Former First Family cited in bribery allegation

The newspaper, Daily Graphic, says a bribery case being heard at the Asker and Baerum High Court in Norway has implicated former President Jerry Rawlings in a bribery case.Also alleged to have received monies thought to be bribes is Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the former First Lady, and Mr. P.V. Obeng, a special adviser to the then PNDC government.

The case, according to the publication, started in October 2005, and involves one Tor Egil Kjelsaas who had been sent to court by his employers, SCANCEM of Norway, the founders of GHACEM in Ghana, over an alleged bribery of some West African Heads of State involving huge sums of dollars.GHACEM, the, cement com¬pany in Ghana, until 1991 was owned by Norwegian investors, SCANCEM.Since the 60s, SCANCEM controlled the cement production in Ghana, Liberia, Togo, Sierra-Leone and beyond, often as a monopoly.

Kjelsaas who has been accused by his employers of theft was stationed in Africa to represent SCANCEM's interest.According to an investigative article published by a Norwegian Magazine – DN Magasinet – in April this year about the bribery allegedly perpetuated by Kjelsaas and titled, “Gray Cement - Black Money”, the magazine stated that proceedings from the court indicate an alleged bribery at the highest levels in Ghana, Togo and Nigeria.According to the report, Kjelsaas was believed to have paid huge sums of money to some African leaders in order to sustain SCANCEM's monopoly over supply of cement to the countries mentioned.The report went further to state, according to the court proceedings, that “in the mid 1990s, there were two anonymous bank accounts in Unibank S.A. Luxemburg and Barclays Bank S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland.

"These two accounts were earmarked for Ghana and huge sums of US dollars were deposited by SCANCEM in them.It said between 1993 and 1998 a total of US$1,690,000 was transferred to the Barclays Bank account and a total of US$2,460,000 was also paid into the Unibank account during the same period.The proceedings showed that SCANCEM management believed that the money deposited in the Barclays Bank account went to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, and that of the Unibank went to Mr P.V. Obeng, then a special advisor to the PNDC regime headed by J.J. Rawlings.Testifying, however, Gerhard Heilberg, a SCANCEM official based in Ghana at the time, said Rawlings and his wife were among those who received money from SCANCEM.A testimony by former SCANCEM Finance Chief, G. Jacobsen, also said bribery in Ghana and Africa for that matter was done by cash payments.

The report further said a testimony by Tor Nygarrd, a management staff of SCANCEM who paid out the monies said they paid politicians, the party which is believed to be the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Ghana Port officials.He said special code forms were developed in Ghana for those who received the monies.

He said 14 of such coded forms were used and the date and amount for each recipient were recorded in Ghanaian cedis as well as US dollars.P.V. Obeng, however, in an interview with the magazine is reported to have claimed the monies were paid to him by SCANCEM for consultancy services.GHACEM had for a long time enjoyed a monopoly status in the production and supply of cement in Ghana.
Source:Daily Graphic

Kofi Annan To Address Ghana's Parliament

BUSUMURU Kofi Annan, the immediate past Secretary General of the United Nations, is expected to address Parliament as the house rises on Tuesday, July 31.The House is expected to rise on July 31 after completing the second meeting of the third session of the Fourth Parliament.Felix Owusu-Adjapong (NPP – Akyem Swedru), Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, who announced this on Friday, when presenting the business statement of the House, urged Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, who announced this on Friday, when presenting the business statement of the House, urged members to be present for the special occasion.He said, during this week, the House would debate a private member’s motion requesting "government to take appropriate measures to remove the algae in the marine waters of Jomoro District since they have greatly affected the livelihood of the people of the area". The motion was filed by Lee Ocran (NDC Jomoro).He brought the issue to the attention of the House in a statement on the floor of the House, two weeks ago.Mr Owusu-Adjapong said the Appointments Committee would meet to consider the President’s nominees for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial appointments and also debate the motion for the adoption or otherwise of the committee when they are presented.
Source:Times

MTN Areeba pledges Support for festivals and cultures in northern Ghana

Mr. George Andah, Chief Marketing Officer of MTN (formerly Areeba), said on Saturday that the company would support traditional authorities in the north to celebrate their festivals and also help them to preserve their culture. He said this would become fully accomplished when MTN Foundation was launched in the country before the end of the year to focus on education, health, economic empowerment and arts and culture especially in the northern sector.

Mr. Andah said this in Tamale when he paid a courtesy call on the regent of Tamale, Alhaji Abdulai Ziblim, and added that Areeba supported vocational education in the Northern Region and would build on it for further improvement. Mr. Andah said MTN, sponsors of CAN 2008, would collaborate with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and traditional authorities to ensure that Tamale hosted the event successfully. Areas of collaboration would include decoration of roads from the Tamale Airport to the games venue, some major roads and roundabouts to ensure that visitors and investors appreciated the beauty of Tamale and the country.

Alhaji Ziblim commended MTN for the projects and pledged his full support to their activities in the region. He said Tamale was now a haven of investment and that MTN's presence in the region would encourage other investors to focus attention on the Northern Region. Mr. Andah earlier presented a cheque for 41.1 million cedis to the Northern Regional Coordinating Council as MTN's contribution to the Tamale Disaster Fund.GNA

Otumfuo sets up committee to facilitate cocoa processing factory in Ashanti

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has set up a committee to select a suitable piece of land for the establishment of a cocoa-processing factory in the Ashanti Region within the next six months. This followed the conclusion of an 18-month feasibility study by the ADM Cocoa International that had expressed interest in setting up the factory in the region at a meeting with Otumfuo Osei Tutu.

This was contained in a statement issued in Kumasi and signed by Mr G.B. Osei-Antwi, Media Relations Manager for Manhyia Palace. Oheneba Atwereboanda II, Hiahene, heads the committee. Otumfuo Osei Tutu charged the committee that has officials of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the ADM Cocoa International as its members to work with dispatch and submit a report to him within two weeks.GNA

Fire devastate Tema ECG panel

Technical personnel of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) Tema, on Saturday afternoon acted promptly to put out fire that had swept through one of its equipment at the Community one substation to save a national disaster.

Within 30 minutes the men led by the Regional Engineer, Mr. Delali Oklu brought the fire in one of its panels at the material division of the ECG opposite the old Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company under control.

The incident has placed part of the city in total darkness but Mr Oklu assured the public that power would be restored after the situation had been rectified soon. Mr Oklu could not tell the cause of the fire, saying they were still investigating. When Ghana News Agency arrived at the scene ECG personnel were still working on the burnt panel.

Their equipment, together with others in other sub-stations in the municipality were recently installed by the Tema Office of ECG from its own internally generated funds, costing millions of cedis. Meanwhile the early morning rains caused havoc in part of the communities in Tema. Many roads at Community 12 got flooded, making it unmotorable some residence near Good News Mission were flooded. The situation was not different at Community five as the frontage of some houses got flooded whiles pools of water had collected in the middle of the road, making driving uncomfortable.GNAREA

Veep commends health workers for promoting health delivery

The Vice President, Alhaji Mahama on Saturday commended the efforts health workers are making towards the promotion of quality health care delivery in the country. He said the contributions of health workers and other service providers were supplementing the government efforts at addressing the welfare needs of Ghanaians.

The Vice President was addressing the management, nurses and staff of the Obuasi Government Hospital as part of his working visit to the Obuasi municipality. The Vice President had earlier inspected a 1.5 billion cedis, 25-bed children's ward being built by the Municipal Assembly for the hospital. Messrs George Senefo-Antwi, the Project Manager and Patrick Thompson, Project Engineer of the Mining and Building Contractors (MBC), the contractor of the project told the Vice President that the project was about 80 per cent complete. Alhaji Mahama commended the management, nurses and staff of the hospital for their contribution towards the health care delivery of the people in the municipality.

"Let us all see how we can bring quality health care to our people", he said. He gave the assurance that the Kufuor administration was doing everything possible to ensure that health workers were motivated to enable them to carry out their good works to the nation. The Vice-President was hopeful that the children's ward was going to add value to the operations of the hospital and further help to improve health care delivery services at the municipality. Alhaji Mahama called on all Ghanaians to embrace the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since it was the easy way to access affordable health care.

The Vice President said as part of the government's efforts to create jobs for the country's unemployed youth and also support the expansion of the health sector, health extension workers had been engaged under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and called on the nurses to give them the maximum encouragement and support in their duties.GNA

We will Not Shutdown Akosombo Dam---VRA

Contrary to speculations that the Akosombo Dam would soon be shut down due to declining low water, the Volta River Authority (VRA) on Friday said the two generating units were running reliably.A statement signed for Ms. Abla Fiadjoe, Acting Director of Corporate Affairs, said with the technical analysis carried out and the critical monitoring system put in place, VRA had taken measures to operate the Station with two of the units at a level lower than 235 feet in "a technically safe but professionally cautious manner". "The VRA wished to assure all electricity consumers that and the general public that the two generating units currently at Akosmbo are being operated reliably and that we have no plans to shutdown the Akosombo Generating Station," it said.The statement said the VRA would continue to run the two generating units and review the situation at the end of July. "We wish to stress that this is not the first time the Akosombo Generating Station is being operated at levels below 235 feet," stressed.Going back to history, the VRA said in March 1966 it operated at 234.60 feet and for about three months to as low as 234.0 feet on June 8, 1966 when it reached the lowest ever levels with the units. "This is compared to the 126 Megawatts being produced from each of the units at this time following the successful retrofit of the Akosombo Plant," the statement said.The Authority said it had also taken requisite action to ensure that water for the reservoir, which was not only meant for power generation, was available for other uses, including water supply to the communities in the catchment area downstream Akosombo."The VRA wishes to assure the general public that it has the matter in hand and is with the assistance of Government, implementing various emergency measures which have to date helped to contain the situation albeit at lower than normal water levels," the statement noted. The Authority said it had also taken note of certain public sentiments expressed largely through the media that the VRA was telling a different story to the Government than it was telling the public explaining that: "This is patently false."It said Ghanaians and consumers of electricity on the other hand needed to appreciate the fact they could contribute to improving the situation by adopting serious energy conservation measures. 20 July 07
Source:GNA