According to him, these MMDCEs dip their hands into Assemblies’ internally generated funds with the excuse that they are going to make funeral donations and also pay companies that have executed some contracts.

“Do you know that it is possible that every Friday, some 60,000 is shared among top executives of district assemblies and nobody can do anything about it? The DCE has a certain threshold of contract he can award, the law says that three invoices, so the District Finance Office calls a regular supplier in the area and asks him to bring three invoices,”he said.

According to him, the companies registered with some DCEs behind it, are paid for nothing, and there is nobody to check if these companies are ‘ghost’ companies or not.

“They can call the works and planning guy, he comes to sign and say the work has been done, the cheque can be written in the DFO’s  [District Finance Officer’s ] name, he goes to the bank and brings the money,” he said.

He explained that the practice has not been exposed because most Assembly members lack the courage to stand up as most of them are looking for favours from their MMDCEs.

He also said Members of Parliament are unable to attend procurement meetings to make the necessary enquiries, because the DCEs send meeting notifications letters to their various MP on the day of the meeting or a day before the meeting.

Deficiencies in the operations of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) created avenues for some officials of the assemblies to mismanage funds and resources valued at approximately GH¢ 70.1 million, the 2016 Auditor-General’s Report on the assemblies has revealed.

The amount shows a 32 percent (almost GH¢17 million) increase in the 2015 financial irregularities of the assemblies that the Auditor-General’s Report pegged at almost GH¢53.2million.

“Management and staff of the assemblies continued to violate rules and regulations, policies, procedures and directives which had been put in place to ensure the economic, effective and efficient management of public resources made available to MMDAs,” the report, signed by the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Y. Domelevo, said.

The government has been impressed upon to adopt fiscal decentralization policies and reduce the stress on the national budget.

“Most District Assemblies are unable to generate enough funds of their own to support their operations, making them depend heavily on the central government for financial support. The assignment of functions from central to local government is fragmented, and there is no clear definition of responsibilities across the two levels of government.”

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the specific charge of causing financial loss to the state cannot be held against Mr. Opuni since no individual or group of cocoa farmers have publicly claimed he supplied ineffective fertilizers during his tenure.

[contextly_sidebar id=”sqRyPqQZw1nhiAiEjtNso9yxbmkJHvA4″]Speaking on The Big Issue, George Loh cautioned against the deliberate persecution of former government officials, noting that there must be “prosecution and not persecution.”

He indicated that the Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Afriyie Akoto, must equally be charged for supplying ineffective chemicals worth millions of dollars to farmers at the height of the fall armyworm outbreak in the country.

“Is Nana Addo not seeing that his Minister for Agriculture [Dr. Afriyie Akoto], bought chemicals [worth] millions of dollars and the farmers who used it, came out publicly and told the minister that these are bogus chemicals? Nana Addo is asleep, he hasn’t heard that. And that one, it cannot go for EOCO, it cannot go for trial… The fall armyworm case, where we spent millions of dollars to buy chemicals that did not work, that one the Minister did not cause financial loss to the state?” he quizzed.

“This one [Dr. Opuni’s case], no farmer has come to say the chemicals didn’t work. In fact, records even show that we had actually improved our cocoa yield. No technical person has come out to say the fertilizer did not meet the standards,” he added.

‘Dr. Opuni charged’

The Attorney General last week filed some 27 counts including a charge of causing financial loss to the state against Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni.

He is being sued together with one Seidu Agongo, CEO of Zeera Group of Companies and Agricult Ghana Limited, beneficiaries of a supposed fraudulent fertilizer contract worth over GH¢43 million.

The first court hearing has been scheduled for March 23, 2018.

But Mr. George Loh, who is also a private legal practitioner said the state must be fair in dealing with such matters.

“All I’m saying in simple terms is that, when people have done wrong in this country, they must be prosecuted, but not persecuted,” he told the host of The Big Issue, Selorm Adonoo on Saturday.

Opuni’s prosecution a case of ‘injustice’

Meanwhile, the National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams, has described the prosecution of the former COCOBOD boss as injustice.

He said the government is only making frantic efforts to cause public disaffection towards the previous NDC administration by smearing former state officials with allegations of corruption and initiating legal action against them for same, although its own officials have been cited for various acts of corruption.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the residence was adequately secured and was not in any way threatened by the presence of the squatters who have lived in the area for several years.

[contextly_sidebar id=”lLsTfsEmqFGXp1APVHChRsk7MeBZLcXu”]“There is a security post right in front of his house. Even on the second street it has been cordoned off and so you cannot pass there… so the security presence for me is good enough,” George Loh said on The Big Issue on Saturday.  

He added that, “… What we are saying is that, if you have lived with people for 30 years and you have become a president, I thought we could have found better ways of dealing with the security of the president than the manner in which we have done this one. You could even panel that entire place with beautiful wood and pictures… there are many things you can do to cut that place off if it is serenity you want. If it is security, you can even raise the walls.”

Issues concerning the President’s private home at Nima in Accra has come up following the National Security’s recent demolition of structures close to the premises and eviction of traders in the area over security concerns.

When Citi News visited the area on Monday, 12^th March, 2018, days ahead of the deadline given to the squatters to vacate, most of them were hastily packing out.

Some have criticized the decision of national security to evict the squatters and traders, some of whom have been neighbors with the President Akufo-Addo for over 20 years.

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), for instance, has questioned why the President has not moved into the Flagstaff House only to be inconveniencing poor and vulnerable persons in the name of national security.

But the Minister of State in charge of National Security, Brian Acheampong in an Eyewitness News interview earlier this week, said, “We know that he [Akufo-Addo] goes there a minimum of two or three times a week. It is the responsibility of the state to declare the area a security zone and protect it 24/7….Beyond the President’s safety, Mr. Acheampong reminded that “his close family are high-value targets that we must protect and some of them live in that [Nima] residence.”

Although the President purportedly paid compensations of between Ghc3,000 to Ghc10,000 to the affected persons from his own  pocket, some have said the amounts are inadequate.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the bill was far advanced and needed only three readings in Parliament to become law, but Mensah-Bonsu, who was then the Minority Leader, said his team members were not interested.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ZpmQZTOCIlBaocBCObI0DUrFC5iGB6xb”]“We had shepherded the bill and we were left with just few clauses. But you know when it got to the crunch and we were supposed to do it…it was the opposition leader then, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, who said there were better things they [Minority] are thinking about, [Mensah-Bonsu said] our people are not willing to do it, we would not want to do it. We [NPP Minority members] have had a meeting and we think that this is not the right time so when we [NPP] come [to power] we will pass it,” George Loh said on Citi FM’s current affairs and news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday.

George Loh explained that his committee had done all the necessary amendments to the bill saying “we were at the tail end of it, few more amendments and we would have been done” but lamented that the minority members were adamant.

Mr. Loh, who is also a former Member of Parliament for North Dayi Constituency, said the NDC did all within its power push for the passage of the bill including getting the Attorney General’s Department to incorporate all the amendments needed into one document for easier scrutiny and approval.

RTI bill could be passed within three days

He noted that at that level, the bill could have been passed into law within three days, but for the Minority’s resistance.

“Let me give information about what we did on the RTI bill. We got the Attorney General’s department to get to incorporate all the amendments in a totally new document. So what was going to come to Parliament was no longer going to come with all the amendments on it. So we were going to go quickly go into the first reading, then one or two sessions, make sure we go through and make few changes then go through the second reading and then the third reading then it is passed.”

“So in actual fact, in three days, if government is minded to ensure that the Attorney General comes to sit in Parliament and be part of this bill, it could be passed. We have done all the work. We’ve incorporated all the suggestions and did all the necessary engagements,” he added.

Background of RTI bill

The RTI bill,which is expected to make information easily accessible by the media and Ghanaians to boost the fight against corruption has been in legislation for well over 17 years now because successive governments have failed to implement it despite several assurances.

Efforts by several advocacy groups to put pressure on the duty bearers to have the bill passed have also not yielded any positive results.

At his last address to Parliament, outgoing President John Mahama begged Parliament to pass the bill at the last minute but his call was ignored.

Although the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has promised to pass the bill, it is unclear how soon that would be.

Cabinet yet to hold talks on RTI bill – Hamid

Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, in January 2018 claimed that Cabinet had not held discussions on the RTI bill.

“Cabinet has proposed to have a special session to look at this particular bill because of the importance that it has before we then pass it and take it to Parliament…The bill is before Cabinet. It will be discussed. If you ask me when, I will not be able to say, but I am sure pretty soon the Cabinet Secretary will get a day when the entire Cabinet will retreat in order to look at this bill properly and then when we have a final consensus on it, we can then take it to Parliament,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Kyei Mensah-Bonsu blocked passage of RTI bill – George Loh appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the reasons adduced by government for the re-introduction are wrong.

The Akufo-Addo government on Wednesday announced the re-introduction of the quota system which was scrapped by the Mahama government together with the trainee allowances.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ZZeqkKtpii1eGUHQ64HQCNbalPGyK8mR”]According to government the quota system will help improve the quality of nurses churned out from the various training institutions in the country to meet the demands of the health sector, thus reducing unemployment.

But George Loh insisted that re-introducing the quota system is not the panacea for improving quality of nurses adding that “give people the opportunity to school.”

“I think that we are getting it all wrong in terms of policy. I thought that the government will say that let’s keep the numbers but improve quality but even as we go ahead we ensure that we are expanding facilities and we are ensuring that all facilities get the standard that will produce nurses. Let’s look at these things well when we talk about quality when you don’t have money to pay,” he said on The Big Issue on Saturday.

Nursing trainee quota system will create difficulties – Alex Segbefia

A former Health Minister, Alex Sebgefia has said the policy will create difficulties for government.

“I think that they [NPP government] are creating difficulties for themselves because the allowance is not something that should be brought back at this stage,” he said on Eyewitness News last Wednesday.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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[contextly_sidebar id=”E14phv9QTA7v56h9ecq1S41wu4OttRHH”]The alleged visa fraud came to the fore after the sighting of a confidential letter the British High Commission in Ghana wrote to the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, accusing the MPs of facilitating the entry of some of their supposed relatives to the UK using their Diplomatic Passports.

The letter cited Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East in the Western Region; Joseph Benhazin Dahah, MP for Asutifi North in the Brong Ahafo region; Johnson Kwaku Adu, MP for Ahafo Ano South West in the Ashanti Region and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Brong Ahafo.

Speaking on the development on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, the Legal Practitioner said the MPs should be sanctioned for wrongfully using their diplomatic passports.

“This is a bad situation particularly for the other three. When you are issued with a diplomatic passport, the intention is not for you to travel with your wife on a holiday. The only reason why MPs are given diplomatic passport is because you go on delegations and sometimes these delegations include delegations with the presidency, the Ministers,…”

Mr. Loh said the policy of securing diplomatic passports for MPs became a reality after several reported cases of unnecessary delays especially during the erstwhile Atta Mills’ administration.

“What happened is that because you did not have a diplomatic passport you were stranded virtually so at one point Prof Mills had to wait for two hours at the VVIP because he was travelling with a group of MPs and because he and the Ministers were on a diplomatic passport they had been checked in through VVIP and they were sitting there but the MPs had to go through the regular line and it delayed unnecessarily so after that , the decision was that because the MPs go and represent the country on international missions, give them diplomatic passport.”

The lawyer believes it will be needless to rationalise this development since “when you are an MP, the only reason why the British High Commission feels comfortable giving you the visa is because they are confident of your status in society. “

“If you go and you do not do what you are supposed to do, they have a right to impune on your credibility.”

Former MP to sue UK High Commission over Visa fraud claims 

Meanwhile, lawyers for one of the accused, a former MP for Asunafo South constituency, George Boakye, have asked the British High Commission to reverse its travel ban imposed on the former legislator.

According to the lawyers, the grounds for the imposition of the ban were unfounded.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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