President Mills Cannot See The Problem

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

As far back as July 2009 I wrote a piece on the Quality Grain Rice saga, which triggered a $22million loss to the Government of Ghana.  I wrote that piece under a series which I themed “A Guide to Corruption”.  The link to the article is here.  http://www.modernghana.com/news/230489/1/a-guide-to-corruption-in-ghana.html

When Mr. Atta Mills was made Vice President and put in charge of the economic management team, he inherited the Quality Grain Rice project. He later testified to a court presided over by Justice D. K. Afreh in April 2003, that “ …. throughout my four years as vice president, there was no project which occupied more of my time than this Quality Grain Project”.

There were many red flags all over the case at the time and they were all ignored.  The government failed to join in several suits against Ms. Cotton.  They (Government) did not accept the FBI’s (who finally prosecuted and jailed Ms. Cotton in the USA) invitation to sue Ms. Cotton.  Prof. Mills said the reason for inaction was because the Government “had a “trump” card” – a deed of indemnity and a floating charge on assets.

The Hydra-Headed Woyome, Caveat Emptor

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

We are going through a Governance litmus test.  At the end of 2012 Ghana will have transitioned its fledgling democracy to a nation state where the rule of law has finally become a true pillar for fighting corruption; and politicians will finally realize that we will change our Government when we are dissatisfied with economic progress and governance.

Woyome has made history and the NDC Government will remember him not for the word “gargantuan” in the media but the impact he will have on our democracy from the ghc518million gifted to him.

Ghana’s Poor Reap None of The New Riches:

By Ben Ofosu-Appiah. , Tokyo, Japan.

From Poverty to Middle Income Status A Boulevard of Broken Promises

Africa’s long suffering people are all too frequently caught in the crossfire of rampaging wars, millions afflicted with diseases, preyed upon by greedy despots and prevented by corrupt leaders and bureaucracies in a kleptocracy from obtaining basic schooling, medical attention, and any semblance of economic opportunities.

A look at the socio-political and economic environment in Ghana today reveals a horrifying picture. There is massive corruption, staggering poverty, unemployment, poor education, deteriorating infrastructure, and general degree of hopelessness among the youth who feel very disappointed and let down by their political leaders. According to the 2007 World Bank Human Development Index, almost half of the national population live below the poverty line surviving on less than a dollar per day. And as many as over 75% live on less than $2.oo a day. The economic conditions felt by the ordinary Ghanaian are poorer than ever.

Ivory Coast Can Learn from the Parliamentry System of Governance

By Mamadou Koulibaly, Ivory Coast

As Côte d’Ivoire is in a unique situation with two presidents of the republic, beyond the short-term analysis of the scourges of the titanic struggle that awaits the country, we can lead the debate on the pathways that could allow the limitation of absolute power that intoxicates leaders to the point of making them forget they only are the servants of their people.

The parliamentary system discovered by the English more than three centuries ago has exported more easily and had more success in poor countries in institutional transition. This is the Westminster model of government found in Great Britain, which has remarkably stood the test of time and latitudes. Countries, with poor, heterogeneous populations, exiting colonization, remote from western culture and knowing political tensions have often had to adopt this model to ensure relative stability and effective progress. This has been the case of India since 1947 and Japan since 1945.

Politicians Stealing in the name of Politics

By Dr. Kwasi Asamoah

This is a short article, but I am using it to address the legalized stealing that has become culture among our elected officials in both the NDC and NPP governments, especially the NPP government of yesteryear.  Most of them have become CAREER CORRUPT CRIMINALS (CCC) and do not deserve to be called HONOURABLES.

We should stop ALL politicians from encroaching on public lands. We do not vote them into office for them to scramble to acquire public lands to the disadvantage of the ordinary Ghanaian and Mother Ghana.

The SME Conundrum

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, sydney@bizghana.com

We are paralysed in such a way that our thinking capacity is hemmed in by old age practices and cultural norms that threaten to collapse our entire financial system.  Our way of doing things makes corruption a norm rather than a cancerous option to be avoided, replaced by sound financial management and good book keeping at the least.

What has now come to be known as the “UT Way – a loan in 48 hours” is fast challenging the traditional banks, as recent upstart in the financial sector, UT Bank takes over from the orthodox way of business as usual.

Last week, 8^th October, Retired Captain Budu Koomson of UT Bank provided great insight into possible solutions for the SME conundrum of access to finance.

Successive Governments tout the private sector as the engine of growth for Ghana and in consequence the SME sector becomes the focus for all planning but unfortunately, more rhetoric than action.

Presenting his concepts for “curing” the SME problem, Budu Koomson described three pillars and several anchors to pin these pillars down for possible resolution to our SME conundrum.

Government, Banks as Suppliers and SME’s.  A crisp list of his views needs very little elaboration.

NDC, Lying With The Truth

A year ago on 10^th July 2009, I wrote an article attacking NDC public truths. NDC Big and Small Lies Will Un-Make the Party.   Actually walking the soil and riding Mass Metro Transit, Tro-Tro and taxis in Ghana, trying to make sense out of the complex economic chains, is an eye opener of how the macro and micro economic environments are separate from each other.  Ghana is two economies.  The macro numbers, which capture the attention of academia, the donor community and the regulatory authorities and the micro economy, where 80% of Ghanaians live and struggle to make a living.  In stark contrast to each other, visualize the banking hall of Stanchart, Ecobank, Barclays or any of the others and juxtapose that against the trade paths in Makola and Mallam markets or the lines of kiosks on the road sides of Odorkor and Palladium and other peri-urban communities.

A Guide To Corruption (4). President Mills Cannot and Will Not Do This!

You can read all about the Mabey and Johnson judgment from the leading websites on Ghana. Each carries the story and details what I said in an earlier breaking news alert of August 7th. At the time, I wrote about the impending implosion and chronicled the history of the Mabey and Johnson bribery of NDC executives in another Guide to Corruption. Since then we have waited patiently for September 25th and this is just the beginning. I will dare to suggest that President Mills will make a show of investigating the issues involved and former President JJ Rawlings will pretend that all this happened under his nose and he knew nothing of it, even though his senior cabinet ministers were in the thick of it, and so was his wife.

President Mills has allegedly asked the Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrissu to investigate the Mabey and Johnson case in Ghana and spare no one found guilty of the offences established by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

Sydney Casely-Hayford

A guide to Corruption (2) Mabey and Johnson

This past Friday, August 7, 2009, the case against Mabey was postponed, to be heard on September 25th this year. The UK has to prove that it is taking these corruption charges seriously, coming in the wake of their refusal to investigate the BAE’s Saudi Arabian arms deal and other cases presently before the UK SFO. One major disclosure made by Richard Alderman, Director of UK SFO is that Mabey and Johnson has agreed to pay “reparations” to both Ghana and Jamaica for bribery offences between 1994 and 2000. This admission immediately attaches guilt of some wrongdoing. How much was given, and who was bribed on our (Ghana) side is detailed in the UK SFO submission to the court, but unfortunately presiding Judge Rivlin chose to gag the press. The information is available, we just cannot broadcast in the public yet. But it will come out. The pressure is on the NDC government to accept this reparation.

Sydney Casely-Hayford

NDC Manifesto in Scam

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is alleged to be have surreptitiously withdrawn the manifesto signed by the then candidate John Evans Atta Mills, with which the party ran its 2008 political campaign for last year’s elections, replacing it with a new one they refer to as ‘The New King James Version.’  Just a few weeks into the ceremonious first 100 days of the government, the ruling NDC has substituted the endorsed manifesto and put in circulation a brand new one with different content and devoid of the signature of President Mills.  As it appears now, the belief of Ghanaians that they voted for the NDC based on a manifesto that would serve their interests has apparently been short-changed with the withdrawal of the original one.