Eddie Annan says his business is genuine
Ghana needs a government of
"Welfarism" - GCPP
Patient commits suicide at Korle-Bu
Ghana's reforestation rated number one in the world
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - Mr Edward Annan, Chairman and Managing Director of EA Masai Group of Companies, currently being investigated for alleged business malpractice on Thursday denied any wrongdoing, saying he would come out clean at the end.
The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Serious Fraud Office, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Office of the President are investigating Mr Annan, a situation he attributes to what he described as unfounded reports and "misinformation" from the media.
Portfolios under the EA group include Masai Developers, Central Suppliers International Ltd. Masai Computer Services, Masai International Ltd, Masai Motors Limited, Masai Office Supermarket Ltd and General Industrial Maintenance Services Ltd.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, Mr Annan explained specific allegations and what he called speculations on his relationship with some members of the former government including ex-Vice President John Evans Atta Mills and former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, describing them as good friends.
He also stated that he was a friend to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to which he had made contributions. However, he said, he neither gained any undue business favour or influenced any policy decision by the former government as a result of this friendship.
He responded to questions raised about his company's transactions with some state institutions particularly, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and the Accra Abattoir.
He said his company started dealing with the GPHA in 1987 when it participated in its rehabilitation programme as representatives of Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands and C.Itoh of Japan after the two won a World Bank sponsored bid to undertake the project.
He denied reports that Masai Motors had a monopoly of supplying vehicles to SSNIT, maintaining that it sold only 15 out of 100 cars the Trust procured last year.
Mr Annan dismissed reports that the Accra Abattoir was not viable, explaining that when Masai got involved with the project, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly had already acquired the site, which critics now say was too far away from town.
He said the only problem facing the Abattoir was lack of patronage and called on stakeholders to "put their emotions aside" and treat the project purely as a business, thereby turning it into a workable and profitable enterprise.
Mr Annan, who was appearing before the media for the first time since the first media allegations were published last year, said he was compelled to speak out because the press bashing had dealt a major blow to his business reputation.
"Great careers are built on reputation and a stain on that reputation destroys them. I do not claim to be great, but the smear on my character does affect my ability to be a good employer and jeopardises the jobs of many Ghanaians who work for me."
Mr Annan said in recent times the volume of his business, which he struggled to establish over three decades had dwindled, forcing him to downsize his staff by 100.
Mr Annan said he was unaware of any attempt by the government to "crush him and his business" as reported in an Accra newspaper but said he heard of moves by a minister of state to impress upon some of his principals to withdraw their franchise from Masai.
He confirmed that in the past few weeks, some state institutions had abrogated businesses with Masai but declined to impute political motives for the action by those institutions.
"I want to stay with the facts available to me. I do not have reasons to believe that the current government is up to do me in because of my support for the previous government."
Mr Annan also denied that his wife was a card-holding member of the 31st December Women's Movement.
"My wife is more into charity work. She wakes up reading through the newspapers to locate needy people in order to extend her charity to them," Mr Annan said citing the paying of school fees and medical bills for the needy as well as taking care of nannies, as focus areas for her wife, who is also the deputy Managing Director of Masai.
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Ghana needs a government of
"Welfarism" - GCPP
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - Mr. Dan Lartey, Leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) on Thursday said that the best form of government for Ghana and Africa is a government of 'welfarism' - a blend between capitalism and socialism - to propel the country and the continent to economic independence.
He said, "entrenched political ideology of capitalist or socialist form of governance is no longer eligible and practicable in the 21st century democratic dispensation, hence the need for Ghana and Africa to adopt the best policies from each ideological block for good governance."
Mr. Lartey said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra that 'welfarism' is an economic system of which capital owners organized and control the economy, while workers are properly remunerated and motivated to perform as well as being subjects to the share of the results of their labour.
He said remuneration under 'welfarism' is based on production to reduce waste of resource, apathy and build a sense of commitment and dedication to work.
The GCPP Leader explained that government's role would be to support capital owners by creating the enabling economic environment, conducive for private sector growth and implementing more pragmatic policies to woo and encourage local investors to create more jobs.
Government would also act as an arbitrator between management, capital owners and labour for fair deal among the social partners and ensure industrial peace necessary for increased productivity.
Mr. Lartey called for an urgent youth development policy to harness the enormous potential of the youth and direct it towards national development, saying, "Ghana and the rest of Africa would continue to lack behind until the future leaders are properly glommed to assume their real role of leadership.
He said that in most African countries the youth waste most of their hay days on unprofitable ventures, and misdirected priorities until they are of age to face economic realities with little or no practical experience. "The continent and country cannot developed based on uncertain youth."
On his political future and the future of GCPP, Mr. Lartey, 75, said he intend to lead the party to an electoral victory in 2004 and form a government that would aim at correcting the wrong and canker of society within his first term in office.
He noted that his age would not be any hindrance, to his quest to be the President of Ghana as youthfulness is a stage of mind. He said that during his leadership the youth would be prepared to assume their proper role as future leaders of the nation.
Mr. Lartey said the GCPP's African Youth League Web-site (AYLWS) is the first step towards developing the youth to attain the potential early in life.
He said AYLWS would aim at identifying national economic ventures and resources, link it up youth with requisite qualifications and understanding to practical experience for the future.
He said regional network would be developed for the youth of Ghana and Africa to interact, share ideas and learn more about the country and the continent on a more direct format.
He said GCPP would also initiate programmes that would open up the rural and deprived areas to motivate the youth to help develop their communities instead of trooping to urban centers for non-existing white colour jobs.
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Patient commits suicide at Korle-Bu
Accra
(Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - A patient on the Fifth Floor of the Surgical
Ward of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra yesterday stunned colleague
patients and visitors, when he jumped to his death.
The incident
attracted a large crowd who rushed to the vicinity of the ward to catch a
glimpse of the remains of the victim. The body has since been deposited at the
mortuary for autopsy.
Speaking in
an interview, the acting Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr K
Kambian, said the patient, Charles Hagan, 30, was admitted to the hospital last
week Thursday with a serious abdominal pain and he underwent a laparatomy
operation that very day.
Charles, Mr
Kambian said, was responding to treatment until yesterday, when he started
behaving abnormally. He said with the help of the nurses and the patient's
mother, he was tied to his bed.
Mr Kambian
said at about 6 a.m. yesterday Charles broke loose from his bed, damaged the louvre
blades, stood on the safety trap and jumped from the fifth floor of the
Surgical Block.
Charles died
instantly and as a result of the cut made during the operation, his intestines
gushed out and scattered around.
Asked if he
had any problem or was behaving abnormally before he was admitted, Mr Kambian
replied in the negative but added that Hagan had a history of alcoholism.
An internal
enquiry has been set up by the hospital management to ascertain if he was given
the wrong medication. Chief Inspector C.K Fandoh of the Korle Bu Police Station
confirmed the story and said the matter is being investigated.
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Freight Forwarders on allegations of fake
invoice
Tema (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) said on Thursday that allegations that between 90 and 95 per cent of invoices presented by importers for Final Classification and Valuation Reports (FCVR) were fake were false and malicious.
It said the allegations, which sought to create the impression that freight forwarders were in league with importers and the Gateway Services Limited (GSL) to dupe the nation should be discarded since the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) had even exceed its revenue target for the year by over 50 per cent.
Mr Kofi Brako, Immediate Past President of GIFF was reacting to allegations by Mr George Adum-Kwapong, Chairman of the CEPS Senior Staff Association, that the fake invoices and low values issued by GSL was resulting in a major revenue leakage.
Mr Adum-Kwapong was reported to have said that the situation had arisen because CEPS' core function of import Valuations, Classification and Examination of goods had been surrendered on a silver platter to GSL and the Ghana Standard Veritas Bureau (GSUB).
Mr Brako, speaking in an interview with newsmen said, statistics available to GIFF indicated that, even though, the volume of imports had decreased over a period of time and coupled with the stabilisation of the cedi in relation to major currencies CEPS, was able to exceed its revenue target.
"He said if the invoices were fake as is being claimed by Mr Adum-Kwapong, how then did CEPS exceed its target and called on CEPS officials to investigate issues critically before going public to embarrass the Service.
Mr Brako said the new system of valuation talks about transaction value, which presupposed that the invoices submitted by importers were the values that must be accepted.
If CEPS, however, thought that those values must not be accepted, it had to explain to the importers as to why, saying that Mr Adum-Kwapong, who is also Chairman of the Customs Special Operations Unit (SOU) did not seem to know much about the Destination Inspection Scheme (DIS).
Mr Brako said Mr Adum-Kwapong's view about the Transaction Price Data was also hollow, explaining that, all GSL did was to submit the value it had been able to accumulate over a period to the CEPS Chief Collector Out-Door (CCOD) for comparison with those issued by GSL to correct anomalies.
He said to the freight forwarders, the GSL might not be 100 per cent correct, but the services it was offering in terms of valuation was good, adding, the only problem was that GSL sometimes delayed in the issuance of FCVRs.
He reminded the public that most GSL employees were Customs officers on secondment and it was improper for other Customs officers to classify themselves as superiors, who know better than their colleagues at GSL.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - The Association of Tanker Owners of Ghana announced on Thursday that it was suspending its planned strike scheduled for
Friday.
This followed a series of consultations between the association and the Ministry of Energy, according to Mr Ignatius Doe, Executive Secretary of the association and Mr Daniel Amoah, Acting Director of Petroleum of the Ministry.
The statement gave no details of the consultations.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - Ghana's agricultural growth is expected to rise from 2.1 percent in 2000 to 15 per cent by 2004, Food and Agriculture Minister, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), said on Thursday.
He said this was premised on the successful implementation of a proactive agro-business strategy that focuses on improving access to land and promoting marketing, storage and transportation systems to reduce price volatility and minimising production risk, particularly those stemming from post-harvest losses.
Maj. Quashigah said this when addressing a one-day national consultative workshop on the development of Ghana's agro-industries sub-sector organised by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the African Development Bank (ADB) in Accra.
The workshop, the last in a series held nationwide, was organised for stakeholders, researchers and the country's agro-processing partners to brainstorm on the current food situation to determine the feasibility of developing the agro-industries sub-sector.
The first workshop was held in May while the second was held in September. It also seeks to review a feasibility study undertaken by MASDAR
International Consultants of the UK contracted by the government to review agro-industries for major food and industrial crops produced in the country and to prepare a programme to improve the situation, focusing primarily on national capacity building and institutional strengthening.
Maj. Quashigah said efforts at national development would not be complete if adequate attention was not paid to the development of the rural areas where more than 60 per cent of the people live.
He said since agriculture was the major economic activity in the rural setting, meaningful efforts at rural development should tackle the development of agriculture and its related activities.
The Minister said development of the rural environment would be a catalyst for the transformation of the national economy and the drive to economic maturity.
He expressed the hope that the designs of the projects and programmes of the study to be presented by the consultants would generate employment, especially for the rural youth.
Maj Quashigah said such projects would receive the sympathy of the government as its strategy for improving food production and generating gainful employment was based on the creation of an enabling environment for improved private sector participation in production.
He said the government sought to facilitate private sector entrepreneurship in both agriculture and industry by promoting land administration reforms to improve security of land tenure by addressing land title and security.
The government was also committed to providing incentives, including tax breaks, to attract investors in agriculture and agro-industries and would support and encourage agro-industries targeted at both domestic and export markets.
MASDAR's study was carried out in two phases. The first that ran from January to June 2001 was a diagnosis of the current situation to identify opportunities and constraints. The second was started in August. The consultancy firm put together a multi-skilled 11-man team to carry out the project.
The team has finished investigating a selection of private sector investment opportunities and has developed a number of spreadsheet models to assist with its appraisal. The team has also identified two public sector projects.
Among the project models are a tomatoes paste processing industry, gari production and Volta River tilapia farming and maize/soya bean production and processing and seed multiplication of rice and cotton.
The Team Leader, Mr Colin Watson, told the workshop participants that for the models to make a significant impact, entrepreneurs have to compete for finance with other countries because a lot had to be done to impress investors.
He said for the designed models to work, other issues like tax holidays and incentives would have to be considered to attract investors, adding that it was important that skilled workers were considered for its success.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 30 November 2001 - Mr Emmanuel Nti-Fordjour, Ashanti Regional Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has given the President of the NDC Action Forum, Mr A. K. Mensah seven days to retract alleged defamatory statements, which were published in the November 26 issue of the Pioneer.
The President of the Forum had also been requested to publish an unqualified apology. This was contained in a letter to Mr Mensah by Mr Matthias Gollo of the Matthias Gollo Company, Solicitors of Mr Nti-Fordjour, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi
It said: "Take notice and same is hereby given that at the expiration of the seven days, we have firm instruction to take legal action against you to vindicate our client's name, if the required apology is not published".
The letter said: "It is on record that since 1996, you have been attacking our client personally for reasons best known to you." "In all these, you attributed various degrees of criminal offences to him, which you very well know to be false", it added.
Mr Mensah in the said publication among other things accused the NDC Regional Vice-Chairman and other unnamed leading members of the party of corruption, extortion and financial impropriety.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - The International Tropical Timber Organisation has rated the Ghana Forestry Commission-sponsored reforestation project at the Abutia Plains in the Volta Region as number one among 33 other projects worldwide.
The project, which the African Environmental Regeneration Movement (AFERM), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was undertaking, was rated number one in terms of its productivity and rehabilitation of a degraded land.
The land was used by the defunct State Farms Corporation to cultivate tobacco and this led to its degradation. Mr Daniel Fianu-Dezor, Executive Secretary, AFERM, said this on Tuesday when he conducted the GNA and officials of the Forestry Commission round the project area that covered about 4,761 hectares and costs 700,000 dollars.
So far 1,372 hectares of the land had been put under timber cultivation with species such as Teak, Mahogany, Ebony, Wawa, Odum, Ofram, Cedrella and Teminallia.
Fruit bearing trees, oil palm, coconut, medicinal and ornamental plants and nutmeg had been added to give the project a natural forest setting.
Mr Fianu-Dezor said the purpose for engaging in agro-forestry along side the reforestation project was to ensure that "over concentration was not put on timber at the expense of other wild life that needed to procreate within a forest setting.
A variety of seedlings were being nurtured for re-planting as well as for supply to the Forestry Commission for its reforestation projects throughout the country.
He spoke about lack of adequate rainfall at Abutia over the last two years and said this led to the destruction of some of the seedlings.
''At times water tankers were brought from Ho, a distance of about 20 kilometres, to water the seedlings'' and said four dams would be constructed to provide water for the seedlings.
Mr Fianu-Dezor said a small dam was built but was later converted into a fishpond to serve the nutritional needs of the workers.
The project has 63 permanent staff with about 150 casual workers. Mr Fianu- Dezor said grass cutters; antelopes, duikers, tortoise, monkeys and snails rearing had been added to the project.
He said to protect the project during the dry season fire belts had been created at the boundaries of the project. Forest patrol teams have been set up and would sound the alarm at the outbreak of any fire during the night.
Togbe Botchway Ayipe VI, chief of Abutia Kloe, praised the project and said it would be beneficial to the community. He said with the coming of the project the youth were no longer rushing to the urban centre for non-existent jobs.
"They get employment on the project as well as encouragement to farm in between the trees as done in the Taungya system- a system of cultivating food crops on a plantation by peasant farmers.
"Those who work on the farm have also been provided with bicycles under an agreement with their employers enabling them to have a means of transportation," he said
Mr Sam Akrofi, Public Relations Officer of the Commission, urged the workers to continue their hard work to ensure the success of the project that could be renewed after three years depending on its success rate.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 November 2001 - The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Wednesday said that Sergeant Isaac Fosu-Addo of the 2 Field Workshop arrested in connection with the armed robbery incident at the Asante Mampong Agency of the Otuasekan Rural Bank in October was wrongly accused.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Directorate of Public Relations of the GAF in reaction to a front page story of the October 15, 2001 edition of the "Daily Graphic" headlined: "Sgt. arrested in connection with Mampong robbery".
The statement said GAF's independent investigation into the report had established that the story was "misleading" and that the public had been "fed with half truths".
It said it had been established that the sergeant mentioned in the report was called Isaac Fosu-Addo of the 2 Field Workshop and not the 4th battalion workshop as reported by the paper.
The soldier was a brother-in-law of one Mr Kofi Mensah, who was shot to death by an unknown assailant in Kumasi and that Sgt. Fosu-Addo was deeply involved in the funeral arrangements for the late brother-in-law.
The statement said on Thursday, October 11, Sgt. Fosu-Addo travelled to Ashanti-Mampong for the burial of Mensah in a VW Golf saloon car with registration number AW 3411 R belonging to a friend and was accompanied by his wife, one Sgt. Boakye Asante and a civilian teacher of the Ministry of Defence.
It said Sgt. Fosu-Addo obtained official permission to go to Mampong and he subsequently led a convoy of a taxicab, two Nissan Urvan buses and a Mercedes Benz 207 bus, all carrying mourners and family members.
The statement said he returned to Kumasi immediately after the burial for the funeral rites, which took place at the Buokrom Estates.
The soldier, the statement said, was at the funeral in Kumasi when the armed robbery occurred and could not have been at the scene of the incident as the paper alleged. "He could, therefore, not have been at the scene of the robbery as the reporter wants the public to believe", the statement said.
The statement said that it had been established that one of the Nissan Urvan buses with registration number AS 2885 N, which was released by one Collins Kwaku Yeboah, a brother-in-law of Sgt. Fosu-Addo's wife, broke down at Mampong-Nsuta Junction due to an engine problem.
It said, however, that on October 12, Sgt. Fosu-Addo proceeded to Mampong in the VW golf car to recover the Nissan Urvan vehicle, which had broken down only to be informed that the vehicle was in police custody.
The statement said when Sgt. Fosu-Addo followed up to the police station to make enquires and identified himself as a soldier he was arrested and detained as a suspect in the robbery.
It said investigations also established that he was assaulted but was released on the same day upon the intervention of the military.
The statement noted that the bus in question did not get to Mampong on the day of the funeral and that the police recovered it from where it had broken down, far from the scene of the robbery and that it could not have been used in the robbery as stated by the paper.
It pointed out that the bus was not the property of Sgt. Fosu-Addo and neither was the soldier the owner of the Opel Omega saloon car with registration number AS 4417 R, which the report alleged was used in the armed robbery. "It appears Sgt. Fosu-Addo was a victim of circumstances. He was granted permission to fulfil a genuine social obligation."
The statement said the GAF was prepared to co-operate with the police to conduct thorough investigations into the robbery, adding that if Sgt. Fosu-Addo were found to be implicated the laws would be allowed to deal with him.
"Until then, it is unfair to put out prejudicial reports in the press to either to embarrass the individual or to portray the Armed Forces in the bad light when investigations were not conclusive", it said.
The Military High Command would neither condone acts of misconduct nor cover up its personnel who engaged in criminal acts, the statement said.
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