GRi Press Review 27 – 05 - 2003
Rawlings speaks on quality grain ruling
It’s government’s obligation - K. B. Asante
Export Council to diversify export base
“President is not in a dilemma”
Bagbin calls for referendum on constitution
Director blows ¢136m in seven months
Police cry foul over welfare scheme
Single digit inflation unattainable in near future
Ghana needs$800m to improve telecom
Ghana Embassy in Germany under attack
Rawlings speaks on quality grain ruling
Pretoria (South Africa) 27 May 2003 - Former President Jerry
Rawlings has defended his government’s decision to set up the Aveyime rice
project for which three former public officials have been jailed. Rawlings says
the project was aimed at reducing reliance on imported rice. In an interview with
SABC during his recent visit to South Africa, the former President said the
conviction of the three former public officials is a manifestation of a
political and class war taking place in Ghana.
''They were jailed on the premise that there was willful dissipation of the country’s resources but the point is that there was no willful dissipation, nor was there an intent to do any such thing''.
The three officials who worked to facilitate the project are serving various sentences between two and fours years. Jerry Rawlings says their trial and conviction was not fair.
''The government back home has its own agenda…What is going on is a political war and not a legal affair. It is a class war''.
In his first public reaction since the conviction of the three, Jerry Rawlings explained that it was his administration that first detected some fraudulent actions of Juliet Cotton and reported to the American authorities. The former President referred to the conviction of Mrs Cotton and the ruling by a US court that the former government officials were victims of Mrs Cotton’s fraudulent deals and wondered why they were jailed.
Former President Rawlings says the former government
believed in the success of the project since it would have reduced rice imports
by $100m. According to him, the reasons for initiating the project are still
valid since the Aveyime rice project is still viable. – SABC
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It’s government’s obligation - K. B. Asante
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 - An educationist and social commentator, K. B. Asante, has said that the state should continue to fund university education in so far as the courses offered by the universities promote the economic and social advancement of the country.
He said the fact that some private universities claim they are making cost recovery in their investments should not convince the government to slash the funding of public universities. Asante was reacting to a comment by the Minister of State for Tertiary Education, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, that full cost recovery in the private universities is an indication that government funding of education in the public universities can no longer be sustained.
The minister’s comment, which was carried in yesterday’s issue of the Graphic, was made at the Congregation Banquet and Awards Night of the Central University College (CUC) last Friday.
Asante said in a situation where workers are not adequately paid, the government has a moral, social and economic responsibility to ensure that the greater majority of Ghanaian children have uninhibited access to state-sponsored quality education, which is the bedrock of national development.
He said right from independence, workers accepted modest wages and salaries in return for the state to provide quality education for the people. “Education is the key to economic development. We, therefore, need, as a nation, to put more resources into its funding,” he said.
He pointed out that any national debate on the funding of tertiary education should be based on facts, which are convincing. He cautioned that any attempt to push the greater cost of university education on parents will not be welcomed by the greater majority of the populace and this might create a negative image for the government.
“We live in a free economy and the fact that other universities collect huge fees does not mean that the state universities should also do the same,” he stressed.
Asante said the value of education should be factored into
the economic policy of the government so that the state determines the value of
courses offered by the universities. He said the government should also place
emphasis on the provision of Information Technology facilities in the
educational institutions to enable the country to catch up with the rest of the
world. - Graphic
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Export Council to diversify export base
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 – The Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) is to diversify and improve supply base, development and export of 10-targeted products, the Chief Executive Officer of GEPC, Collins Edward Boateng has said.
The products are chillies, vegetables, soya beans, sweet potatoes, fish, coffee, mango cashew jewellery, handicrafts and services. The products have thus been classified into three products, namely short-term, long-term and novelty products.
Boateng, who disclosed this in an interview, said a programme for the planting of chillies, vegetables, sweet potatoes, and soyabeans, with support from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Irrigation Development Authority (IDA) and ICOUR has been carried out in 28 districts during the first quarter of this year.
He said the council will also facilitate the transfer of 13,000 mango seedlings by the MOFA to farmer groups throughout the country as well as facilitate the production of 10,000 tonnes of soya beans in three regions by the end of July.
Boateng said this programme will ensure seed and seedlings are available to more than 5,000 farmers for export-oriented production of chillies, vegetables and sweet potatoes.
Additionally, he said, under the mango plantation, 300 farmers in the Dangme West District will plant 320 acres of export-variety mango by August 2003.
He said six jewellery companies have been supported to undertake marketing programmes in North America, stressing that this is being done within a programme to assist the development of electronic catalogue for members of the Federation of Ghana Jewellery.
On market development, the CEO said the council aims at increasing the present ECOWAS market share of non-traditional exports in the ECOWAS market from the current 28 per cent to 32 per cent by the end of the year.
“This will be done through the completion and implementation of market access programmes, increase and diversify non-traditional exports to North America from the present nine per cent to 15 per cent through completion of contact promotion programmes”, Boateng said.
He said the GEPC is targeting $10m export orders from 30 companies and will provide opportunities to expand and create employment for at least 1,500 persons by the end of the year.
Boateng said estimated amounts of $2m and $1.5m in orders are expected by the end of the year for six jewellery and four straw products.
He said the objective of the export of the non-traditional products will be to increase the overall total exports by 15 per cent to about $575m this year, stressing that “a target of $600m is achievable considering that GEPC was able to access ¢2.4bn of the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), to some local companies last year and the benefits of such a programme will manifest this year.
He said the major obstacle to the smooth operations of the
council is funding and called for more financial intervention from the
government as well as development partners to ensure the development of the
non-traditional export sector of the economy. - Graphic
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“President is not in a dilemma”
Asesewa (Eastern Region) 27 May 2003 – The National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lord Commey, has stated categorically that the President is not in any dilemma as to who to choose as his running mate for the next general elections, contrary to media reports.
"It think that although the President has not yet made known who is going to be his running mate, he is not in a dilemma since the provisions of the party's constitution are there to guide him," he said. He said the President is a principled gentleman who knows what is best for his administration and the entire country and is, therefore, very stable in his mind on who to choose as his running mate, come 2004.
Commey was speaking in an interview at Asesewa after a meeting with polling station agents, chairmen and constituency executives of the NPP as part of his week-long tour of the Eastern Region.
According to him, although the President has the right to choose his running mate, he is supposed to do so in consultation with the National Executive Council of the party, in line with the party's constitution.
He said the President is very conscious of this and will make the choice which best suits the party and the entire nation, latest by the end of this year.
On speculations that the President may not retain his sitting Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Commey refuted that and said Alhaji Mahama is a good combination and that there is every likelihood that President Kufuor may retain him.
On the possibility of the Dagbon crisis affecting the NPP in the 2004 polls, Commey answered in the negative, saying that although state security was threatened, things are under control and that the NPP will retain political power.
Earlier, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Gustav Narh Dometey who has declared his intention to contest the Upper Manya Krobo parliamentary seat in 2004, welcomed the team. Spirits were high and members sang victory songs as the National Organiser and his entourage were introduced.
Commey appealed to party members to open the doors of the party to others who want to join in order to get more members to change the trend in that constituency, come December 2004. He said the party has never won any elections in that constituency and, therefore, members should not relent in their efforts to promote the party among communities to enable it to win this time round.
According to him, the NPP has targeted to capture four NDC parliamentary seats in the region, and the Upper Manya seat is included. He said the NPP is on track, adding that this could be proven by ongoing development projects in all parts of the country.
The Second Vice Regional Chairman of the party, Sub Lt
Christian Tettey (rtd), who chaired the meeting, charged members to work hard
to enable the party to win the seat so that Krobos would be counted among the
winners. - Graphic
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Bagbin calls for referendum on constitution
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 - The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has called for a referendum to remove certain entrenched clauses in the Constitution which are counter to the country’s democratic dispensation.
He specifically mentioned the clause, which mandates the Executive, that is, the President, to appoint half of his Cabinet members from Parliament.
According to the Minority Leader, such a provision defeats the purpose of separation of powers and checks and balances, saying, "It swallows up the whole parliamentary system and makes it moribund". Bagbin was contributing to a debate on "Strengthening the Links of Accountability" at the Development Dialogue Series held in Accra last Friday.
The dialogue, which was on the theme, "The GPRS and Multi-Donor Budget Support: Strengthening the Links of Accountability", was organised by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the World Bank, Ghana Office.
Bagbin expressed satisfaction about the general legal framework within which Parliament operates but was dissatisfied with some entrenched clauses in the Constitution.
He expressed concern about the way Parliament was marginalised in the framing of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and said the trend should be reversed in the framing of such documents in future, since Parliament is a direct representation of the people and it is well versed in issues at the grassroots.
The Minority Leader called for the resourcing and strengthening of Parliament to enable it to perform its role effectively for the socio-economic development of the nation. He said resourcing Parliament is particularly important for it to discharge the duty of monitoring and evaluating the GPRS.
He described as unfortunate the practice where departments and agencies of government always approach the Executive for solutions, saying they can equally make use of Parliament, which represents their interests. Bagbin urged accounting and financial institutions, the Accountant General's Department, the media and the private sector to liase with Parliament to pursue the common goal of accountability.
He urged Ghanaians to stand up in unity, gird their loins and work together as a people to meet the aspirations of the country.
The UNDP Country Director, Alfred Sallia Fawundu, in a
contribution, said there is the need to ensure accountability in all sectors of
the economy, adding, “What we are going to be judged by is what amount of
poverty we have been able to reduce.” - Graphic
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Director blows ¢136m in seven months
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 May 2003 - A section of the staff of the Garden City Radio (GCR) in Kumasi is fuming about the financial loss caused by the representative of the corporation’s director-general (D-G) at the station while on duty in Kumasi as acting regional director.
They have blamed the loss on delays on the part of management of GBC to reinstate Ms. Rosina Amaning, who was interdicted alongside other officers in October last year.
From 16 October, last year to 21 May, this year, Godwin Avenogbor, the Grand Master, acted as the regional director of GCR in Kumasi, while Ms. Amaning was on interdiction. She has since been cleared by a three-member committee of enquiry headed by a director of radio, Yaw Owusu Addo, which recommended her immediate reinstatement because no serious wrong-doing had been established against her.
Chronicle can report on authority that the GBC had paid out a total of ¢136m in respect of accommodation, meals, night allowances and T&T as at May 16, this year. About ¢40m out of the lot went into T&T alone.
Miklin Hotel, where D-G Lokko’s rep lodged from December last year to 21 May, this year was yet to submit bills covering the period between 17-21 May when this reporter called to check on phone.
According to financial records available to Chronicle, the GBC spent an average of ¢14m per month on Avenogbor who allegedly claims to be very expensive for the position and deserved special treatment while in Kumasi. After two months initial stay at the Cedar Crescent Hotel, the acting regional director relocated to Miklin Hotel where GBC paid $70, the equivalent of ¢637.500 per day for the double room for its special guest.
Avenorgbor has since left for Accra to take up a post of director of marketing at GBC, according to rumour among Chronicle sources. (Details of intended promotions at GBC later).
Chronicle investigations have, however, revealed that total expenditure under Avenobor’s directorship from January –March this year recorded an increase of 39% over the same period in 2002 under Ms. Amaning from ¢171,281,530.18 to ¢238,131,263.45 of which a little over a third went to cover hotel accommodation, T&T and other expenses of the D-G’s rep.
Delving further into the financial operations of the station, Chronicle observed that ¢312,581.852.54 was mobilized as total revenue receipts from January to March this year under Avenogbor.
The figure represents 47% growth over the previous years receipts. This growth has been attributed to the increase of over 100% in all chargeable rates including land rent receipts and unpaid salaries.
In the previous year (2002), ¢212,604,939.13 was, however, realized over the same period (January-March) under Ms. Amaning’s administration. The growth rate then was 93% described by financial managers as “quite better.”
The percentage increase in chargeable rates between 2001 and 2002 then was only 18%, financial records have shown.
It is against this background that a section of the GBC staff are calling on management to ensure the reinstatement of the interdicted regional director as recommended by the Owusu Addo committee to avoid further waste of resources at the station.
They have also called on the government to intervene and ensure that the recommendations of the committee of enquiry are carried out to the letter to bring sanity into the running of the station.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Chodi has taken over from Avenogbor as the
acting regional director of GCR in Kumasi. Chodi, according to Chronicle
sources, has decided to stay at a less expensive hotel because he does not want
to be part of the rape of the corporation’s resources. - Chronicle
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Police cry foul over welfare scheme
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 - Reports received from some police personnel indicate their discontent on the way the police consumer welfare scheme is being managed. It is alleged that every police person contributes an amount of ¢20,000 every month towards the scheme. If contributors borrow from the fund, they pay back with interest of 10%.
When any of them is leaving the service, the monies they have contributed is calculated without interest and given to them. When the police public relations directorate was contacted, it refuted the allegations and explained that the welfare scheme, which was set up in April 1991, is compulsory for all service personnel, except recruits in training.
The initial contribution was ¢1,000 per month per person and has been periodically adjusted in tune with economic realities till it reached ¢20,000 from in 2001 and has remained so to date. The amount is deducted at source every month and paid into police welfare scheme account.
“The main purpose of the fund is to solve the short term socio-economic problems of personnel in the service. Membership of the scheme automatically qualifies personnel for loans and consumer items. The current loan level is ¢800,000 per member. It is payable in 10 months with an interest rate of 10%,” Eklu said.
He refuted the allegation that staff received the exact amount they contribute at the end of their service. Rather, he said, contributors, on leaving the service, are paid the total number of months contributed to the scheme plus 5% interest, adding that the interest rate is currently under review and is likely to be adjusted upward.
On who manages the scheme, he said a management committee headed by the commissioner of police in charge of welfare at the police headquarters is managing it.
Other members include commissioner of police CID, deputy paymaster as administrator, a senior police officer as operations officer, an inspector and a representative of the other ranks supported by a secretariat at the headquarters.
The same set-up is duplicated at the regions and divisions. The scheme is decentralized with regards to deductions, loan disbursement and distribution of consumer items as far as to the divisional and district levels.
Signatories to the account at the headquarters are the
commissioner of police in charge of welfare, the paymaster-general and the
administrator while the regional commander, paymasters and the divisional
commanders and their respective paymasters are authorized to sign cheques in the
regions and divisions. - Chronicle
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Single digit inflation unattainable in near future
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 – The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Dr. Paul Acquah, has reaffirmed the statement made by the Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, that a single digit inflation figure is unlikely to be achieved in the near future.
Dr. Acquah, who is also the chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said that the current situation was unsurprising due to the jump in inflation in February which would reflect in all year-on-year calculations of inflation till next February when the figure would fall out of the statistical series.
The governor said this at a news conference last Friday when the Monetary Policy Committee of the bank undertook a review of the macro-economic performance for the first quarter of the year and the outlook for inflation.
He further stated that inflation rate would hover around 22% by March 2004, if the current direction of economic policies and the downward rate of price increases are sustained.
Latest inflation figures released by the committee showed that the year-on-year inflation for April this year was 30%, up marginally from 29.9% in March and 29.4% in February.
According to the governor, the inflation jump associated with the petroleum price increases in January has been absorbed by the economy as April saw the lowest increase so far this year in the consumer price index with a rise of 1.5%.
The monthly change in non-food price inflation of 0.7% was the lowest increase in the sub-sector over the past seven months whilst food price inflation recorded a downward trend of 2.7%. The governor added that these price movements and relative stability of the foreign exchange market suggest that the inflationary pressures underlying the economy seem to be easing.
Dr. Acquah stated that the immediate outlook for the economy is quite bright with global economic uncertainty associated with the Iraq war over, expected decline in crude oil prices and the surge in the prices of cocoa and gold.
He noted that the external payment position would be strengthened if the current pace of foreign exchange inflows from private sector, international financial institutions and donors were continued. Dr. Acquah announced that given the balance of risks to the fiscal consolidation and the emerging disinflation process, the MPC has decided to leave the prime rate unchanged at 27.5%.
The committee noted that the fiscal outturn saw an increase in domestic revenue mobilization with total revenue for the first quarter amounting to ¢2,698bn, which exceeded the budget target of ¢90.0bn.
It also saw a lower than planned expenditure with a domestic primary balance surplus of ¢190.8bn compared to a budgeted target of ¢421bn for the quarter leading to a net domestic financing of the budget amounting to ¢369.0bn which was less than the budget target of ¢823bn.
Dr. Acquah said the government improved its financial position with the banking system to the tune of ¢551bn by the first half of May but the domestic public debt stock rose by 3.9% in the first quarter of the year to 8.5% in the same period last year. He said the banking system holdings of government securities declined from 55.0% in March last year to 51.5% by March this year.
On the external front, the governor said from the beginning of the year through May, earnings on cocoa and minerals through the bank amounted to $58.2m and $73.1m respectively whilst payment for oil imports amounted to $167.6m, lower than projected.
Foreign exchange inflows amounted to some $540min the first quarter, recording a 70% increase over 2002 figures. Acquah mentioned that there had been a slowdown in the growth of monetary aggregates, led by a 17% decline in reserve money during the first quarter of this year.
Market interest rates moved up during the first quarter with the benchmark 91-day treasury bill rate and the inter-bank rate increased from 26.6% and 20.0% last December to 33.3% and 26.7% respectively.
On the performance of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Dr. Acquah said during the first quarter, the GSE All-Share Index rose to 18%, compared to 6.5% during the same period last year.
Turn over volume of equities traded was 43m shares, up from
7m during the same period last year. Total value of shares traded during the
period under review increased from ¢24.7bn last year to ¢224.0bn this year. - Chronicle
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Ghana needs$800m to improve telecom
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 May 2003 - Ghana needs about $800m to bring its telecommunication infrastructure to the required levels. Minister of Communications and Technology, Albert Kan-Dapaah says "what is even more frightening is that there must be an additional regular annual investment to ensure that the equipment do not become outdated and obsolete".
The minister noted that with annual total tax revenues of less than $1bn, it was inconceivable that the government alone could find the investment capital needed to bring communicating infrastructure in the country to required levels.
In this direction, he said, private sector support was prudent in order to develop, expand and modernize communication infrastructure to achieve universal service and access to basic and value added communication services.
Kan Dapaah was speaking at the opening of a five-day Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisations (CTO) Competition Policy Workshop in Accra. It would discuss issues relating to competition in the telecommunication industry and formulate policy to aid regulatory agencies within ECOWAS.
Attending are participants from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria,
Kenya, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, UK, Canada, among others. – Ghanaian
Times
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