Bishop Obinim Is Not Guilty Before The Law Legal Practitioner

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Category: Religion

Created on Friday, 12 August 2011 00:00

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Bishop Obinim Is Not Guilty Before The Law Legal Practitioner

A Kumasi-based legal practitioner and a Parliamentarian says no lawful charges can be preferred against Bishop Obinim, General Overseer of the International God.s Way Church neither can any legal action be taken against the man of God for allegedly paralyzing a little boy and also for making him go bonkers, albeit spiritually.

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Corruption Grips Mills, Claim NPP Boys

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Friday, 05 August 2011 00:00

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Corruption Grips Mills' Claim NPP Boys

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Young Patriots have accused President John Mills of presiding over what they call massive corruption.

The group said the president had failed to check the menace even though he promised to treat corruption within an arms length, when he was in opposition.

According to the pressure group, There appears to be official corruption, impunity and abuse of power in the administration of seized cars at the Tema Port and has urged President Mills and Vice President Mahama to act swiftly to nip corruption in the bud.

At their second news conference in Accra yesterday, which forms part of their efforts to let the people know about the way the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was running the affairs of the country, the group thoroughly discussed what it called corruption, impunity and stealing at the Tema Port” with the media.

John Kumah, a spokesperson of Young Patriots who was arrested recently by security agencies for making unsavoury remarks about the president, said in 2009, 24 vehicles put on the wanted list of Interpol arrived at the Tema Port and were separated from other vehicles put under the custody of the Golden Jubilee Terminal, pending investigations.

Before investigations could be completed, a number of these vehicles were gazetted. The confiscated vehicles committee then proceeded to allocate these vehicles to some individuals with leanings to the NDC.

He said in May 2011, after investigations on the said vehicles had been completed, the National Security issued a directive for the vehicles to be released to their original owners but strangely, the committee rather put them up for sale, through a gazette notice number 13 of Friday June 10, 2011, depriving the original owners, fruits of their toils abroad.

According to the group, a man called Joseph Bediako, a known NDC activist who once worked at the Tema Port under the notorious Carl Wilson, was able to throw more light on how the cars were allocated. He alleged Mr. Bediako claimed five (5) of the vehicles were allocated to Alex Segbefia, a Deputy Chief of Staff at the Castle; another five (5) to officials of CEPS and the remaining 14 allocated to officials at the Office of the President.

Kumah said Ghanaians were being deprived of their legitimate properties as due process continued to be thwarted, with cars being allocated to officials and cronies of the government without recourse to the law.

He said it had become clear that the ruling NDC was adopting a strategy of silencing business entrepreneurs who were perceived to be sympathizers of the NPP, saying, Innocent business people who are helping to bring down high unemployment rate are being victimized using state institutions and agencies.

When Kufuor said he wanted evidence to be able to act on allegations of corruption, then Professor Mills cried foul and insisted that he would act on the least information but what is happening now?” Kumah asked, adding, Corruption allegations against appointees of this government are mostly leveled by their own party members and this is where President Mills needs to check it.

Richard Nyamah, another spokesperson, said some NDC appointees and activists were using state power to deprive hardworking Ghanaians of the fruits of their toil and sweat, noting, This is daylight robbery. President Mills must act swiftly without delay.

Cars confiscated are allocated to NDC members and when the victims complain, they tag them as opposition members, he alleged.

Asamoah Gyamfi, who is the acting chairman of the Young Patriots, said President Mills, by his silence in spite of the massive corruption in his administration, was being hypocritical because he was the same person who reprimanded CEPS officials for under-cutting, but those right under his nose, he fails to take action against them.

Yaw Adomako Baafi, a member, said, What we are revealing today is just a tip of the iceberg because we have many more cases of corruption against NDC appointees under President Mills and as the days go by we will let the public know about it.

Ghanaians are now discerning to separate truth from propaganda and lies and we will never make allegation and not substantiate it.

Nii Kwatei Titus Glover, another member, said corruption under President Mills had become unthinkable and it was time to put the president on the litmus test on issues of corruption.

He said the cars confiscated by the NDC authorities were sold cheaply at a time when the original owners were prepared to pay the right prices for them.

By William Yaw Owusu

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

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“I will never apologise to Agyenim Boateng” – Akomea

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Category: Politics

Created on Monday, 08 August 2011 00:00

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“I will never apologise to Agyenim Boateng” – Akomea

It seems the tango between the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South, Nana Akomea and Deputy Tourism

Minister, James Agyenim Boateng, is far from over after Nana Akomea maintained he would “absolutely not” apologise to the deputy Tourism Minister, unless the latter does so first.

The NPP’s head of Communication made his declaration on the same media platform he made his initial comments, Joy FM.

The two men exchanged hot insulting words during a radio discussion programme on Saturday August 6, over the controversial mystery tape in which it is alleged that the deputy Information Minister, Baba Jamal is heard promising some journalists car and cash as reward for propagating stories that will propel President Mills’ agenda ahead of the 2012 general elections.

Members of the NDC government have rubbished the content of the tape, describing it as a fabrication and a ploy to tarnish the image of Baba Jamal. However, the NPP believes the tape is authentic and has called for further investigations.

Discussing the issue on Joy FM’s News file on Saturday, Hon. Nana Akomea and Hon James Agyenim Boateng engaged each other in hot exchanges over the mystery tape.

Nana Akomea in his opening remarks called for a voice expert to authenticate whose voice it was on that tape but the Deputy Minister dismissed his call and said there was no need for such an expert.

“…You find a Member of Parliament, a Director of Communications of the opposition political party who holds a press conference, denigrates a deputy minister of information, runs him down, runs a whole government machinery down; makes serious allegations as wanting to bribe and corrupt journalists. He sits on a platform like this, you give him the opportunity to prove the very issues that he calls a press conference and speaks to, then he says that lets find an expert to establish the authenticity of the tape. What kind of shameful conduct is this” Agyenim Boateng questioned.

“The point is that everybody who knows Baba Jamal and has heard his voice before will tell you; you don’t need to be a voice expert to tell that that is not Baba Jamal’s voice on that tape. And I think it betrays the intelligence of those who addressed that press conference to come up with something as ridiculous as that”.

“Nana Akomea should be telling us when this meeting took place…” “There are simple, sensible, basic questions that ought to be asked as far as this tape is concerned,” he said.

When asked by Nana Akomea to withdraw his comments James Agyenim Boateng added “I will not withdraw anything I have said in relation to this tape.”

Obviously infuriated by the comments by the former Information Minister, the Communications Director of the NPP responded, “You are a stupid fool. If you will sit on this programme and call me unintelligent. You are a stupid fool and you are a minister,” Akomea said harshly.

He refused to apologise or retract his comment.

Asked whether he was willing to apologise on Monday August 8, two days after raining insults on the Deputy Minister, Hon. Nana Akomea replied “absolutely not”.

Source: Citifmonline

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$75m Aboadze plant expansion cost "inflated"

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Friday, 29 July 2011 00:00

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$75m Aboadze plant expansion cost "inflated" 

The decision of the government to seek Parliamentary approval last Friday, at its last sitting, for

additional funding of US$75.8million to finance additional works for the Aboadze Thermal Power Plant generated charges of corruption from the Minority in Parliament, when it came to light that part of the cost of the project had been inflated, incredibly, by some 2,000%.

The apparent inflation of an agreement that was first prepared under the NPP in 2008 and repackaged after 3 years at an inflated cost was met with loud resistance from the Minority. This appears to only confirm the allegation from a sacked CEO of the majority shareholder of the plant, TAQA, that the cost has been inflated to pay off Ghanaian officials.

For example, the cost of relocation of services, construction of storm drains and de-watering has been hiked up from US$568,640 to over US$20 million dollars.

Minority MPs found it strange that the initial costing of works at just over half a million dollars could suffer such an astronomical leap within such a short time of acclaimed low inflation shooting to US$20 million.

The other sore point of controversy was the contingency amount of US$15.9 million, which is unprecedented, given the total cost and variations of the project.

It is recalled that the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Energy executed a commercial contract on 17th December, 2008 with the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a Canadian government agency, for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of a 132MW combined-cycle power plant at the site at Aboadze over a period of 18 months on a turn-key basis.

The cost of the project, initially a credit facility of US$194.3 million, is to be increased by an additional US$75.8 million dollars to be borrowed from Societe Generale, Canada and insured by MIGA, the agency which the minority advised should insure the STX housing project, an advice that was scornfully ignored.

The Ministry of Energy is justifying the additional US$75.8 million dollars claiming it has reviewed the scope of works and the cost to include relocation of services, de-watering, etc, which will cost the country US$20 million in addition to US$6.5 million for "enhanced corrosion protection" as well as additional sums including contingency figure of US$15.9 million, representing 7% of total revised contract sum.

Regrettably, after a heated debate, the majority had their way and approved additional loan.

Parliament last Friday approved loans worth US$431 million before going on recess for nine weeks. The loans passed included US$337 million facility for the construction of a 59-bed hospital with equipment for the University of Ghana; 13 million Euros (US$18.7 million) loan agreement between the Government of Ghana and ABN AMRO Bank NV of the Netherlands to finance the additional works on the Barekese Water Supply Expansion Project; and a $75.8 million loan agreement to finance additional works on the on-going 132-megawatt Combined-Cycle Thermal Plant at Aboadze (Takoradi-3 Thermal Power Project).

It is recalled that the New Statesman on 27th May 2009 broke a story about the functionaries of the ruling NDC allegedly receiving at least US$1 million dollars in bribery payments from TAQA, the United Arab Emirates based majority shareholder of the Aboadze thermal plant.

According to confessions of TAQA’s former Chief Executive Officer, in its bid to triple the current 110 MW output of its Takoradi Power Station, TAQA paid multimillion dollar bribes to Ghanaian politicians in the energy sector in 2009, the year that TAQA sought approval for its expansion.

“The authorization to triple its output was obtained by inflating the official price of the expansion works” and then paying part of the surplus to Government officials, according to Peter Barker-Homek, the CEO of TAQA at the time.

In a detailed letter sent to the Securities & Exchange Commission earlier this year, and revealed by the Maghreb Confidential on May 12 2011, Mr Barker-Homek detailed how TAQA made standard corrupt payments of US$1 million a year to Ghana government officials.

In 2010, TAQA formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Ghana and the Volta River Authority in relation to the proposed 110 MW expansion of the Takoradi plant. It is the contract sum that the former CEO claims was inflated to take care of Government officials.


By Fiifi Arhin , 29/07/2011


Source: The Statesmanonline

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