GHS17.7m missing at COCOBOD.

 

Officials of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), led by the deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Finance and Administration, William Mensah, were once again put on the spot by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday when they appeared before the committee for the second time to answer queries on some portions of the board audited accounts.
COCOBOD claimed that an amount of GHS17.7m was disbursed to an affiliate agency, Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC), but there were questions about the whereabouts of the money, as there were no documents to support the transfer.
The committee members raised serious concerns over the transfer of GHS17.7m by the COCOBOD to the Cocoa Marketing Company as assistance to its allied company for some development projects, since the Accountant-General’s audited report said it could not trace any document covering such a transfer.

The deputy CEO said indeed COCOBOD did release that amount as assistance to CMC, but the refusal of COCOBOD to show documents covering the money heightened suspicion amongst the committee members.

Many Ghanaians shorter due to malnutrition – health report

 

The Ghana Statistical Service Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey has revealed that 22.7% of people are shorter than their age due to malnutrition.
Ghana has been cited among the 36 countries in the world with stunting problems affecting children even more.
The report said 40% Ghanaians with stunting problems live in the Ashanti region alone.
The Deputy Director in charge of Nutrition at the Ghana Health Service, Wilhemina Okwabi explains that the defect is due to the poor nutritional foods mothers give to infant, which does not support height development.
She admitted that most of the foods are carbohydrate based, and lacked proteins for body building.
“This is why most Ghanaians are not tall as they should be,” Ms. Okwabi said.
She noted that the younger generations appear taller than the older generation because of recent improvements in nutrition.

Post verdict analysis: National Security can't gag me – Kweku Baako

 

Political pundit Kweku Baako Jr says he will not indulge in self-censorship after the Supreme Court pronounces verdict on the election petition case.
His response comes on the heels of a meeting between national security coordinator Larry Gbevlo-Lartey and some media owners and key journalists on Wednesday at which the media were implored to avoid post-verdict analysis of any sort as a way of helping avert national mayhem.
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper said on Saturday that he has no qualms with the appeal so long as it remains nothing, but an appeal.
He pointed out on private radio station Joy FM’s news analysis programme ‘Newsfile’ on Saturday that he will not allow himself to be silenced by such appeals.
In contrast, however, the appeal by the office of the national security has led to a resolution by the two main political parties in the Upper East Region to avoid post-verdict analysis for three days after the August 29 verdict.

Some Thoughts From Gabby On The Election Petition.

 
The respondents in Ghana’s presidential election  petition are, in short, saying, “Yes, we admit there were irregularities, but, whatever they are, whether over-voting, unknown polling stations or voting without biometric verification, they must be seen as nothing more than clerical, administrative or transpositional errors which must not affect votes cast by Ghanaians.”
A very strange proposition, if I may say. In theory, the touchstone for resolving election difficulties is the “intent of the voters.” As Alexander Hamilton famously said, “the people should choose whom they please to govern them.” 
But when it is copiously clear from the evidence that violations, malpractices, irregularities, or other election distortions occurred in such large numbers, how then can we ascertain whom the qualified voters chose without exorcising the results from the curse of the invalid votes?
Dare I say, that the very voters whose interests the respondents purport to protect have, in the course of this trial, seen for themselves evidence of these widespread infractions. It could never have been their intention that their votes, validly cast, would be allowed by those tasked to conduct the election to be distorted and devalued by the canker of invalid votes. Let the Supreme Court let only valid votes count!

NPP General Secretary Consoles Families Of Sentenced Youth Activists In Tamale.

 

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, visited Tamale to empathize with the families of the five NPP youth activists who were on Tuesday sentenced to various prison terms, with one to die by hanging, by a jury in a Tamale High Court.
He arrived in Tamale  and was accompanied by the leadership of the NPP in the northern region to the homes of the activists.
Sir John, as he is popularly referred to, met with the family members of each of the incarcerated persons, and assured them of the support of the NPP and the legal route the party had taken to ensure that appeal against the sentences.
At Kanawu in Sabonjida, Mr. Afriyie assured the father of Yahuza Yakubu who was sentenced to death by hanging that the case was not over. He visited their families in Choggu, Aboabo and Sabonjida all in the Tamale metropolis.
Sir John also stated that he had spoken to various youth groups within the party, as well as supporters of the NPP in Tamale, as well as across the country, to remain calm and wait for the appeal process to begin.

Speech By Prof M.A. Ocquaye at the NPP's 21st Anniversary Lectures.

 

THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) AND THE DANQUAH-BUSIA-DOMBO TRADITION’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEEPENING OF THE DEMOCRATIC CULTURE AND PRACTICE IN GHANA”
 A PAPER DELIVERED @ THE PARTY’S 21ST ANNIVERSARY LECTURE @ THE OSU PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HALL ON THURSDAY 22ND AUGUST 2013
BY
HON. PROF. MIKE OQUAYE
Introduction
This presentation attempts a bird’s eye view of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo(DBD) tradition from 1947 to this day. It presents an opportunity to ask:
Who are we? Politically, where do we come from? What was the tradition’s contribution in the founding of the Ghanaian state? What principles underpin the tradition? What political parties have represented the tradition and how have they interacted with other political parties in our history? How have we performed in government and what are our contribution to democracy, good governance, human rights, the rule of law, and socio-economic development? Finally, what lies ahead of us?

Illegal connections: ECG earns GH¢4.8 million from penalty.

 

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) raked in GH¢4.8 million as penalty from 1,136 people who were caught engaging in illegal electricity connection in the first half of this year.

The Accra East Region of the company recorded 109 cases of illegal connection; Accra West, 96; Tema, 139; Ashanti East, 79, and Ashanti West, 103.

The rest are Western Region, 78; Central, 12; Eastern, 105; Volta, 32; while the Intelligence Unit at the ECG Head Office recorded 383 cases.

The Head of Public Relations at the ECG, Mr William Boateng, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, explained that identifying theft of power and cost consumed was part of a strategy to deal with the issue of losses by the company.

To that effect, he said, the company was introducing a system known as ‘boundary metering’ by which transformers would be fitted with meters to check losses.

Property owners angry at C&AG for delaying compensation.

 

More than 200 Project Affected Persons (PAP) on the Suhum-Nsawam and Madina-Pantang roads yesterday besieged the offices of the Controller and Accountant-Generals Department (CAGD)  to demand their money.

The action renewed a five-year protracted battle between the PAPs on the two projects and the government.

An assurance from the Deputy Controller and Accountant-General in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr Kwasi Owusu, that the money would be ready Friday, at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) did not assuage the anger and frustration of the people, who retorted in Twi, a local dialect that they will not go and that they want their money or  they will sleep at the offices of the CAGD.

The warrant

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) gave the representatives of the PAP, a warrant to be cleared at the CAGD, but the two groups are yet to receive the cheques, which they said had become a great source of worry to them.

The MoFEP issued two separate warrants; GH¢23, 11,449 for those on the Suhum-Nsawam Road, and GH¢8,598,676 to their counterparts on the Madina-Pantang stretch totalling of GH¢31.7m.