Ghana: Upper East Regional Minister Mark Wayongo in court for fraud

Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Wayongo Two employees of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council have filed a writ against the Regional Minister for fraudulently awarding contracts to his nephew. Ibrahim Yahaya and Sumaila Abubakari claim Mr Mark Woyongo awarded a contract with a value of over a million Ghana Cedis to his nephew in contravention of procurement procedures. They want the Bolgatanga High Court to declare the award of the contract null and void. According to them, the minister published the contract a month after he had already awarded it to his nephew. That for them, was meant to cover up the shady deals of the minister. Lawyer for the two, Seidu Douglas, told Joy News the minister was in position of conflict of interest because “he awarded the contract to himself by giving it to his nephew....he knew that the contract was going to his nephew.” He said as part of the frantic efforts by Mr Wayongo to cover up his criminal conduct, he clandestinely interdicted two workers at the RCC. “In the letter of interdiction, they say that the people have leaked [confidential] documents when indeed these letters you gave to the contractors were public documents because you copied several other people. [How] can you turn around and blame somebody in the office for the leakage of a document you have already sent to the public?, Mr. Douglas asked. The two interdicted employees say they are contemplating legal action if they are not recalled by next week. One of them, Rosaline Akanwa, told Joy News she was accused of leaking letters she typed as the secretary at the RCC, meant for distribution to contractors. “They awarded some contracts and as the secretary I typed the letters and we sent the letters to the various contractors, about a week ago they came and said some letters were in circulation and they are suspecting myself and the records officer because we are in charge of confidential letters,” She said subsequently, she and her other colleague were given queries “and [when] we answered the queries, they said they were not satisfied with the queries, and gave us interdiction letters a week after.” Ms Akankwa said they were told they would be invited for questioning but nothing had been heard for about a week now. The Regional Minister admitted awarding the contract to his nephew but insisted the process was fair and transparent and satisfied all procurement regulations. “My nephew has been a contractor since 1988 and he tended for the job, it was assessed, they did their evaluation and the tender committee awarded the job to him. It would be ridiculous to say because he is my nephew, he shouldn’t be given a job,”he said. Mr Wayongo denied the charge that he advertised the contract after awarding it to his nephew. He said there were two different contracts all together but his accusers were mixing them up. He also denied any heavy-handedness in interdicting two employees of the RCC, saying their interdiction was done in accordance with civil service procedures. “There is every indication that the information was leaked from the Regional Economic Planning Officer’s office so the chief director asked that the two should step aside for investigations to commence”, he said. Related to this, a group calling itself the Coalition for the Welfare of the Masses in Bolgatanga has challenged Mr Woyongo to produce documentary proof that he indeed advertised the contract in question before awarding it to his nephew. According to the spokesperson of the group, the regional minister had been brazenly violating procurement laws in the region. He claimed he had a tall list of contracts that had been awarded under the watch of Mr Wayongo in clear contravention of procurement procedures. While he was due to address the media, a group of youth believed to be Mr Wayongo’s loyalists stormed the venue and scuttled everything. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Kosmos probe no witch hunting - A-G

Attorney General Betty Mould-Iddrisu Government says investigations into fraud allegations against key partners in the Jubilee oil fields, Komos Energy and EO Group, is not political witch hunting. Government corroborated media reports on Friday that it was investigating officials of the oil explorer. Similar investigations are being conducted in the US and there are strong indications the officials are likely to face charges including causing financial loss and money laundering. Local partners to Komos are accused of using their links with the former government to secure favourable deals to explore oil at the jubilee fields. Attorney General Betty Mould-Iddrisu tells Joy News her outfit is working to establish whether the officials were actually involved in any criminal acts. Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

GHANA: $850,000 fraud case takes another turn

The $850,000 fraud case involving two lawyers took another turn Thursday when the trial judge who had been authorised by the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General to hear the matter told parties in the case that he had been restrained from further hearing the matter by a High Court judge. The trial judge, Mr D. E. K. Daketsey, told the prosecution and the defence teams that he had been served with an order of injunction restraining him from hearing the case until the determination of a suit brought against him by the two lawyers. According to the judge, the lawyers, Joseph Kwame Owusu Asamani and Ekow Amua-Sekyi, who are facing charges of forgery and fraud, sought the order from the Human Rights Court, presided over by Mr Justice U. P. Dery, last Friday. According to counsel for the two lawyers, Mr James Agalga, November 12, 2009 had been fixed for hearing the motion for an order of prohibition directed at the judge whom his clients had accused of making bias statements against them. The prosecution had stated that the two allegedly prepared a Deed of Assignment, unknown to the complainant, Gordon Etroo, scanned his signature on it, registered it at the Lands Registry and presented it to Howard Eric Ewen, the Managing Director of Keegan Resources, who also signed. On March 18, 2007, the two allegedly forged a judgement titled 'Axex Company Limited versus four other defendants' and inserted an order by a High Court judge for the recovery of a mine known as Bonte Esaase Gold Mine. According to the prosecution, the two lawyers, without the knowledge of Samuel Etroo and Mr Kwame Opoku, initiated a civil suit number BL35/07, as 'Kwame Opoku versus Sametro Company Limited'. However, the two have not appeared before the court to answer the charges. The trial judge, Mr Daketsey, who did not disclose the grounds of the injunction, said he had since been served with a writ of prohibition by the two lawyers. The lawyers were said to have sought the order on the grounds that the judge was likely to show bias if he went ahead to hear the case against them. The judge told prosecutors and defence lawyers that he had instructed his solicitors to contest the case because he had no personal interest or whatsoever in the case. He also told the parties in his chambers that he felt aggrieved because the two lawyers had, on a countless number of occasions, refused to appear in his court to answer charges levelled against them. Obviously aggrieved at the turn of events, Nana Ato Dadzie, who is counsel for the complainant in the case, told journalists that the common practice was for the lawyers to be in court to state why they were absent. He said the case had had a chequered history because it took more than two years for the lawyers to be put before court. He said the Attorney-General called for the docket for study and on October 22, 2008 she formally wrote to the court authorising it to proceed with the case, adding that the Chief Justice had also authorised the judge to hear the case. Nana Ato Dadzie said although the two lawyers were at liberty to go for a prohibition order, he was of the view that such antics were calculated to frustrate the court process. He also indicated that his client was an interested party and he, therefore, intended to join the suit the Human Rights Court. He further indicated that the interest of justice would be served if all parties had their day in court. No definite date has been fixed for the hearing of the criminal matter due to the latest twist. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana

Fraud at Ghana Health Service

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has uncovered fraud involving some human resource personnel who have allegedly embezzled state funds. The alleged crime, which has been detected in the Ashanti, Central and Greater Accra Regions, is believed to be wide-spread. The alleged principal architect of the crime, Mr Gershon Agbo, who is the Human Resource Director of the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate, has already been ordered by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in Kumasi to refund GH¢50,000 and also been interdicted. The story was confirmed to the Daily Graphic by the Director General of the GHS, Dr Elias Sory, and the Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, Alhaji Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Bin Ibrahim, in separate interviews. The discovery of the alleged crime has prompted the GHS to carry out administrative investigations into its operations throughout the country, beginning from the three regions. Dr Sory said since investigations into the matter started about two months ago, there had been drastic reduction in the expenditure of some of the health directorates. According to a source in the Ashanti Region, the deal was uncovered when some management staff members of the GHS in the Kumasi metropolis, notably Suntreso, Manhyia, Chirapatre and Atonsu Agogo, back-dated the period of employment of a large number of casual workers whose appointments were regularised sometime last year. These suspects, who were mainly administrators and accountants working with the GHS, later asked the new employees to withdraw the various sums from their individual bank accounts and they (the senior officials) later collected the monies. The source again pointed out that when it became necessary for the casual workers to get permanently employed, the administrators sidelined some of the casual workers who had worked for longer periods and employed some new ones. According to the source, when the story broke, the SFO in Kumasi invited the suspects, who were made to pay back various sums of money into government chest. The payments were made in July, this year. Throwing more light on the allegation, Dr Sory said the case involved the staff in the Ashanti Region was before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). He said looking at the magnitude of the case; he had ordered auditing to be conducted into the operations of all the 10 regions, starting from the Ashanti, Central and the Greater Accra regions. The Director General pointed out that initial investigations conducted by the internal auditors of the service had revealed that the human resource director currently in Kumasi was the brain behind the alleged crime. He observed that other management staff members might be involved, hence the nationwide auditing. Dr Sory explained that it was wrong in the first place for the casual workers to be paid any salary arrears because they were not permanently employed and so the allowances paid to them from the various health facilities should have been enough. He said the initial investigation had revealed that with the help of the suspect, other administrators in those regions fraudulently sent the names of the newly employed to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) after which their names were added to the government’s pay roll as people who had worked for several years without pay. Arrears paid to such employees, which involved huge sums of money, according to the Director General, were allegedly collected from them and shared among some management staff members. Dr Sory said he had called for comprehensive investigation into the allegation, adding that any official found culpable will be handed over to the security agencies. Source: Daily Graphic

Rebranding Nigeria: Good people, impossible mission

LAGOS

From The Economist

The government of a great nation tries a short cut to salvation

Illustration by Peter Schrank

A NEW joke is doing the rounds in Nigeria. Got a problem with your car, or your generator’s stopped working? Don’t fix it! Rebrand it! The grim humour reflects scepticism about a national rebranding campaign launched by the government to bring tourists and foreign investment to Nigeria, and generally to buff up the country’s image. The campaign’s slogan is “Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation”.

The force behind it is Dora Akunyili, the new minister of information. She welcomes the fact that Nigerians are talking and even laughing about the rebranding. “It was not my intention but I am very happy it has generated these discussions, because they are very healthy for our democracy,” she says.

Ms Akunyili made a name for herself as the campaigning head of the country’s food and drug standards’ agency. Her zealous pursuit of counterfeit medicines nearly earned her a bullet in the head, leaving instead a hole in her headdress. Aware of the cynicism, she says she will not spend any extra public money on the rebranding campaign. Instead, she has about $1m left over from the government’s previous attempt to rebrand Nigeria which carried the slogan “Nigeria, Heart of Africa”. She wants private business to meet the rest of the cost.

The previous exercise failed, and there is little reason to expect the latest one to do much better. Many Nigerians say their government should tackle the country’s fundamental problems—power shortages, crime and corruption—before worrying about its image. “They [the government] have been sending texts to my phone, telling us about how to reorganise Nigeria, how to reorganise our minds, our heads,” says Olufemi Oyegun, an oil-and-gas man in Lagos, the commercial capital. “But it’s our leaders that are our main problem, not the people.”

Fraud and corruption still scare businesses away from Nigeria, even though its market of 140m people is Africa’s largest. In a recent report, ORC Worldwide, a consultancy, listed Lagos, with its violent crime, bad roads and wretched sanitation, as the world’s worst place for expatriates to live in. A spot of rebranding is unlikely to wash away such awkward findings.

Source: The Economist