Controversial Bus Branding: AG Submits Report

Citi News sources at the Presidency indicate that the Attorney General has submitted her report to the Chief of Staff on the controversial GHC3.6 million expended on re-branding the 116 Buses. Government’s decision to spend some GHC3.6 million on re-branding the buses angered many Ghanaians, with the majority questioning how that outrageous expenditure could be approved under the watch of the President. Following the backlash that government received from the public the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah hurriedly ordered an investigation into the contract. Mr Debrah directed the Attorney General “to review the contract and associated payment(s).” A letter to the Attorney General dated December 17, 2015 asked her to revert to the Chief of Staff with her findings by close of day December 22. It is however not clear as to the exact findings of the AG, but the sources at the Presidency say the Flagstaff House intends to act strongly on the report. While some advertisers have pointed out that government massively overpaid for the re-branding others have suggested that the state could have generated Ghc500,000 monthly if it had allowed the buses to be re-branded with commercial advertisement. Meanwhile a detailed pro-forma invoice for the re-branding of the buses revealed that stickers on each bus cost Ghc11, 000. The pro-forma invoice dated 17th July 2015, and signed by the Accounts Officer of Smarttys Management and Productions and copied to the Ministry of Transport, put the total cost of branding for each bus at Ghc30,420.00. Smarttys Management and Productions is owned by Selassie Ibrahim, an actress cum entrepreneur and TV personality.

Source: citifmonline.com

Transport Minister Resigns Over MMRT Rebranding Scandal

Information available topeacefmonline.com indicates that Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor has resigned over the Metro Mass Rapid Transit Bus scandal. According to a statement signed by her Personal Assistant, Egypt Kobla Kudoto, the Minister of Transport can no longer continue with her duties and has accordingly submitted her resignation letter to the President, John Dramani Mahama. Issue Government has spent about GH¢ 3,649,044.75 on the Re-branding of 116 buses for the Metro Mass Rapid Transit (MMRT) imported to improve the transport system in the country. Re-branding for each of the buses cost GH¢31,457.28, leading to a total of GH¢3,649,044.75 for the 116 buses, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu quoted figures from the 2015 annual report on the Petroleum Funds. But the Transport Minister, Dzifa Ativor in her response to the claim by the Minority Leader said she did not have the details of the re-branding at hand and promised to make it available to the House at a later date. Below is the full statement: Hon Mrs Dzifa Attivor, Minister of Transport wishes to inform the good people of Ghana that, as the Minister with oversight responsibility for the activities of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT), she has tendered in her resignation as Minister due to the current issues surrounding the branding of the 116 buses. She further wants to take the opportunity to thank her Party for the opportunity offered her to serve, first as Deputy Minister of Transport under the late President JEA Mills, and later the substantive Minister. Mrs Dzifa Attivor also wishes to thank the President sincerely for the honour to serve in his government. She has already communicated this decision to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama through the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah. Signed Egypt Kobla Kudoto Personal Assistant

Source: Peacefmonline.com

Prez Mahama Fires CHRAJ Boss.

President John Dramani Mahama has removed Madam Lauretta Vivian Lamptey from office as Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). The President's action was based on the recommendations of a Committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate allegations of corruption and mismanagement against Madam Lamptey. Madam Lamptey was accused of spending about 200,000 dollars on rent at the AU Village and about 180, 000 cedis on the renovation of her official residence. The Chief Justice, Madam Georgina Wood, set up the committee following a petition submitted by Richard Nyamah of the NPP and Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyir Anoh Dompreh; demanding that Madam Lamptey be removed from office. The Committee after its findings  concluded that the former CHRAJ boss was unfit to hold the position of Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice. President Mahama on Thursday following the recommendation and in accordance with Article 146(9), removed Madam Lauretta Vivian Lamptey from office as CHRAJ Boss. According to sources, an official statement will be released later.

Source: peacefmonline.com

Mallam Issah Vindicates Akufo-Addo On Anti-Corruption Campaign

I remember pretty vividly the indictment, prosecution and conviction of Mallam Ali Yusif Issah, then-Minister of Sports under the tenure of President John Agyekum-Kufuor. I remember it vividly because it came like an earthquake in a government that was scarcely a year old, which most Ghanaians traumatized by the 20-year dictatorship of Chairman Jerry John Rawlings envisaged as a welcome respite to the rank corruption, robbery and abject hypocrisy that characterized both the Rawlings-led so-called Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). But I had not noticed – being far away from state side – that Mallam Issah was actually an opportunistic crossover candidate from the Limann-founded People’s National Convention (PNC) – (See “’I Don’t Like Nana Akufo-Addo, He Will Never Be President – Mallam Issah Vows” Modernghana.com 9/24/15). In the main, Mr. Issah was duly convicted for either embezzling or misappropriating some $46,000 belonging to the hardworking members of Ghana’s national soccer team, the Black Stars. He would be dispatched to the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison to cool his heels for several months, until he was pardoned by President Kufuor on grounds of ill-health. What is interesting here is that Mallam Issah is not saying that he did not steal the money entrusted into his custody, as Sports Minister, which he is accused of having misappropriated or squirreled into his private account; he is only angry that it was then-Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who personally undertook the vigorous prosecution of Mallam Issah, rather than delegating such statutory obligation to one of his minions or state attorneys on staff. Now, I don’t know the exact nature of the relationship that existed back then between the two former colleagues – Mallam Issah claims that Akufo-Addo has a personal reciprocal dislike for him – but it clearly appears to me that coming as the very first major corruption scandal in the Kufuor government, Akufo-Addo’s hand was forced by the imperative need to project a positive anti-corruption image of the Kufuor administration. And so it may not have necessarily been that Akufo-Addo decided to handle the prosecution of Mallam Issah out of any personal animus, or antipathy, that he may have had for the PNC crossover cabinet appointee. Of course, I also strongly believe that Divine Providence, or God, is charitable enough to have mercy on unpatriotic thieves like Mallam Issah. The preceding notwithstanding, it amounts to grossly claiming too much, almost to the damnable extent of blasphemy, for Mr. Issah to presume that him being duly prosecuted by Nana Akufo-Addo for stealing from the Ghanaian taxpayer, religiously either empowers or entitles him to self-righteously imprecate the political fortunes of the man who made him rudely, albeit aptly, aware of the fact that being a cabinet appointee did not entitle Mallam Issah to unconscionably embezzling funds meant for the diligent and talented Ghanaian soccer stars who were slaving themselves in Egypt to hoist the country’s flag above all else on the African continent. Indeed, if he had any sense of accountability and shame, Mallam Issah would be remorseful and profusely apologetic, instead of puerilely behaving as if he had an inalienable right to steal from the Ghanaian taxpayer, as well as the yeomanly patriots of the Ghana Black Stars.

Source: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D./ Garden City, New York/ E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

List Of Honest Judges Who Refused Anas' Bribes.

Some judges at the superior and lower courts rejected attempts to bribed by Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye investigation team during the investigation into judicial corruption in Ghana. In all, 34 judges and 146 judicial staff have been named in the scandal.

 But Anas Aremeyaw Anas has presented names of some eleven judges who refused to be bribed. “Some even threatened to imprison us for attempting to bribe them,” he said.

 On Joy FM and MultiTV's Newsfile programme, the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, read Anas' letter to the Chief Justice which contained the list of the honourable judges. Mr Kweku Baako said it is a matter of fairness to celebrate those who were not lured by money and goats.

 Below is the roll of the honourable judges:

Some judges at the superior and lower courts rejected attempts to bribed by Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye investigation team during the investigation into judicial corruption in Ghana. In all, 34 judges and 146 judicial staff have been named in the scandal.

But Anas Aremeyaw Anas has presented names of some eleven judges who refused to be bribed. “Some even threatened to imprison us for attempting to bribe them,” he said.

On Joy FM and MultiTV's Newsfile programme, the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, read Anas' letter to the Chief Justice which contained the list of the honourable judges. Mr Kweku Baako said it is a matter of fairness to celebrate those who were not lured by money and goats.

 Below is the roll of the honourable judges:

Justice Kwesi Boakye HC, Wa

Bright Mensah HC, Accra
Constance hometorwu HC, Accra
Georgina mensah HC, Accra
Afia serwaa ASARE HC, Accra
Anthony oppong HC, Accra
Felicia DC, Abeka
Charles Kwesi Acheampong DC, Dodowa
Samuel Quartey DC, Ejiusu
Abdul Abullaih DC, Tuobudom
Bright Ajosagi DC,

*HC= High Court, *DC = District Court

Source: modernghana.com

Anas' Expose: 22 "Corrupt" Judges Suspended...12 More To Go>

                                                                                                           It is authoritatively confirm that 22

judges implicated in the judicial corruption scandal have been suspended by the Judicial Council as Georgina Theodora Woode orders investigations into the matter. A total of 34 judges may face impeachment as the video expected to be aired on September 22, entangles them in the damning corruption scandal. The Chief Justice has also started the process of determining whether there is a prima facie case against each of the 12 High Court judges. According to a statement from the Judicial Council, a petition for the removal from office of the 22 Circuit Court Judges and Magistrates was directed to the Chief Justice to deal with, under Article 151 of the Constitution. Anas sent the two petitions one dated 31 August and addressed to the president. The other on 2 September 2015 to the Chief Justice. An Emergency Judicial Council meeting was held on 2nd September, 2015 to discuss the matter and the following decisions and measures were taken. 1. A Disciplinary Committee of the Judical Council was constituted to investigate the petition against the 22 Judges and Magistrates. It is a five -member Committee chaired by Justice of the Supreme Court.  2. On September 7, 2015, the 22 Circuit Judges and Magistrates were served with letter stating the allegations against them and were asked to submit their responses by September 9, 2015.  3. The Judicial Council further decided that upon receipt of their responses the 22 individuals should be suspended until the final determination of the matter. Other court officials who may have collaborated in these alleged acts of are also going to be pursued according to the Chief Justice. “The Judicial Council would like to assure the general public that the outcome of these processes would be made fully public and no one will be spared appropriate sanctions where culpability is established,” the statement said. It further said the Council fully reckons that the perception or actuality of corruption in the Judiciary “undemines confidence in the institution and cannot be tolerated to continue in any shape or form, hence the need to act with utmost dispatch.”  Source: peacefmonline.com

Contempt Scare Won't Stop The Momentum To Clean Judiciary- Kwaku Baako

Senior journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says he is not worried at all by an avalanche of contempt suits in the wake of the screening of a video detailing judicial bribery.

He said when the noises die down, Ghana would be driven by the contents of the video to take steps that would make the state better.

A two-year investigative video compiled by journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas showing 34 judges allegedly taking bribes has shocked the nation and dominated media discussions for weeks.

Two of the 12 High Court judges accused of taking bribes have gone to the High Court challenging the legality of the audio-visual recordings.

Justices Paul Uuter Dery and Mustapha Habib Logoh say the recordings were done in violation of the right to privacy.

They want the court to declare that the ‘evidence’ cannot be used to institute any impeachment proceedings against them.

Justice Dery filed a separate application for interlocutory injunction seeking to stop the Accra International Conference Centre from allowing Anas to screen the video there.

Even though the injunction processes were served on managers of the Conference Centre, the screening came off as scheduled on September 22 and 23.

Justice Dery went back to court and cited the Manager of the conference centre amongst other for contempt.

His lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, argued the serving of the injunction processes acted as an injunction.

He said the conduct of the managers of the centre scandalized the court and had the tendency to bring the delivery of justice into disrepute.

Speaking on the matter on Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme Newsfile, said the cases being brought to court will not dim the effect of the evidence collected by Anas.

He said the processes should be allowed and those cited must enjoy their constitutional right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

More soon.



Read more at: http://www.modernghana.com/news/645270/1/contempt-scare-wont-stop-the-momentum-to-cleanjud.html




Source: modernghana.com