PV Obeng denies ever taking bribe from SCANCOM

Mr P.V. Obeng, a former top advisor under the Provisional Defence Council (PNDC) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) administrations, on Friday de nied claims that he took bribes from Norwegian cement giant, SCANCEM."I know nothing of the alleged payments whatsoever and certainly nothing about the alleged Bank accounts in Switzerland or elsewhere," he said in a statement emailed to GNA from London."I wish to state here and now quite categorically that I have never ever made any admissions or any statements, to any person, in whatever shape or form which can even be remotely interpreted as an admission of receipts of any sums of money as consultancy payments from SCANCEM whilst in public office."Indeed I could not have made any admissions to matters which simply did not happen."An official of the Company who is in court in Norway for embezzlement has said he paid bribes into two separate accounts allegedly owned by Mr Obeng and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. Nana Konadu has also dismissed the allegations. Giving his side of the story he said he received and completed a questionnaire for a Norwegian newspaper and then received a phone call whilst in London from a journalist in Ghana."In the very brief conversation the reporter sought to know if I knew about a court case in Norway involving Mr. Tor Kjelsaas and his former employers, Scancem."The very poor connection did not allow for any lengthy conversation, which was in any case terminated when the line got cut off. It appears my simple reply to his queries is now what has been twisted or misinterpreted as my alleged admission to the receipt of millions of dollars for consultancy payments."Mr. Obeng said his Company did some consulting work for the Norwegian company SCANCEM after he left public office in December 1996 and had been paid for its services.He said he registered his consultancy company in the middle of 1997 after leaving public office in December 1996, and began a search for clients.He said in 1998 his consultancy firm was retained by four companies; two from Norway one from the United Kingdom and the other from the United States of America"One of the Norwegian companies was SCANCEM with whom my company entered into a retainer agreement which began in mid 1998 and expired in December, 2006."The monthly retainer fees paid by the company was exceedingly low even by local standards but we continued to work for them with the view of building the necessary foundation for the company and to build a good corporate profile." Mr Obeng said he did not work as a consultant for SCANCEM and SCANCEM never engaged him to work for them in any manner while in public office."Indeed I can emphatically say that during my long stay in pubic office I did not accept to serve on boards of companies, whether public or private, foreign or local because I am acutely aware of the conflict of interest situations I might be placed in. It obviously will defy logic to place myself in such a position in relation to SCANCEM".He said he had referred the matter to his solicitors "with firm instructions to take immediate, necessary and prudential steps to redeem the damage done to my image and reputation and certainly to assert the true state of affairs and specifically to circulate this matter to the Ghanaian Press".
Source:GNA

Parliament approves nominations of 12 Ministers

Parliament on Friday approved the nomination of Mr Akwasi Osei Adjei as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD and Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie as Minister of Information and National Orientation.The House also approved the nominations of 10 newly appointed ministers after the Appointments Committee of Parliament presented its report to the House after vetting the nominees.The Ministers are: Mr Ben Aggrey Ntim, Minister of Communications, Nana Akomea, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment and Mr Joe Baidoo-Ansah, Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President's Special Initiative.Others are: Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, Minister of State in- Charge of Public Sector Reforms, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Nana Obiri Boahene, Minister of State at the Ministry of Interior and Ms Cecilia Dapaah, Minister of State at the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing. The rest are: Mr George Benson, Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, Eastern Regional Minister and Mr Alhassan Samari, Upper East Regional Minister.The House later approved an increase in the District Assemblies' Common Fund from the current five per cent to 7.5 of the total national revenue. It takes effect from January 1, 2008.Increasing demands on the assemblies by government institutions such as the Police Service, the creation of new districts and the implementation of the National Youth Employment Programme are some reasons for the upward adjustment of Fund.Members of Parliament called for effective monitoring and oversight responsibility over the Assemblies to ensure the proper utilization of monies sent them.They said the monitoring role of Members and auditing by the appropriate agencies must be strengthened.Meanwhile, the House is expected to rise next week Tuesday after an address by former UN Secretary-General, Busumuru Kofi Annan, at a special meeting to be held in his honour.
Source:GNA

Legon Lecturers Have no Place to Sleep?

The acute accommodation problem at the University of Ghana, Legon, has compelled some lecturers to live in boys' quarters.
Professor Kwesi Yankah, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University, said this on Thursday at a ceremony to formally hand over 11 bungalows at Kisseman in Accra acquired from the defunct Ghana Airways.
Professor Yankah said out of about 800 lecturers, the University had been able to accommodate only 330, adding that the rest were still living with friends and families with some facing possible ejection from their landlords.
He said the concerns showed by the public on accommodation problems of students must equally be demonstrated in the plight of lecturers' accommodation to help boost their morale in the discharge of their duties.
Professor Yankah said the acquisitions of the bungalows were some of the steps taken by the University towards alleviating lecturers' accommodation problems on campus to enhance service delivery.
He said the ability of the University to attract young lecturers to replace the ageing ones was dependent on the provision of decent housing units for them and thanked government for its support towards the acquisition of the bungalows.
In a related development, a delegation from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) in Saudi Arabia, paid a courtesy call on the Pro-Vice-Chancellor to look at the possibility of areas of cooperation with the University.
Professor Khalid Alujaimi, leader of the delegation, said WAMY had offered to sponsor three students to the doctorate level to any University in the world to enhance the study and teaching of Arabic. Professor Alujaimi said WAMY had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with over 20 universities in Africa.He added that any cooperation with UG would help afford its students to interact with other sister-universities on the continent and beyond to sharpen their Arabic skills.
Source:GNA

We are not Recruiting People to Work in USA

The US Embassy in Accra on Thursday denied that that it was recruiting people to work in the US. A statement issued in Accra by the US Embassy said: "It has come to the attention of the United States Embassy that certain individuals are disseminating erroneous information about job opportunities in the United States.

"The flyers that have been posted in the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area contain the following information: 'Work in United States: An American Consular Requires 90 Ghanaian workers urgently to be employed in our new Industries....'"The Embassy said it wished to inform the public that it had no knowledge of any on-going recruitment exercise and that persons who dealt with such individuals did so at their own risk. The Embassy said it was working closely with the Ghana Police Service on this issue.

Satellite transit tracking system for trucks begins on August 1

The Satellite Tracking System to monitor operations of transit vehicles would become fully operational by August 1, 2007, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) said in Accra on Thursday.It said in a statement signed by Ms. Annie Anipa, Assistant Commissioner/Public Relations, that under the new system, which was in line with CEPS' modernisation and reform programme, devises, known as Satellite Tracking Units (STUs), would be attached to all transit vehicles to monitor their movement along the approved transit routes."Each transit vehicle will be required to attach a tracking unit to the roof of the vehicle using its magnetic mounting and wire strip," CEPS said."Vehicles without a normal horizontal metal roof will be required to have a horizontally welded metal plate of at least 25 cm x 25 cm attached to the top of the vehicles," it added. CEPS told transit vehicle operators that the attachment of an STU would be a pre-requisite for the vehicle to embark upon a transit journey through Ghana.It said the administrative fee per vehicle for the STU was GH=A2 50 (50,000 cedis), adding that any breach of the directive would constitute an offence punishable under the laws of CEPS. CEPS said with the operation of the Satellite Tracking System now in place, its transit escort would be disengaged from accompanying vehicles on their journeys.
Source:GNA

Halt the sale of ADB- Adu Amankwah

The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) said on Tuesday it could not accept that the fortunes of agricultural credits be entrusted into the hands of a foreign private bank which is essentially motivated by its desire for profit. "We are firmly convinced that a nationally owned and controlled Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) is important for the appropriate financial intermediation in the agricultural sector". Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Secretary General of the TUC was speaking at press conference in Accra on the union's position on the proposed sale of Bank of Ghana's (BOGs) shares in the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to Standard Bank of Africa (Stanbic Bank). He called on government to immediately halt the process because the motive behind the proposed sale of ADB was doubtful. He said while the current acquisition bid was for BoG's 48 percent stake, sources indicated that Stanbic Bank was actually working to secure some, if not all, of the remaining 52 percent shares that were held directly by the government of Ghana on behalf of the people of Ghana. He said the TUC was opposed to the bid and any such deal leading to the sale of government's majority stakes in such a strategic national asset to a foreign bank which sought to monopolise banking in Africa through acquisition instead of growing through competition with existing banks on the continent. He said the TUC was also concerned about the issue because of the strategic position of ADB in the economy of Ghana and the potentially negative implications of the acquisition of such an important and strategic national asset by a foreign bank which was simply motivated by its desire for profits. Mr. Adu-Amankwah said the ADB's financial intermediation in the agricultural sector average nearly 600 billion cedis between 2001 and 2006 whiles that of Stanbic's share total in the same sector had hovered around just three percent since the year 2000. He cited for example Stanbic's commitment in agriculture in 2006 which was only 45 billion cedis, about eight percent of ABD's total commitment of 544 billion during the same period. He said ADB held shares in the Ghana International Bank and financed export activities of major agricultural exporters in the country as well as initiated money transfer services with Western Union which had earned the country about 1.334 billion dollars between January 2000 and May 2007. He said currently ADB has 49 branches and 14 agencies across the country, particularly in the northern part of the country and in remote communities where no foreign bank or purely commercial bank was willing to operate. "We have no reason to believe that Stanbic Bank will perform better that ADB which has, since its establishment over 40 years ago, built its human resource and financial intermediation capacity in Ghana's most important sector". The TUC Secretary General further questioned the rationale behind government's intended sale of ADB because of the importance of agriculture and agric credit in Ghana, the risk involve in financial intermediation of the agricultural sector and the strategic importance of ADB in the economic development of the country. "We wonder why government should even contemplate the sale of its stake in ADB in the first place, let alone consider selling it to a foreign bank whose overriding profit motives are clear" he added. Mr Adu Amankwah also threw a challenged to Stanbic Bank to use its financial expertise and the genuine commitment it proffers to develop the agric sector to compete with existing banks in the country and to monopolise the banking sector through acquisitions just because of its financial clout. GNA

Lufthansa Pmokes Peace Pipe with Ghana

Lufthansa German Airlines is to resume daily flights between Accra and Frankfurt “within the next few days” after the resolution of problems that led to the suspension of the flights, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and Lufthansa announced on Monday. A joint statement by the two parties said a mutually beneficial resolution of the pending issues involving Ghana Airways, the defunct national carrier, had been agreed. “Lufthansa will do its utmost to start operating again between Ghana and Germany within the next few days to the benefit of its customers,” the statement said. Lufthansa Airlines said it was looking forward to celebrate its 40 years of long and dedicated commitment to Ghana in grand style. Reliable sources told Ghana News Agency that flights between Accra and Frankfurt would resume on Thursday. Lufthansa Airlines last week said it had been forced to suspend flights between the two cities after the Ghanaian authorities refused to approve a license securing daily flights, citing technical difficulties. However, Ms. Gloria Akuffo, Minister of Aviation, lashed out at Lufthansa for its withdrawal from the Accra route saying the manner in which it was executed smacked of bad faith. "Lufthansa's withdrawal and the manner in which it was executed smacks of bad faith which the Ministry regards as rather unfortunate," she said in a statement issued in Accra." She stressed that the Ministry of Aviation did not order either the stoppage or withdrawal of Lufthansa's operations into Accra. A number of business travellers and holiday makers the Ghana News Agency spoke to at the Kotoka International Airport and some travel agencies expressed delight at the news. They said they were happy that the situation had been resolved and flights were going to resume. “I am glad that our authorities, who were not happy initially, have now been able to smoke the peace pipe. But we must make sure that we do the right things at the right time to ensure we are not overtaken by events,” Mark Asante a traveller said.GNA