GRi Press Review 23 - 04 - 2003
IMF report: NPP’s economic policies failed in 2002!
Ex-Ghanair
CEO wanted Auditors to meet him in London
Rawlings’
credibility is destroyed
IMF report: NPP’s economic policies
failed in 2002!
According to the Report, the
2002 Programme was undermined by weaknesses in expenditure control,
non-implementation of the major revenue measure, that is, the 2.5 per cent
VAT increase, (insertion supplied by the Ghana Palaver but not in
text of the Report, making true the IMF/NPP government secret deal not to
mention VAT increase in official documentation), delays in the divestiture
plan, and a failure to adjust petroleum prices.
GPRS
The
Report admits that the NPP’s 2003-2005 Ghana Poverty Reduction
Programme on which the IMF/NPP Programme is based, starting with the 2003
Budget, is ambitious-IMF-speak for unnecessarily difficult- mentioning in
particular the proposed VAT increase and other new taxes and new taxes,
euphemistically referred to as ‘the revenue measures’ in the Report, cost
recovery in the petroleum sector, non-state intervention in petroleum pricing,
and expenditure control measures.
Excessive Taxation
The
Report implies that the tax measures are particularly excessive, and that they
go beyond what was envisaged for the medium term in the 2002 Budget. In other
words, the IMF is serving notice to the NPP government that if there should be
any social upheavals arising out of the implementation of the Programme, they
should not be the ones to blame!
The
Staff Appraisal Report reluctantly accepts the disguised VAT called ‘National
Health Contribution’ as a second-best alternative to increasing the standard
VAT rate, but also impliedly admits that it is actually a VAT increase in disguise.
Civil Service wages
The
IMF Staff disagrees with the level of civil service wage increases in the 2003
budget, wishing that it had been even lower than 22 per cent factored into the
2003 budget, but acknowledge the political problem the NPP government faced in
holding the line on wages at a time when energy prices were rising
substantially and taxes were being significantly increased. As a replacement
for further civil service wage increases, the IMF staff recommended a reduction
in the number of people in the service.
Inflation
The
IMF staff thinks that it will be difficult to achieve a single-digit inflation
as proposed in the NPP government’s programme, because the civil service pay
increases and the increases in energy costs may generate further upward
pressure on the general price level, and that this will need to be strenuously
resisted, thus providing the perfect explanation for the 29.4 per inflation
figure recorded for February 2003, which political prostitute Dr Kwesi Nduom and his NPP government challenged.
The
staff also believes that action is required to reverse
some of the excess expansion of liquidity in late 2002.
GCB/Valco
Two
actions required to strengthen the finances of the major public enterprises are
a rapid progress on the divestiture of Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), and an
early resolution to the pricing dispute with Valco,
diplomatically described in the Report as “the major private aluminium
company,” on terms that allow VRA, also diplomatically described as “the
electricity generation company,” to cover its costs.
It
will be recalled that on assumption of office, the NPP government jettisoned
the NDC- renegotiated VRA/Valco Agreement which would
have allowed Valco to pay on additional $30m per year
to the VRA and has since been unable to renegotiate new terms with Valco.
Programme support
If
all these actions and those mentioned in our previous stories can be taken by
the NPP government, then the IMF staff would support the NPP government’s
request for a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility in the amount of
SDR184.5m, and for additional interim assistance from the Fund under the
enhanced HIPC Initiative.
Whether
the people of
Next
issue: The text of the letter and the Memorandum of Economic and Financial
Policy of the government of Ghana 2003-2005 which the IMF staff
has drafted for Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Dr Paul Acquah,
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, to sign to the Managing Director of the IMF,
Horst Kohler. –
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your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Ex-Ghanair
CEO wanted Auditors to meet him in
Accra (Greater Accra) 23
April 2003 - Stringent study of the Ghana Airways Forensic Audit report has
revealed that ex-Chief Executive Officer of the airline, E. L. Quartey Jnr
wanted the six-member team of forensic auditors to fly over to meet him in
London at the tax-payers expense.
Quartey, whose stewardship of
the ailing airline has become the subject of various commentaries, is himself
cooling off in
Quartey Jnr, according to a
letter from Messrs Worldwide Investments Company Limited, the company that
undertook the forensic audit was to be interviewed on a number of issues
including aircraft acquisition, maintenance contracts, suppliers contracts,
acquisition and disbursement of loans, asset sales, guarantees for loans,
establishment of escrow accounts, fleet expansion, royalties from KLM and
Swissair and issues pertaining to the management of Ghana Airways.
In a letter to the forensic
auditors dated 6 September 2002 Mishcon de Reya, Quartey Jnr’s London-based
solicitors said among others
''…In view of Quartey’s present family
circumstances, the unfair and malicious press he has been subjected to … and
our inability to visit Ghana at present, we have consistently advised Quartey
to meet your team in the UK …Your point about movement of documents and files
is noted. However we feel it would be feasible for Ghana Airways to convey your
material''.
On the demand by the Auditors
that they will want Quartey Jnr to meet them in the presence of Ghanair Staff,
the solicitors said they did not believe it would assist or contribute to the
effectiveness of any interview if other staff were present.
Another letter from Bentsi-Enchill and Letsa, local
solicitors of Quartey said his present commitments outside the country maybe
impossible for him to be in
Quartey Jnr, through his
solicitors, last week wrote to the Independent newspaper, which is serializing
the Audit Report on Ghana Airways, saying that the Auditors failed to obtain
their client’s input in the course of their investigations. - Independent
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This is because certain
witnesses have chosen the NRC sittings as a platform to peddle falsehood and
engage in what they described as pure mischief against their clients,
especially Pratt.
In a letter to the Executive
Secretary of the NRC, Dr Ken Attafuah, the solicitors
said the evidence by Samuel Addae Amoako
which was carried by national dailies and television stations to the effect
that Pratt asked soldiers to kill him after he had been shot earlier is false.
“Our client vehemently denies
the said allegation and says that he would have expected that your commission
would have given him and his solicitors the opportunity to cross-examine the
said witness so as to exonerate himself from this
charge which our client considers very spurious and intended to tarnish his
image and damage his reputation, “said the solicitors.
The letter said Pratt “takes
very serious exception to this very grave omission on the part of your
commission which goes against the basic rule of natural justice which requires
that the accused is given the opportunity to confront his accusers.”
It added that the omission of
the commission has given a wide and uncontrolled platform to the said witness
to conduct a vicious act of character assassination and libellous attack on
Pratt, while effectively preventing him from availing himself of his
constitutional right to defend himself against such accusations, especially
given the international video and audio coverage that the testimony by Amoako received.
“We are instructed by our
client to demand from your commission, which we hereby do, that in the interest
of justice and fair play, the said witness, Amoako,
be recalled to the stand and that our client be given the opportunity to
cross-examine the said witness,” the letter added.
The solicitors, according to
the letter, demanded that the opportunity be offered Pratt within the next few
days to react to the issues raised by Amoako “so that
his rebuttal of the allegations made against him by the said witness will be
done within the proper context of the situation.”
“We are further instructed to
demand, which we hereby do, an unedited copy of the transcript of the evidence
given by the said witness, to enable our client and his solicitors prepare for
the cross-examination,” the letter concluded. - Graphic
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Asankragwa (Western Region)
He said the NDC’s reliance on deceit and lies is a ploy to divert
attention from the imminent defeat that is staring the party in the face.
Reacting to allegations
levelled against the NPP at Asankragwa yesterday,
Mac-Manu said “I look at the accusations of alleged inducements, rigging and
vote buying as effusions of a dying horse”.
He said the NDC is dead at Amenfi West and cannot offer any stiff opposition at the
election.
According to Mac-Manu, the NPP
is working hard and campaigning in the rural communities in the constituency
while the NDC continues to concentrate on allegations. He said the voters in Amenfi West will surely reward the NPP for its hard work at
the 24 April polls.
Mac-Manu noted that the NDC
has no tangible legacy to rely on to seek the votes of the people of Amenfi West. He pointed out that the NPP has started work
on the Asankragwa-Bawdie road, provided furniture for
schools in the area, built bungalows for teachers and extended electricity to
the area within the two years of its rule. - Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23
April 2003 - But for the timely intervention of the ''Crusading Guide''
newspaper, AFKO Fisheries Co Ltd (a marine fishing company owned by Koreans)
would have made underserved profit from the export of 210 metric tonnes of
rotten, foul-smelling Tuna fish to neighbouring African countries.
Unfortunately however, before
the paper could uncover the deal, tons of part of the rotten Tuna had already
been unleashed unto the Ghanaian market and were being patronized by innocent
consumers at attractive and apparently subsidized prices.
Labourers working with
AFKOFISH were threatened by authorities of the Marine Vessel AFKO 106, where
the rotten fish had been hidden, not to blow the whistle on the scam to the
Ghanaian Security Agencies if they wished to keep their jobs.
Two officials of the Port
Health Office at the
Apparently shocked by the
news, he quickly summoned the two officials who confessed that they did not do
a thorough check on the contents of AFKO 106 and so could not detect the rotten
tuna. The paper advised them to go back and take stock of the rotten fish
before they are sold out to innocent consumers. A second check was thus done
and that vindicated the paper’s position. - Crusading Guide
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Rawlings’
credibility is destroyed
“They should actually advice
him about people’s true perceptions about him,” he stated. Nsafoah’s
pronouncement followed that recent trading of unfavourable words between the
ex-President and Dr Obed Asamoah, the Chairman of the
Party. Such confrontations tend to affect the structure of the NDC and create
disaffection among members of the party.
He said the party needs
someone who is bold and can speak the truth. “In the presence circumstances,
anyone who continues to tell the ex-President that he is still popular is not
doing the party and the founder any good. Ghanaians have had enough of
Rawlings.”
The NDC activist stated that
the revelations coming out of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) had
destroyed the former President’s credibility in the eyes of Ghanaians. “We the
activists of the party strongly support Dr Asamoah’s
stand. Obed is able to call a spade a spade.
Rawlings’ role in the NDC and
Ghanaian politics must be redefined. If we continue to tolerate people who keep
urging the founder to speak publicly on behalf of the party, then the NDC will
die a natural death.”
Nsafoah said that as a founder of the party, Rawlings should
support the party financially, but the day to day affairs of the NDC must be
left to the party Chairman. As the founder, he should bring those who are
undermining the work of the Chairman to order, these include the General
Secretary and the so-called Women’s Wing.”
He said the NDC chairman had
firm roots in the party “if he leaves, he will take along a silent majority of
NDC supporters from branch, constituency, regional up to Parliament and several
top nuts throughout the country.”
He claimed that respectable
members of the party such as Prof Twumasi, Mrs Amoako Nuamah, Appiah Dwumoh and several others had kept their silence because of
indiscipline statements by some party members.
“We want those who have been
speaking by heart to know that Dr Asamoah is a big force to reckon with. In
fact, as far as politics is concerned, Dr Asamoah is one of the few people who
cannot be ignored. The party executives must unite and work towards the success
of the NDC,” he said.
The NDC, he said, at this
time in its history requires an effective, tried and tested leadership to
manage its affairs. – Evening News