WAEC in dire straits; member nations default payments
Osafo Maafo to
debate tax exemption in Parliament
Recently
it was in the news that the Deputy Regional Minister Samuel Kofi
Dzamesi was abusing money allocated to the region
from the HIPC Relief fund for his personal ambition to contest the
parliamentary election in 2004.
It
is also alleged that contractors that benefit from any of the HIPC projects or
any contract awarded by the Tenders Board make 15% down payments, thereby
compromising the President's avowed Zero Tolerance for Corruption (ZTC)
campaign.
It
is instructive to note that relief items meant for victims of the Keta Sea Defence project were also diverted away from the
homeless victims without any remorse. The Heritage's investigations revealed
that relief items such as rice, blankets, rubber bowls were delivered by the Keta Director NADMO coordinator Aglah.
It
was further established that the items were used as gifts by the district
coordinator in the last District level elections held in 2002, which he
contested but lost.
Madam
Awovi Amewoshina (60), who
spoke about her plight to this reporter said about eight months ago Aglah went to inform them that relief items had been sent
to them (NADMO) and that they would let them have them.
Madam
Amewoshina said, he subsequently brought in 12 camp
beds for those occupying tents on the settlement and shared a blanket among two
people and two rubber bowls but she refused to accept them.
She
claimed after two weeks Aglah went back to inform
them that the government had released some food items to be shared among them
(victims) which he promised to bring to them on a Friday in June last year but
till the time of filling this report the food items has not reached them.
Gameli, also a victim who corroborated Amweoshina's
story, said even though the government is putting in its maximum to alleviate
their suffering, the NADMO coordinator is always worsening their plight. He
said the Aglah is so arrogant to them as if they had
called for their own predicament.
All
attempts to get the side of Aglah proved futile since
it was a Sunday and he could not be located. Even though I left my cellular
phone number for him to contact me he deliberately refuse
doing so. Contacted, the Keta District chief
Executive, Emmanuel Vorkeh was shocked to hear that
the items did not reach the victims.
DCE
Vorkeh said he personally went to solicit for the
items for the victims looking at their suffering. He said not too long ago the
National coordinator of NADMO, Brig Odei, and the
regional coordinator Kenwund Munwosen
brought the tents, rice and the other items to be distributed to the victims.
Vorker said he advised Aglah to compile a list of
the beneficiaries so that he might not end up sharing the items to wrong
people. He told The Heritage that all these took place around the time the
district level elections were at their peak and therefore he cannot rule it out
that it was diverted to service that purpose.
Also
reached for his comments, Kenwuud Nuworseu,
regional NADMO coordinator told the Heritage that the blankets were divided
into two from the National headquarters and he has since drawn their attention
to its. He also asked this reporter what was wrong about Aglah
using part of the relief items for his campaign?
The
Heritage independent investigations, however, revealed that Aglah
used the relief items as gifts during his electioneering campaign at Ziope in the Ho district but lost to the incumbents.
Francis Kwaku.
An impeachable source told The Heritage that some
household were given rice, others
WAEC in dire straits; member nations default payments
According
to the Registrar’s Report to Council for the year ended
The
details of contributions received as at end of the financial year in 31
December are as follows:
WAEC
received $402,597.25 out of
Of
the amount of $222,762.34 expected from The Gambia, $146,940.37 had been
received with a balance of $75,821.97.
The
total amount of $1,870,798.00 received so far represents 53.05 per cent of
Headquarters’ approved budget of $3,526,152.00 for the 2000 AD financial year.
The
Registrar, M.P. Ndure said that the net result of
this has been the near collapse of operations paid for from the Headquarters’
budget. Affected by the financial shortfalls are International Subject Award
meetings scheduled for
Training
courses for staff and examiners could not be held as planned. Research
activities were curtailed as were many other important activities. The
Salaries
of staff of the Research Division and Headquarters Office,
Because
of the heavy reliance on the amounts received from
Ndure stated that unavoidable defaults in the repayment of the loans
received have led to the Headquarters owing the
In
The
WAEC Registrar cautioned that if for any reason, the
Saying this is a rather dismal picture of the WAEC
Headquarters, but Ndure added, he was glad to report
that the need to redress the situation has been receiving serious attention in
the past few months. First, in
Outstanding
subvention/contributions accumulated in the past years. The Headquarters made a
submission to the committee as requested. However, WAEC is not yet privy to the
findings and recommendations of the committee, but there is every reason to
believe that something positive will come out of it.
He
explained how the Federal Government nominees on council formed themselves into
a Standing Committee to plead the cause of WAEC with the Ministries of
Education and Finance in
After
consultation with the committee, Ndure said he wrote
a letter to the Minister of Education making a special appeal for the payment
of at least the full contribution for the year 2000 to alleviate the plight of
the Headquarters. He felt assured that the full payment of
In
respect of war-torn
But
the chairman and vice-chairman of WAEC, in the past year, worked hard to ensure
that some funds were released. A system is being worked out on payment of
subventions to the National Office and Headquarters on a regular basis. He was
optimistic there would soon be a turn around in the financial situation of the
Headquarters, considering the so much goodwill shown recently.
While
a request has been made to the Federal Ministry of Education for an upward
review of the fee, the prevailing circumstances over NECO make it prudent to
continue with the N1,000 for the year 2001
examination.
In
addition, while in the past, the Government of Ghana had reduced the recommended
fee for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), it approved the
office’s recommendation of a new fee of C50,000.00
during the year under review. But the office still had cause for concern as the
continued fall of the local currency (Cedi) hiked cost of operations.
There
was marked improvement in funding later as the Government provided two hundred
and fifty-five million Leones ( i.e.
255m) in November. Part of this amount was used to purchase a computer and
paying the backlog of staff salaries and pension contributions.
In
addition, the Government approved new examination fees and rates of subsidy for
each examination. By the end of January, the office had received a total of
eight hundred and thirty-five million Leones (i.e.
834,000,000.00) as subvention. The bulk of the funds used in underwriting the
January 2001 international meetings in
With
the assistance of the Department of State for Education, the year under review
witnessed fewer difficulties in colleting examination fees. However, a debt of
D658,473.16 is still being owed by candidates and
schools as fees for the period under review. - Emmanuel Edukugho
/Vanguard
The
Minister of Regional Integration and NEPAD, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku has accused the SFO
of pursuing a hidden motive to vilify and spoil his name in the glare of the
Ghanaian public. “I voluntarily wrote to the Serious Fraud Office. If I knew I
was involved, I will not have done it”, he said.
Speaking
to newsmen in reaction to an alleged diversion on an amount of ¢3 billion from
Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) funds to set up a campaign office at Dzorwulu in
He,
therefore asked where the sense of balance and judgement of the Ghanaian media
had fled to, in making all sorts of allegations against him, and emphasized
that the SFO report which the media had capitalized on was not true since the
SFO itself had declared that it had not concluded its findings.
Dr Apraku therefore blamed the Serious Fraud Office for the
leakage of information to the media, while it insists that that it has not
completed its investigations. - Daily Guide
He
asked that the kind of amity permeating our body politick today be maintained
and assured that there is no cause for alarm. Botwe
was making an intervention at the Forum, which discussed “Promoting A Culture of Political Tolerance in
According
to the NPP scribe, even in the heat of political campaign, the leaders of the
various parties have maintained cordiality. To him,
In
apparent response to concerns raised by earlier speakers with regard to the
relationship between the two main political groupings - the NPP and the NDC, Botwe said; “We cannot expect a perfect society.” He
suggested that undue emphasis is being placed on the relationship between
former president Rawlings and president Kufuor. What
is important to the NPP general secretary is not so much the so-called cordial
relationship between the two leading figures, but the need to ensure that the
rules of the land work. “We must ensure that there is no impartiality (in the
political game) and the rules of the country work and work effectively.”
He
added that it is misleading and indeed dangerous to limit the issues to
personalities. Earlier speakers notably, Commissioner for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, Emile Short and the Chairman of the National Commission
for Civic Education (NCCE), Laary Bimi
made a strong case for what they called, “leadership by example.” To them, it
is more than important for president Kufuor to meet
with political leaders including his predecessor former president Rawlings to
exchange ideas.
Short
was sure that followers of the political parties especially the two main ones,
(NDC, NPP) will be very affected if they saw their leaders working together in
the interest of the nation.
In
his paper, the main speaker, Rev. Dr. Mensah Otabil, General Overseer of the International Central
Gospel Church (ICGC) noted that the national timidity of Ghanaians coupled with
their inability to exorcise the dangerous demon of ethnicity has over the years
allowed their differences to deepen the canker of ethnic suspicion, which
haunts the nation’s development.
He
took Parliament to task for failing largely to address the issue of where one
hails from when the issue of MP Samuel Nyimakan came
up. The man was thrown out of the House because it was determined that he did
not hail from the constituency he represented. The eminent preacher said, “although the judgment was made on the letter of the law, I
still believe it undermined the spirit of our nation.”
Isn’t
it surprising that after the by-election that resulted from the ruling,
Parliament itself has largely ignored the issue in its debate?” Dr. Otabil believes that the nation must be structured on the
ideals of freedom, justice, hard work and prosperity. These ideals must be
taught to children and upheld by all citizens.
”Since
independence,
Osafo Maafo
to debate tax exemption in Parliament
Accra (Greater Accra) 17 July 2003 – Parliament will this morning be expected to debate a request by the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, for tax exemption for Interberton BV on the scandal-ridden $60m contract for the Quay Two extension project at the Tema Harbour.
The
request comes two months after “The Chronicle” broke the story of how the
Finance Ministry and the then Minister for Roads and Transport as well as the
Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) violated the
Constitution by granting tax exemption to Interbeton
BV of the Netherlands in respect of VAT and other local taxes without prior
approval of Parliament.
The
Finance Minister also stated, “The exercise of any power conferred on any
person or authority to waive or vary a tax in favour of any person or authority
is by the said provisions made subject to the prior approval of Parliament.”
In
his request the Osafo Maafo
refused to mention that he had granted the tax exemption to Interbeton
a year ago without prior parliamentary approval and that the request only meant
to satisfy the books. Interbeton has been exempted
from the payment of taxes and duties for almost one year.
In
September 2002, the Finance Ministry through Opoku Kyei, Special Assistant to the Minister, granted the tax
exemption to Messrs Interbeton on condition that the
Ministry of Road and Transport and the GPHA would seek and obtain Parliament’s
approval.
The
Finance Ministry also stated that in the event of failure to obtain
Parliamentary approval for the exemption, they would hold the Ministry of Roads
and Transport and GPHA responsible. Following their refusal to supply for tax
exemption, the Finance Minister (MoT) and the GPHA
boss and wrote at least three letters to the newly established Ministry of
Ports, the VAT Secretariat and the Internal Revenue (IRS) threatening that if
the MoT and GPHA did seek and obtain the exemption
from Parliament, they would be held liable for the amount of tax exempted. – Chronicle