Month: September 2016

Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has questioned whether the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) exhausted all the process leading to the report it released Thursday, 29 September 2016 on Mahama’s Ford Expedition gift received from the Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Freres Kanazoe.

Mr. Mensah-Bonsu said the report of CHRAJ is unsubstantiated by the fact that it indeed requested and received the documents or records relevant to the investigation.

He argued: “the conclusions of CHRAJ don’t even support the findings from the restricted investigations it conducted.”

He told host Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM that the minority in parliament will meet over the report and peruse it for a clear action on the matter.

For him, the President’s motive in the infamous Ford gift could be perceived as a conflict of interest situation insisting that President Mahama was clearly in breach of Section 144 of the code of ethics which he [Mahama] presented to his Ministers.

“President’s directive to his Ministers was that they should avoid cash and other similar donations from enterprises who have commercial interest. So he was bounded by the code of ethics to have refused the gift.”

He said: ” It was laughable to defend that the gift was not solicited by the President and so that doesn’t make it wrong”

CHRAJ’s report has cleared Mahama on the accusations of conflict of interest and corruption variously made against  him by certain members of the public and the youth league of the CPP.

Even though CHRAJ in a 78-page report, indicted President Mahama, saying he violated the gift policy with regard to his decision to accept the vehicle, he was cleared of any bribery.

According to CHRAJ, it was satisfied that the gift in question formed part of gifts prohibited under the Gift Policy under the Code of Conduct and that although the evidence show that President Mahama subsequently surrendered the gift to the State, the action nonetheless contravened the gift policy.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson has mocked the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s promise to allocate $ 1 million to each constituency annually across the country when it assumes power, saying the amount is woefully inadequate to develop his area.

The running mate of the NPP, Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia, who’s on a tour of the Central Region was recently in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency, where the Deputy Minister is the Member of Parliament and promised them that a future NPP government will doll out $ 1 million to the constituency each year to facilitate development of the area.

However addressing a teeming crowd a mini rally at Enyan Abaasa after submitting his nomination forms at the offices of the EC on Thursday, Hon. Ato Forson stated that in the most unlikely event that the NPP wins power, giving out that amount to every constituency will be nothing exceptional, for which the NPP should be praised for doing.

He urged his constituents to pay death ear to the phantom promises of the NPP, adding that Dr Bawumia has no message to convince the electorate to vote for the NPP.

“Dr Bawumia was here the other day saying that the NPP wll give each constituency including Ajumako Enyan Essiam $1 million each year when the party assumes power. The infrastructure development that has been witnessed here in our constituency in a single year under President John Mahama is about twenty times more than what the NPP is promising you. Even Abaasa alone the development here is more than $4 million, look at the several roads that have been constructed in this constituency, so tell Bawumia I say he’s not said anything extraordinary.”

Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has questioned whether the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) exhausted all the process leading to the report it released Thursday, 29 September 2016 on Mahama’s Ford Expedition gift received from the Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Freres Kanazoe.

Mr. Mensah-Bonsu said the report of CHRAJ is unsubstantiated by the fact that it indeed requested and received the documents or records relevant to the investigation.

He argued: “the conclusions of CHRAJ don’t even support the findings from the restricted investigations it conducted.”

He told host Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM that the minority in parliament will meet over the report and peruse it for a clear action on the matter.

For him, the President’s motive in the infamous Ford gift could be perceived as a conflict of interest situation insisting that President Mahama was clearly in breach of Section 144 of the code of ethics which he [Mahama] presented to his Ministers.

“President’s directive to his Ministers was that they should avoid cash and other similar donations from enterprises who have commercial interest. So he was bounded by the code of ethics to have refused the gift.”

He said: ” It was laughable to defend that the gift was not solicited by the President and so that doesn’t make it wrong”

CHRAJ’s report has cleared Mahama on the accusations of conflict of interest and corruption variously made against him by certain members of the public and the youth league of the CPP.

Even though CHRAJ in a 78-page report, indicted President Mahama, saying he violated the gift policy with regard to his decision to accept the vehicle, he was cleared of any bribery.

According to CHRAJ, it was satisfied that the gift in question formed part of gifts prohibited under the Gift Policy under the Code of Conduct and that although the evidence show that President Mahama subsequently surrendered the gift to the State, the action nonetheless contravened the gift policy.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson has mocked the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s promise to allocate $ 1 million to each constituency annually across the country when it assumes power, saying the amount is woefully inadequate to develop his area.

The running mate of the NPP, Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia, who’s on a tour of the Central Region was recently in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam constituency, where the Deputy Minister is the Member of Parliament and promised them that a future NPP government will doll out $ 1 million to the constituency each year to facilitate development of the area.

However addressing a teeming crowd a mini rally at Enyan Abaasa after submitting his nomination forms at the offices of the EC on Thursday, Hon. Ato Forson stated that in the most unlikely event that the NPP wins power, giving out that amount to every constituency will be nothing exceptional, for which the NPP should be praised for doing.

He urged his constituents to pay death ear to the phantom promises of the NPP, adding that Dr Bawumia has no message to convince the electorate to vote for the NPP.

“Dr Bawumia was here the other day saying that the NPP wll give each constituency including Ajumako Enyan Essiam $1 million each year when the party assumes power. The infrastructure development that has been witnessed here in our constituency in a single year under President John Mahama is about twenty times more than what the NPP is promising you. Even Abaasa alone the development here is more than $4 million, look at the several roads that have been constructed in this constituency, so tell Bawumia I say he’s not said anything extraordinary.”

The member of Parliament (MP) for Tema Central, Kofi Brako (KB as he is popularly called), has chided the government, saying the only developmental project the President John Dramani Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration had been able to give his constituents is an uncompleted mortuary.

According to KB the morgue, which has become a ‘white elephant’ at the outskirt of the Tema General Hospital, is not serving its purpose as a result of unavailability of required equipment to function.

He noted, “The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government claims it has undertaken developmental projects. Tema Central has only seen a morgue. The morgue is even uncompleted and it is not functioning so what are they talking about? Tema deserves better than uncompleted morgue.”

The MP was speaking at a mini rally at Community 7, Tema, during the campaign tour of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

KB stated, “Government has abandoned the morgue, compelling the hospital to still use the tumbled-down morgue which was once closed down due to serious structural defects and malfunction refrigerators which gave way to rats to feed on corpses.”

Recently, the Medical Director of the Tema General Hospital, Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, described the morgue as a ‘white elephant’ which is only occupying space.

A comprehensive range of post-mortem examination products, including dissecting, autopsy, necropsy tables, sinks, refrigerators, grossing stations and cabinetry are yet to be fixed in the building, leaving reptiles and insects to occupy the facility.

Mr. Brako indicated that “although putting up a morgue is not out of place, Tema Central deserves better than the only project undertaken in the constituency.”

The Minority spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has described as unfounded claims by the NDC’s Forum for setting the record straight that the NPP handled the economy incompetently when they were in office.

Transport Minister, Fiifi told journalists Thursday that Ghanaians got a rude awakening to the NPP’s incompetence after the HIPC program was completed by the end of President Kufuor’s first term in office in 2004.

According to him, the NPP cannot be credited with a sterling record in the economy under the Kufuor regime because it was shielded from economic difficulties through its decision to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana yesterday, Dr, Akoto Osei rather accused the NDC of having nothing positive to show for the management of the country’s economy under both Mills and Mahama administrations.

“When you don’t pay contractors there is arrears. These contractors have gone to borrow from the banking system. They are collapsing the banking system, and so it is showing up as debt in the banking system. We have eight banks and Bawumia told them so. That is a serious problem and that is incompetence right now.

This comes on the heels of arguments put forward by a former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and the running mate of the NPP Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that some banks in Ghana risks collapse due to the continuous hikes of bad loans on their books.

“The asset quality review of banks, conducted in 2015, shows significant vulnerability of banks to current economic conditions and that if the affected banks were to fully provision for all the bad loans, a significant number of them will collapse.

“In fact eight banks were identified to exhibit significant weaknesses with capital adequacy ratios of below 10 percent and some below 5 percent and nearing collapse so it is a real problem.”

Dr Bawumia stated at his recent lecture on the topic, ‘The State of the Ghanaian Economy – A Foundation of Concrete or Straw’.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Atebubu-Amantin, Sanja Nanja’s hopes of retaining his seat as an MP hang in the balance, as the Atebubu Traditional Council has indicated it has no intention of lifting the ban on him anytime soon.

With three months to go to the crucial polls, Hon. Nanja, many political watchers say is bound to face difficulty campaigning in the constituency since the Traditional Council and other local groups including the Zongo Association have all washed their hands off him and have banned him from engaging in any social activities in the area.

The Atebubu Traditional Council in April 2016, banned the MP after insulting the queenmother of the town, Nana Afia Donyina, on radio calling her a drunkard after she accused him of being behind disturbances in the area.

The council was of the view that hon. Sanja Nanja had disrespected the Queenmother and the Traditional Council by extension and as a result had to exact punishment against him.

The council further sacrificed a ram informing the gods of the town of the MPs disrespect to them, an act that was seen by many as a strong demonstration of the council anger.
Few weeks later, another paramountcy in the area, Amantin Traditional Council led by the paramount Chief, Nana Owusu Ababio II, also announced that he and his elders had also banned their legislator over the insults.

The beleaguered MP has found several ways of trying to win back the hearts of his constituents and the Atebubu Traditional Council including a GHC 20,000 compensation to the chiefs which they rejected.

Speaking to Kasapa News, Spokesperson of the Atebubu Traditional Council, Nana Owusu Sarpong stated that the Council at its meeting on Sunday decided not to lift the ban even as the election approaches.

“Sanja Nanja has not learnt any lessons from the ban. We’ve informed all the various groups such as Muslims, Christian and youth leaders not to engage him in any activity in the area. After asking the president of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs, who’s also the paramount Chief of Yeji Traditional area to plead on his behalf, Sanja was heard speaking on radio claiming he didn’t ask the chief to do any such thing. This height of disrespect cannot be countenanced.”

The Traditional Council has asked the ruling NDC and President John Mahama, to replace him with another candidate to contest the election, as they have out-rightly rejected him.

Ghanamps.gov.gh