Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 2003 - A top banker yesterday confirmed that the rate of inflation in the country is now 29.4%, going by the criterion that this government has used in the past two years for its determination.
"The inflation rate can only become 16% as Economic Planning Minister Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom claims as a result of intellectual dishonesty," said this experienced banker who, because he works at the Bank of Ghana (BOG), spoke under a condition of anonymity.
The BOG official pointed out that since December 2000, the NPP Government has consistently quoted “inflation over 12 months” figures as determined by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in its compilation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). He said this "inflation over 12 months" figure was 40.5% as at December 2000 and dropped to 21.3 by December 2001, and again declined gradually to 16.3% in January 2003.
"But now that various factors have contributed to inflation jumping to 29.4% in February 2003 using the same formula, they are rejecting it for political expediency. The government is shifting to a measure of inflation they have not used in the past 24 months. This is very, very dishonest, fraudulent really, if the truth must be told", he said.
The BOG "Deep Throat" explained that the measure of inflation that the government had suddenly found attractive is the "yearly inflation" which is determined by the GSS from the calculation of the CPI.
"The yearly inflation figure for February 2003 is 15.6%, just as quoted by Dr. Nduom, but that excludes the impact of the 90.4% increase in fuel prices effected towards the end of January 2003", he said.
Our source said that if the government is now using the yearly inflation figure, then it should admit that the economy it inherited was good as the yearly inflation for December 2000 was just 25.2%.
Attempting an explanation for the present woeful state of the economy, the source said that the Economic Management Team (EMT) failed to repeat its excellent performance of 2001 last year.
"Deep Throat" pointed out that statistical figures compiled since last year showed that the macro-economic situation was getting very bad.
He noted that the economic fundamentals being implemented by the NPP government at the time of the first petroleum price hike of 66.4% in March 2001 were excellent. Hence, he explained, the impact of the price hike on inflation was negligible.
He said the latest inflation figures have, however, confirmed that the accelerating recovery in the first year of the Kufuor administration has been put on hold, particularly by the excessive rise in the prices of petroleum products in January this year.
He said the team so messed up the economy in 2002 that money supply soared to an unprecedented 50 percent. Another cause for the mess, he noted, was the budgeting for foreign inflows. He said government has been computing its revenue generation for last year using figures that included the $1.4bn that Ghanaians abroad remitted to their relations here.
"This was money paid directly to recipients to, among other things either carry out building projects or pay school fees. So how anyone can treat it as part of official inflows, beats the understanding" he noted.
According to the source, the coup de grace that put the economy in the woods is the 90.4 per cent increase in petroleum prices. That single event turned prices on their heads across the board, he said.
Analysts polled by The Heritage yesterday expressed dismay at the implied attempt to discredit the GSS. "A government that will discredit its own statistical service merely to score political points, is one that ought to be watched closely," they indicated.
The attempt to revise the inflation rate has also created problems for the Bank of Ghana. Fixing the Prime Rate would become a real challenge and commercial banks may decide to ignore the Bank and determine their own rates. - Heritage
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Navrongo (Upper East) 26 March 2003 – The ruling NPP has for the forth consecutive time, won a by-election within 26 months in office with Navrongo Central as the latest trophy. By a massive vote, which clearly translates into one of confidence for the government, the people of the area have elected Joseph Kofi Adda of the NPP as the new Member of Parliament.
While Kofi Adda, who a week prior to the by-election, have predicted a 15,000-vote margin between his victory and the second placed candidate did not achieve his target, the outcome of yesterday’s by-election was confidence boosting enough.
With the NPP’s victory, the door is now open for PNC leader, Dr Edward Mahama to take a principled walked through and take a bow out of the turbulence of politics, which he has played no mean a role to corrupt in recent times.
Dr Mahama vowed before the election to resign from politics if his candidate, Gabriel Scott Pwamang failed to win the seat, which was left vacant by the death in a motor accident of the NPP’s John Achiluwor.
While the NPP in characteristic fashion, approached the by-election in all seriousness and marshalled maximum human and material resources for it, the main opposition party, the NDC cooled it of in Accra where its officials and activists strategised on the type of “foul tactic” to attribute to the NPP’s victory.
In what is gradually becoming the hallmark of the NDC, its lazy and dispirited party officials sit in Accra from where the run campaigns of by-elections in places far removed from the capital and with conditions totally different from Accra, and yet fabricate all kinds of charges to rubbish the deserved victories of NPP.
That is what happened when the NDC leadership paid a belated visit to Navrongo last weekend, weeks after the NPP team had set up and run a full campaign. To cover their organizational deficiency and dwindling support across the country, the NDC is now degenerating from a responsible political party into a “choobi” group more at home with violent demonstrations, which its defeated presidential candidate, Prof Atta Mills has promised.
Apart from the organisational superiority of the NPP and its commitment to elections, the NPP’s growing support across the country is also informed by its fulfilment of the promise of positive change into the lives of the people as evidenced by the number of development projects completed, commenced and on-going in the Navrongo Central Constituency alone with its short period in office.
Yesterday’s voting was peaceful, devoid of any disturbances as against predictions by the prophets of doom. Not a single incidence of untoward behaviour was recorded at the polls. Farewell, Dr Edward Mahama and may politics in Ghana be more decent without you. – The Statesman
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Gomoa East (Central Region) 26 March 2003 - There political parties have filed their nominations to contest the Gomoa East parliamentary by-election scheduled for 8 April.
The parties are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Democratic People’s Party (DPP).
The other political parties, namely: the People’s National Convention (PNC), the EGLE Party and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) failed to register any candidate for the polls by the close of nominations on 12 March.
No tangible reasons have been given by the parties for their inability to put up candidates to contest the by-election which has become necessary following the death of the Member of Parliament (MP), Emmanuel Acheampong, in a lorry accident on the Agona Swedru-Winneba Road.
According to the Gomoa District Electoral Officer, Frank Nunoo, the candidates who filed their nomination papers with the Electoral Commission (EC) are, Messrs Richmond Sam Quarm, a 41-year-old accountant, for the NPP; Richard Kojo Annan, 59, a clerk, for the NDC, and Evans Kofi Otoo, 45, a teacher, DPP.
Annan, who is a retired Warrant Officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, contested on the ticket of the NDC in the 2000 parliamentary election and lost to the deceased MP. Nunoo said the NDC candidate‘s picture and the party’s symbol will be first on the ballot paper, followed by those of the DPP and the NPP.
Meanwhile, functionaries of the NPP and the NDC are on a daily basis courting the support of the electorate in the constituency to vote for their respective candidates in the by-election.
The NPP has, for instance, put up an office at Gomoa Ekwamkrom and adorned electric poles from Gomoa Afransi through Gomoa Potsin to Gomoa Nyanyano in the party’s colours, while the NDC has also erected flags in the majority of communities in the district.
On the day for the filing of nominations,
both the NPP and the NDC used loud speakers mounted on vehicles to introduce
their candidates, who were in different convoys to members of the public who
had lined up along the streets from Gomoa Ekwamkrom to Gomoa Afransi. - Ghanaweb
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Tema (Greater Accra) 26 March 2003 - United Nations Volunteers (UNV), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday presented 28 litter bins worth over 20m cedis to the Tema Municipal Assembly to reduce the high incidence of indiscriminate littering of refuse on the streets.
Joseph Uche Oji, Programme Officer of UNV who made the presentation said even though there were litter bins at some various points in the municipality, many people were still littering the streets with empty water sachets, yoghurt and ice-cream containers.
" Tema, as an industrial city and gateway to the country, requires that the municipality is clean and also ensure that there is high sanitation standard, one of the indicators of level of a society's development", he said.
The UNV/UNDP Project under the first three phases fielded a team of United Nations Volunteers who worked with the stakeholders involved through civic processes to build trust between the taxpayers and the local authorities to strengthen the cohesion and confidence between the two parties.
The first three phases dealt with team building and sensitisation, baseline analysis of data and participatory planning process. The fourth phase, which is the implementation of the action plan, would take off in July, this year.
Oji called for popular consultation forum to build on the capacity of revenue collection that would consolidate on the gains of the project with the view to replicating the experience in other parts of the country.
Alfred Salia Fawundu, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said good governance, sustainability, decentralization, devotion and transparency were the vital ingredients in any socio-economic development dynamics.
He said these ingredients were what Tema Municipal Assembly adopted to ensure success of the Project. He said the project had highlighted the impact in reducing the level of confrontation between the ratepayers and the TMA.
Fawundu assured TMA that plans were far advanced to provide funds for the provision of technical support for the mobilisation of resources to implement the action plan for development of the area.
Samuel Ashong Narh, TMA Chief Executive, commended UNDP/UNV for their assistance and said their intervention had created conducive environment for successive annual increases in their internal generated funds for the last two years.
He said the project had come to solve the issue of lack of confidence, social cohesion and trust between the taxpayer and the assembly, adding, " we are very grateful".
He appealed to other organisations to come to the aid of the assembly to solve its sanitation problem.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 2003 - The Defence Intelligence Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has mounted a search for one Olla Durojaiye, for masquerading as a colonel of the Ghana Armed Forces and claiming to have been seconded to security agencies in other countries.
His activities, it is believed, have brought the image of the GAF into disrepute within international circles.
Durojaiye is said to have also described himself as a security consultant employed by the Ghana Airways and in-charge of the State Transport Security, an operation that the GAF is discreetly executing for the nation.
He is alleged to have used this cover to terrorise Ghana Airways staff and crew, both in London and at the Kotoka International Airport.
A source close to the Military Intelligence Unit, which disclosed this in an interview in Accra yesterday, said Durojaiye’s action breached both national and defence security laws of the country.
According to the source, Durojaiye was arrested by personnel of the unit at the Kotoka International Airport on 4 March, this year and was immediately handed over to the Airport Police.
It said he was granted bail the same day and on Sunday 9 March, while investigations were still underway, the military received information that Durojaiye was about to board a Ghana Airways flight to London.
The source Durojaiye has the record of jumping bail, the military police was tasked to re-arrest him but he managed to escape.
The source said he was recently reported to have claimed to be a “ranger’, who is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the M15 of Britain and the Ghana Army and that preliminary investigations have revealed that Durojaiye is an ex-convict who has taken up a Nigerian name and residing most of the time in London.
It disclosed that his real name is Joseph Kwame Danquah a Ghanaian and documented in military records as the son of ex-staff sergeant Daniel Kofi Danquah. It said his twin brother is George Danquah of Base Workshop, Burma Camp. The source said Durojaiye was brought up at the 5th Battalion of Infantry in Burma Camp.
It said currently, Durojaiye holds a British passport and has a penchant for fraternising with persons in top management positions in civil organisations and the security services and uses the acquaintance so developed for subsequent blackmail.
He is frequently seen on board Ghana Airways flights to and from London with uninvoiced tickets endorsed by management and often times upgraded to business class. - Graphic
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