The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) is investigating a complainant and accomplices for “fabricating” the content of a complaint filed against Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea, Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South.
This follows an admission by the complainant that he had filed the complaint without any basis and that he was paid to accuse the MP of engaging in financial malfeasance, the OSP said in its Half Yearly Report (August 2022).
The OSP said it terminated investigations into the complaint in July this year for “lack of evidence.”
“The complainant and his accomplices are under investigation for filing the complaint with the singular aim of tarnishing the reputation of the respondent,” it said.
The Report spans the period covering 5 August 2021 to 31 July 2022.
The case involving Mr. Atta Akyea forms part of three cases, in which investigations have been concluded by the Special Prosecutor.
One of the cases involved an allegation that the Ghana Cocoa Board sole-sourced a contract to Agri-Plus Horizon Farms Limited “on the ground of nepotism and/or trade-based money laundering.”
The OSP said it had terminated the investigation due to a lack of evidence.
The Special Prosecutor said it had also concluded investigations into a complaint of alleged ongoing illegal dealings between Labianca Company Limited and the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority resulting in an “unlawful” markdown or reduction of benchmark values of frozen food products imported by Labianca Company Limited.
The investigations, it said, concluded that a decision to render a customs advance ruling to Labianca Company Limited by reducing the values of their intended imports between a range of five percent to 10 percent below the benchmark values was wrongful and unsupported by the requirements of the law for the issuance of customs advance ruling.
The OPS said it had thus far prosecuted three cases: The Republic v. Mahama Ayariga and Another; The Republic v. Adjenim Boateng Adjei and Another, and Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka.
In the case involving Mahama Ayariga, the Report said: “The Special Prosecutor entered a nolle prosequi on 11 October 2021. The Special Prosecutor explained to the Court that upon further scrutiny of the available evidence the Republic would be unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt on the allegation of abuse of public office for private gain.”
It said those involving Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, a former boss of the Public Procurement Authority, and Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka, a nominee for the position of Chief Executive of Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region, trial was ongoing.
The OSP said it was also investigating more than 70 cases, all of which were yet to be concluded.
“The Office requires adequate support and funding and the assurance of protection for its staff to perform their functions devoid of unjustifiable recrimination,” it said.
A former Ghanaian employee of the Australian High Commission, Mrs Mercy Catherine Adjabeng, has threatened to take legal action against the Commission for “misrepresentation, unfair and unjust treatment”.
According to Madam Catherine Adjabeng who was the Public Affairs and Event Manager at the Commission, the employers had demoted her from the level due her, contrary to their agreement.
The former Multimedia Group journalist on Facebook on August 16, 2022, said after her initial resignation from the position on 30th September 2021, the High Commission approached her and requested her return due to her “knowledge, skillset and expertise”.
“I agreed, took on some additional roles and maintained that these reflect and I was paid for it. That was going to be above the previous level that I resigned (Level 5), so it would be above Level 5,” said the aggrieved staff of the Australian High Commission.
“All the while I worked, I continued to request formal confirmation of my new Level status. Despite affirmations that this would be honoured, it was not. There were consistent email requests and many reassurances, but no action was taken. When I finally received formal confirmation of my employment, I had been demoted”
According to her, the demotion was from level 5 to level 4 adding, “this demotion came together with treatment that fails the standards set by the Australian High Commission of respect, transparency, and community.”
Madam Catherine speaking about the latter, said that on her last day staff of the Commission “hounded me out of the building treating me with disrespect, a lack of humanity and a lack of professionalism” which she finds very appalling.
While seeking “an apology and receipt of compensation at the level agreed for my re-engagement, she is taking legal action against the commission, and petitioning relevant institutions, among other actions.”
The Communications Director of the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng, has defended the sector’s delay in the supply of textbooks to the various educational levels in the country.
He stated that the Ministry noticed some fundamental problems facing the education system that Ghana practices, to which it was keen to make effective changes, hence the implementation of the new curriculum.
This comes after an announcement that the Ministry of Education will take delivery of 3,742,624 textbooks from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Tuesday, August 23, 2022.
Explaining the reason for the delay, he said GES has to rethink the education system by reviewing the curriculum to effect changes in its content for students.
“If you take a look at how we trained our children here, we trained them to read and write however after they [pupils] had finished in the reading and writing method then they forget what they learned. So if you take a look at this cycle of education system or approach we used to train them we are not going to get anyone who can use education to change the fortunes of the country.
“Which means fundamentally, from the start, there is a fundamental problem in the education system that we practice and if there is a fundamental problem then there was the need to put in place measures to change the fundamentals to enable us to get better results in the future.
“How do you do it, you have to rethink the education, and rethinking the education would mean that you have to even do curriculum reviews so that the content used to teach the children have some changes,” Mr Kwarteng said on the Anopa Bofo morning show Monday, August 22, 2022, hosted by Kwamina Sam Biney.
The implementation of the curriculum, Mr Kwarteng emphasised it was not “incidents nor events” but a process which has led to the delay in the supply of the textbooks to add the quality components to the curriculum.
“Part of the processes is implementing quality components and other things that would complement the curriculum to be successful and one of them the critical and crucial ones is the issue of textbooks.
“The ministry had some delays which we apologise for and take responsibility for that but in all these, it was for good.
According to him, the delay was to raise the quality assurance team to make sure nothing but “quality was provided” before publication to avoid any hindrance and challenges.
The communication Director disclosed that the ministry’s priority has always been ensuring the educational system in Ghana possesses the three fundamental basics to education namely; “access, quality, and opportunity.”
In all, 11,135 schools under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) will benefit from the distribution, which will include 1,214,347 Primary One to Three pupils.
In addition, a publisher, Prof. Quarm, has also distributed 275,000 books for classes One to Six, while 629,755 Creative Arts books for classes One to Three and 43,832 teachers’ guides would be sent to the schools.
York Press is also distributing 246,633 science textbooks for classes One to Six and 14,217 teachers’ guides.
Scores of residents have been injured following an encounter with the military team deployed to assist the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) install prepaid meters in the Krobo Region.
At least eight persons in Nuaso in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality have also sustained gunshot wounds during the encounter.
According to an opinion leader in the Odumase South Electoral Area, Godwin Oblanda Totroku about eight people were shot by the military.
Mr. Totroku condemned the brutality and said the military detachment over-reacted.
“The soldiers over-reacted. What have have pushed the military to fire live cartridges at unarmed residents? I was there and at a point, I had to plead with the military to move…”
According to Angel News’ Jaman Dehyee, the St. Martins De Pores Hospital confirmed that eight people with gunshot wounds were admitted but two have been discharged while one was in critical condition.
He noted that the Nuaso area has been disconnected and does not have light after the incident.
Angel News also cited a police medical form in which one of the victims stated that he was assaulted.
Reports indicate that the said residents were resisting the installation of the prepaid meters in the area.
However, the opinion leader debunked the assertion noting that the military without any provocation was instilling fear and intimidating the residents.
Mr. Oblanda Totroku reiterated that Kroboland is not refusing to pay for the usage of electricity however, they want ECG to settle the issue of their accumulated debts in a way that engenders peace.
He pleaded with the public to be circumspect about their commentaries on the Krobo-ECG impasse.
The Ministry of Education has debunked allegations that it has fraudulently secured money from the World Bank to fund its controversial Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).
According to the Ministry’s Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, the claims made by TANIT Limited that the Minister and his officers had forged documents to draw money from the bank are false.
It would be recalled that in the IT firm’s reaction to the Ministry’s decision to terminate its contract agreement with the company, the Management alleged that an officer of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Bernard Ayensu had informed them of the Minister’s ‘dubious’ means to secure the US$1.2 million.
“On the night of 30th, November 2021, the Minister of Education directed him [Mr. Bernard Ayensu] to make a ‘mid-night’ run to the house of the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education to sign a ‘made-up’ report for onward submission to Education Sector Working Group,” part of the statement by TANIT Limited read.
But Mr Kwasi Kwarteng refuting the claim explained that what they presented to the World Bank to convince them to invest their US$1.2 million in the GALOP was the report from the training conducted for teachers under KA Technologies Ghana Limited.
KA Technologies Ghana Limited, aside the distribution of free laptops to schools, was by the pact signed with government expected to train teachers in basic computing skills– Microsoft.
However, per the conditions provided by the World Bank, the Ministry could not meet the requirement without the basics of technological training, which is familiarization with Microsoft.
They thus trained over 41,000 teachers which includes all teachers under the tutorship of KA Technologies Ghana Limited.
“So the Microsoft training which we have reported to them [World Bank] on, we have also pledged a commitment that we are going to continue with those variables [required by the World Bank] to also finish the training,” the Ministry said.
“It was against that backdrop that the world bank released the money.”
He also disclaimed that the US$1.2 million received from the Bank was not for the purpose of training the teachers, adding that “before the approval [by the World Bank], you need to demonstrate certain capabilities” and the ministry did not need the money to train the teachers.
The Ghana Mines Workers Union has called on the Government to beef up security around concessions of legal mining operators in mining areas across the country.
The call was necessitated by the growing insecurity and attacks on the legal mine workers.
The Secretary to the Union, Mr Abdul-Moomim Gbana, blamed the development on illegal miners whose jobs have been interrupted by the government.
According to him, to continue to engage in the mining business, the disgruntled miners have resorted to invading the concessions of legal miners leading to threats and attacks.
Thus, the need for the government to deploy police or military to protect members of the union.
Mr Gbana while highlighting that also called for a government review of the contract with foreign mining companies to increase local participation.
“We should relook at the 90:10 per cent agreement and shift from tax regime to value addition for greater benefits.
The narrative should change because Ghanaians must be directly involved. This requires capacity building and state intervention and support,” he stated.
He made the calls when the union met with the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in charge on Mines, George Mireku Duker, in Accra.
The Minister on his part assured that the government was reviewing most of the contract agreements to increase local participation.
“We would ensure increased local content participation, not only for the welfare of workers but also outsourcing of some production activities and technology transfer to Ghanaians” Mr Mireku Duker said.
The Chairman of the Coalition of Stakeholders in Electricity Concession and Arrangements (COSECA), Dr. Steve Manteaw says the new hike in utility tariffs announced by the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) will favor the business community.
According to him, “the approved tariffs is probably the best the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) could do under the circumstances, especially, if it were to ensure that the two major utilities are able to sustain their operations.”
“COSECA says it is concerned about the potential effect of a 31.7% inflation rate, and a near 100% depreciation of the local currency, since the last major tariff review in 2018, on the ability of the utilities to sustain their operations, if nothing was done about the tariffs.”
Below is their full statement by COSECA
COSECA WELCOMES NEW UTILITY TARIFFS – SAYS IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE
The Coalition of Stakeholders in Electricity Concession and Arrangements (COSECA) welcomes the recently announced revised tariffs for Electricity and Water, noting that, it could have been worse. The energy research and advocacy group says even though the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Hoteliers Association have complained about the potential negative impact of the tariff increases on their members’ operations, its analysis shows that, the new tariff regime is more business-friendly than the previous.
The group says, the approved tariffs are probably the best the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) could do under the circumstances, especially, if it were to ensure that the two major utilities are able to sustain their operations. COSECA says it is concerned about the potential effect of a 31.7% inflation rate, and a near 100% depreciation of the local currency, since the last major tariff review in 2018, on the ability of the utilities to sustain their operations, if nothing was done about the tariffs.
For electricity for instance, at the time, inflation was around 7.14%. Today, inflation has hit 31.7%, according to recent data released by the Ghana Statistical Service. This means inflation has worsened by more than 200% since 2019. Again, the exchange rate of the Cedi to the dollar in 2019 was GHC5.20.
Today, it is almost GHC10, representing a near 100% worsening of the value of the Cedi against the dollar. The Bank of Ghana policy rate in 2019 was 16%. Today, it’s around 22%. What this means is that the cost of borrowing has gone up and so local companies that borrow to finance their production of key inputs for the utilities will reflect the high cost of borrowing in their pricing. The point to note here is that the government’s poor management of the macroeconomic indicators will always reflect badly on the utilities and will come back to hurt consumers in the form of higher tariffs.
In a statement issued on 2nd June 2022 at a press conference, COSECA argued strongly for the restoration of the Distribution Service Charge-2 (DSC-2) which had been withheld from the ECG since 2018, and largely informed the company’s request for 148% upward adjustment of its tariff. Citing paragraph 6.5 of the PURC’s own publication of electricity tariffs published on 16th December 2020, which states that, “The distribution service charges (DCS) provided in the third schedule are the rates applicable to the distribution of electricity by DISCO, from 1st January, 2021 as follows: a. DSC 1 is the rate for DISCos to recover the cost of distribution network operations. b. DCS2 is the rate for DISCos to recover distribution losses”, the group alleged fraud in depriving ECG of this vital revenue stream that would have allowed it to operate efficiently without requiring as much as the 148% increase in tariff. COSECA followed up its statement with letters to the Ministry of Energy, and the PURC, threatening legal action if the DSC-2 was not restored to ECG. From the group’s calculations, the restoration of DSC-2 will automatically translate into a reduction in water tariffs, as electricity constitutes about 30% of the cost of producing water.
Our checks have revealed that the DSC-2 has been restored as part of the current major tariff review exercise, and this might have formed the basis for the reduction in ECG’s requested hikes in tariffs.
While COSECA welcomes this development, it believes the newly announced tariffs for water and electricity could come down or go up during the quarterly automatic adjustments, if other concerns raised in its press statement of 2nd June 2022 are addressed.
COSECA also notes with concern the non-residential customer classification of 0-300kwh. This classification affects Small & Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) such as hairdressing salons, barbering shops, beauty parlors, tailoring, and dress-making shops, welding, mechanic shops, vulcanizing, and carpentry workshops. The current customer classification systems of ECG, NEDCo, and ENCLAVE power per the above PURC categories cannot differentiate them from non-residential customers and potentially could see them pay very high tariffs which could drive them under the current economic conditions. This needs to be urgently addressed by both PURC on one hand and the power distribution companies on the other. COSECA has some solutions we are willing to bring to the table to help address this problem to ensure SMEs do not suffer unduly due to high tariffs. We are open to further discussions on this matter before the 1st September implementation of the new tariffs.
The additional measures COSECA wants to be implemented are investments into efforts at reducing commercial losses, effective revenue collection initiatives, curtailment of political interferences in the affairs of the companies, especially in the procurement activities of ECG; improvement in the government’s management of the macro-economic performance indicators, and taking the fight against illegal mining (Galamsey) and its consequential pollution of water bodies more seriously, as it has led to an increased cost of water treatment for GWCL.
In this regard, COSECA urges all Ghanaians to lend their support to efforts by the new board and management of ECG to reduce commercial losses by first auditing all ECG meters, replacing faulty ones and ensuring that all customers are captured in its customer database; and secondly, by installing pre-paid meters in areas where default is very high. We invite the new management to also take urgent steps to replace all sub-standard meters, procured and installed by politicians, without ECG’s supervision, in order to capture all of them in the company’s database. The ECG task force, created to check illegal connections and non-payment of bills, and to disconnect all types of consumers including government agencies should be made a standing force and fully resourced. We have no doubt that these measures will lead to a substantial reduction in commercial losses, and will benefit consumers by either holding prices at bay or ensuring a reduction in tariffs going forward. This, we consider paramount to achieving Goal 7 of the SDGs, which is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all Ghanaians.
COSECA is concerned that, the utility companies, especially ECG and Ghana Water appear to be operating without proper coordination between them and contractors working in various locations. For instance, road contractors construct or repair roads that destroy pipelines, and electricity service lines which contribute to substantial distribution losses, especially as these go unreported for days.
Furthermore, it is our contention that the current commercial and technical losses components, contributing to the high tariffs can, again, be drastically reduced with efficient management. To achieve this, PURC must ensure there is proper accountability, which is the basis for the determination of fair and equitable tariffs. There are too many estimations in the determination of tariffs, which must be avoided.
COSECA wishes to reiterate its disappointment at PURC’s failure to monitor the utilization of legacy hydro (i.e. power generation from Akosombo and Kpong) which has further imposed punitive generation tariffs on the consumer. We believe it is important for the PURC to check and monitor the portfolio of VRA’s generation mix between legacy hydro and thermal power generation, as both have implications for tariffs. In summary, we are intimating that the PURC’s failure to monitor and measure what quantity of the power supplied is hydro or thermal allows VRA to determine what amount of their power is thermal – which cost more than hydro, without it being independently verified by PURC. In our estimation, the simple solution is for the PURC to ensure VRA is metered. This for several years has not been done, and we are curious to know from the PURC what the challenge is.
Another set of issues that needs resolving, has to do with the plethora of energy funds and schemes such as ESLA, Covid Levy, Government Stabilization payments to ECG, and Auxiliary Services Charges to GenCos. We suspect that, these funds are not being well managed. We, therefore, call for an urgent audit of the revenues from these funds and increased transparency and accountability in how they are managed, and who is responsible for their management? For example, how much has accrued from the COVID Levy since its inception? How much are we left to pay? Where is the money going to? And who has the responsibility to make that decision?
Finally, we challenge the management of the utility companies to prove to Ghanaians we can manage our own affairs. To this effect, we wish to see improved accountability by the utility companies through the PURC, the publication of their KPI’s to enable the general public and CSOs to monitor, advise, critique and praise their performance. Most essentially, the utility companies should have a coordinating unit/department that certifies all contractors whose work affect their various infrastructure. This will ensure distribution losses caused by various contractors are cut to the barest minimum through the coordinating unit. We also strongly suggest that utility companies introduce hotlines for reporting power and water theft i.e. illegal connections and a reward system to encourage people to report theft.
It is our conviction that the diligent implementation of these measures, will win back the public confidence, which the utilities have lost over the past few decades.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced measures put in place to prevent examination malpractices.
The examination body has put in place a number of measures to “guarantee test security.”
Speaking to journalists on Monday, August 22, 2022, Head of Public Affairs of the Council, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, said, “These include collaboration with the National Intelligence Bureau, NIB, to monitor the printing of question papers, working closely with a number of security agencies to track and arrest dealers and operators of rogue websites, an inspection of all depots nationwide; and depots that needed further fortification have been duly attended to.”
Also, “Serialisation of some question papers, movement of question papers from strong rooms to depots in batches, creation of additional depots for the storage of confidential materials to ensure that the depots are located close to schools to prevent the situation where schools start late or question papers are released to them early.
“Use of number combination padlocks in addition to ordinary padlocks for all security bags containing question paper packets and these combination padlocks you cannot open them unless the codes are sent to the depot keepers.”
The project work subjects for the 2022 West African Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) began on, Monday, 1 August 2022, across the country.
The examinations will end on Tuesday, 27 September 2022.
In all 422,883 candidates were registered for this year’s exams from 977 schools.
Seventy-two visually impaired students and 14 hearing impaired students have also been registered to take the exam.
Candidates will on Monday, 28 August 2022, take the English Language Orals paper.
However, the objective and essays for the English language will be written on Thursday, September 8 September 2022.
The Police have announced they are on a manhunt for the persons who attacked and destroyed properties at the NDC Northern regional office in Tamale Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement, the Police said “Whilst we assure the public that all the perpetrators will be brought to face justice, we urge everyone to choose peaceful means to resolve their differences rather than resorting to violence”.
Some supporters of the party in Tamale stormed the regional branch office with guns demanding for the removal of the acting regional chairman of the party Adolf Ali, who was nominated by the executives to act in the position.
The group vandalised chairs, and office equipment and fired several warning shots while chanting for his removal.
Adolf Ali was appointed following the demise of the regional chairman Tugu Naa Alhaji Ibrahim Mobila last week.
