be challenged, but pointed out that his outfit was yet to conduct a survey to ascertain the facts.Credit: Financial Intelligence (Charles K. Amoah)
Source:Financial Intelligence

Doctors in Ho Municipal Hospital on 24-hour duty

Doctors at the Ho Municipal Hospital are on duty 24 hours since the beginning of their work-to-rule industrial action on Monday, Madam Patience Asigbe, Matron of the Hospital told the Ghana News Agency. She said apart from the hospital's Cuban doctors who were away attending a meeting in Accra and some who are attending a workshop in Accra, the rest have been reporting for their day and night duties. Madam Asigbe said there had not been serious emergency cases at the hospital that warranted that doctors be called in after normal working hours since they decided to "work-to-rule". "For now, no serious case had come after 1700 hours. Those that come were within the management of nurses," she said. The Matron said "it is difficult to ignore people who come to you for medical attention especially emergency cases" and expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved quickly to normalize work in the country's public hospitals. At the Volta Regional Hospital, Mr Alex Amenu, Administrator said there was nothing, so far, to show doctors at the hospital were "working to rule."He said work at the hospital had been normal with doctors reporting for scheduled job hours as was the case before. Dr Kofi Gafatsi Normanyo, Chairman of the Volta Region branch of the Ghana Medical Association, however maintained that doctors in the region were sticking to the call by the GMA to "work to rule".

GNA

Ghana inspires many countries

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has observed that directions taken by countries such as Ghana have served as a source of inspiration to many countries in Africa and beyond. "As leaders of our countries, we have a responsibility to gauge the mood of the people and always move the political train in a direction that ensures that the electorate feel their interests have been served," he said in a lecture he delivered on "Democracy and Security in Africa" under the auspices of the Oxford Research Network on Governance in Africa in London on Tuesday.The former president said in his lecture, a copy of which was e-mailed to GNA, that democracy made true meaning when it was the kind of governance that advertised true people power. He said security and political stability were key for real socio-economic development and that security relied on a genuine democratic culture.Former President Rawlings said the multiparty system of governance "prescribed and inflicted on us by some Western powers did not factor the social cultural fabric of our traditional political system that existed before Western multiparty democracy.""It is not the absence of military interventions, which we seem to have achieved, that will restore democracy, freedom, justice and development. What is required is the integrity of leadership and ability to empower the people. Leadership should have confidence in our people and not feel intimidated by empowering them," he said. The former president said corruption had persisted because leaders had used state machinery to terrorise the people and silence the opposition.He also noted that "vested interests from outside" had also contributed to perpetuating this by whitewashing such corrupt and autocratic governments.Former President Rawlings said while national security involved protecting the state, its institutions and sovereignty, human or political security entailed issues of poverty, basic amenities, employment, and abuse of human rights.The former president said it was most unethical and politically unwise to attempt to govern a people by resorting to a high ratio of physical security as opposed to political/human security."Are we not violating people's human rights, sensibilities and sensitivities with the use of the coercive machinery of the state by terrorising people into a State of subjugation?" he asked. Former Rawlings said on the other hand, a high ratio of political/human to physical security was a mark of good leadership and a demonstration of confidence in the sense of responsibility of people as this empowered the people."If we have the courage to empower our people, it then demands of us a leadership that will necessarily be accountable to the people, be transparent and maintain a high degree of integrity." Former President Rawlings also said the use of the judiciary to jail innocent people contributed to instilling fear and emasculating the populace."In effect, it creates a false and intoxicating sense of security for the leadership at the expense of the security and the empowerment of the citizenry. We then get away with being corrupt dictators. Integrity, transparency and accountability become meaningless in our leadership. Fear, intimidation and terror tactics are the tools of corrupt dictatorships."Former President Rawlings said security could not exist in a vacuum but always overlapped with the political environment. He said in Africa, democracy and security had always been bedfellows, saying the democratic system of governance related to the free and equal representation of the people in the management of a country.Former President Rawlings said democracy worked only when it had evolved within a specific socio-cultural environment and fused into the traditional political systems such that it was seen as an indigenous product, but unfortunately Africa had not been given the opportunity to develop this.Turning to Ghana, the former president traced his rise to power and said the country underwent political and economic metamorphoses that every true proponent of democracy had to concede, laid the fertile framework for what was regarded today as a stable democracy. He said when he his two terms of office ended and the candidate of his party, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills lost the election, he handed power to President John Agyekum Kufuor."The people's will had decided that John Mills was not the man to lead Ghana at the time. I respected that decision and did not dream of taking power by force or passing a decree to entrench my stay in power."He said the stability and smooth transitions recorded within the first eight years of the Fourth Republic was a true manifestation of the will of the people and a belief in the leadership they had elected. He said no government was without its negatives and he was convinced that his government had some flaws "but what is important is the fact that we were never alienated from the ordinary folk who elected us into power to move this country forward."Mr Rawling said contrary to the assertion that the tradition of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was truly democratic, "the NPP government was an excellent example of an undemocratic regime"."Once you belonged to the party you did no wrong. Every effort was made to obliterate the P/NDC legacy and the institutions of government were so politicised that even when they took decisions against government officials such decisions were disregarded with impunity. "Ghana once again sunk into a democracy of nepotism, non- accountability, power to the rich and a complete disregard for the feelings of the electorate."Former President Rawlings said more dangerous was the abuse of the security services structure, the hounding and persecution of some services personnel, refusal to follow laid down promotion procedure and a complete politicisation of the military."The NPP could not co-exist with institutions with forceful integrity. The security services were not spared and the judiciary took a serious beating as well. The NPP took us to the abyss as far as democracy was concerned and such methods do nothing to deepen or entrench democracy. It allows for chaos, lack of confidence in the electoral process and political apathy."Former President Rawlings said Ghana had managed to stay stable because of the culture of tolerance that had been created between 1981 and 2000 and these achievements were not due to pressures imposed by the West but a desire by a people to prove that peoples' power is most sacrosanct.
Source:GNA

Vodafone Deal Causes Stir In NPP

The controversy surrounding the GT-Vodafone deal seems to be causing a stir within the NPP with the party members accusing each other of impropriety. Had it not been a phone interview, a personal encounter would have erupted in Peace FM’s studious between some two leading members of the party, Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, MP for Asikuma, Odoben Brakwa and the former deputy minister for communication, Fredrick Opare Ansah who is also MP for Suhum.Hon. Appiah-Ofori said on PeaceFM that he had hand delivered a letter to President Mills, to review the Vodafone deal because he believed it amounted to a sell off. Speaking on the show, he described the Vodafone deal as fraudulent and said the former NPP administration needs to be questioned. He added that the former administration should even be dragged to court, because it had sold Ghana Telecom (GT) to a wrong company.According to him, they sold GT to Vodafone BV, Holland, instead of Vodafone PLC UK.It was in reaction to these statements by the MP, that the former Minister of Communication became furious and said, the Mp knows nothing and needs some education.According to him, there is no fraud in the Vodafone deal, so for someone like Hon. Appiah-Ofori from their own party to describe them as fraudsters, is deeply regrettable.
Source:peacefmonline.com