Thursday 22 January 2015

SCANDAL: First Capital Plus Bank Is Collapsing


John Kofi Mensah, CEO First Capital Plus
The Insight has obtained damning information indicating that the First Capital Plus Bank is on the verge of collapse.

A memorandum signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr John Kofi Mensah claims that it may not be able to meet its obligations to its clients.

The memorandum addressed to the Board of the Bank spells out numerous cases of mismanagement and corruption.

The full text of the memorandum dated 11th August, 2014 is published below;

BOARD MEMO

FROM: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

TO: CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DATE: AUGUST 11, 2014

URGENT ACTION TO SALVAGE THE REPUTATION AND FORTUNES OF FIRST CAPITAL PLUS BANK

I write to reiterate my earlier concerns and request for the Board to act with expedition and take drastic and urgent steps to resolve the seemingly intractable problems that have bedeviled and continue to dog the growth and our efforts to stand the bank on its feet till date.

We have discussed these Issues at length, but we do not seem to have made any significant progress as exemplified by the fact, among others, that a recent 3 man committee we set up to come up with some solutions appear to have been still born. We also appear to be perfecting the art of crafting long -winding resolutions which are not backed by any serious follow-up action." I perceive that we are very conversant with and know very well the problems that confront, but lack the critical boldness and courage to tackle the bull by the horns. With respect, we all appear to be guilty of fiddling while Rome burns.

As the CEO, coupled with my interests as a shareholder of the Bank, I wish to set the ball rolling by shaking myself out of the self-imposed slumber that we all find ourselves. I think that I cannot do less than be in the forefront and spearhead the efforts to grow the Bank and move it to the next level to the path of joining the ranks of the foremost financial institutions in the country. The clarion call has assumed some urgency due in part to the attempt by the Government/Bank of Ghana to pass into law the Depositors Protection Bill and the Deposit Taking Institutions Bill which would, among others, oblige every Director of a Bank to report to the Bank of Ghana if he has reason to believe that a Bank of which he is a director cannot meet its future obligations on pain of criminal sanctions.

In short, transparency, candour and diligence in prosecuting a bank's object of incorporation is no longer a matter of personal ethics, but have been raised to an obligatory statutory duty with
sanctions to boot. We can therefore not have the luxury of going on with our duties as 'business-as usual'. On the contrary, we are being compelled to move forward.

From my perspective, the issues that require urgent action appear to be:

1.0  Our inability to establish offshore counterparty relationships due to issues with shareholder's credibility.

2.0 On top of this issue is our continuing inability to establish offshore counterparty relationships with other banks and financial institutions. As we are all undoubtedly aware, this problem has arisen and persists as a direct consequence of outstanding and unresolved issues hovering around shareholders of the bank. The Deutsche Bank and others have, after conducting due diligence on the bank, rejected our request for business relationship with them. We all know and agree that this type of business relationship constitute one of the essential life lines for the Bank. As long as this problem persists, we cannot reasonably expect to grow outside the boundaries of this country. This will undoubtedly lead to stunted growth and spell doom for the bank in the long run. Unfortunately as the issue is, I am sorry to state that we have dithered for far too long on this matter and require to act forthwith.
3.0 Unresolved TPF and capitalization issues.
3.1  This is a long standing issue and needs no further clarification.

4.0 Increasing interest expense and general costs of doing business
4.1  This has been the bane of the bank for some time now, that while management is embarking on a desperate and aggressive deposit mobilization to shore up liquidity to cover holes in the balance sheet, it is resulting in increased interest expense and general costs to us. This is detrimental to our profitability drive and the same is unsustainable.

5.0 Potential TPF and Related Costs
Decisions on some emerging liabilities which are potential TPF remain outstanding

6.0 For the above and other reasons, I hereby outline the following as urgent steps that the Board ought to ensure to save the Bank from any further casualties.
i.                    On the first issue above, I see the solution as a simple one: The shareholders must accept to have their shares held in trust for them. The only other option, as far as I can see, is that they remain and we get stuck in the tunnel, with the inevitable consequence that this may explode in our faces sooner than later.
ii.                 Proper capitalization of the Bank since deposits with other Banks is not backed by actual liquidity.
iii.               Acceptance of debt liability created through non-conventional practices and a delivery of a re-imbursement plan that will not create any further liquidity strain for the Bank.
iv.                Full disclosure of any and all potential liability created by any shareholder to avoid further surprises as has been the case lately.
v.                  Concrete steps to salvage the reputation of the Bank and prevent any further market and reputational risks.
vi.                Decisions Board must be implemented without further delay.

7.0 I regret to mention that unless we act ourselves and so with all the promptitude that it deserves, things may go out of hand, including the possibility that the Bank of Ghana may step in, by which time it will be too late for us to make excuses, with all of us risking sanctions (though I fervently hope that we act with expedition and seriousness to avoid that possibility).

8.0Accordingly, I think that we are all sitting on a time bomb and cannot afford to spend too much time in drawing a road map based on the proposals outlined here. I would think that we should be able to accomplish this assignment within three weeks from now.
9.0 Of course, the Board’s acceptance or otherwise of my proposals would go a long way to assist my interpretation of the Board’s willingness to share in my vision for the Bank and its customers at large. I will certainly interpret that as a vote of no confidence in my ability to steer the bank to its destination with your respective backing and cooperation.

Submitted for the board’s action.           

Editorial
KYEI MENSAH BONSU
Some of the spokespersons of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) do the party no good by their engagement in mischief and one of such people is the Minority Leader in Parliament Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu.

Over the years, this gentleman has managed to acquire the reputation of an empty barrel; making the most noise and not getting any favourable response.

Last week at a press conference organised by the minority in Parliament, Kyei Mensah Bonsu attempted to poke fun at the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) but only ended up exposing the inconsistencies of his own party.

He asked: “Where is the CJA when prices of petroleum products are going up?”
The point however is that in percentage terms, the price of petroleum products rose higher under the Kufuor administration than now.

When the price of crude oil tumbled on the world market, the Kufuor administration refused to reduce the price of ex-pump price of fuel in Ghana.

In short the Kufuor administration did exactly what the Mahama government is doing today.
What is even worse is that under the NPP administration those who protested against frequent fuel price increases were brutalized, abused and ridiculed.

Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s press conference only exposes his own party’s hypocrisy when it comes to fuel price increases.

ACHIMOTA ECO-TOURISM PARK TO COMMENCE
By Florence A. Anim
The controversial Eco-Tourism Park at the Achimota forest will commence unabated following the selection of a strategic partner and the approval of the project by the cabinet of President John Dramani Mahama.

Leading scientists and environmental advocates had argued that the Achimota Forest provided a green belt necessary for providing the right climatic conditions for many Ghanaians living in the Southern parts of Accra.

Mr Samuel Afari Dartey, Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission hinted at the start of the project during an awards ceremony held for 10 workers of the Commission.

Each worker was presented with citations, flat screen television sets and unspecified amount of money to mark the annual Chief Executive’s End of Year briefing and awards ceremony.

According to Mr Afari Dartey, 30 workers from different department and divisions of the Commission had undergone various training in various subject and skills in order to enhance the human resource capacity of the commission.

During the period, forty forest guards were given rapid response training to improve upon their field of operation while the commission also paid about GHc3.5 million as educational grants to staff and workmen’s compensation, totaling GHc92, 743.

The commission also released special loans to deserving staffs under its loans scheme which included staff funeral grants of about GHc74, 000 and a staff terminal benefit scheme totaling GHc1.4 million.

In an effort to maintain and enhance plantation development, the commission maintained and developed 2,500 hectares of plantation stock of 188,000 hectares whiles more than 5,000 seedlings covering an area of 5 hectares were planted by media personnel’s and commission staff in Accra, Begoro and other parts of the country  during the forestry celebration week.

Mr. Dartey mentioned that, a Public Private Partnership agreement with form Ghana last year saw the development of 640 hectares of plantation with 25 room lodges constructed on the mole national park by Eco lodges Ghana Limited which had improved tourism at the park.

“Je suis Ali Abbas”: The Forgotten Victims of State Terrorism
Global Research
Massive terrorist attacks were hatched back soon after the pretext of cinematographic ‘terrorist’ attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

The state broadcaster in the UK pumped out the propaganda for these with all vigour and its usual guile.  The people of Afghanistan were first in line, that winter bombing and invasion had been planned for some months before smoke billowed up from the Twin Towers.

Iraqi humans were to be next.  Perle, Wolfowitz, Edelman, Bolton and other Zionists were sitting in our homes as bold as brass.  People like Tom Mangold frightened the old ladies with stories about the nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo tube and how Sarin in a bursting light bulb could kill in seconds.  ‘Free speech, fraternitÄ—, and democracy’ were in the mix, but only a small part of broadcasting time was given over to speakers who were against terrorism by states.  They naively thought the Nuremberg protocols and the Charter of the UN had meaning in international law.

The psychopathic cabal in No 10 got the cogs turning in the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and MI6.  A ‘dossier’ was produced in September 2002 but it turned out to be a ridiculous cut and paste job of a PhD ‘thesis’ from LA.  To laugh in the faces of those with any power of analysis is usual.  And there were the anthrax attacks in the ‘land of the free’.  Those were surely false flags, and lo, Perle claimed that they originated from Iraq.

The war machinery was gathering pace in spite of a majority of British citizens which tried quite hard to throw a spanner in the works.  The smiling, paramount psychopath and war criminal Blair, was undeterred (image, right).  A second ‘dossier’ was washed many times through the MoD and No 10 computers.  Another psychopath and ex-Mirror journalist Alistair Campbell (image below) was the editor it seems.  Saddam, the terrorist, could hit UK forces in Cyprus after a 45 minute order to launch.

This planned holocaust  – the mass killing of humans by humans, as usual, gained it own momentum.  A Danish freighter, the MV Barbara, had cast off 1st February from Torquay, Devon, with four Britons aboard bound for Palestine. (1)  A symbolic fifty tonnes of food, medical supplies etc were in the hold.  The purpose was to share our common humanity with our sisters and brothers in Gaza and to shout against the looming war upon the people of Iraq.  As we steamed eastwards in the Mediterranean, the war and supply ships overtook us on their course for Suez.  On one day the officer of the watch on our ship was interrogated five times by ‘coalition’ terrorists. (2)

On the 16th of March, brothers met to share blood.  The trio who were flown to the Azores consisted of Bush, the capo di tutti capo, Blair and Aznar. (3)   In fact, the attack had already started; Australian special force terrorists were already in theatre – as they say.

On the 22nd March,  massed terrorists from 39 nations including Arab ones, streamed from Kuwait by land and by air, and with cruise missiles, into Iraq.  They were not wielding AK47s but were tooled up with everything.  They had come to liberate the nineteen million humans in Babylon.  This would include liberation of their limbs from their bodies.  The altruistic and ultimate aim was to usher in a golden democracy, as experienced in those 39 nations like Saudi Arabia, the UK and the US, and in the ‘only democracy’ in the Middle East, the Zionist entity.  But the plan laid out by Oded Yinon was central.

A splinter of this terror came to Ali Abbas, then 12 years of age and formerly of the village of Zafaraniya, near Baghdad about 10 days after the shocking and ‘aweing’ started.  (4)  His arms were incinerated and the front of his trunk burned to a depth of an inch.  His mother who was six months pregnant, his father, brother and at least 10 other relatives were incinerated by the coalition of willing terror.  It had been reported that, just after midnight on 30 March 2003 and 10 days into “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, a weapon or two weapons exploded.  The village lay directly alongside the Al Rasheed camp.  This had been an RAF base after 1922 from where, ironically and probably, the British had terrorised the native people.  It also lay about 15 km from Baghdad airport. (5)

There had been a big battle for the bridgehead of Baghdad airport, the Special Republican
Guard fighting the US 7th Infantry Division.
Three images of Ali – view from the side, view from his feet and Ali pictured in Kuwait after amputation of his arms and excision of the deep trunk burn.
If one looks carefully one sees :-
  • That his head and neck, groins and legs are unblemished.  It would seem that he was irradiated through a rectangular window aperture.
  • That it is appropriate to describe his arms as incinerated.  The bones of some fingers are naked and white.
  • That the burn over the front of his chest and abdomen tapers off down each side of his trunk.  If massive thermal or nuclear radiation had been applied en face the ‘burning’ would be like this.  Given the much higher thermal capacity of the trunk cf with the arms, the same energy would have required a longer time to incinerate the trunk.
  • He had not moved, otherwise there would have been loss of this symmetry.
Imagine his pain and the pain of then knowing that his mum and dad had been killed. What was the agent of this terror?The energy was either thermal or nuclear.  A neutron shell was the most likely source.  This weapon, developed by Samuel T Cohen at Livermore (6 &7) has limited blast and destroys living tissue as opposed to material like concrete or steel.  It does produce radioactive isotopes.  This story, and others, which reports the removal of ‘topsoil’ (8) from Baghdad airport ( and also from Fallujah in other articles) lends support to the strong belief that ‘Enhanced Radiation’ was used on the inhabitants of Zafaraniya.

Conclusion
This act of terrorism on this family went unreported.  Ali’s terrible injuries were presented as an accident of war.  This was but a fragment of the conjoined terrorism of Himalayan magnitude.  It has sat easily on the consciences of the Europeans and other nations from soon after Iraq was turned from blood and loss,  into chaos, blood and loss.

It is noteworthy that although I have published these images several times, I have received only one comment – ‘napalm’!

Je suis Ali Abbas.  We are humanity, trampled to death by the European, and soaked in his hypocrisy.
I am a Palestinian (9)
Notes
1.  The Voyage of The Dove and The Dolphin
2.  Video 20 mins  Eyes Open Gaza

The "Number One Killer" of Journalists is US-NATO State-Sponsored Terrorism
GJA President Affail Monney
Global Research, January 10, 2015
In the wake of the terrorist attack by self-proclaimed Al-Qaeda operatives killing 12 people including 8 journalists from the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the Western elite and mainstream media display of compassion and indignation highlights their complaisance towards Western and Israeli state terrorism.

Before exploring the broader issue, it should be noted that while the Paris attacks bear the hallmarks of a possible false flag, such as the ID card left in the car by one terrorist, an examination of the false flag hypothesis is excluded outright, completely ignored by the mainstream media. Moreover, one of the alleged terrorists, Cherif Kouachi told a French news outlet he had been financed by former Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al Awlaki, an American cleric who dined at the Pentagon a few months after 9/11 and «worked as a triple agent and an FBI asset well before 9/11», according to U.S. Lt.Col. Anthony Shaffer. (Kurt Nimmo, FBI Admits Pentagon Dinner Guest Al-Awlaki Worked for Them

) Since the deadly attacks on January 7 2015 the Western media especially the French Canadian media claim in a very ethnocentric manner that “the planet is mourning” the death of the French journalists. This tragic event which needs to be condemned must be examined in an appropriate context. People in countries where France has been bombing civilians through NATO and U.S.-led military invasions and where Western-backed terrorists kill innocent civilians (Libya Syria) are routinely mourning the death of their own people. These deaths remain unreported. The Western world is not “the planet” and not “everyone is Charlie” contrary to what the media leads us to believe.2 aug. 2012

Several newsrooms of the French Canadian public network Radio-Canada took pictures holding signs saying “I am Charlie”.

During the latest assault on Gaza, 13 Palestinian journalists were killed by the Israeli army. These journalists were killed to suppress the truth pertaining to Israeli atrocities. Western journalists holding signs of solidarity were nowhere to be found.

Before the James Foley and Steven Sotloff beheadings dozens of journalists were killed in Syria by terrorists armed, trained and financed by NATO countries and their antidemocratic allies such as Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of civilians had also been beheaded long before them, around 200 in one single village, according to a Human Rights Watch report. (See Julie Lévesque, The History of ISIS Beheadings: Part of the “Training Manual” of US Sponsored Syria “Pro-Democracy” Terrorists, Global Research, September 19, 2014)
The outrage and indignation, however, was reserved for the Western beheaded journalists. The war in Syria has been deadly for journalists, with 153 killed according to some estimates, thanks to NATO-sponsored terrorism. No Western journalist holding signs of compassion for Syrian journalists has been seen.

But the deadliest country in the world for journalists has been Iraq during the US occupation. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ):

The U.S.-led war in Iraq claimed the lives of a record number of journalists and challenged some commonly held perceptions about the risks of covering conflict. Far more journalists, for example, were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances…

At least 150 journalists and 54 media support workers were killed in Iraq from the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to the declared end of the war in December 2011, according to CPJ research.

Fatalities in Iraq far surpass any other documented war-time death toll for the press. CPJ, founded in 1981, recorded the deaths of 58 journalists during the Algerian civil war from 1993 through 1996, another 54 fatalities in the undeclared civil conflict in Colombia, which began in 1986; and 36 deaths in the conflict in the Balkans from 1991 to 1995….
Insurgent forces of one kind or another were responsible for the deaths of 110 journalists and 47 media workers. The actions of U.S. forces, including checkpoint shootings and airstrikes, were responsible for the deaths of 16 journalists and six media workers. (Frank Smyth, Iraq war and news media: A look inside the death toll, Committee to Protect Journalists, March 18 2013)
The Brussells tribunal numbers for Iraq are much higher:

In Iraq, at least 404 media professionals have been killed since the US invasion in 2003, among them 374 Iraqis, according to The BRussells Tribunal statistics. The impunity in Iraq is far worse than anywhere else in the world. (Dirk Adriaensens, The Killing of Journalists in Iraq, January 4, 2014)

Among the dead, two journalists – one Iraqi, Yasser Salihee, and one American, Steven Vincent – who had been investigating the US-backed death squads in Iraq.

On June 24, Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was killed by a single bullet to the head as he approached a checkpoint that had been thrown up near his home in western Baghdad by US and Iraqi troops. It is believed that the shot was fired by an American sniper. According to eyewitnesses, no warning shots were fired.

The US military has announced it is conducting an investigation into Salihee’s killing. Knight Ridder has already declared, however, that “there’s no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work”. In fact, his last assignment gives reason to suspect that it was.

Over the past month, Salihee had been gathering evidence that US-backed Iraqi forces have been carrying out extra-judicial killings of alleged members and supporters of the anti-occupation resistance. His investigation followed a feature in the New York Times magazine in May, detailing how the US military had modeled the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, known as the Wolf Brigade, on the death squads unleashed in the 1980s to crush the left-wing insurgency in El Salvador. (James Cogan, Journalist killed after investigating US-backed death squads in Iraq, World Socialist Web Site, July 1, 2005 )

American journalist Steven Vincent was kidnapped and murdered August 2 in Basra, the southern Iraqi city where he had been working as a freelance writer and blogger. Suspicion for this killing, the first of an American reporter in Iraq, focuses not on Al Qaeda or Sunni-based insurgents, but on the police of the Shiite-based administration installed in Basra with the support of US and British occupation forces.(Patrick Martin, US journalist who exposed Shiite death squads murdered in Basra, August 5, 2005)

For unknown reasons the Iraqi journalist Dr Yasser Salihee, was not included in the CPJ list.
The BRussels Tribunal further reports that numerous deaths go unreported by CPJ and Reporters without Borders. The explanation reflects the opposite of what is happening with the biased and emotional coverage of the Charlie Hebdo murders, namely downplaying the Iraqi journalists deaths.

It is a well-established fact that since the invasion of 2003 the corporate media have consistently downplayed mortality figures. The killing of media professionals is no exception. It’s obvious that the journalist advocacy groups in the West are reluctant to give the real casualty figures of their colleagues who lost their lives under the ruthless occupation of the US/UK, an occupation that is still ongoing. So they narrow their criteria of who should be included in their lists. This is an objectionable attitude, especially because it concerns professional colleagues….
Iraq was the deadliest country for media professionals in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 (Adriaensens, op. cit.)

Almost 400 dead Iraqi journalists and yet our compassionate media professionals never held signs of solidarity.
Copyright © 2015 Global Research

Students raise alarm over high school fees
Prof Opoku Agyemang, Education Minister
The second cohort of the Untrained Diplomate Teachers in Basic Education, are crying foul over what they describe as 'exorbitant school fees' being charged them by the Northern Colleges of Education.

The students have paid 314 Ghana cedis for 21 days as school fees, and an additional 100 Ghana cedis as examination fees, bringing the total to 414 Ghana cedis for the three weeks' stay in school.

Master Benjamin Tenga, President of the Tumu College of Education UTDBE Student Representative Council (SRC), revealed this in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency, during their SRC Week celebration at Tumu.

He said such exorbitant fees had resulted in some of their colleagues dropping out of the programme, because they could not afford the fees to enable them stay and complete the programme.

He explained that they paid such exorbitant school fees without knowing exactly what they were paying for, adding that several attempts on their part to know the breakdown from their various college authorities had proofed futile, as Principals of the Colleges had failed to listen to their concern.
The Tumu College of Education UTDBE SRC President said because government refused to be part of the programme, that was why they were being “taken advantage of, by the Principles of the Colleges.”

Master Tenga said, currently their future looked bleak, because some district directors of education were unwilling to engage the UTDBE products, because of government's failure to recognize the programme.

He appealed to government to prevail upon the Ministry of Education to look into the matter, in order to reduce the fees to a reasonable level for them, and also give full recognition to the programme, to enhance their chances of being engaged by the Ghana Education Services (GES).

Meanwhile, Mr. Mumuni Yahaya, the 2014 National Best Teacher had underscored the importance of the UTDBE programme, saying it would help address the about 50,000 teacher-deficit at the basic school level.

He said about 80,000 of the teachers that were already in the system, were untrained.
The 38 Colleges of Education in the country absorb and churn out a little over 9,000 teachers every year, out of which 20 percent of them normally refuse to take up their appointments, he disclosed.

Mr. Yahaya said about 18,000 people apply to further their education every year, but only 5,000 are normally considered.

He, therefore, appealed to government to absorb all the UTDBE holders who are not yet on the payroll, and upgrade all those who are already there, to professional teachers.

The 2014 National Best Teacher noted that completing school was not the panacea to addressing the education challenges, saying there were still about 64 percent of students at the basic school level who could not read.

This, he noted, called for teachers to wake up and eschew negative tendencies, such as lateness to school, non-preparation of lesson notes, and other immoral behaviours, and rather embrace punctuality and discipline, in order to serve as role models for their students.

Mr William Safo, Sissala East District Deputy Co-ordinating Director, commended  authorities of the College and the students, for using the SRC week to embark on a massive clean-up exercise,  and urged them to continue in that spirit,  in order to keep their surroundings clean at all times.

He said government would continue to expand facilities in all 38 Colleges of Education, to befit their new status as Tertiary Institutions, while assisting them to increase their admission quotas of teacher-trainees.

Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton the Sixth, Paramount Chief of the Tumu Traditional Area, appealed to the students to stay in the district and teach after completing their courses, because the district lacked teachers.
He assured them that he would liaise with his sub-chiefs to ensure the welfare and safety of teachers in all the communities.
GNA

Up the fight against the massive corruption – Nana Akufo-Addo
Nana Akufo Addo
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has appealed to the media to up the fight against massive corruption in the country.

He said the media should support and collaborate with the party to wage relentless war on the rot and maladministration of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This was contained in an address read for Nana Akufo-Addo at a media interaction organized by the Ashanti Regional NPP parliamentary caucus in Kumasi.

He blamed the current socio-economic mess Ghanaians find themselves on ineffective leadership and mismanagement and said all must let their voices be heard.

Nana Akufo-Addo said things were becoming extremely difficult for the ordinary people because of inefficient management of resources and graft.

He said the media must be active in helping the people to have a better understanding of the magnitude of the economic challenges, adding that they needed to be told of the truth about the state of affairs so as to make the right decisions and choices in 2016.

Nana Akufo-Addo repeated the party’s belief in media pluralism and freedom of speech, saying a more vibrant media was crucial for the sustenance of democracy, good governance, transparency and accountability.

Madam Elizabeth Agyeman, Chairperson of Ashanti MPs, praised the media for their support and said they were determined to strengthen their collaboration, to reach out to the population with their message.
GNA

Over 1,700 candidates to contest D/A elections in W/R
Julius Debrah, Local Gov't Minister
A total of 1,720 candidates, comprising 1,658 males and 62 females, have filed their nominations to contest this year’s District Assembly Elections in 544 electoral areas in the Western Region.

Mr Stephen Opoku-Mensah, Western Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Sekondi on Tuesday.

He said the caliber of candidates that had filed their nominations could not be compared with those that contested the last parliamentary elections in terms of resources and level of education which often affected the euphoria during the election.

He, therefore, entreated well-to-do Ghanaians to sacrifice their time and resources to contest district level elections to ensure that competent persons were elected to the assembly to champion the development needs of the people.

 “We need to focus more attention on assembly elections because most of the development takes place at the grassroots level,” he said.

 Mr Opoku-Mensah said the EC would mount campaign platforms on February 18 for all the candidates to inform the electorate about their programmes for their respective electoral areas.

The breakdown of the district nominations are; Jomoro 112, Ellembelle 131, Nzema East 83, Ahanta West 105, Takoradi Sub-Metro 49, Effia Sub-Metro 45, Sekondi Sub-Metro 31, and Essikado Sub-Metro 33.

The rest are Shama 47, Wassa East 58, Mpohor 41, Tarkwa-Nsuaem 86, Prestea Huni-Valley 109, Wassa Amenfi East 91, Wassa Amenfi West 65, Wassa Amenfi Central 66, Aown 82, Suaman 30, Bibiani-Anhwianso Bekwai 97, Sefwi-Wiawso 102, Sefwi-Ankontombra 61, Juaboso 44, Bodie 29, Bia West 88 and Bia East 35.

 Mr Opoku-Mensah expressed disappointment with low female nomination and entreated them to muster courage to participate in the process since their views are very much needed in the governance of the nation.

He said the EC would also organise balloting for the candidates and publish notice of polls while capacity-building workshop would be organised to train officials that would manage the various polling stations.

He said the district level election is non-partisan and advised the nominees to refrain from any act that would contravene the law regulating the election.

Meanwhile, 3,994 candidates, comprising 3,687 males and 307 females have filed their nominations to contest the Unit Committee Elections in the region.

Act 473 that regulates district level elections allowed five candidates to be elected for each electoral area in the event when more than five candidates filed their nominations.
GNA

BAWUMIAH ON THE PATH OF DECEPTION
Mahamudu Bawumia
We have been following Dr. Bawumiah very closely for some time now and he seems to be carrying one particular message. He disclosed it in London at a fund raising dinner, and he repeated the same message when speaking to members of the Bimoba Students Union (BISU), according to Dr. Bawumia, “he is challenging the government to point out any development project that oil revenue and an estimated amount of 27 billion dollars borrowed had been used for.”

According to him, the 2015 budget provides no hope for Ghanaians as real GDP growth is declining from 15 percent in 2011 to a possible 3.9 percent in 2015. He also alleges that 94% of amount borrowed is used on recurrent expenditure and his view was also repeated by Mr. Kyei Mensah Bonsu in a press conference they held yesterday.

We believe Dr. Bawumiah knows that Ghana is not an island and what ever happens in the Global economy affects Ghana, except that he chose to tread on the path of deception which we believe he is doing.

According to the economic intelligence unit (EIU) the world economy will grow by 2.9% in 2015, and barring any major geopolitical upheaval, global economic growth in 2015 will hold at a rate of 3.5%. (source: global economic outlook). This projection shows that the possible projection of the growth of the Ghanaian economy is higher than that of the global projections.

Let us not forget the current fall in price of oil on the international market will definitely have an adverse effect on Ghana, since Ghana is producing oil in commercial quantities, it implies that the fall in price will lead to a fall in revenue of the country hence a decline in economic growth.

Dr. Bawumiah and Mr. Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s assertion that the government is spending a lot of the loans on current expenditure is an issue of them forgetting their own actions when they governed this country. The NPP government has gone for loans both in the local and international market at an interest which needs to be retired by the NDC government; the failure to repay the loans will have a negative consequence on our country hence all loans due need to be retired on scheduled.

Just before the NPP leaves office they have tied the hands of the NDC government to implement the single spine pay policy  which have shot up the wage bill, but despite all this the government still engages in massive capital expenditure which is evident in the massive infrastructure development going on in the education sector, the health sector, transportation sector, agricultural sector etc.

Dr. Bawumiah seems to portray the NPP as the saviors’ of Ghana but their tenure of office was not all that glorious as they try to make Ghanaians believe because at the end of their tenure in office, this is how far Ghana has been described.

 Ghana was considered more vulnerable than it has been in the recent past with the country’s current account deficits deteriorating to worrisome levels. Moreover, inflation is high and rising, and the government’s fiscal position has deteriorated. (source: Global financial crises discussion series 2008). The economy was so weak that they have to sell 70% of government shares in voda fone to enable them pay the salaries of workers.

Kafui Agbleze
Volta regional communication officer NDC

This “ghost names” problem   
Finance Minister, Seth Tekper
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Folks, the Controller and Accountant-General's Department is warning workers that if they don't update information on their employment status by a deadline to be given, their salaries will be withheld. According to the Department, the directive is in response to the problem being caused by the huge wage bill that is weighing heavily on the government's management of public funds.
Once again, a directive has been given, aimed at the wrong target. Workers don't employ themselves nor do they impose themselves on institutions in the public sector. They are employed after going through laid-down procedures, meaning that records on their employment status should be available and that anybody not in active service should be known. That is if the proper steps are being taken by the management of the various institutions.
The payment of wages/salaries to ghost workers can't be traced to the so-called "ghost workers" but those managing affairs in the various institutions. Withholding workers' salaries will spell more doom. Once again, a misplaced priority in-the-offing to embarrass the government!!
For those of you who haven't been to MyJoyOnline's Web site to read the news report, here is the link for you to follow: http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/January-4th/no-ssnit-no-pay-accountant-generals-dept-to-public-workers.php#sthash.hJp0wGf0.dpuf).
Let us be honest upfront to commend the SSNIT Management for attempting to be "proactive" in this effort to streamline employment status and validate the social security regime so that those who genuinely contribute to the Trust can be properly identified and rewarded at the end of their service. I appreciate this initiative and welcome it, even if I have some qualms about the nitty-gritty regarding what has been going to date and why I consider this directive as skewed.
Every country that seeks the welfare of its workers ensures that the post-office (retirement) situation for those workers is assured through stringent and beneficial social security arrangements. Workers in active service have a future to look to in retirement, which is why social security is imperative.
In sacrificing their lot, the workers have the hope that part of their earnings being slashed off on pay-day will be conserved in the Social Security Trust (Fund) for them to reap the fruit when they retire. It means that they are securing their future with such contributions, which is why they must be the first to defend whatever they contribute periodically. That is why the role of the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in securing the future of workers is important; and that is why one expects the TUC to liaise with the authorities on that score so proper management is done and workers' contributions saved and not run down the drainage under any guise. Are the TUC leaders really doing so or simply politicizing issues and pitting themselves against the party in power that they don't like (which invariably will detract from their own worth as workers' leaders)?
Kofi Asamoah, TUC Secretary General
I consider the directive as inadequate for other reasons. The onus of validating employment status doesn't lie—and shouldn't be pushed onto—workers unless enough paper work is available to help the workers update information on their status. Those in charge of the public sector (the various institutions supported by the Consolidated Fund) should be responsible for this exercise.
In other words, the workers didn't employ themselves. They went through the hoop to be what they are and those responsible for recruiting them should be the first to help identify who is genuinely in service and must be retained or disposed of. What I am saying is that Management should play the frontline role.
Withholding workers' wage/salary as threatened won't solve the problem; it will worsen it. Those in charge of "paperwork" may themselves be perpetrators of this "ghost names" problem and will quickly outsmart the authorities by frustrating this updating of information exercise so workers not paid would see the government as the cause of their woes. The matter could easily assume a different complexion and be politicized to the government's disadvantage.
On a broader scale, though, there should be a serious effort to monitor how this "head-count" thing is done, apparently because the problem of "ghost names" cannot be said to be limited to the specific workplaces alone. The Controller and Accountant-General's Department is itself complicit in the stealing of public funds through payment of salaries and wages to ghost workers. Over the years, syndicates operating therein have been exposed. What is in place for the Controller and Accountant-General's Department itself to rid itself of ghost names and to stamp out those perpetrating the payment of salaries and wages to g host workers elsewhere in the public sector? 
Government's persistent cry over huge wage bills through such fraudulent payments should be stopped now and action taken to rigidly enforce measures. For far too long, our various governments have done politics with this issue of ghost workers without doing anything concrete to solve the problem. Is it because even within government circles there are some criminal elements connected to this ghost payment syndrome? I won't rule it out, knowing very well how unconscionable some walking the corridors of power can be in their search for financial gains from the system.
I want the Controller and Accountant-General's Department to know that it cannot succeed in ridding the system of crooks cashing in on this ghost worker syndrome without any blueprint to be fashioned out with the government. From the news report, I see this Department as trying to go it alone, which will make its move a non-starter.
The government must be responsible for anything involving social security. That is why it is important for a national identification mechanism so every Ghanaian will have a specific unchangeable social security number for life!!!
The management of SSNIT itself should be poked in the ribs so it does the right thing instead of scheming and putting in place strategies to live fat on workers' contributions. Let someone take a good look at the conditions of service for those people. Why should they enjoy the fruit of what they haven't sown while the sowers themselves languish in excruciating poverty? Only in a sick country!!
In the United States, for example, everything revolves around "social security number". No one without it can do anything within the public sector, especially where funds are involved. If you doubt it, find out from many why they do all they can to weave their way through so they can be recognized on the basis of “social security number”.
In our part of the world, we have become so satisfied with our conditions of wretchedness and mediocrity that we only take a keen delight in complaining about problems and not doing anything to solve them. Countries don't develop this way.
I want to encourage the authorities to work together so this social security issue can be tackled to prove to workers that their contributions will be stored and invested to yield profits for their good when they retire. Otherwise, all this noise from the Controller and Accountant-General's Department will remain what it is—an irritating noise!!
Why are public officials so lazy? Who is in charge of what? I strongly suspect that some in positions of trust as far as the disbursement of public funds is concerned are themselves in collusion with the miscreants manipulating the system and paying ghost workers. Let the Accountant-General's Department set the pace.
If it cannot, then, let the government engage the services of qualified technocrats to create a data base for public sector workers to be managed efficiently as a way of weeding out ghost names.
Parliament has step in to enact a law on social security numbers for the entire country and the law enforcement agencies empowered to enforce such laws. Those who attempt to manipulate the system must be quickly identified and punished. I am more than convinced that if a proper database system is created to oversee efforts, no one can manipulate the system to give us hiccups. The institutions of state must join hands to solve this problem. How can ghost workers exist in such institutions if no one in authority there creates room for them?
Finally, there must be some serious regulatory measures on employment into the public sector. The irresistible urge to employ people into the public sector (in our time, mostly because of political connections or other considerations bordering on frivolity—relatives of girlfriends, “old boyism”, political activism, “errand boyism” must be curbed. We recall Rawlings’ retrenchment and redeployment exercises and wonder why the governments after Rawlings won’t take any cue from what forced him to go that way. There is too much rot in our public sector when it comes to employment, which explains why there is so much for the government to worry about in terms of the huge wage bill. Unarguably, we aren’t getting value for our money as far as the public sector employment situation is concerned. That is why the government is crying itself hoarse. Infinitesimal productivity, zero dividends. More woes for Ghana!!
The government must demonstrate more commitment than it has done so far if it wants to solve the problems that payment of high wage bills continue to cause. In this age of the Internet and advanced data storage mechanisms, why should it be difficult to create a genuine data base of public sector workers so that only those in service will be paid?

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