Cavs defend the land

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated a motivated Boston Celtics squad 102-99, which initially looked rattled after losing forward Gordon Hayward to and injury just over five minutes into the game. LeBron James was one assist short of a triple-double with 29 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists, Kevin Love had a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double, Derrick Rose had 14 points and four rebounds, and Jae Crowder 11 points and five rebounds.

Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 25 points and six rebounds, Kyrie Irving had a 22-point, 10-assist double-double, rookie Jayson Tatum also had a double-double in his maiden regular season NBA game with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Marcus Smart had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Rockets strike Warriors

The defending champions Golden State Warriors were beaten by the Houston Rockets in a closely contested game that ended 122-121. James Harden had a 27-point, 10-rebound double-double, Eric Gordon had 24 points, PJ Tucker had 20 points and six rebounds, Cameroonian forward Luc Mbah a Moute 14 points and four rebounds, Congolese/Angolan-Swiss center Clint Capela put up 12 points and grabbed four boards, while Ryan Anderson finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.

The Warriors were led by Nick Young with 23 points, Stephen Curry had 22 points, five rebounds and four assists, Kevin Durant had 20 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four blocks, Klay Thompson had 16 points and six rebounds, and Draymond Green was a point short of a triple double with nine points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.

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Source: NBA

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Reaching this milestone will force a smile out of legendary Ghanaian coach Herbert Addo even in his grave, the newly promoted Dormaa based team that he led to a league title at the first time of asking had managed to repeat the dose seven years down the line.

Aduana Stars set themselves the task of building a team composed of the most highly rated players and potential stars on the local scene and placed Yusif Abubakar at the helm of affairs.

The central midfield partnership of Elvis Opoku and Noah Martey whipped up chemistry and magic to dazzle many an opponent on just about every matchday.

The trio of Derek Sasraku,Nathaniel Asamoah and Sam Adams all managed or exceeded the goal mark of five,making Aduana the only team to achieve this feat.

They had a business like attitude about them from matchday one and played every game with a chip on their shoulder,a characteristic perhaps instilled by their narrow miss of glory the previous season when they lost the penultimate game of the season to Wa All Stars.

They defined the phrase “numbers don’t lie with their season as they led the way in goals for all teams with 43 while conceding 21 with just 2 coming at the Nana Agyemang Badu Park.

Now that the championship trophy is safely tucked away in the cabinet the attention turns to the CAF Champions League which they are eligible for by virtue of their status as Champions.

Their first attempt seven years ago ended in a first round exit and they can be pardoned because at the time they were just getting their feet wet as far as top level football was concerned.

They have matured as an organisation  and that maturity will be called upon when the continental ship is ready to set sail.

Aduana will have to take critical decisions with regards to improvement of their squad if making it to the business end of the competition is their aim.

Ghana will be watching,but for now lets pop the champagne or better still  get some fufu pounding in the background.

EPL Top Guns Choke

The biggest anti-climax of the matchweek was played out by Liverpool and Man United and honestly we should all have seen this coming,purely on the back of what has been served since Mourinho took over at United.

From the neutral’s point of view it must have made painful viewing watching one team pass the ball around diagonally while the other sat back in their own half and watched the seconds tick.

Even the purists will admit that this display was disgusting but nevertheless one side went home happy while the other have managed just one win in 8 matches in all competitions.

Arsenal continued to serve their fans a healthy dose of piss and it doesn’t seem as if that will slow down anytime soon.

To say that the performance against Watford was uninspiring is an understatement even for the regular Arsenal fan who should have become accustomed to them.

Watching the game I cannot help but admit that they deserved every bit of what they got because that Mertesacker goal really came out of nothing and the play was as drab as it gets in the modern game.

No desire,no leadership on the pitch and even the coordinated passing that Arsenal can muster even on their worse day was absent.

A win would have catapulted them into the top four but instead they fluffed it and handed that ticket to Watford.

Chelsea on the other hand are flirting with their own crisis situation as a plethora of injuries and some underwhelming displays has them reeling.

With only 8 matches played the champions have already lost three matches and conceded 8 goals.

Even more daunting is the fact that this latest defeat came at the hands of Crystal Palace,a team that had failed to score in 7 matches and were yet to record a point.

The foundations for defending their crown looks wobbly and I dare say that if they lose another match before December that dream is over.

The NBA wait is almost over

The opening day fixtures are laden with story lines where ever you look with Lebron James set to welcome former teammate now turned rival Kyrie Irving and his Celtics to the Quicken Loans Arena.

This match up enables us to observe at close quarters what sort of leadership Kyrie Irving brings to the table and whether this will be a preview to the conference finals later.

The return of Dwayne Wade to Lebron’s side and what his impact will be will also make for interesting viewing especially on the back of his chaotic season with his home town Chicago Bulls.

Speaking of the Bulls Derek Rose is another element of the Cavs roster that stirs my interest and from what I have witnessed in the scrimmages and preseason games he is getting back to that old Rose that was sure with the handle and fearless on the drive.

His impact however will be heavily dependent on his health.

The Golden State Warriors on the other hand will want to usher in their season opener with more guile and finesse than they did last year when the San Antonio Spurs came to town and run rout much to the dismay of the Oracle Arena crowd.

The Houston Rockets with their renovated back court that includes Chris Paul will be hoping that the championship banner that will be raised to the rafters by the Champions will be the last in a long time to come.

Again this match-up will provide insight into whether the Rockets have indeed become that genuine Championship threat following their off season activities.

The prospects of the Warriors getting better as a team is too scary to fathom but the frenzy the NBA world will be thrown into if the Rockets upset them at the Oracle is even more compelling.

By:Benjamin Nketsia/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @kojonketsia

The post Final Whistle: Aduana Champions, EPL powerhouses choke, NBA tip-off upon us appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 7’0 shot blocker was hoping to secure a roster spot with the western conference power house following a summer league stint with the Chicago Bulls and subsequently making the Spurs pre-season roster.

Brimah made three pre-season appearances averaging 3.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 5.7 minutes.

He was beaten to the centre position by former Michigan State Spartan Matt Costello who has been signed to a two-way contract, bringing the total number of players on the Spurs roster to seventeen.

The former NCAA National champion with the UCONN Huskies in 2014 will in effect become a free agent as he seeks other opportunities.

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By:Benjamin Nketsia/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Golden State missed all 11 of their three-point attempts in the fourth quarter, as Chicago ran away with it in the final minutes. Stephen Curry led the Dubs with 23 points, while Draymond Green added 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

With the defeat, Golden State drops to 50-11 on the season.

The two teams scuffled from the start, with neither side shooting above 40 percent from the field in the opening quarter. It remained a one-possession game until Andre Iguodala converted the second of back-to-back scores to give the Warriors a 22-17 lead with 2:10 remaining in the first frame.

Golden State would expand on that lead slightly through the remainder of the quarter and hold a 26-19 advantage heading into the second. Newly signed Matt Barnes checked into the game at the 8:03 mark of the second frame and made an impact right away, scoring 13 seconds later to give the Dubs their first double-digit lead of the night at 34-24.

The Bulls would respond immediately and come within a single basket on four separate occasions through the remainder of the quarter, but Golden State would never relinquish the lead entirely through the rest of the opening half. Jimmy Butler sank two free throws with 48 seconds remaining to send the game into halftime with the Warriors up 51-47.

The two sides would trade baskets to begin the second half until Jerami Grant followed two more Butler free throws with a three-pointer to give Chicago their first lead since the middle of the first quarter at 59-58.

Draymond Green retook the lead with a runner at the 6:56 mark, and Curry knocked down the 2,581st three-pointer of his career 28 seconds later to move past Kobe Bryant for 11th on the all-time list.

Golden State would be doubled up through the remainder of the quarter, however, as the Bulls would go on a run to take a 79-73 lead heading into the fourth and final frame. Slowly but surely, the Warriors climbed back into the game behind their defense.

They held Chicago scoreless for a period of nearly four-and-a-half minutes, over the course of which they’d go on a 6-0 run to retake an 85-84 lead on David West’s lay-in with 5:43 remaining in the game.

West’s bucket would prove to be Golden State’s only points over the ensuing 4:47, which proved to be their undoing.

The Bulls went on a 7-0 burst over that period to jump back in front, and the Warriors were never able to recover.

The loss drops Golden State to 50-11 on the season and snaps their NBA record streak of 146 consecutive regular season games without back-to-back defeats. They’ll look to get back on track on Saturday when they play the Knicks in New York.

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Source: NBA

The post NBA: Warriors Fall Short in Chicago appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 32-year-old filed for divorce in December 2013 after the pair had been married for four years.

But she called it off after Lamar Odom was found unconscious at a brothelin Nevada last year.

Khloe said his medical condition was one reason to stop the process.

She re-filed for divorce in May saying there were irreconcilable differences in the marriage.

Khloe Kardashian confirms divorce

The couple started a company called Khlomar after they started dating in 2009, which will now be dissolved.

Their judgment says that neither Khloe Kardashian nor Lamar Odom will receive spousal support from the other.

Ex-basketball star Lamar Odom last played for the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2012-13 season.

He signed a contract with the New York Knicks in 2014, but was cut by the team before appearing in a game.

Khloe Kardashian first filed for divorce days after Lamar Odom pleaded no contest to a drink-drive charge.

The 6ft 10in (2.08m) forward had his best years with the Los Angeles Lakers between 2004 and 2011.

The team won NBA championships in 2010 and 2011 and Lamar Odom won the NBA’s sixth man award during that second championship run.

In addition to appearing on several reality series about her family, Khloe Kardashian helps operate clothing stores and other businesses with her sisters, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.

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Source: BBC

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He has also admonished government to reorder full investigations into the deal between RAGB and SUBAH which has created public uproar.

Atik Mohamed at a news conference on Wednesday May 21, 2014 further suggested the need to terminate the Service Agreement between SUBAH and the RAGB.

It would be recalled that Subah Infosolutions was contracted by the Ghana Revenue Authority  in 2010 to provide telecom traffic monitoring services for revenue verification for the tax agency.

It was primarily set up to take up the telecom monitoring contract and the money that came with it.

Earlier reports indicated that the said deal earned the Information Technology firm GH¢74.3 million Ghana Cedis.

Later, several individuals and institutions raised eyebrows on the deal and called for investigations.

Also, a ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei requested the Minister of Finance, Mr. Seth Terkper to furnish the house with further and better particulars detailing the business agreement between an IT firm, Subah Info solutions Limited and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enable it have a better understanding of the contract.

The controversial agreement between the two entities, according to the committee was not known to Parliament, hence its request for the details.

A government committee was set up to investigate the alleged payment of GHC144 million to Subah Info Solutions Ghana Limited by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for no work done.

At the end of the investigations, the committee’s report implied that the contract was legally awarded and that Subah Info Solutions Limited deserved the monies paid to them.

The report also said Subah justifiably incurred cost in executing the contract for which reason it was paid 74.3 million cedis contrary to the reported 144 million cedis for services rendered.

However, the report admitted that Subah failed to fully execute its contract but blamed this on the unwillingness of Telecom companies to allow Subah to attach equipment that will independently monitor revenue declared.

This explained why the Mass Action Committee has advocated the need to re-investigate the deal.

Below is the full statement:

PRESS RELEASE ON SUBAH INFO SOLUTIONS AND THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE’S REPORT

Mass Action Committee (MAC) has noted with great deal of disquiet, the outcome of the Technical Committee’s work in respect of the Service Agreement and the execution thereof between REVSOL/SUBAH INFOSOLUTIONS LTD and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) acting on behalf of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on 5th May 2010. It will be recalled that, there was public outcry about the propriety of the contract and the loss of huge sums of money to SUBAH INFOSOLUTIONS. In response, the Minister of Finance in 2013 set the Technical Committee up to investigate the claims made against SUBAH in the execution of their contract. It is important to underscore the fact that, these investigations were expected to ascertain whether Government of Ghana was getting value for money in its dealings with SUBAH.

It is against this backdrop that, the committee’s report leaves us with no option but conclude that it did a deliberately poor job with the intent to exonerate REVSOL/SUBAH INFOSOLUTIONS and thus give them the official blessing to comfortably enjoy their loot.

THE SERVICE AGREEMENT

A careful study of how SUBAH’s services were procured shows that, this whole transaction was carried out in bad faith. And as a consequence, Ghanaians were short changed. Contrary to the expectation that the Revenue Agencies Governing Board, would request proposals from prospective companies with expertise in Revenue Assurance Monitoring through competitive bidding,  it was they(SUBAH)  in a typical GYEEDA fashion who presented a proposal to the RAGB and the Ministry of Finance in 2009 for the provision of this service.

Whereupon, the RAGB accepted the proposal and on 4th January, 2010 wrote to MOFEP for approval and authorization. Strangely however, the Minister in approving the proposal indicated in his letter dated 3rd Feb 2010, that the service be sole-sourced as per section 40(1) e of the procurement Act.

What is intriguing and mind boggling is the fact that, the kind of service SUBAH was expected to offer hardly fits into this particular provision. The provision in question relates to conditions under which single-sourcing is permissible and reads “where the procurement entity seeks to enter into a contract with the supplier or contractor for research, experiment, study or development except where the contract includes the production of goods in quantities to establish commercial viability or recover research and development costs”. Several attempts by the Mass Action Committeeto find our heads around how the service in question could possibly pass the test of this provision have been unsuccessful.

By limiting the procurement of this all important service to just SUBAH, Ghana lost the benefit of alternative offers with the twin prospects of better cost and higher expertise.

What is even more ludicrous and heart breaking is that, some portions of the Service Agreement itself especially Article 5 which relates to fees.RAGB is required to pay SUBAH 13.5% of incremental revenue accrued from Communications Service VAT/NHIL and Communication Service Tax. Beyond the fact that 13.5% is unreasonable, it is calculated on additional tax revenue beyond the average monthly collection – which is the ratio of aggregate CST and VAT declared and accounted for by Service Providers since the inception of the CST in 2008 to the month before the commencement of SUBAH’s work and the number of months thereof.

What this means is that, whether the increase in tax revenue is the result of SUBAH’s work or not, it is entitled to take 13.5% in so far as the increase goes beyond the “current average monthly collection” threshold. To this extent, the Service Agreement as it was so fashioned, positioned SUBAH in the best stead to potentially reap where it certainly did not sow.Only a contract with the intention to defraud can contain these incensing terms.

What is even more worrying is the fact that, Where no incremental revenue accrues in a particular month, the Agreement mandates RAGB to still pay “almighty SUBAH” 1% of the average monthly collection. In effect, whether SUBAH works or sleeps, it is still entitled as per the Agreement to share our taxes with us.

It is instructive to mention that, in most cases where private entities are contracted to provide Revenue Assurance Monitoring, they are paid percentages on the differentials between tax deposits and true tax uncovered through the work of the contractor. So that, where incremental tax revenue is not the function of the contracted entity’s efforts, it fails to profit from it. In the case of RAGB and SUBAH, it is more of a legally binding invitation from the former to the latter to share our communication tax revenues for pretending to be doing something when indeed it is doing NOTHING!

To make matters even worse, this Agreement has a life span of five years which gives SUBAH enough time to exploit this porous Agreement to amass as much loot as they possibly can.

POOR EXECUTION OF CONTRACT AND RECEIPT OF FREE MONEY FOR DOING NOTHING

The mandate of SUBAH is found in Article 4 of the Agreement. It is to among other things report on total revenues generated in a month, details of all calls of a particular number, tax differential reports, subscriber base of operators and total minutes at given periods. The essence is to reduce tariff and traffic fraud which lead to tax revenue loss by government.

To do this, SUBAH was required to independently monitor traffic volume and pricing of mobile and fixed telephony by connecting monitoring devices to the physical network nodes of service providers. Unfortunately, SUBAH did not do this. Rather it depended on CDRs presented by Service Providers to NCA for their work. And claim they analyzed the CDRs to ascertain whether the telecos were under declaring taxes or not-a situation according to them led to increases in tax revenue for the Ghana Revenue Authority.

We find this joke unacceptable as it did not give GRA any assurance that the telecos were fully declaring taxes due the state. Data on the CDRs presented by the telecos were their discretion and so they could under declare without SUBAH knowing because it had no means of verification and thus the purpose of the Agreement with SUBAH would be defeated. The claim by SUBAH that they used Revenue Assurance Software to analyze the CDRs is unsustainable as the software is only good to the degree that it is limited to the CDRs. In point of fact, the Performance Evaluation Report on Local Call MonitoringSeptember 2013, indicated that SUBAH monitoring operations were limited to only obtaining CDRs provided by operators which were subject to manipulation. Hence, there was no “complete visibility of operators’ actual revenues”.

Despite this non-performance, GRA went ahead to recommend payment of huge sums of money as fees to SUBAH. A major justification for these payments was that, there has been a surge in incremental revenues over the period since SUBAH began its work in 2010. This by all accounts is untrue. The increase in CST and the Communication Service VAT/NHIL is largely because of the increase in the subscriber base of mobile and fixed telephony. SUBAH’s work as clearly explained, has neither reduced revenue loss from tariff fraud nor has it reduced traffic volume manipulation.

Some of these outrageous payments could be as much as 12,558,019.00 within four months (May-August, 2012 for example and approval was given on 20th May 2013 by the Finance Minister).

THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE’S REPORT

It is our view that, the committee’s report is an attempt to whitewash the SUBAH deal and give it legitimacy and by extension the monies they have undeservedly taken. The bit about whether the RAGB had the mandate to enter into a contract with SUBAH or not is for us is not much of a problem. Indeed, what is of utmost concern to Ghanaians is whether we had value for money in respect of SUBAH’s operations. From what has been mentioned above, we did not!

And so, we find it reprehensible that a committee set up and financed with our money will produce such results as to make it possible for 74m GHS of taxes to be leaked into a private pocket. As for the so called negotiated 1% reduction in SUBAH’s “earnings” as compensation for their inability to connect their devices to the nodes of the operators and monitor traffic and prices is the worst joke. The main thrust of SUBAH’s mandate is to be able to report accurate data on traffic volume and so on for the purpose of having accuracy and visibility of actual tax revenue deposits by the telecos.

Therefore, failure to do this which the committee itself admits, SUBAH does not deserve even a penny. And should have been made to refund every pesewa taken from our communication taxes.

To this end, we are calling on the President and Government to do the following:

·       Reject the committee’s report

·       Reorder full investigations into the whole RAGB and SUBAH deal

·       Suspend the Chairman of the RAGB

·       terminate the Service Agreement between SUBAH and the RAGB

Beyond these immediate measures, we are also entreating the Ghana Revenue Authority to consider the possibility of setting up a specialized unit solely dedicated to the monitoring of communication tax revenue. This unit should be given all the technical support and capacity to be able to carry out proper revenue assurance exercises. Alternatively, where the GRA still feels it is cost-efficient to outsource this service, it must be done on the basis of competitive bidding.

We wish to state emphatically that, a major part of our economic challenges is low tax revenue receipts. This recognition has led Government to introduce all kinds of new taxes and increased the rates of existing ones. Therefore every effort must be made to safeguard the little that accrues and prevent some individuals from deliberately siphoning it into private pockets. This effort is our collective responsibility and Mass Action Committee will go every length to ensure that.

In this regard, we are giving Government a one month ultimatum to do what we have mentioned above. Failure to do this will leave us with no option but exploit every available legitimate means to protect our taxes which we pay for the most part through our noses.

God Bless Ghana

SIGNED:

Atik Mohammed (Spokesperson)

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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