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John Atta Mills has left Ghana a challenging legacy
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- Category: Current Issues
- Created on Friday, 27 July 2012 00:00
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John Atta Mills has left Ghana a challenging legacy
Before his death, there was much dissatisfaction with the president – now a new man has to try to hold the nation together
Cameron Duodu
The outpouring of grief that has gripped Ghana following the death of President John Atta Mills this week was so great it would have surprised the man himself were he in a position to see it.
There have been numerous anecdotes on how humanitarian he was. And even his former boss, ex-president Jerry Rawlings, described Mills as "the finest". Rawlings revealed that Mills died from cancer and intimated that had Mills been "more wisely" advised, he would have avoided campaigning for the elections scheduled for December 2012, as the cancer had affected "his throat and eyes".
{sidebar id=11 align=right}Rawlings, though, had made no secret of his desire that Mills should step down in favour of his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, as the candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress in the December 2012 election. The NDC was founded by Rawlings when he needed to transform himself from a military ruler (1981-1992) into a civilian president (1992-2000), but Mills eventually took control of the party.
On one occasion, while recoiling from criticism by Rawlings that his government was so incompetent that it should be classified as a "Team B" government, Mills reminded Rawlings: "There is only one president in Ghana."
Nevertheless, even though Rawlings had an axe to grind, dissatisfaction with Mills's performance was real enough among the populace. Although the start of petroleum production has increased the country's gross national product, very little of this has trickled down to the people.
According to the World Bank, Ghana's GDP grew by 14% in 2011. But power shortages and the lack of water, even in urban areas, provoke people to ask "where is this growth?"
{sidebar id=10 align=right}And Ghanaians have recently discovered, to their shock, that state revenue can be shared between politicians and their cronies – by the simple act of government lawyers knowingly refusing to defend the state in court when contractors make fraudulent claims against it. In one case now before the courts, a contractor and two government lawyers are charged with concocting a "judgment debt" from a lawsuit, in which the state was made to pay the contractor about £20m.
Those angered by this include the unemployed, whose ranks are being swelled by young new graduates, and the parents in rural areas whose children have to attend school under the shade of trees. Also, health facilities are so unsatisfactory that Mills often went to America or South Africa to obtain treatment.
Death has enabled him to hand over the headache of rehabilitating public amenities to the new president, John Dramani Mahama. However, Mahama's own immediate concerns will revolve more around how he manages to meet the challenge posed by the Rawlings family than around national policies.
Already, there is a great deal of acrimony in the struggle between the NDC and the New Patriotic party over the December election. That is because they are evenly matched in the polls: the December 2008 election, for instance, was won by Mills by a few thousand votes.
Mahama has only five months to prove that he can hold the country – and his party – tightly together. He would have wished, though, that he'd been given the task at a more auspicious time.
Source: The Guardian UK
No commentsBarclays chairman Marcus Agius resigns over rate-rigging scandal
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- Created on Monday, 02 July 2012 00:00
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Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigns over rate-rigging scandal
Marcus Agius 'truly sorry' for 'devastating blow' to bank's reputation as he quits in wake of £290m fine
Jill Treanor, City editor
Marcus Agius quit as chairman of Barclays on Monday, saying he was "truly sorry" for the interest rate rigging scandal which has dealt a "devastating blow" to the bank's reputation.
But the resignation did not puncture the political pressure on the bank with Labour leader Ed Miliband calling on the bank's chief executive Bob Diamond to quit and stepped up his efforts to force the government to set up a Leveson-style inquiry into banks by bringing forward an amendment in parliament.
{sidebar id=11 align=right}"I think there needs to be more a more general change of leadership including the chief executive, Bob Diamond," Miliband told ITV Daybreak.
The bank put existing board director Sir Michael Rake, the former top accountant and serial company director, in the new key role of deputy chairman to oversee an audit of the bank's business practices, the findings of which will be published.
A "zero-tolerance policy" will be adopted against staff who damage the bank's reputation and a new code of conduct drawn up which all staff will need to adhere to.
{sidebar id=10 align=right}After a wave of political fury was unleashed by a record £290m fine for the bank's attempt to manipulate key interest rates, Agius described himself as the "ultimate guardian of the bank's reputation".
He said that "last week's events – evidencing as they do unacceptable standards of behaviour within the bank – have dealt a devastating blow to Barclays' reputation. As chairman, I am the ultimate guardian of the bank's reputation. Accordingly, the buck stops with me and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside," Agius said.
Rake is expected to be considered as a candidate to replace Agius in a search process that will be led by the former Cadbury boss Sir John Sunderland. The search – from within the existing board members and from outside – will begin immediately and Agius will stay until his successor is found. The process may be drawn out as the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, needs to authorise the candidate.
The audit of business practices will be conducted by an external company to undertake a "root and branch review" of all the business practices since the credit crisis.
"This exercise will be part of a broader programme of activity intended to restore Barclays' reputation and we will establish a zero-tolerance policy for any actions that harm the reputation of the bank," said Agius.
"I am truly sorry that our customers, clients, employees and shareholders have been let down. Barclays is full of hard working, talented individuals whose integrity is not in question."
Agius, who earns £751,000 a year, is still expected to appear before MPs on the Treasury select committee on Thursday – the day after Diamond, whose role in the interest rating fixing scandal will now take centre stage after it emerged he had personally spoken to the Bank of England about the rates being set.
The bank's annual report shows that the chairman can receive "potential compensation for loss of office" of 12 months' fees. It was not immediately clear on Monday morning if any compensation would be paid.
Diamond showed no signs of tendering his own resignation on Monday. Instead he expressed his gratitude to Agius. "Marcus has shown a remarkable passion for Barclays and its people," Diamond said.
But the pressure on Diamond remained. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said: "Bob's still got to go. Barclays simply isn't safe in his hands. The board is so hopeless they've just shot the head of the firing squad and missed the prisoner."
Gary Greenwood, banks analyst at stockbroker Shore Capital, said Aguis's departure would "do little to appease the many who see Bob Diamond as having primary responsibility."
The bank was fined for attempting to fix interest rates, known as the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and the European equivalent, Euribor. These are two benchmarks that are the basis for pricing an array of financial products, potentially affecting the price at which households and businesses borrow money.
The Financial Services Authority fined the bank £59.9m, while in the US the department of justice and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission also imposed fines, some £230m combined.
The offences took place in two ways. First, from 2005 Barclays traders tried to alter rates to help themselves and rival traders. Second, in 2008 – when Barclays raised concerns about Libor – the bank is said to have kept rates lower because higher levels might have been misinterpreted as suggesting the bank was facing financial difficulties.
At one point, the documents released by the FSA showed that so-called submitters of the rates used to calculate Libor believed they were operating under the instruction of the Bank of England.
Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, spoke to Diamond at the time although the Bank of England made clear on Sunday that it had not known about the problems with Libor.
Some 14 Barclays traders in New York, London and Tokyo are implicated by the regulators but other banks are still the subject of investigations. RBS, for instance, has sacked four traders and up to 20 banks and financial firms are thought to be co-operating with international regulators.
Source: The Guardian UK
Queen arrives in Northern Ireland for historic meeting
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- Category: The World
- Created on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:00
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Queen arrives in Northern Ireland for historic meeting
The British monarch on Tuesday prayed with Catholic and Protestant community leaders at a service in the town of Enniskillen, site of a 1987 bomb attack that claimed 11 lives.
As well as meeting survivors of the IRA attack, the queen also visited a Roman Catholic church - the first time she has done so in 20 visits to Northern Ireland.
Queen Elizabeth II has been meeting leaders on both sides of Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide. Her latest trip includes a historic meeting with Republican militant-turned-politician Martin McGuinness.Queen Elizabeth II had arrived in the province earlier in the day, ahead of a historic meeting with Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, on Wednesday.
The meeting with McGuinness - a former commander of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) - is being seen by some as the culmination of a peace process that has taken more than two decades to achieve.
During the four-decade conflict, in which Republicans fought for a united Ireland ruled from Dublin, some 3,600 people on both sides of the religious and political divide were killed.
The Provisional IRA's campaign of violence alone claimed some 1,755 lives during the period commonly referred to as "the troubles." Among the victims was the queen's own cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in 1979.
Only last year, McGuinness' party, Irish nationalists Sinn Fein, turned down an invitation to be present during the queen's first-ever visit to the Irish Republic.
rc/ncy (AP, Reuters)
Source: Deutsche Welle
Libyan militia storm election office in Benghazi as violence spreads
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- Created on Sunday, 01 July 2012 00:00
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Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigns over rate-rigging scandal
Marcus Agius 'truly sorry' for 'devastating blow' to bank's reputation as he quits in wake of £290m fine
East of country demands more representation, while southern tribe threatens to boycott first nationwide vote since 1960s
Associated Press
Libyan protesters and militiamen stormed the headquarters of the election commission in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, setting voting slips on fire, a militia commander said, a week before the country holds its first general election in nearly five decades.
{sidebar id=11 align=right}In southern Libya, a leader of the Tabu tribe threatened to boycott the election if the government does not withdraw its forces and tanks from the desert city of Kufra where clashes have killed dozens.
The violence and calls for boycotts threaten to tarnish the process of electing a 200-member assembly to form a government and oversee writing of a constitution.
In Benghazi, where the revolt that unseated Muammar Gaddafi began last year, Fadallah Haroun, commander of a former rebel militia, said he joined protesters in the attack on the election commission. This came after the ruling transitional council in Tripoli turned down demands to give the east an equal share of seats in the assembly. He said two other cities in eastern Libya have witnessed similar incidents.
"We want justice," Haroun said. "We lost tens of thousands of martyrs because we want a state built on justice, law and equal rights."
{sidebar id=10 align=right}As the situation stands, Tripoli and western Libya would have 102 seats, while the oil-rich east's share would be 60. The rest would go to the sparsely populated south. Eastern leaders say this leaves them with no influence over drafting of the constitution.
The 7 July vote will be the country's first nationwide election since the 1960s. Gaddafi, who ruled for 42 years, banned political parties and elections.
Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, suffered marginalisation under the Gaddafi regime. In March, leaders and commanders held a meeting to discuss plans for semi-autonomous rule in the east. The transitional council accused them of trying to split the country into mini-states.
In the south, Tabu leader Issa Abdel-Majid told Associated Press his tribe, which is of African origin, will not vote if government troops continue to deploy tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and snipers against Tabu fighters battling a rival Arab tribe, Zwia, in Kufra. He said dozens of Tabu civilians have been killed and homes destroyed in the clashes.
Neither government officials nor groups such as the Red Cross, which has previously helped evacuate the wounded from Kufra, could confirm the number of people killed in the latest round of fighting over the past week.
Armed clashes have erupted several times over the last few months, leaving dozens killed and injured, mainly among the Tabu, the original inhabitants of southern Libya who were heavily suppressed under Gaddafi.
Abdel-Majid said his tribe wants an international peacekeeping force to be stationed in Kufra and for Tabu representatives to be given seats in the country's cabinet. "If our demands are not met, we are boycotting the elections," he said.
Amnesty International's Libya researcher Diana el-Tahawy said the government failed to send a fact-finding mission to Kufra to determine who was behind attacks and compensate victims after clashes killed more than 100 in February. Unresolved disputes have boiled over since. "The [government] is either unwilling or unable to control these militias," she said.
Source: The Guardian UK
Investigators arrest 24 in global online fraud probe
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- Category: DateLines
- Created on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:00
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Investigators arrest 24 in global online fraud probe
A US-led investigation into online fraud yielded arrests in eight different countries, after law enforcers set up a site to monitor would-be criminals.
New York investigators said on Tuesday that 24 people across four continents had been arrested as part of probe into online financial fraud.
{sidebar id=11 align=right}The two-year operation saw agents posing as hackers on an internet forum they had set up to monitor users swapping ways to commit fraud, including methods of breaking through online security walls.
The website was configured to allow officers to record discussion threads and track the internet addresses of users.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that 11 people had been arrested in the US, with 13 arrests made elsewhere. Six were arrested in Britain, two in Bosnia, and one each in Bulgaria, Norway and Germany for offences allegedly committed in those countries. Two others were detained in Italy and Japan on international warrants.
The probe, named "Operation Card Shop," targeted "sophisticated, highly organized cyber criminals involved in buying and selling stolen identities, exploited credit cards, counterfeit documents, and sophisticated hacking tools," said the FBI's assistant New York director-in-charge, Janice Fedarcyk.
The FBI said acts of fraud against more than 400,000 possible victims had been prevented. The potential losses totaled some $205 million (165 million euros), officials said.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said the investigation had unearthed "a breathtaking spectrum of cyber schemes and scams."
rc/slk (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Source: Deutsche Welle