GIA resumes flight operations

Passengers of Ghana International Airline (GIA) who had been stranded for several days are being airlifted to London after the completion of arrangements to clear the backlog.GIA sources told GNA that the Airline encountered some difficulties because the plane, which runs the route, developed a technical fault. Two chartered aircraft brought in two batches of stranded passengers from London on Monday night.Passengers in Accra who were to have departed for London last Friday are expected to leave for London by a chartered aircraft on Tuesday morning, whilst those who should have left on Sunday and Monday are expected to leave for London on another chartered flight on Tuesday afternoon.The sources said the airline expected the situation to return to normal soon.

Parliament rejects President’s nominee, freezes two

Parliament has rejected the nomination of Rev. Dr Akwasi Owusu-Bi as Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and PSI.The House has also deferred until further notice the approval of Mr Kenwood Nuworsu as Deputy Minister of Manpower Youth and Employment and Ms. Victoria Bright as Deputy Minister at the office of the President.The House took the decisions after the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament; Freddie Blay had moved a motion for the approval of the last 14 Ministerial nominees who were vetted by the Appointments Committee of Parliament last week.The other 11 nominees were however approved unanimously by the House making the total number of approved nominees 23.The rejection of Rev. Dr Akwasi Owusu-Bi’s nomination was based on inconsistent answers he provided to some questions which were asked by the Appointments Committee while the deferment of the nominations of Mr Kenwood Nuworsu and Ms Victoria Bright was aimed at giving the Appointments Committee more time to investigate some issues about the nominees. Hon. Freddie Blay, Chairman of the Appointments Committee described the decision of the House as an evidence of deepening democracy in the country.Parliament rises on Tuesday, and so resumed sitting today in a bid to complete the task of approving the President's nominees for ministerial jobs. The Appointments committee is expected to present its report to the House for consideration today. The Committee sat last Saturday to complete vetting of three nominees; Frank Agyekum for deputy Information Minister, Frederick Opare Ansah for deputy Communications Minister and Maxwell Kofi Jumah for deputy Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.

Nuclear is way out

A committee of experts set up to plot the way out of Ghana's prevailing energy crisis has identified nuclear as the only long-term option. It has, therefore, called for immediate steps to be taken in pursuit of nuclear energy as an alternative source of power. The advice formed part of the recommendations of the committee set up by the President to consider the possibility of Ghana adopting nuclear as a long-term source of power. A source at the committee said that its members felt that Ghana had no choice but to opt for nuclear, since hydro and thermal energy could not provide the required mix needed by the country. Besides, it said, hydro and thermal energy were fraught with natural and operational difficulties from which the current energy crisis resulted. According to the source, members of the committee, chaired by the Chairman of the Council of State, Prof Daniel Adzei-Bekoe, noted that globally countries were opting for nuclear energy as an alternative source of power and cited France, where nuclear energy provided 80 per cent of that country's power, as an example. It said the committee, which would present its report to the President within a month, was now considering the types of reactors to use and where they should be placed. The source said members of the committee were also considering the means of financing the project. The committee was also looking into the legislation guiding the setting up of nuclear plants, it said, adding that "members of the committee are carefully planning" to ensure a smooth take-off. The source said building a nuclear plant was expensive but the cost of operating it was less than that of operating a hydro or thermal power generating system. Besides, it said, nuclear energy could serve as a source of revenue for the nation, since many countries in the West African sub-region lacked electricity. Asked whether Ghana had the financial wherewithal to operate nuclear plants, the source answered in the affirmative. On expertise, it said a core group of scientists could be trained to man the plants, since they would take between eight and nine years to start operations.It said the country could also seek advice and support from the Interna¬tional Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); In a related development, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), in collaboration with the IAEA, has developed an integrated nuclear security support plan for the country.Consequently, experts from the !AEA are in the country to discuss the plan with the GAEC on how to implement it. The plan, among other things, seeks to protect the people and the environment from any radiological accident. The acting Director for Radiation Protection Board of the GAEC, Prof Geoffrey Ami-Reynolds, said this in an interview in Accra yesterday. Source: Daily Graphic

Mystery Illness among Global Resources Ghana Staff?

Fifteen colleagues of an oil services worker who died in Ghana are to be flown home.But Global Resources played down claims of a mystery illness among staff in Ghana after the death of pipe fitter Keith McKintosh, from the Black Isle in Ross-shire.The firm's chief executive Paul Wisely confirmed that some staff had complained of "minor" illnesses but said they did not appear to be related.They are to return to Britain after requesting to do so on compassionate grounds after the death of Mr McKintosh.None had "initially" requested to come home due to concerns about illness among the staff, Mr Wisely said."There have been a number of employees who have reported minor ailments, but there is no common thread to them," he said."These have ranged from sunburn and stomach ailments to mild malarial symptoms. Medical facilities and medical support are provided, and no Global employees were transported home from Ghana due to illness."He added that the cause of Mr McKintosh's death was still under investigation. "We expect to hear the results of the post-mortem soon," he said.His body will be repatriated as soon as possible, and a senior member of the company's management team has arrived in Ghana to offer support.Nine men will fly out of Ghana over the weekend. One has already flown home and flights have been arranged out of Ghana for the remaining five employees. The firm said a "significant number" of staff remained in Ghana.
Source:GHP

Corruption seems to Like the Kuffour Family

Newly unsealed documents in the United States federal bribery case against Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, describe a plan to steer profits to the son of the president of Ghana and a frantic effort to get the congressman to revive a lucrative deal in Nigeria as it appeared to unravel.
The newly available documents shed light on a telecommunications deal prosecutors say Jefferson was orchestrating in Ghana. They allege that Eddie Kufuor, son of Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor, was to push the deal inside the government.
"Jefferson has told (the confidential witness) that is it likely the son of the president of Ghana will receive a share of the profits of a joint venture to be set up in that country in exchange for his assistance in obtaining the necessary approvals for the commencement of the business venture there," the FBI wrote in its search warrant application to search Jefferson's New Orleans home and the office of accountant Jack Swetland. Swetland has not been charged.
The documents show that Eddie Kufuor was one of those who traveled from Washington with Jefferson to Ghana, where the deal was pitched to numerous high-level government officials including the vice president and the minister of communications. Kufuor could not be reached for comment Friday.
The papers also state that Jefferson stored some of the of money he took from an FBI informant in soy burger boxes and other food containers in the freezer his Capitol Hill home.
For nearly two years, the Justice Department resisted legal efforts by The Times-Picayune and The Washington Post to open the records of what the FBI found when it searched Jefferson's homes in Washington and New Orleans, his car and the office of his accountant. Last week, more than a month after Jefferson was indicted by a federal grand jury, the government relented, and the documents were available for inspection Friday.
They contain no major revelations in a case that first burst into public view Aug. 4, 2005, when the FBI served its search warrants in a case that centers on Jefferson's efforts to help land African contracts for iGate Inc., a U.S. telecommunications firm. In June, the government indicted Jefferson on 16 counts of racketeering, bribery, fraud and obstruction of justice. He pleaded innocent and has vowed to clear his name in a trial scheduled for early next year.
The documents fill in some of the blanks in the story of how the government thinks Jefferson sought to profit from the African deals and how investigators see him as a central player in engineering the ventures.
The government alleges that Jefferson received more than $400,000 in bribes and millions of shares of corporate stock for helping iGate gain a foothold in Nigeria and Ghana. By 2005, it appeared that Jefferson had persuaded NITEL, the Nigerian state-owned telecommunications company, to use iGate's high-speed Internet technology, a deal he estimated would be worth $200 million or more.
But in June of that year, according to the documents, the deal appeared to be falling apart. NITEL purchased Chinese telecommunications supplies incompatible with iGate's technology. Wiretaps placed by the FBI overheard businessman Suleiman YahYah, who was the Nigerian contact with NITEL, urge iGate CEO Vernon Jackson to get Jefferson involved, the government said.
"The solution to the problem rested with Congressman Jefferson," the government wrote in its search warrant affidavit.
When FBI agents raided Jefferson's Capitol Hill home, they found $90,000 in his freezer. The money had been handed to Jefferson days earlier by an FBI informant, and prosecutors have noted that the money was neatly wrapped in aluminum foil.
Documents from that search show that the money was in frozen food boxes.
According to the FBI, Jefferson placed $20,000 wrapped in foil and rubber bands inside a Boca Burger box. Boca is known for its organic soy burgers. Another $20,000 was stashed inside a Pillsbury Pie Crust box.
Three stacks of cash containing $10,000 each were found inside a bag from the local "Yes Organic Market" grocer. Two more cash bricks, a total of $20,000, were found simply wrapped in foil in the freezer.
Around his house and in his 1990 Lincoln Town Car, the FBI found numerous documents related to iGate, Nigeria and the telecommunications deal. On the coffee table of his home, agents were careful to note they found a box of Reynolds Wrap, 200 square feet.
Source:times-picayune

CJA kicks against sale of ADB to Stanbic

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) has become the latest group to kick against the request of Stanbic Bank of South Africa to buy the shares of Bank of Ghana in Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).The CJA, a pressure group made up of opposition parties, said: "The CJA is convinced that the grounds for off-loading the shares of ADB are clearly unacceptable. The process is not transparent and could lend itself to fraudulent manipulation by corrupt officials."Staff of ADB, TUC, Socialist Forum of Ghana and various individuals and organisations have voiced their opposition to off-loading the Central Bank's 48 per cent shares in ADB to Stanbic Bank.CJA said in a statement released in Accra on Thursday that, the main rationale for the deal was contained in recommendations from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), which argued that the fact that the Central Bank, being a regulator of banking, was a shareholder in ADB created a conflict of interest situation. "As a result of this blatantly absurd position, the World Bank and IMF are pressuring the Government of Ghana to off-load the Central Bank's share in the ADB."However, CJA said it saw no conflict of interest in the Bank of Ghana (BOG) owning a little over 48 per cent shares in ADB pointing out that BOG had set up an independent trust to manage its equity. The CJA also pointed out that ADB was doing "fairly well", moving to the fourth largest bank in Ghana with net assets of more than 700 million dollars.It said ADB's involvement in Western Union Money Transfer accounted for between 300 and 400 million per annum, while it had also acquired 10 per cent equity in Ghana International Bank and a significant equity in agricultural enterprises."The fact that agriculture, which accounts for 45 per cent of GDP, only receives six per cent of total bank lending is a pointer to a serious policy failure in the management of the sector. It is a matter that requires urgent national attention. That is a job for the Government and not the ADB."CJA said there was no guarantee that Stanbic would continue to maintain all the strategic branches of ADB and focus on agriculture if it was allowed to take hold of ADB.It asked Stanbic to expand its operations into agriculture, if its interest in the sector was genuine, or establish its own agricultural bank without having to take over the assets of ADB.
Source:GNA

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