Will Ndoum contest as independent candidate in 2012 elections?

Earlier this month Dr Ndoum announced he had terminated campaigning as a presidential aspirant of the party, after a fallout with CPP chairperson Samia Nkrumah, who alleged he was attempting to undermine her leadership.

But there seems to be the strongest hint yet from the 2008 presidential candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP) Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum that he may contest the 2012 elections as an independent candidate.
He says he has since been inundated with calls by supporters and well wishers to form a movement that will pose a real alternative to the NDC and the NPP.

At a news conference in Accra on Saturday, head of Dr Ndoum's Communications team, Richmond Keelson, told Joy News' Araba Koomson that Dr Ndoum will contest the 2012 elections irrespective of whether he is chosen as CPP presidential candidate or not.

He said Dr. Nduom's personality surpasses all the other candidates and will therefore be a key factor in his decision to contest the 2012 elections.

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He did not say whether the Dr. Nduom will leave if he fails to clinch the ticket of the party but he stated that “on the 7th December, 2012, Dr. Nduom's picture will boldly will be displayed on the ballot papers.”

“The personality of the president matters a lot not necessarily the political party. Yes, the political party might be the vessel that the candidate might use but the moment elections are held, the very person that won the elections, you will see that all attention is shifted and focused on [him].”

Who At All Is Kwesi Pratt To Demand A Full Scale Of Investigation From The Government?

Kwesi Pratt, the so-called Editor of the Insight newspaper, is calling for full scale independent
investigations into the circumstances surrounding how GH¢41,811,480.59 of state money was doled out in a court settlement to an alleged bankroll of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome. He is also asking for investigations to be conducted into all judgement debts carried out in the country saying “this is the biggest opportunity for the state to examine all this cases and come to a conclusion".

Is Pratt now the newly appointed Minister or the Deputy Minister of interior Affairs in Ghana or
the NDC government is so nice, free and liberal to such an extent that anybody at all can hold
them responsible for any affairs which should normally be determined by the government?
How can a normal "floor member" like Kwesi Pratt come out to say things like,"The bottom line is, it needs investigation, full scale investigation by independent committee of enquiry to answer these questions because more than 30million dollars is at stake and we don't have to take it for
granted. How come Ministry of Finance went for an injunction that they should pay first tranche
but you paid all the tranches? I'll be pained if the full scale investigation involves only Woyome, because the judgement debts paid by past and present governments runs into several millions of cedis, this is the biggest opportunity for the state to examine all this cases and come to a conclusion. We will be deceiving ourselves if we limit the investigations to only Woyome because there are a lot of people reaping where they've not sowed and some of the things don't make sense.”

The newly baked Ghanaian "law professor" Kwesi Pratt was commenting on the GhC42 million judgement debt awarded Mr Woyome, and the report that the government of Ghana under President Mills in 2010, paid a total of GH¢275,917,484.25 (nearly 2.6 trillion old cedis) in judgement debts. A High Court in 2010 ordered the State to pay an amount of nearly GH¢42 million in judgement debt to Mr. Woyome over what he describes as the illegal termination of his contract. He argues that there is no document to prove the erstwhile NPP government had any contract with Mr. Woyome for which he should be paid for any miscarriage of justice. He further contended that even if the NPP government signed a contract with the company, under what circumstance was the compensation or settlement paid to and in the name of Mr. Woyome.

Where is for God sake, Kwesi Pratt, an equally super money concious and corrupt citizen, getting the power to undermine the NDC government by making statements such as, "most of the explanations offered by the NDC stalwart and businessman are baseless, wondering why government should pay for the feasibility study of a company bidding for a contract; especially when the feasibility study forms part of the requirement for the contract bidding." He even has the ability to attack the Attorney General's office, questioning why two attorney generals from the same administration have varied opinions on the same issue which affects the nation gravely, as if he is a BNI boss or a high profile minister in Ghana.

According to law Professor Pratt “The first Attorney General agreed to Woyome's case and made
arrangement for settlement and now the current Attorney General who is also a lawyer is saying it is not true so government should not pay any money. Two Attorney-Generals for the same government with varied opinions, who is telling the truth and who is not doing his or her work well? Which of them is wrong? And the evidence that the second attorney general took to court that the settlement should be cancelled, was it not in the office already, how come it was overlooked by the first attorney general"?

Kwesi Pratt, the so-claimed Senior "greedy and money concious" Journalist further posited that all politicians and statesmen, especially in the last administration whose names have come up must be made to come clean. “I want to understand the conducts of some of the minister in the NPP administration, Osafo-Maafo's name has been mentioned several times since the case started and he must come out to answer some of the questions lingering around. All of those people whose names have come up must come and exonerate themselves.
"Who born dog", that a so-claimed (normal) journalist Kwesi Pratt can make such demands from the government. Is he an undercover NDC minister?
FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg - Germany)

Buipe Power Substation Inauguration : Vice President Mahama Goofed Badly.

The NPP UK and Ireland has unveiled the Vice President John Dramani Mahama in his attempt to cover up the humiliation engulfing the ruling Mills-NDC government regarding the promises made to the people of Ghana and particularly to the people from the Northern Ghana with the Savannah

Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). The Vice President John embarrassed himself when he tried to take a false glory from the inauguration of $ 8.5 million power substation at Buipe on Saturday, 10 December 2011 as reported by GNA, peacefmonline.com and ghanaweb.com.
Vice President John Dramani was reported to have said “the provision of electricity to (Buipe) rural communities would form a major component of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). He said this when he was inaugurating an 8.5 million-dollar-161/34.5 kV power substation to provide reliable bulk power to the Savannah Diamond Cement Company Limited at Buipe in the Northern Region.

The truth is that the $40 million Buipe Cement Factory was established in 2007/8 and the request for the power substation and tits construction commenced as the equipment for the project were already on their way to the location. All these took place far before the NDC's conception of the SADA project in their 2008 manifesto to deceive Ghanaians.
As readers can recalled, on Thursday 6th Dec 2007, the Daily Guide new paper reported with the head line “$40m Buipe cement factory ready”. In that report it stated that “the $40 million project follows painstaking and expensive feasibility studies into the economic viability and availability of high grade limestone in the Buipe area”.

The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) on their official website (www.gridcogh.com) has also stated categorically that the Buipe Substation Project has been paid for by the two cement factories, thus the Buipe Cement Company Ltd and Savanna Cement Company Ltd, and for that matter why should the Vice President John Mahama attribute the project as part of their failed SADA promise?
On the project background, GRIDCo has said “this project is at the request of two (2) cement manufacturing companies. These companies would pre-finance the cost of implementation and GRIDCo would reimburse part of this capital cost contribution on terms to be later agreed upon”.

The Ghana Grid Company has also confirmed that the objective of the project was “intend to construct a 161/34.5kV to supply permanent bulk power to Buipe Cement Company Ltd and Savanna Cement Company Ltd. The project also envisages converting the existing power supply system at Buipe from the Shield wire Scheme to the conventional supply scheme to meet the anticipated growth in power demand at Buipe and its environs (including BOST and Volta Lake Transport Company (VLTC)), as a result of locating the cement plants in the area”.
Now, with all these happening far before the assumption of NDC government into power, why should the Vice President John Mahama dishonourably try to link the inauguration of Buipe Power Station to the NDC-SADA?

It is a known fact that the construction of Bui Dam to generate over 400 megawatts of power located at Brong Ahafo Region was one of the primary aims of NPP-Kufour's government to ensure that a reliable power can be supplied to the Northern part of Ghana so as to entice private manufacturing and production companies to move up north. This idea was in line with the proposal made by Nana Akufo Addo to establish Northern Development Authority, backed by a Northern Development Fund, to help accelerate the economic transformation of the three northern regions.

Hayford Atta Krufi
Chairman – NPP UK & Ireland
Peter Antwi Boasiako
NPP UK Communications and Research Team

Kweku Baako : Did Asiedu Nketia deceive delegates at NDC Congress?

The controversy surrounding the alleged $20 million National Democratic Congress (NDC) headquarters building seems to be lingering on as the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr., has raised further concerns on the matter.
Kweku Baako says the information that the party is building a headquarters that will be ready for occupation next year, lends credence to the allegation.
Speaking on Joy FM's current affairs programme Newsfile on Saturday, Mr. Baako said, during the July Congress of the NDC to elect a flagbearer, “Asiedu Nketia indicated that their party headquarters was at an advanced stage of construction and that it will be ready for occupation late next year.”

Kweku Baako stated that per the revelation of Asiedu Nketia, the party must have a building that is nearing completion even though he is aware that the said $20 million building located in Adabraka does not belong to the party.

To him, unless the General Secretary was deceiving congress, the party should be able to show evidence of the building that is at an 'advanced stage'.
He said preliminary checks, nonetheless, reveal that “a certain broadcasting enterprise, rightly perceived to be pro-NDC might have something to do with that outfit and perhaps it appears that somewhere along the line there was an intention to give the party some section of that edifice.”

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He said the decision to give part of the building to the NDC may not happen now because of the ambiguous responses from various party members.
“I see absolutely nothing wrong with a legally registered political party mobilizing resources and funds to put up an office or offices, on the national level, on the regional level and the district level. It is important that we have effective administrations as well as organizations,” adding “on principle, what is the big deal?”

He said there is a history behind the suspicion of political party property ownership in the country right from the time when the CPP built the Information Ministry as its party office.
Kweku Baako however said he suspects the quest to ensure probity and accountability drove the AFAG to raise such concerns as this involved a ruling party, which has been in power for just a little of two years.

He said the NDC ironically bellows the principle of probity and accountability and that if people are asking such questions about an alleged property, “I think it is fair deal.”
Blaming the NDC for failing to handle the issue with finesse, he said “what we needed were responsible responses, accurate [responses] from the NDC… They ought to have given us accurate, factual, responsible, unambiguous responses [and] the matter would have died.”

But a deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Kofi Adams, who was also a panelist on the programme, said members of AFAG must of necessity prove their allegation and stop the "mediocrity", stressing that “there is no such thing that the NDC owns a building like that.”
He blamed the party's communication structure for the differences in the response of party members.
“People wake up in the morning. Something they don't know of, they don't know executive position; they have not sat for any discussions. [Journalists] call them - 'Yes I want to talk' – because they think that by talking on radio it makes them popular,” he lamented.
Touching on the speech by Asiedu Nketia on the said building, Kofi Adams said, his boss's report to Congress in July was about the acquisition of land for the construction of the party headquarters:
“We have a building project committee headed by one of our lawyers. I don't know the stage of development as far as the Oyibi parcel of land and facility is concerned.”
He said the party raised funds nationally for the building project and at the appropriate time the committee in charge of the project will make their report available to the party.
He urged civil society groups to rather encourage the political parties to submit their audited accounts regularly to the Electoral Commission “ so that through [this] we can track and know what is going on.”

Ghana Politics : Election 2012 Presidential aspirants must undergo compulsory medicals

The New Patriotic Party's Deputy Director of Communications for election 2012, John Boadu has called for a compulsory and thorough health check for all persons hoping to contest next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to him, the exercise is necessary to help electorates know the state of health of the various candidates so they can choose candidates who are healthy and also meet the dictates of Article 69(c) of the 1992 constitution which requires prospective candidates to the office of president must be of sound mind.

Speaking on Minority Caucus, a political talk show on Multi TV, Mr. Boadu said “for me, I will insist (that) in 2012 elections, as the constitution says, we must make sure almost everybody that contests, both in parliamentary and presidential elections goes through health check in order to ensure that we are voting for what we required.”
Commenting on President Mills' leave of absence, John Boadu raised concerns about the President's decision to spend his holidays outside the borders of the country.

“How on earth will any President anywhere decide to spend his holidays outside his own country with all the facilities, the communication directors, the Presidential aides, and the staffers? What is the total cost of this expensive presidency and expensive holiday” he queried.
According to him, President Mills should have considered vacationing at any of the tourist sites in the country adding that such an initiative would boost the fortunes of the country's tourist attractions.
Describing the Mills-Mahama administration as the most expensive government in the country's political history, Mr. Boadu contended “we are running an expensive executive presidency, and he (Mills) is the only president that has incurred so much debt in the history of our country. No president compares himself with the appetite for incurring debt for the people of this country more than his Excellency J.E.A. Mills.”

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He also raised issues with the huge number of Presidential Aides in the Mills-Mahama administration indicating that “never in the history of this country have we had so many people as presidential aide. Strangely enough, just within two years, the basic salary of an equal colleague in the Atta mills administration is taking 3800, some of them are taking 4000, some of them are taking 5000 to the extent that in this government, the presidential staffers are so many that they are not able to have offices at the Castle.”

Recent comments made by some leading members of the Committee for Joint Action [CJA] indicating that the Kufuor-led NPP administration was more corrupt than the current NDC were dismissed by John Boadu.

Enumerating a number of cases of corruption he has identified in the Mills-Mahama administration, Mr. Boadu pointed out “CJA if you want to know, the NYEP Coordinator in the Ashanti Mampong municipality inflated the number of workers, an investigation was carried, he used the excess money to run the NDC office both at the regional level and at the constituency level. CJA, the president was accused of using GH¢90 million for his FONKA and GAME. CJA are you aware of Carl Wilson and his activities? CJA, are you aware that Asiedu Nketia is a member of a board of which he has a company that supplies the same company of which he is a member blocks… CJA, aren't you aware that so far, tender board has never given a report to this nation?”
He further dismissed recent calls by the CJA for the prosecution of former NPP officials who are alleged to have cost financial loss to the state.

Story by Ewurabena Yorke/ Multi TV

OFFICE OF SIERRA LEONE'S VICE-PRESIDENT CAUGHT IN ILLEGAL TIMBER BUSINESS

Journalists working for Al Jazeera English have uncovered corruption in the
office of Sierra Leone¹s Vice-President, Samuel Sumana. The detailed
undercover investigation features in the documentary Timber!, broadcast at
22h30 GMT on Wednesday 23 November 2011 as part of Al Jazeera¹s Africa
Investigates series.


A 2006 European Union report identified logging as the leading cause of
environmental degradation in Sierra Leone.  According to the Sierra Leone
Forestry Ministry, unless immediate action is taken against logging, all of
the country¹s forests ­ as well as the many endangered animal and plant
species they support ­ could disappear by 2018.  The President, His
Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, has made no secret of his concern about
logging and his desire that it should cease.  The government of Sierra Leone
has officially outlawed the practice several times.


Emmy award-winning Sierra Leonean journalist Sorious Samura discovered
illegal felling of rare hard wood in several parts of the country.  In a
number of meetings with illegal loggers, Samura posed as a businessman
interested in illegal timber exporting.  Despite laws prohibiting felling of
trees without license, he found illicit logging taking place in all the
forest areas he visited.   He also met local officials all too willing to
supply him with illegal wood.  In one instance a local Paramount Chief not
only offered to sell him several tons of illegally cut wood, but also to
introduce Samura to high level contacts within the Sierra Leonean government
to help him breach the ban on timber exports.


In the second half of the investigation, Samura¹s colleague, the
multiple-award-winning Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, visited the
Vice-President¹s office undercover.  Anas and a colleague, again posing as
businessmen, met with His Excellency The Vice-President Samuel Sumana and
two of his friends, who claimed to be official advisors.


Later the two men, Alex Mansaray and Momoh Konte, sought and accepted cash
payments from the Œbusinessmen¹, which they claimed would help secure the
Vice-President¹s support for a timber export business that the undercover
reporters wished to establish.


Vice-President Sumana later admitted to Al Jazeera that he knew the men but
said their claims to be his advisors were false and that he hadn¹t received
any money solicited by them on his behalf.


Of one attempt by Alex Monsaray to extract $50,000 from the undercover team,
Vice-President Sumana said, ³Alex was acting solely on his own accord
without any prior discussion with me.²


His statement did not explain how Mansaray and Konte came to be using his
office to secure bribes in the first place.


Commenting on the outcome of the investigation,  Samura said, ³As in many
parts of Africa, timber has become the new diamonds.  The country¹s forests
are at risk of being completely wiped out.  For unscrupulous foreign
investors their ultimate goal is getting their wood and making maximum
profit.  For the corrupt Sierra Leoneans, it¹s about lining their pockets
without any care for the future consequences for the innocent people who
will have to pay the price.²


Timber! is the third of six investigations in the Africa Investigates series
that puts flesh on Al Jazeera¹s ambition to give voice to the voiceless.  In
a world-first, Africa Investigates gives some of Africa¹s best journalists
the opportunity to pursue high-level investigative targets across the
continent ­ using their unique perspective and local knowledge to put
corruption, exploitation and abuse under the spotlight.


Africa Investigates can be seen each week at the following times GMT:
Wednesday: 22:30; Thursday: 09:30; Friday: 03:30; Saturday: 16:30; Sunday:
22:30; Monday: 09:30; Tuesday: 03:30; Wednesday: 16:30.  For more details,
please go to www.aljazeera.com/programmes/AfricaInvestigates
<http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/AfricaInvestigates>

Credits: Kevin Kriedemann
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2012 Budget Missed The Point

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com
A day before budget reading there was no shortage of advice for the Government.  Most Policy Think Tanks and talking heads offered all the wisdom they had accumulated over the year(s).  Even the opposition New Patriotic Party and the Convention People’s Party had a few kind suggestions for Finance Minister Kwabena Dufuor.  It did not take five minutes after the dead-pan-budget presentation for the cacophony to start.  And there was a lot to criticize.

The Finance Minister is a conservative banker and economist and the President John Atta Mills is ultra conservative.  No surprise therefore that we got a very unimaginative budget with no major departures from previous years.  In fact, most comments from the opposition harped on the fact that current projects carried forward from 2009, 2010 and 2011 budget statements.  How many times are we going to build the landing sites for fisher-folk on the coast?  It started with the NPP Government and we have re-budgeted for it three years in a row from 2009.

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It is probably time to consider a 2-day budget presentation.  Day one should be used to do a thorough comparison of actual performance to budget with a full debate and explanation of what went wrong and why Government could not deliver its targets.

If we are really determined to be a democracy, then Government must live up to the rhetoric of accountability and transparency.  It is wrong that Government presents a budget for a year, runs through the budget period and then does not come back to us with detailed achievements and failures.  As Ghanaians we never know what goes wrong.  Is it bureaucracy, lack of funds, sheer inertia or just incompetence?
Fat on advice, Government was urged to focus on resource mobilization to meet expenditures and infrastructure development and particularly the Single Spine adjustments for Government payroll.  At the same time there was cautious advice from the IMF and World Bank not to overspend in an election year and to keep utility tariffs and other subventions in check.

But this is an election year budget.  How does a Government that wishes to stay in power not present an expansive budget, especially when you have the chance of tapping into $3billion from the Chinese?  And confident that they will source funds from the Chinese, Government raised its spending limits from ghc14billion last year to ghc17.5billion, including ghc1.1billion for priority intervention programs such as SADA, MASLOC, Cuban Medical Brigade, Creative Arts, Jubilee Markets, Sanitation Guards, LESDEP, Youth in Agriculture, ECOBRIGADE, LEAP, NYEP, and the Ankarful Maximum Security project.  These are just a select few from the list of 52 projects.
Target revenue is ghc15.6billion.  Before arrears and tax refunds we will run a budget deficit of ghc1.9billion.  Arrears and refunds add to ghc1.5billion making the cash deficit ghc3.4billion for the year.

So the Government proposed a mix of new resource effort spanning paragraphs 176 and 213 in the statement.  While some measures raise taxes on personal and corporate business, the overarching strategy is to increase the tax-to-GDP target for the year from 16.5% to 17.3%.
My chosen set are the “tax amnesty”, “taxation on professionals and informal sector” and “revision of personal reliefs” and as Government rightly points out, only 1.5million of the potential 6million are taxpayers.
Government is granting a tax amnesty to recalcitrant payers.  They only have to register before September 2012 when the amnesty period runs out.  They will then have 3 months to duck and dive and not get caught in an election year.  As part of the policy, Government will set up a task force to track these persons after September.  The question is why not now?  Once you grant an amnesty you have to make sure you capture all delinquent payers.  Then you have to follow up to make sure they do not go wayward again.  You must also have punitive elements such as interest and late payments.  Finally, you can provide incentives through personal allowances to make it attractive to file taxes.  Government has all these avenues but chose the weaker option; procrastinate on the collection till another year.  There are many tax evaders to capture in our tax net.  Better to flex now than delay the agony.
Virtually no one who works in the informal sector pays any significant tax.  Not because there is no law or regulation, but because Government does not implement the law.  This is a significant portion of our missing revenue.  Because we play politics with poverty programs and safety nets for the poor, we burden the few companies and individuals to support the social interventions, this year a whopping ghc1.1billion.
A taxi driver working the Accra Metropolis takes home at least ghc600 a month.  Talk to any of them.  They pay their “owner” between ghc15 to ghc25 a day (say average ghc20).  When all is said the taxi driver’s profit is ghc600 a month.  On average they make ghc7,200 a year.  The new tax-free threshold is ghc1,440 with different tax bands from last year.  The average savings in this tax bracket is about 2% from last year and the effective tax rate is approximately 12%.  If he were to pay the correct tax he would owe Government ghc842.4.
They neither pay taxes nor do they withhold the 15% taxes they pay to their owner.  If the owner does not pay over his portion of the tax, depending on the tax bracket in which they fall, the minimum can be ghc632 a year (based on ghc20 for 25days a month for a 12 month year = ghc6,000) held from Government.
A few taxi drivers own their taxis, about 10% of the taxi population.  The proportion is about 90% contracted to 10% owned.  Between the taxi driver and the owner, they deprive Government of ghc1,474, say ghc1,500.
Assume there are 200,000 taxi drivers in Ghana that makes ghc300million.  Include the same number for Trotro drivers and owners, add the tipper trucks, water tankers, long-haul trucks other smaller vehicles for hire, the informal transport sector alone is depriving Government of close to ghc1billion.  Now add the other services in the informal sector and you could easily raise another ghc1billion.  And this is the law.
The informal sector is a major player in the local tax resource we have available.  If we shift away from the politics and focus on the glaring solutions in front of us, it will be clearer.  Our challenge is not the new taxes we want to create, it is because we shy away from the obvious.  Everyone in this country benefits from social and poverty interventions.  We have created tax brackets to make it more affordable and to cushion low-income earners.  But we have missed the whole point with all the elaborate and attempted clever solutions to raise revenue.  We simply must apply the tax law, as we must all the other laws to govern society.  And what happened to last year’s proposal to tax all the for-profit revenue from the Churches and other NGO’s?