Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Police computerises firearm registries

Page 48: Daily Graphic, May 27, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Ghana Police Service has begun the computerisation of all its Firearm Registries throughout the country.
The programme, which is being supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will facilitate the tracking of the importation, sale, registration and licensing of small arms, as well as communication and sharing of information by the various registries.
It will further help the police know the people whom licences have been issued to possess arms, where they live, what they do, what type of guns they possess and to promote responsible gun ownership.
Six of the registries have already been computerised and fitted with Local Area Networking (LAN) facility while the remaining registries in Tema, the Volta, Eastern, Upper East and Upper West regions, would be computerised between this year and next year.
The Interior Minister, Mr Cletus Avoka, disclosed this in a speech read on his behalf when the UNDP presented 20 computers and accessories worth $40,000 to the Ghana Police Service in Accra on Tuesday.
He said the support to the Ghana Police Service was in line with the Small Arms Commission and the UNDP objective of strengthening the capacity of the security agencies to better manage the threats posed to development by small arms.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior, Dr Kwasi Apea-Kubi, who is also the chairman of the Small Arms Commission, urged Ghanaians to deepen the peace and stability that the country was enjoying by doing away with small arms.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Quaye, expressed appreciation for the support.
He said beside capturing the data, the computerised registry would profile all persons dealing in arms whether as importers, wholesalers, retailers or purchasers.
The UNDP Country Representative, Mr Dauda Toure, who presented the computers with a locally designed and customised software, called on the media to support the campaign against the proliferation and misuse of small arms.

BNI probes importation of rice

Page 24: Daily Graphic, May 27, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Bureau of National Investigations(BNI) has began probing the importation of the $10 million worth of rice from India,which was allegedly paid for by the National Investment Bank (NIB).
It has also began a similar probe into the saga surrounding the importation and disposal of a number of vehicles by the Ghana@50 team.
For clues into the rice deal, the BNI yesterday continued with the interrogation of the immediate past Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Mr Akwasi Osei Adjei, for his alleged role in the transaction.
A source at the BNI confirmed to the Daily Graphic that Mr Osei was at the BNI with his lawyer last Wednesday and yesterday to assist in the investigations.
It said Mr Adjei went to India to negotiate for rice amounting to $6 million and allegedly convinced the NIB to pay for it on behalf of the ministry.
The NIB, the sources said, was now demanding $10 million from the ministry.
It said the invitation of the former minister was among other issues that the BNI was investigating.
The source cited the saga surrounding the importation and disposal of the Ghana@50 vehicles.
It said officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Mechanical Lloyd and Svani Ltd have also been interrogated.
The source said those are part of routine investigations and many more that the BNI was looking into.
It said when the need arose for any individual or institution to be invited, it would do so.
When contacted, Mr Adjei confirmed that the BNI invited him to clarify one or two issues in respect of his role in the importation of the rice.
Mr Adjei told the Daily Graphic that officials of the BNI questioned him about his role in the importation of the rice and other issues which the BNI did not understand.
He said he asked the BNI to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration or the NIB to find out the details of the transaction and if they needed further clarifications he would be ready to provide them.

Return all items, board orders former Speaker

Page 3: Daily Graphic, May 27, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, has been asked by the Parliamentary Service Board to return all items he took away from his official residence upon leaving office.
He was given one week to comply.
The directive from the Parliamentary Board followed a marathon meeting yesterday by the leadership to consider Mr Sekyi Hughes’ response to an earlier report by an ad-hoc committee of Parliament which asked him to explain his action.
In his response Mr Hughes had asked the Board to go and retrieve the items from his private residence.
In a letter issued by his solicitors, Zoe, Akyea & Co, and addressed to the secretary of the board, Mr Hughes said he was “no longer interested in the items he took away from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide”.
According to the letter, the former Speaker did not want to feed the frenzy of those who believed that without scandalising others their own prominence would be diminished.
“Accordingly, for the sake of good governance, the integrity of the high office he previously occupied and in good conscience, our client states categorically that he is no longer interested in the items he took from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide,” it said.
It, therefore, invited the board to “arrange for the collection of the items from his private residence in Accra, at your earliest convenience, on agreed time schedule”.
The letter, dated May 25, 2009, said the former Speaker was given a briefing relating to the provision of soft furnishings and other amenities and the disposal of same to the leadership and senior officers of Parliament.
“It is on record that some retiring and exiting leaders and officers of Parliament had in the past benefited from this practice,” it said.
According to the letter, armed with that information, the ex-Speaker took away some furnishings and other amenities in his official residence when he left the residence on February 26, 2009.
Unfortunately, it said, that claim of right had generated some furore, although attempts to clear the misinformation and set the records straight had failed.
“For some strange reasons, it appears that the misinformation has sunk rather very deep, to the extent that the hard-earned reputation of our client is being tarnished.
“It is regrettable that well-placed and responsible men in authority are even imputing criminality to him,” the letter noted.

IRS to re-launch payment of rent tax

Page 31: Daily Graphic, May 26, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will re-launch the payment of rent tax by both residential and business landlords in the third quarter of the year.
The exercise is expected to rope in more than GH¢100 million from landlords in Accra and other urban centres.
A new rent tax form, which covers portions to be filled and signed by both tenants and landlords, is to ensure the success of the scheme.
The Commissioner of the IRS, Major Dan Ablorh-Quarcoo (retd), told the Daily Graphic that although the campaign to make landlords pay taxes was launched last year, the programme suffered a hitch due to the unwillingness of tenants to disclose the identities of the landlords for fear of being ejected.
Moreover, he said, the initial forms provided for occupants of residences and businesses in the first exercise did not create room for authentication by landlords.
Major Ablorh-Quarcoo said the IRS would embark on a series of educational programmes before launching the scheme.
He said the IRS would also solicit the support of the police to enforce the rent tax.
According to him, it would be an offence for tenants and landlords to fail to disclose information required of them on the forms.
Touching on the recent IRS-religious forum on payment of taxes, Major Ablorh-Quarcoo said it became evident after the forum that most of the religious organisations, especially the charismatic and Pentecostal churches, were not aware of their tax obligations.
“We realise that most of the churches were ill-informed about the law. But we made them aware that there was a limit to the law,” he stated.
The IRS boss said the forum made them aware of their tax obligations and they were entreated to own up.
As a result, he said, the IRS was mounting the campaign on all fronts to cover artisans and garage owners and explained that the service was looking at schemes that would make them understand and pay easily.
Major Ablorh-Quarcoo said the regional and district offices of the IRS would continue with the interaction with the local churches so that each one of them was brought on board.
He said the IRS had given itself up to the end of June this year, when it would be expecting positive returns from the religious organisations.

Monday, May 25, 2009

CID INVITES EX-SPEAKER * On removal of state property from bungalow

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 25, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, has been invited by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police to explain why he took away state property on his retirement from office.
According to police sources, Mr Hughes was to report to the CID today but the appointment had to be rescheduled because the day is a holiday.
The sources told the Daily Graphic that after efforts by the CID to get Mr Hughes had proved difficult, the Western Regional Office of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) was asked to invite him.
Mr Hughes has, however, claimed that whatever he took away from his official residence upon his retirement was in line with a memo submitted to the House by the Clerk of Parliament.
Responding to a parliamentary ad hoc committee report on items he took away from the official residence, the former Speaker said the memo, which was submitted to the Parliamentary Service Board on November 4, 2008, stated, “Following advice received on the soft furnishing items supplied to the leadership, cash equivalent of items not supplied have been commuted for the leadership of the house.”
He said the clerk concluded that a total sum of GH¢195,200 would be required to implement the board’s decision on the commutation of non-procured items in the approved list of soft furnishing entitlements of leadership, excluding the Speaker.
He further indicated that the “Parliamentary Service Board, on 15th December, 2008, at its 47th Regular Meeting, approved the memo in all material respects and ordered payment of the sum of GH¢195,200 to the leadership”.
He then concluded, “From this, it cannot be any more clear than that the Parliamentary Service Board intended that soft and hard items of furnishings provided for the leadership, whether in private or official residences, were to be retained.”
Those who were to benefit from the GH¢195,200 furnishing package were the Majority Leader, the Minority Leader, the First and the Second Deputy Speakers, he said.
The rest were the Deputy Majority and Minority leaders, the Majority and Minority Chief Whips, the First Deputy Majority and Minority whips and the Second Majority and Minority whips.
In a letter to the Parliamentary Service Board dated May 15, 2009, Mr Hughes said for Parliament to come to a fair view of the matters under consideration, “it must satisfy itself from the relevant waybills that each of the said items was delivered and duly received by the Speaker”.
Recalling his stay at the State House as a guest, he said contractors were engaged by Parliament to re-roof the property, during which the contractors removed the roofing sheets but for a time failed to replace them with new ones.
“One weekend during our absence, there was a heavy downpour which completely flooded the State House. On our return to Accra on Sunday night, it became impossible to access the premises,” he said.
According to him, the clerk was immediately summoned and he expressed his utter disgust and horror at the substantial damage caused.
He said hotel accommodation was arranged for the family for the night but it was declined.
Mr Hughes noted that after an investigation into the matter, the Development Office and the contractors were queried for negligence that had occasioned substantial damage to property in the State House for which they apologised, saying, “I was to be offered compensation for personal losses which I declined to pursue.”
On his official residence, he noted that he was invited to furnish it to meet the family’s requirements within acceptable financial limits set by the Parliamentary Service Board.
He said the understanding was that items procured could be retained by the Speaker, as had happened on previous occasions when the leadership of the House left office, which he said was confirmed to him by the clerk.
“It is important to point out that at all material times there was not a responsible officer appointed by Parliament in the official residence who received items brought to the official residence. There was no officer who issued items out to the parliamentary domestic servants and accounted for them,” he stated.
Mr Hughes noted that the Speaker travelled extensively for official duties both in Ghana and that abroad at all material times it was the parliamentary staff, including security staff, who were in charge of the official residence.
He said those items, if supplied, must have been used by the Speaker, his family and, indeed, the parliamentary staff for a period of four years, during which “damage to items occurred, breakage could not be ruled out, not to mention wear and tear”.
He stated that the “compendium of the inventory of furnishing items referred to in your list does not take into account all relevant matters adumbrated above”.
He said although he left his official residence on February 26, 2009, the inspection conducted at the bungalow was on March 3, 2009.
Mr Hughes, however, said the present board was perfectly entitled to revisit the practice if it so desired, review it or even scrap it all together.
“It is submitted further that at the 13th sitting of the third meeting of the fourth session of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic on Tuesday, January 6, 2009, Parliament approved the report of the Presidential committee on emoluments subject to some recommendations for the future,” he said.
According to him, the recommendations were contained in the Review Report submitted by Parliament to the Presidency and pointed out that specifically on the Speaker on retirement, “Parliament, inter alia, recommended a free four-bedroom plus an outhouse residential befitting the status of a former Speaker in a location of his choice.”
“In the light of Parliament’s own decision, it is submitted that it does not lie in the mouth of the same body or its Parliamentary Service Board to raise queries about items which, by its own conduct and from expressed approvals, it intended that the leadership should retain.
“Be it as it may, the Parliamentary Service Board of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic did not disturb or undermine the existing practice whereby Speakers of Parliament, leadership and other senior management staff retained soft and hard furnishings on their retirement. The minutes of the Parliamentary Service Board are available for scrutiny,” Mr Hughes concluded.

83 suspected criminals arrested - in ‘operation drag-net’

Page 23: Daily Graphic, May 25, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE police operational team put in place by the Inspector-General of Police last week has rounded up 83 suspected criminals from their hideouts in Accra.
In the operation, which took place yesterday morning, two trunk loads of fake dollars and pounds sterling, a television set, sound systems, two military uniforms and leaves suspected to be Indian hemp were retrieved from the suspects.
The exercise, which was conducted by more than 300 personnel from the Police Headquarters and the Accra Regional Police Command, took place at Tesano, Abeka La Paz, Fadama, Achimota and Weija.
The Director-General of Police Operations, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) John Kudalor, told the Daily Graphic that after the debriefing by the IGP, Mr Paul Quaye, last Thursday, he and his team decided to hit the ground running, especially when the weekend was going to be a long one.
He said the team had resolved to be proactive, instead of reactive, to ensure that residents of Accra went about their duties and slept in peace.
He said the exercise, which had been dubbed, “Operation Drag-net”, would now be intelligence-led to ensure that criminals were continuously flushed out before they hit at innocent and decent citizens.
DCOP Kudalor gave the assurance that the exercise would be sustained, saying that “the criminals may run but they cannot hide from us”.
He appealed to members of the public to assist the police with relevant information on the activities of suspected criminals for the police to get at them.
“We do not want to wait for complaints. The public must assist us with information on any suspicious characters so that we can flush them out,” he stated.

Police CID to be overhauled

Page 20: Daily Graphic, May 23, 2009.
Story: Albert K Salia
THE Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Quaye, on Friday announced plans to overhaul the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police to enable it to play its role as the heartbeat of policing.
As part of the measures, he has called for the reactivation of specialised units such as the Known Criminals Section, Convicts on Licence, Modus Operandi Section, Appeals and Cancellation Section and Gazette section.
“Vital institutional structures in the CID have, over the years, been distorted, some others have been relegated to the background, and yet others seriously watered down to regrettable levels of insignificance. Several vital functions, systems and structures which hitherto supported effective criminal investigations have been allowed to fizzle out and the few left only exist on paper,” he said.
At a meeting with officers and men of the CID headquarters in Accra, Mr Quaye said the Criminal Data Services Bureau, Crime Scene Management Team and the Serious Crime Registry needed to be revamped to facilitate and monitor investigations.
He said the absence and inefficiency of those very essential units had created a huge vacuum which rendered criminal investigations hollow, incomplete and woefully unsatisfactory.
He said a look at the 2008 annual report of the CID indicated that most officers and men were practising what was often-termed “arm-chair investigations”.
He expressed regret that personnel had neglected one of the key principles for successful investigations which demanded that an investigator should be interested in his or her case from the beginning to the end.
“The result is that more than 70 per cent of cases reported to us are often tagged as still being under investigations at the end of the year. By December 2007, 195,320 out of the 255,412 cases reported were still pending and this represented 76.47 per cent. A similar situation prevailed in 2008 as 183,126, representing 76.239,823 cases reported were pending investigations at the end of the year,” he noted.
Mr Quaye urged them to work hard to bring back the prestigious and admirable status that used to be associated with the title “detective”.
On the professional use of intelligence, he reminded the personnel that unjustifiable arrests, untested approaches of ‘trial and error’ and other draconian measures employed by some officers in combating crime were no longer acceptable in democratic dispensation.
He said although modern policing and crime fighting must be intelligence-led, the police had little to show in the field of crime intelligence.
He, therefore, called for the identification of personnel with the requisite skills to be offered appropriate training in the field of crime intelligence, stressing that “the careful cultivation and maintenance of well-collated and co-ordinated crime intelligence could help us achieve commendable operational results in our crime-fighting crusade”.
With regards to handling of exhibits, Mr Quaye expressed regret that the provisions spelt out in Police Service Instruction No. 207 on the proper handling of exhibits in police custody were blatantly ignored by investigators and exhibits store keepers.
That, he said, had resulted in the loss of valuable exhibits including cocaine a couple of years ago, which caused so much damage to the police.
“Let me caution that situations in which drug exhibits are carelessly dumped in store rooms is highly unprofessional since such practices provide unhealthy recipes for the theft of exhibits involved,” he said.
The IGP also expressed concern about the laxed and appalling security arrangements and the congestion and litter of vehicles at the CID headquarters.
Mr Quaye said there appeared to be no mechanism that regulated the movement of persons who entered the premises either for official business or private purposes.
“It should not surprise anybody if unchecked, confidence tricksters use this premises as their rendezvous to dupe their victims. Itinerant vendors and petty traders of all kinds of wares invade the yard on a daily basis and even enter individual offices with impunity to advertise their wares - with no one checking their access even to controlled areas,” he said.
On the littered vehicles, Mr Quaye directed that the leadership of the CID to clear the vehicles within a week.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Tema cocaine - 2 more assist police

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 22, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE director and the deputy director of the company which cleared the 71.45 kilogrammes of a substance suspected to be cocaine at the Tema Port last Tuesday have reported themselves to the police to assist in investigations into the importation of the substance.
Alfred Amedzi and Yaw Atta Nkansah, the Director and the Deputy Director, respectively, of Seko Clearing Agency, reported themselves to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) in Accra yesterday accompanied by their lawyers.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of NACOB, Mr Mark Ewuntogmah, told the Daily Graphic that six persons, including the consignee of the container, were assisting in investigations into the case in which a 40-foot container with 61 parcels of the substance was intercepted at the Tema Port.
The parcels were said to have been concealed in a cargo which had been declared as chewing gum from Ecuador in South America.
The container, consigned to Augustina Abu of Abu Augustina Enterprise, was intercepted after it had gone through the scan at the port.
The consignee reported herself to the police later on Wednesday, while three suspects, including two clearing agents and a driver, were arrested earlier by personnel of the Joint Port Control Unit to assist in the investigations.
The suspects were identified as Kennedy Osei, Simon Fafa Bedy, both of Seko Clearing Agency in Tema, and Francis Abbey, the driver of the truck which was to cart the container from the port.
All the suspects are to be arraigned today.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Family Health Hospital performs first in-vitro fertilisation

Page 55: Daily Graphic, May 21, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Family Health Hospital in Accra has successfully performed its first in-vitro-fertilisation (IVF) delivery with a woman giving birth to twins, a male and a female.
In-vitro fertilisation is the process of fertilisation by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. When the IVF procedure is successful, the process is combined with a procedure known as embryo transfer, which is used to physically place the embryo in the uterus.
An excited Professor Yaw Kwawukume, Director of the Hospital, told the Daily Graphic last Tuesday that it was good to have achieved success in the hospital’s first case of test-tube baby delivery.
He expressed his appreciation to the dedicated team that included Dr Claribel Aduhene and embryologist Yaw Salia for their commitment to achieving the first for the hospital.
He put the current pregnancy rate of in-vitro fertilisation at 40 per cent at the hospital, which he said was amazing considering the fact that the hospital started the procedure only last year.
Prof. Kwawukume, however, explained that the pregnancy rate was different from delivery rate, since some pregnancies got aborted and others developed complications and had to be terminated.
He explained that the process required a lot of dedication, since it was time-bound.
He explained that the couple requested for privacy and non-exposure hence the hospital’s inability to show the mother and twins to the public.
Prof. Kwawukume said it gave the hospital staff, especially the IVF team, the courage to work hard to give hope and joy to many childless couples.
“We have the best of equipment to teach and help many more people to have children,” he said.
As to whether the hospital felt threatened by the existence of other fertility centres in the country, Prof. Kwawukume answered in the negative.
According to him, the more centres the country has, the lower the cost of providing those services would be.
“In any case, we have been collaborating with other centres in the country so I do not think we are threatened in any way,” he added.

IGP DROPS BOMBSHELL * Massive changes announced

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 21, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE shake-up promised by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Quaye, actually erupted earlier than anticipated yesterday with the announcement of far-reaching changes that swept the entire headquarters and regional commands of the service.
At the top brass of the command, Commissioner of Police (COP) Yaw Adu-Gyimah has been moved to National Security, to be replaced as Director-General of Police Services by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) George Amusah Anko-Bil, until now the Eastern Regional Police Commander.
In other changes which are all to take immediate effect, the Western Regional Police Commander, COP Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, moves to the Police Headquarters as Director-General in charge of Administration and Human Resource.
With the exception of the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), DCOP Frank Adu-Poku, who retained his position, virtually all the top officers were affected by the changes.
COP Joana Osei-Poku, who was in charge of Administration and Human Resource, is now responsible for Welfare; DCOP Ofosu Mensah-Gyeabour, the immediate past Northern Regional Police Commander, is now the Director-General in charge of Research and Planning, while DCOP Stephen Andoh-Kwofie moves from his position of Director-General, Finance, to be the Eastern Regional Commander, to be assisted by the second-in-command at the CID Headquarters, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Isaac Ken Yeboah.
ACP/Dr George Akuffo Dampare has been named as Director, Finance.
The Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP James Oppong-Buanuh, moves to the Police Headquarters as Director-General, Legal, while his counterpart in Tema, DCOP John Kudalor, replaces DCOP Patrick Eden Timbillah as Director-General, Operations. DCOP Timbillah has been reassigned as the Ashanti Regional Police Commander.
The former Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kweku Ayensu Opare-Addo, has been named as the new Director-General, Technical, while ACP Peter Alex Wiredu and ACP Richmond Nii A. L. Boi-Bi-Boi were named as Directors of Administration and Operations, respectively.
With regard to other command changes in the regions, DCOP Rose Bio Atinga moves from the Volta Region to head the Accra Region, with ACP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, the Accra South Divisional Commander, as her second-in-command.
ACP Bright Oduro moves from his present position as second-in-command in the Accra Region to head the Upper East Region, while the former Upper East Police boss, DCOP Hamidu Mahama, moves to the Western Region as Commander.
The Tema Deputy Commander, ACP Ransford Moses Ninson, has been moved to head the Upper West Regional Police Command, with ACP David Ampah-Benin, Deputy Eastern Regional Commander, moving to the Central Region as Deputy Commander.
In the remaining changes, ACP Augustine Kwabena Gyenning moves from the Upper West Region as deputy to head the Tema Regional Police; ACP Alex Amponsah-Asiamah of the CID Headquarters has been moved to head the Interpol Unit, while Superintendent Hamza Ayikambe Yakubu, second-in-command at the National Police Training School, moves to the Police Headquarters as Special Operations Assistant (SOA), with Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Firmin Akongzigrigo Azitariga being moved from the Narcotics Control Board to the Police Headquarters.
The IGP told the Daily Graphic on Tuesday after meeting personnel of the service at the Police Headquarters that he would undertake a major overhaul of the top hierarchy of the Police Service and across the country, which he said was part of the performance re-engineering he sought to bring on board to ensure that the police employed approved and accepted practices in the delivery of services to all stakeholders..
“Some of the changes will be immediate, especially those that do not require financial commitments but just the administrative movement of personnel to fit into the appropriate job specifications of their qualifications and professional competencies,” he said.

Cocaine busted in Tema * Woman, 3 others picked

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 21, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia (Accra) & Rose Hayford Darko (Tema)
A 40-foot container with 61 parcels of a substance suspected to be cocaine was intercepted at the Tema Port on Tuesday.
The parcels, with a total weight of 71.45 kilogrammes, were said to have been concealed in cargo which had been declared as chewing gum from Ecuador in South America.
The container, consigned to Augustina Abu of Abu Augustina Enterprise, was intercepted after it had gone through the scan at the port.
The Daily Graphic was told on arrival at the port that the container, together with the exhibits, had been taken to Accra for investigations to commence.
A source at the port said the container was among the cargo on board a vessel which had docked at the port on May 3, 2009.
It said based on intelligence reports, surveillance was mounted on it until Tuesday when it was checked to undergo scanning.
According to the source, the scan indicated that there were some irregular goods in the container and a team of security personnel which was following closely at the checkpoint called for a thorough search of the cargo.
It said two travelling bags which looked different from the chewing gum containers were found during the search. The substances were discovered during an examination.
The Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mr John Kudalor, confirmed the incident but gave no further details.
Officials in Accra, however, told the Daily Graphic that the consignee, Augustina, reported to the police later in the day while three suspects, including two clearing agents and a driver, were assisting the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) in investigations.
The suspects in custody have been identified as Kennedy Osei, Simon Fafa Bedy, both of Seko Clearing Agency in Tema, and Francis Abbey, the driver of the truck, with registration number GR 9241 A, which was to cart the container from the port.
The Executive Secretary of NACOB, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Robert Ayalingo, told newsmen yesterday that the interception of the drugs followed weeks of surveillance and profiling by the Joint Port Control Unit under NACOB.
He explained that after the profiling, personnel of the unit, comprising personnel from NACOB, CEPS, BNI and the police, decided to tag it for thorough investigations.
ACP Ayalingo said the 61 parcels were concealed in two travelling bags and placed at the entrance of the container, which he explained was to facilitate “easy hand-picking” before any searches.
He said field tests on the samples proved positive for cocaine, leading to the arrest of the suspects.
He said the interception only confirmed positive measures that had been put in place to deal with the drug menace and prevent the drug from getting to the streets.
He, however, said the method of concealment had become so sophisticated that the government needed to provide more equipment, especially itemisers, at all the points of entry.
ACP Ayalingo justified the need for the equipment at all points of entry because the 588 parcels of cocaine that were intercepted at Nsawam last year came through the Paga border.
Commenting on the interception, a security expert, Dr Kwesi Aning, said the seizure “shows the dangerous nature of the challenge that we are facing, namely, that drug lords and leaders apply both business and warfare tactics to undermine, lull and eventually deliver the blow that destroys their opponents”.
He said the government’s consistent rhetoric about curbing the drug menace in Ghana and making this country an unattractive narcotics highway and transit point to Europe had seriously sent shock waves around the globe.
He explained that the response of the drug lords had been what was expected and based on their rational choices and calculations as to what government’s real intentions were.
“What is important is to understand the variables that go into the calculations of drug lords. And, in this case, their calculus is that African governments make noise and pull back from the brink. Secondly, that they will test the government to see its seriousness and, therefore, what happened in Tema is reflective of this 'testing of the waters' or government’s resolve. This is a victory for Ghana because this ship has been on the high seas for just about two weeks or less and, therefore, the rationale was to see if the defences could be breached,” he stated.
Dr Aning, however, advised the government to back its rhetoric with operational support for all the agencies mandated to respond to that threat.
“This is because while the government works and thinks in four and eight-year cycles, drug lords work and think in 20 and 30-year cycles, infiltrating their agents into important sectors. This will be a long, difficult, dangerous and uphill task for the government,” he added.

SHAKE-UP IN POLICE * IGP hints

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 20, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Quaye, yesterday gave an indication of a shake-up at the top hierarchy of the Police Service and across the country within the next couple of days.
The changes are expected to begin at the Police Headquarters and then spread to the regional commands.
“Some of the changes will be immediate, especially those that do not require financial commitments but just the administrative movement of personnel to fit into the appropriate job specifications of their qualifications and professional competencies,” he said.
He told the Daily Graphic after outlining his vision to personnel at the Police Headquarters in Accra that the changes formed part of the performance re-engineering he sought to bring on board to ensure that the police employed approved and accepted practices in the delivery of services to all stakeholders.
Mr Quaye said all those who were not supposed to be where they currently were would be taken to areas where they would best deliver.
He said efforts had been made in the past to introduce some of those reforms but without success due to internal resistance.
He said some of the reforms were all embedded in the Strategic Direction Policy Document of the Police which he intended to implement to turn the service around.
He had earlier told the personnel that it was his objective to implement systematically short to medium-term national policing plans aimed at significantly improving the maintenance of law and order and the protection of life and property.
He said he would embark on a major internal restructuring and capacity-building of the service with the view to effectively and efficiently utilising to maximum benefit the limited human and logistic resources of the service.
Mr Quaye said he would develop a professionally competent workforce through systematic core and related training and development.
“In this connection, regular in-service training programmes will be introduced for all officers and men of the service with a view to sharpening their professional skills and keeping them constantly abreast of contemporary developments in policing, with particular focus on the Ghanaian society,” he said.
According to the IGP, in those courses emphasis would be on integrity, discipline, leadership and management skills, fairness in dealing with the public and the retention of staff in core operational roles.
Mr Quaye said he would set specific goals and targets for all police stations, districts, units, divisions and regions against which performance could be measured periodically.
“The aggregate results will then be analysed in the context of our overall national objectives. This way, negative variances reflecting non-performance or under-performance can be immediately identified, evaluated and rectified. Our main control mechanism will be the effective monitoring of performance at all levels,” he stated.
He said he would ensure that the police get a comprehensive and reliable database to facilitate crime investigations, policing research and the prosecution of the functions of the service.
The IGP noted that the image of the service had not been the best in recent times as a result of indiscipline and other forms of unprofessional conduct of some few bad lots among its members.
Touching on other areas, Mr Quaye said his administration would urgently address the need for broad community engagement in all aspects of policing where all social, political, economic and cultural exigencies of the Ghanaian society would be actively involved in the law enforcement enterprise, using modern policing strategies in police-community relations practices, neighbourhood watch techniques, among others.
He explained that the need for total societal involvement was based on the recognition that policing must be made more holistic, since individuals living in society were stakeholders in whatever the police did.
“For effective policing, it will be important for such agencies as the Town and Country Planning Department, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to work in tandem towards designing a system of road/street naming, housing numbering which will make it easy for the police, upon receiving reports on crimes, to quickly move to the specific crime scenes without having to meander through a mass of unnumbered houses/buildings which have no specific location addresses and descriptions,” he said.
The IGP said experience showed that delays encountered by the police in such situations often led to loss of precious time and consequently loss of lives and property.
Mr Quaye said his administration intended to mobilise both academic and private sector resources to complement government’s efforts at helping the police in achieving their constitutional mandate.
He said he would also enhance existing relations with other sister security agencies within the country, as well as international and sub-regional crime-combating organisations such as INTERPOL and the West African Chiefs of Police Conference, with the aim of fighting the menace of trans-national crimes, especially human trafficking, the narcotic trade, money laundering, counterfeiting, terrorism, among others.
He made it clear that modern policing within national territorial boundaries could not achieve the best of results without the co-operation of other agencies beyond Ghana.
“Together, we can implement the strategic interventions I have enumerated in order to achieve a world-class level of policing based on the principle of collective responsibility,” he concluded.

Jack Bebli is dead

Page 31: Daily Graphic, May 19, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ALHAJI Shehu Mohammed Bebli, popularly called RSM Jack Bebli, died yesterday at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where he had been on admission for a few days.
He was 78.
RSM Bebli shot to fame while he was with the erstwhile Police Commandos Section of the Panthers Unit.
On July 13, 2001, he and five others were sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment each for their role in a highly publicised highway gold robbery which took place at the Abotsia Junction near Apam on February 16, 1999.
Those with whom he was sentenced were Philip Asamoah, alias Agingo; Isaac Frimpong, alias Nii Baby Tei; Patrick Boakye Mprah; ex-Corporal James Doli and Kofi Bokor, alias Kofi Bebli.
The Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, DSP Gloria Fati Abudu, told the Daily Graphic that Jack Bebli had been rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital last Thursday.
She said the hospital authorities informed the management of the Prisons Service about his death yesterday.
Jack Bebli and his accomplices were accused of robbing a bullion van and stealing gold being conveyed from Amansie in the Ashanti Region to Accra.
On the day of the robbery, Frimpong, Mprah and Bokor had driven to the Yamoransa Junction in a convoy of three vehicles to lay ambush, and while waiting, the West Coast Allied Services bullion, driven by Asamoah and containing eight boxes of gold, appeared.
The robbers, some of whom were dressed in military and police uniforms and masked, followed the van to the Abotsia Junction, where they overtook and blocked it.
They then started shooting indiscriminately, dragged Asamoah down and took away the gold, after inflicting some injuries on the occupants of the bullion.
At the time of the sentence, Jack Bebli was 70.

New IGP takes office

Page 24: Daily Graphic, May 19, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Quaye, yesterday performed his first official duty since assuming office last Friday, with a pledge to lead the Ghana Police Service to partner its counterparts in the world to fight crime.
“I will lead the Ghana Police Service to play its role in the comity of police forces in the world to help deal with crime,” Mr Quaye told the Chief of Police of Hanover Park, USA, Mr Ronald Moser, at a meeting at the Police Headquarters.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic after the meeting that Mr Quaye noted that the challenges of the Ghana Police Service were well-known and indicated that with the support of the government, he would lead the service to perform the role for which it was established.
Mr Quaye said he would have a constructive engagement with civil society and the populace as a whole and expected all his regional, divisional and district commanders to do same to ensure that crime was reduced to the barest minimum.
He said he had been given a charge to prosecute President Mills’s agenda of providing security for all persons living in the country and their property and had no option but to succeed.
He noted that fighting crime had become a collaborative effort and that was why the Ghana Police Service must be seen to be partnering its counterparts in the world, while at the local level personnel collaborated with civil society to ensure that success was achieved.
For his part, Mr Ronald Moser, who is in the country at the invitation of President Mills, was hopeful a fruitful partnership would be established between the Ghana Police Service and their US counterparts.
He said the US saw Ghana as “the best” ally in sub-Saharan Africa and, therefore, it was imperative that all avenues of relationships were explored and strengthened.
“We need a stronger relationship and we can achieve the best if we work together and get to know the needs of one another so that we could help,” he was quoted as saying.
Mr Moser said policing had become international and the most effective police force in the world was the one that collaborated or partnered others effectively.
Earlier, the IGP had briefed members of the Headquarters Advisory Management Board (HEMAB) on his policy direction to ensure that he delivered to the satisfaction of Ghanaians.
Mr Quaye did this when he met officials of the Interior Ministry including the sector Minister, Mr Cletus Avoka, after he officially took over from the acting IGP, Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson.
The Director of Police Public Affairs, DSP Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic after the meeting that Mr Quaye gave the assurance that he would work assiduously to fight crime to ensure peace and security in the country.
DSP Ofori said Mr Quaye commended Mrs Mills-Robertson for the good work she performed within the period of her tenure.
The Interior Minister, DSP Ofori said, expressed the hope that Mr Quaye would live up to expectation and deliver on the challenges confronting Ghanaians.
He said Mr Avoka urged the IGP to endeavour to raise the morale of the personnel so that it would translate in their output in the discharge of their duties.
DSP Ofori said “the wait-and-see” attitude that had engulfed the Police Service must give way to an ‘all-action agenda’ to deal with crime.
According to him, Mr Avoka urged the IGP to challenge his men and women at the regional, divisional and district levels to use local resources to help identify and flush out criminal elements in their areas.
He said Mr Avoka reminded the IGP of the President’s commitment to fight drugs and advised him to sustain the momentum.

New IGP can’t afford to disappoint

Page 9: Daily Graphic, May 19, 2009.
By Albert K. Salia
MR Paul Tawiah Quaye is assuming leadership of the Ghana Police Service at a time that his immediate predecessor, Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, was taken steps to address concerns of professional ethics, competence, efficiency and discipline.
Indeed, insiders know that Mr Quaye had been a close pal of Mrs Mills-Robertson, with whom they had been discussing issues of common good for the police.
Thus, his appointment is expected to see the continuation of some of the measures that Mrs Mills-Robertson pursued to redeem the sunken image of the service. Of course, one would expect some alteration in one policy or another.
It has been argued that it is only a principled, disciplinarian, inspirer and fair-minded person who can command the service, particularly at this time when morale is so low and the image of the service has sunk to such disturbing limits. No doubt, Mr Quaye has these attributes.
It is an incontrovertible fact that patronage has become the gateway to progress in the Ghana Police Service. As a result, professional ethics, competence, efficiency and discipline seem to have completely broken down.
The problems within the service are well known and actually documented, and I believe that the President took that into consideration in deciding to appoint Mr Quaye as the IGP. So he has the golden opportunity of demonstrating his competence and capability to justify the President’s trust in him.
A very proficient systems analyst with more than 18 years experience in conducting studies and recommending the re-organisation of various units and departments within the service, Mr Quaye’s key objective, as an IGP, is to work and attain the highest levels of efficiency in the Ghana Police Service.
Mr Quaye, who believes in team work, also possesses rich skills in policy formulation and planning for change with in-depth knowledge in research works and identification of organisational weaknesses and defects.
He has the ability to focus on strategic direction of an organisation, with a view to effecting and implementing realistic change management mechanisms which are aimed at meeting self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART) objectives.
Mr Quaye has a strong ability to introduce Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) into organisational practices to positively impact performance; he is also a strong team player in achieving organisational goals and objectives.
Born on May 6, 1953, Mr Quaye holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and an Executive Master’s in Business Administration (EMBA) in Human Resource Management.
He was commissioned as an Assistant Superintendent of Police into the Police Service in 1980 and rose through the ranks to become Commissioner of Police in 2002. He was, until his appointment, the Commissioner in charge of Strategic Direction and Monitoring of the Ghana Police Service.
Other positions that Mr Quaye had held in the past included acting Director-General in charge of Welfare, Commissioner of Police in charge of Human Resource Development and Manpower Planning and also at one time, he was responsible for Research, Planning and ICT.
He was a commander responsible for Volta and Upper East regions. He was a Deputy Commissioner at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters and also a member of a team that conducted studies and developed systems for criminal research for the CID.
In addition, he served in peacekeeping operations in Sudan, where he was the senior UN police adviser/planner. He served in the United Nations mission in Bosnia into the bargain.
Mr Quaye attended other training programmes in India at the Armed Forces Staff College and the United States Department of Justice.
This is a rich background of a police officer who everyone looks to, to turn the fortunes of the service around.
Whatever the case may be, the President also has a responsibility to make the IGP succeed. The President, with the help of his advisors, draws a charter for the Office of the IGP. The charter must state the objectives and targets to be realised, which must be assessed on an annual basis. This must be based on a benchmark performance, for which the IGP must be accountable. It should be the task of the Police Council, the first oversight body, and the sector Minister to ensure that these objectives are achieved.
The President and, for that matter the government, must ensure that the resources needed for success are readily available. Although all the problems cannot be immediately resolved, issues of accommodation, logistics vis-a-vis communication gadgets and vehicles, insurance for personnel should be given serious thought.
Besides unemployment, the greatest challenge to fighting crime in the country is the sprawling neighbourhoods where there are no police stations. Also, ‘unmotorable’ roads to those new development communities are usually quiet at day and night. Therefore, more vehicles must be provided to increase the patrols in those areas.
Lobbying among senior police chiefs over the topmost job in the service reflected serious defects in the structure of the law enforcement body, which makes progress not dependent upon loyalty, competence and efficiency.
The Government must review the structural inefficiencies that exist in the Police Service which resulted in officers openly lobbying for top positions whenever there was a change of government.
These problems which had persisted over time continue to endure because recommendations made by successive committees were not followed by both the Police Service and the Government.
A case in point is the Archer Commission Report which must be revisited with all urgency.
Lobbying in any law enforcement situation should be discouraged and even condemned because of the likelihood of the infiltration of organised crime syndicates who could support a candidate in order to win favour and protection.
It should be emphasised that the accountability and oversight mechanisms on current evaluations are totally ineffective. This can be attributed to both policy and structural deficiencies. The Government must take a good look at the procedure and mode of appointments of an IGP. What would be the laid-down rules governing such appointments?
Now that Mr Quaye has been appointed the IGP, it is imperative that he should be given target realisation objectives, which should be assessed on an annual basis to determine effective performance.
The Police Council, which is the immediate oversight authority of the Police Service, should also be tasked in a similar manner. Often times, the Police Council is always accused of not being heard of and is also subject to policy directions of an IGP. For instance, at the height of the cocaine and bribery scandals, the Police Council was accused of being impotent. The public expected the Council to have asserted its oversight authority by guiding and guarding any investigations within the service and making its voice heard.
The accountability mechanism could be further strengthened by the establishment of an independent body to handle complaints made against the Police. The present arrangement where the Police virtually has to investigate itself through the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) is rather outmoded and ridiculous. Some officers, particularly the junior ranks often accused the PIPS of always using junior officers as the benchmark of performance, while offending senior officers are left off the hook. Should that be the case? This, Mrs Mills-Robertson wanted to address by interdicting senior police officers, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). These actions must be sustained.
Mr Quaye must also pay serious attention to the CID of the police. The CID remains the most vital part of any Police system in the world. It is, therefore, important that it is restructured and resourced to effectively respond to the demands of modern syndicated crime.
It is also important that a Crime Intelligence Unit with the CID is established to source intelligence on crime and criminality to enhance proactive policing. In establishing the unit, the personnel should be made to understand that their responsibility is not to be effecting arrests or investigating cases only. The use of retired and experienced hands in such a unit should be highly considered, since they have a depth of information and contacts that young officers might not have.
Mr Quaye cannot afford to disappoint the President and the whole personnel of the service who see him as someone to turnaround the fortunes of the service. However, Mr Quaye must guard against being pushed to the gutters through patronage. In fact, the IGP must conduct a personnel audit of the service and ensure that those who need not be there are shown the exit. Those are the very people creating embarrassment for the service.

Friday, May 15, 2009

‘Help redeem image of police’

Page 25: Daily Graphic, May 15, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia & Francis Yaw Kyei
POLICE personnel have been asked to discharge their duties in a manner that will help redeem the sunken image of the service.
Addressing the passing-out parade of 116 recruits in Accra last Tuesday, the Director-General in charge of Services of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP), Mr Yaw Adu-Gyimah, said that hardly a day passed without the newspapers reporting one crime or another which had been committed by a policeman, adding that instead of fighting crime, some policemen perpetuated it.
The ceremony formed part of efforts of the government to boost the human resource in the service.
There are currently a little over 22,000 police personnel in the country.
Mr Adu-Gyamfi told the new recruits that they were being initiated into a Police Service that had lost credibility among the populace they were to protect.
“The Police kill instead of protecting life; police rob instead of protecting the public against robbery. Police defraud and condone fraud instead of protecting the public against fraudulent elements in the society. They molest instead of protecting the public from bullies,” he said.
Mr Adu-Gyimah further expressed regret that the police had become a menace to road users by abandoning their road safety responsibility and rather extorting moey on the roads.
“I want to charge you here and now to go and change this negative and grotesque picture that some of your colleagues who are already in the field have painted for the service,” he entreated the recruits.
“The public no more volunteer information to the police since they would not hesitate to blow the lid off their informants and this has made crime fighting and prevention an uphill task, for without information, the police wallow in a quagmire of futility in their quest for crime prevention and detection,” he stated.
Mr Adu-Gyimah, whose address did not go down well with some personnel because they claimed he was washing the dirty linen of the police in public, said some senior police officers could not escape blame for the negative tendencies in the service because they failed to check their subordinates.
He reminded the recruits of the delicate task ahead of them since “the days when some police personnel felt they were so powerful or above the law that they could, therefore, physically assault, insult, abuse and threaten members of the public for no just cause are over.”
He said the rights of all citizens as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution must be respected and protected by treating members of the public with utmost respect and civility.
“I must emphasise that in our present democratic dispensation where the Constitution guarantees freedom and human rights and protection through the rule of law, it is important that no opportunity whatsoever is given to any police officer to display recklessness, officiousness, high-handedness or any form of arrogance or abuse of power on the citizenry,” he said, adding that “the service has, therefore, no room for abusive and arrogant police personnel.”
Mr Adu-Gyimah urged the recruits to see the knowledge they had acquired during their training as a foundation which they needed to build upon as hard work and sacrifice would be required of them.
The recruits, who were made up of 48 from the Kumasi Training School and 68 from the National Police Training School in Accra, earlier undertook drills and exercises to entertain the dignitaries, family members and the public who had gathered to witness the parade.
While policewoman recruit Bridget Yeboah from Kumasi was adjudged the overall best recruit as well as best in academic work and markswoman, policewoman recruit Augustina Vigbedor was adjudged the best in academic work and the overall best recruit from Accra.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

EX-SPEAKER IS 'HOT' * He's to return items worth GH¢1.6 m to state * But claims he yet to be officially officially informed

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 14, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, is to return to the state items worth ¢1.6 billion which he took away from the Speaker’s bungalow upon his retirement from office last year.
He is also to pay GH¢1 billion for some of the items and keep the rest, which were valued at GH¢368 million at no cost to him.
These are some of the recommendations made by a parliamentary ad hoc committee chaired by the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, which was constituted to investigate allegations that the former Speaker had taken away household appliances valued at ¢4.5 billion from the bungalow at Cantonments in Accra.
The items include furniture, curtains, paintings, generators, carpets, gymnasium and kitchen equipment, rugs from Morocco, electrical appliances, among others.
The committee, which was to ascertain from the inventory which of the items could be disposed of, returned or depreciated and sold to the former Speaker, noted that the decision in respect of Mr Sekyi Hughes “should be considered as a one-off event, pending putting in place a well-defined policy”.
It said its findings and recommendations were based on the advice of officials of the Prestige Wing of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the fact that no internal policy on the disposal of soft furnishings could be cited.
It noted the non-existence of a policy on the disposal of soft furnishing items for the leadership and senior officers of the Parliamentary Service as a grey area and asked the Parliamentary Service Board to “put in place a policy to forestall the recurrence of the current state of affairs”.
According to the report, which the committee has submitted to the Parliamentary Service Board, discourse with officials of the PWD Prestige Wing revealed the non-existence of a hard and fast policy on the provision and disposal of soft furnishings in the Civil Service.
It said the established convention in the Civil Service, however, was that soft items provided for the official residences of the Vice-President, ministers and chief directors remained in-situ when the beneficiaries left office.
It pointed out that inventories of soft furnishing items provided for official residences were taken upon occupation and on exit of the occupants.
“As regards the Public and the Judiciary services, officials from PWD Prestige confirmed that the entities within those institutions have varied policies on soft furnishing which were self-regulated,” it added.
The committee noted that the general practice for restocking soft furnishing items such as living and bedroom furniture in the public services differed from organisation to organisation but generally most organisations restocked furniture after four or five years.
It said in the Civil Service, furniture restocking was done after eight years and indicated that “prior to that, furniture with torn or damaged upholstery which could be re-used is sent for re-upholstery and used in either offices or official residences. The last resort is auctioning”.
On a depreciation policy for assets, it said the officials of PWD Prestige indicated that the best practice was for all institutions to have one depreciation policy for all its assets.
According to the committee, as to whether fixtures and electrical fittings, chandeliers in particular, taken away from official residence should be returned, the officials of PWD Prestige held the view that payment be demanded on items from the occupant due to the fragile nature of those items.
“However, in circumstances where the replacement cost is high and could not be readily borne by the institution, the fittings could be demanded to be returned,” officials of PWD Prestige noted to the committee.
It said in determining the items that could be disposed of to the former Speaker, the committee was advised to be guided by the internal policy on the disposal of soft furnishing items, the current cost of replacement, year of acquisition, the possibility of the items being returned in good condition/original state and the likelihood of setting precedence.
The committee said officials from PWD Prestige advised that all electrical gadgets/appliances, fittings and fixtures and gymnastic equipment and its accessories taken away by the former Speaker should be returned.
“Further, the officials advised that since items such as curtains, carpets and bed sheets were normally acquired based on occupants’ taste and preference, they could be disposed of. Beds and mattresses may also be disposed of. Other kitchen items and crockery used for a period of four years were also to be disposed of,” it said.
The Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu Committee was set up after an inspection by a team of officials from Parliament of the former Speaker’s official residence on March 3, this year had revealed that Mr Sekyi Hughes had taken away soft furnishings in his residence worth GH¢330,000.
The cost did not include the beds and mattresses purchased for the residency and rooms and imported items, including furniture, hand-woven carpets and rugs from Morocco.
When the former Speaker was reached for his comments, he told the Daily Graphic that he had no knowledge of the report and recommendations of the committee chaired by the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
He said, however, that he received a letter on May 5, 2009, from Parliament inquiring about the whereabouts of the items in his official residence.
Mr Hughes stated that he was yet to respond to that letter but indicated that would be able to give a reply by the end of the week.
He said it was unfortunate that the said report got to the media without first being referred to him.

Monday, May 11, 2009

SWINE FLU PANIC * Sharp drop in pork patronage

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 12, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
PORK, a Ghanaian delicacy, is said to be recording low patronage since news about the outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1), otherwise referred to as swine flu, reached the country.
Traders who retail pork told the Daily Graphic yesterday that sales dipped further when the government reacted with a ban on the importation of pork and pork products into the country.
They have, therefore, called on the government to make announcements to inform and educate the public on the real facts of swine flu, especially the fact that the disease has not been reported in Ghana and that it is not found in cooked pork.
The Director of the Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr Enoch Boye-Mensah Koney, endorsed the retailers’ stance when he agreed with them that the outbreak of the disease had been overblown by the local media, a fact which had contributed to low business for the traders.
He said there was no cause for alarm and urged consumers to patronise the product.
Dr Koney said the disease had not been detected in any part of Africa and that the situation was not as it had been publicised by the media.
He said there was a technical team comprising officials of MOFA, the Ministry of Health and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in place which met regularly to review the situation.
He said the team would meet on Thursday, May 14, 2009 to update the Ministry of Health and MOFA on the situation.
Dr Koney contended that there was no need for the government to have banned the importation of pork and pork products if it had been properly debriefed on the issue.
He said the African Union-International African Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) last week criticised African countries which had resorted to the culling and quarantine of pigs, saying that “culling and quarantine interventions on the swine industry are unwarranted”.
Dr Koney said the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health had both issued statements stating that there was no evidence to show that the influenza could be transmitted through food.
Some pig farmers, however, said their businesses had not been affected in any way by the outbreak and urged Ghanaians to enjoy their locally-produced pork provided they were well cooked.
According to them, there had not been any negative impact of the disease on the production and sale of pigs.
Mesdame Joyce Odamptey and Elizabeth Adamah who are based at the slaughter house for pigs at Five Junction at Osu said the intake of pork had gone down drastically.
They said people who used to order some of the pork for social gatherings such as funerals, weddings and parties had all stopped.
Madam Odamptey said only the youth now patronised pork, while the elderly shunned it.
“I wish that the government went on air to make announcements about the real situation. The sale of pork is our source of income to pay our children’s school fees and meet other obligations,” she said.
The owner of Christian Service Farm at Yahoman, near Amasaman, Dr Paul K. Fynn, told the Daily Graphic that the effect of Influenza A was mostly in Europe because consumers there did not cook pork well before eating it, adding that Ghanaians normally cooked their meat very well before eating it and so there was not much cause for alarm.
“People must not live in fear. They must cook their pork well and enjoy it. Once pork is well cooked, the bacteria will be destroyed,” he remarked.
For his part, Mr Jonathan Nii Addo Mensah, who owns a piggery at Osu, said the demand for pigs was still high.
He said until the outbreak of the flu in Mexico, 10 pigs were slaughtered at the piggery per day and the situation had not changed.
Influenza A is a respiratory disease caused by influenza type A, which infects pigs. There are many types and the infection is constantly changing.
To date, 30 countries on four continents — the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania — have confirmed the infection.
The virus has been detected in people in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
According to the AU-IBAR, the current outbreak was caused by a new sub-type and there was so far no evidence that pigs were involved in the current outbreak.
Symptoms of swine flu include fever, cough, sore throat, bodily aches, chills and fatigue.
Although the source of the outbreak in humans is still unknown, cases were first discovered in the US and officials soon suspected a link between those incidents and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico.
Soon thereafter, the WHO, along with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed concern that Influenza A (H1N1) could become a world-wide flu pandemic and the WHO then raised its pandemic alert level to "Phase 5" out of the six maximum as a "signal that a pandemic is imminent".
The outbreak was first detected in Mexico City in cases of influenza-like illness starting on March 18.
The surge was assumed by Mexican authorities to be "late-season flu" (which usually coincides with a mild Influenza virus B peak) until April 21 when a CDC alert concerning two isolated cases of a novel swine flu was reported in the media.

Three to undergo kidney transplant

Page 41: Daily Graphic, May 11. 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THREE renal patients are expected to undergo kidney transplant operations at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital from today to Friday, May 16, 2009.
This is the second time in the history of the hospital that kidney transplant operation is being undertaken.
The first successful kidney transplant of three patients took place at the hospital in November, last year .
An 11-member team from the Queens Hospital in the United Kingdom, led by Dr Andrew Ready, arrived in the country on Saturday night to begin the operation as part of efforts to build the capacity of health professionals at Korle-Bu to become self-sufficient in manpower and equipment to handle cases on their own.
The team include the internationally acclaimed Ghanaian kidney transplant specialist, Dr Dwomoa Adu.
The trip is being facilitated by Charity Transplant Links of the United Kingdom.
The Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr Mustapha Salifu told the Daily Graphic that the three patients in the second batch would be receiving the kidneys from their family members.
He said in the first case, a man would be donating his kidney to his brother, while a sister would also donate to her brother and the third being an aunt donating to her nephew.
He said the surgeries would be performed jointly by the team from UK with the support of personnel from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Mr Salifu said more than 200 Ghanaians across the country needed kidney transplant, many of whom had had to depend on renal dialysis to survive.
He said a dialysis costs 100 euros per session while kidney patients required three sessions of dialysis a week.
According to him, the cost of a kidney transplant operation in the UK was GH¢100,000 while it ranged between GH¢30,000 and GH¢50,000 in South Africa, saying that those costs excluded transportation, accommodation and feeding of the donor and the recipient as well as accompanying relations.
Mr Salifu said the cost of each transplant being performed at the hospital was $30,000.
“With Ghana being able to undertake this exercise therefore, patients who would have been flown outside for kidney transplant can equally be catered for right here. This would save cost to patients who do not have money whiles generating income to the nation,” he said.
Mr Salifu said the kidney transplant was relatively cheaper than haemodialysis as it reduced the financial and social burden on families and friends.
Moreover, he said, it provided improved quality of life for the beneficiary.
Mr Salifu, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians, philanthropists and organisations to support the National Kidney Foundation by donating generously to keep it running to assist patients.
He expressed the hospital’s gratitude to Dr Jennie Jewitt-Harris, the Head of Charity Transplant Links for facilitating the trip of the medical team.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Surgery at Cardio Centre suspended -As gas conveyor is stolen

Page 32: Daily Graphic, May 8, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
SURGERY at the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has been suspended following the theft of an 80-metre gas conveyor at the centre.
The Director of the centre, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, told the Daily Graphic that since the copper pipe was stolen two weeks ago, no major operation had taken place at the centre.
The centre performs between eight and 10 major surgeries every week.
It would cost GH¢20,000 to replace the pipe at the cardio centre alone although similar thefts have been reported at other departments of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng explained that there was a general problem with the Oxygen and Compressor Air Plants at the hospital, which affected the centre and the Department of Surgery.
He said when the repairs were undertaken on the plants, it was detected that the centre was still not getting its share of compressor air, which was used to work on ventilators and anaesthetic machines among others.
He said when the technicians decided to check find out the problem, it was realised that about 80 metres of the copper pipe that conveyed medical gases to the centre had been stolen.
Asked if outsiders could have stolen the items, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said it was only insiders who could do that.
That, he explained, was because the pipes were laid underground and there were only two entrances that could be accessed by only Korle Bu staff.
Moreover, he said, the place was so dark that it needed someone who knew the tracks to do any such thing.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said money must be found to replace those pipes immediately to save lives and also prevent cases from piling up.

Panthers Unit investigations section dissolved

Page 19: Daily Graphic, May 8, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, has dissolved the investigations section of the Panthers Unit of the Ghana Police Service and asked the unit to stop handling criminal cases with immediate effect.
She said the unit was set up as an operational unit of the Police Administration at the headquarters to respond to emergencies and not to be handling criminal cases.
Mrs Mills-Robertson noted that some personnel of the unit often arrested criminals and kept them in the cells of police stations in the Accra Region, which was not their duty.
She said the personnel, like any police officers, could arrest on suspicion or facts but the person arrested must be handed over to the nearest police station for further investigations, in which case “those who effected the arrest will become witnesses and not investigators”.
According to her, “the Accra Region is not the jurisdiction of the Panthers Unit and it should, therefore, refer all cases either to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters or the nearest police command in Accra”.
She told officers and men of the unit at a meeting at the Police Headquarters yesterday that personnel of the unit had in recent times been in the news for the wrong reasons.
Mrs Mills-Robertson said the Police Administration would not tolerate any undisciplined and criminal acts by the personnel.
As a first step, she said, the Police Administration would restructure the unit and those who needed not to be there would be re-posted, stressing, “Do not think that when you are at the Panthers Unit you are untouchable.”
She said the restructuring had become more imperative with the creation of the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), since there should not be any duplication of roles.
Mrs Mills-Robertson said some of the personnel often undertook operations or exercises which did not lay in the purview of the unit and ended up bringing the image of the service into disrespect.
She expressed disappointment with the senior officers at the unit for often sending the junior ranks on errands which led them into trouble.
She said she had received reports that some of the junior ranks were often unhappy with the errands their superior officers sent them to carry, especially duties which were not part of police work.
“Do not send them to undertake any unlawful duties on your behalf anymore,” she warned.
She advised those who did not have the right attitude for police duties to apply to be given safe passage or stay in the face the consequences.
The Director-General in charge of Operations, DCOP Patrick Timbillah, said the unit was established as an intervention unit for the Police Headquarters and be an interface between the police and the military.
Unfortunately, he said, it was now handling land cases and other issues which had given it a bad name.
The Head of the unit, DSP Francis Somian, noted that some of the cases it handled had been referred to it by members of the Headquarters Management Advisory Board (HEMAB) and other senior officers.
He said the unit would comply with the directives of the IGP and stick to its core role and apologised for any embarrassment it might have caused the Police Service.

Prez subjects himself to search at Airport

Page 24: Daily Graphic, May 7, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, last Tuesday subjected himself to searches by officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) at the Kotoka International Airport, and asked them to go about their duty without fear or favour.
“I want you to do it to everybody,” he told NACOB officials who were there with officials of Operation Westbridge to carry out their work.
President Atta Mills stunned his accompanying members of his delegation, including his wife, Naadu, that their luggage should also be searched.
The action of President Atta Mills, who was on his way to the United Kingdom, is said to have been commended by the European Union (EU) Delegation to Ghana who saw it as a morale booster to the NACOB officials to do their work with confidence and also demonstrated the President’s commitment to fighting the drug menace.
On encountering the officials of NACOB, President Atta Mills asked them what they usually did at the airport and after he was briefed, he asked them to search him and all other officials accompanying him.
He said he wanted the Very Very Important Persons (VVIP) Lounge to be demystified so that people did not use it to commit crime.
President Atta Mills said the VVIP area should not be seen as a no-go area for operatives of security agencies, particularly the NACOB.
He gave the assurance that the government would help procure additional scanners for the NACOB to make their presence really felt at the airport and other points of entry, especially the Tema port and Aflao and Elubo borders.
He urged the NACOB officials to continue their good work and not allow anyone to compromise them.
The Deputy British High Commissioner in Accra, Mr Matthew Johnson, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the action of President Atta Mills had been well received by the international community in Ghana.
He said he saw the action of the President as “an act that will motivate the personnel and reassure them that the President is behind them”.
Mr Johnson said it sent a clear message that President Atta Mills was committed to fighting the drug menace and that his government would not tolerate the drug business in Ghana.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Destination Inspection companies to be probed

Page 24: Daily Graphic, May 6, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE National Security Secretariat is to investigate the operations of all destination inspection companies (DICs) in the country and explore grounds for returning their functions to the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
The investigation is to establish any anomalies associated with the operations of the DICs.
Other subjects for the investigation include the operation of the tracking system which was instituted to ensure that transit goods actually got to their destinations and reports that a lot of the transit goods were being offloaded in Kumasi and other parts of the country.
The effect of such offloading of goods within the country is a huge loss of revenue to the state. Further to that, the nature and quality of the goods so left in the country cannot be guaranteed because they are exempt from internal checks.
As a first step, the National Security Secretariat has requested for a copy of an agreement purported to have been signed between the previous government and Ghana Link Network on Sunday, December 28, 2008 to examine its contents and the obligations of the state under it.
The government’s decision to go into these matters stems from the agitation by some CEPS officials and other stakeholders that CEPS was gradually being stripped of its major functions as a security agency. Currently, its border patrol and inspection functions have been taken away from it, with the inspection duties being handled by the DICs.
What CEPS has been left with now is revenue collection, which its workers say personnel of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could easily do on behalf of the state.
They also raised concerns over the lack of transparency in the bidding process leading to the extension of the contracts to the DICs and wondered why the state invested so much in acquiring offices, gadgets and the training of personnel of CEPS to take over destination inspection, only for the state to turn around against its own policy and that of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
According to CEPS sources, under the WTO schedule of agenda, CEPS was to take over destination inspection by January 2009, while Gateway Services Limited (GSL), which was contracted in 2000 to do the work of destination inspection, was expected to wind up in 2010.
Another source within National Security also confirmed that as a result of the agitation, the National Security Secretariat had been tasked to re-examine the whole system, including vetting the companies and advising the government accordingly.
It said the National Security Co-ordinator, Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (retd), had sent a letter to the Commissioner of CEPS asking for a copy of the agreement between it and Ghana Link Ltd which resulted in the formation of the Ghana Customs Inspection Company.
It said the government wanted to block every revenue leakage as much as possible and also ensure that Ghanaians did not suffer unduly from certain policies which might see traders shifting their expenses to consumers.
In addition to the GSL which began operating in the country in 2000, three other DICs, namely, BIVAC International, Inspection and Control Services and Ghana Link Network, have also been in operation.
The DICs were initially engaged to do price qualification and classification of goods on behalf of the government, build price database for CEPS and subsequently transfer the know-how to CEPS at the end of their contract terms so that it could take over those responsibilities.

6 Cops interdicted

Page 3: Daily Graphic, May 6, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
SIX policemen, including the second in command at the Panthers Unit of the Police Headquarters, have been interdicted on the orders of the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson.
The six have been charged with alleged acts of extortion and loss of weapons.
Five of them are being held on charges of extortion and they include Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) John Tawiah Kuadey, who is the Deputy Head of the Panthers Unit.
ASP Kuadey and his accomplices, Corporal Frederick Amanor Agyemfra, Lance Cpl Francis Botchway, both of the Panthers Unit, Detective Constable Jerome Amuzu and Detective Lance Cpl Owusu Boateng, both of the CID Headquarters, are currently in custody at the Cantonments Police Station.
The sixth policeman, Detective Constable Maxwell Ahadzi of the Anyiwarese District Police Command, is in custody at the Ho Police Station where he is being held for the loss of four single-barrelled guns which were exhibits in a case he was investigating.
The Director of Police Public Affairs, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that ASP Kuadey and his group were being investigated along with five civilians for their alleged involvement in a drug deal.
He mentioned the five civilians as Ganiyu Alhassan Danjumah, John Peprah, Eric Agyemang, Francis Obeng and Clement Agbaglo.
He said the affected officers allegedly invaded a house at Nii Boi Town in Accra on April 28, 2009 to arrest the five civilians who were alleged to be transacting business in cocaine.
DSP Ofori said the policemen arrested four members of the gang but the fifth, Clement Agbaglo, alias Sky, managed to escape with two parcels of a substance suspected to be cocaine and an amount of $44,000.
According to him, Sky was later arrested at his hideout.
He when Sky was arrested, he disclosed that he had met ASP Kuadey at a location where he had allegedly given the officer $15,000, being his share of the $44,000.
He said the acting IGP, therefore, ordered the immediate arrest, detention and interdiction of the policemen, including ASP Kuadey, to assist in the investigations.
With regard to Constable Ahadzi, DSP Ofori said he claimed he left the weapons behind a cupboard in the general office, contrary to instructions that he should make entries and keep them in the armoury awaiting a court order.
He explained that three of the weapons were retrieved by officials of the Department of Wildlife in a case of hunting in a prohibited area.
He said the fourth weapon was also an exhibit in a case of attempted murder before the court.
DSP Ofori said the court had given a restitution order last week that the guns be given to the Department of Wildlife, only for Ahadzi to claim that they could not be found.
He said initially the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio-Atinga, had ordered the detention of all the policemen at the police station and added that Constable Ahadzi then owned up and said he had left the guns behind the cupboard in the general office and gone on his annual leave.
DSP Ofori said the acting IGP had made it clear that no policeman or woman was above the law and would be treated as such when found culpable in any offence.
That way, he said, personnel of the service would begin to sit up and do their work in a more professional manner.

“Speed up registration of Sim Cards”

Page 48: Daily Graphic, May 5, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE National Security Secretariat has directed mobile phone operators in the country to speed up the registration of Sim Cards to help identify customers who patronise their services.
“It is unacceptable in these times for anyone to be able to buy a sim card off the streets which cannot be traced to a specific person,” it said.
The acting Director of Public Information of the secretariat, Superintendent David Sena Eklu, said the registration of sim cards would enable the security agencies to identify those who used the technology to commit crimes.
Speaking in an interview on ‘concerns of kidnapping and other serious crimes such as ‘Sakawa’ and advanced fee fraud (419), he said if the mobile phone sim cards sold in Ghana and other countries in the sub-region were registered, the owners or users could be appropriately identified to facilitate investigations.
He said security was a need-driven effort which warranted a continuing analysis of the security situation, as well as of the predisposition of existing institutions to handle any emerging security threats.
“Our analysis of these emerging developments will dictate the required response and, therefore, the training methods, procedures and requisite equipment to deploy. We assure you that the national security agencies are on top of the situation,” he stated.
According to Supt. Eklu, the security challenges that the drilling of oil was likely to pose to the country had been anticipated and had informed policy formulation, including lessons from other oil producing countries such as Nigeria, Cameroun and Equatorial Guinea.
He observed that kidnapping had become a real threat all over the West African sub-region and said Ghana was positioned to address the challenges.
Supt. Eklu, however, said more education in personal security was required to enable the population appreciate the threat to take protective measures.
“We also advise individuals who have reasonable grounds to believe that their personal security is threatened to contact the police immediately,” he entreated the public.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Sale of government bungalows subject of 42 court cases

Page 35: Daily Graphic, May 4, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A PRIVATE Legal Practitioner, Mr Bright Akwettey, has indicated that government lands and bungalows said to have been sold to some public officials and private individuals are the subject of some 42 cases pending before the courts.
He said those who claim to have paid for them did so at their own risk.
According to him, anyone who bought either public lands or government bungalows under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration did so at their own risk, and commended the government for deciding to review the alleged sales.
Mr Akwettey was speaking in an interview on government’s intention to review those transactions and the rebuttal by former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, that it was only the Supreme Court that could review the sales.
A former State Attorney and Prosecutor, Mr Akwettey, said while it was a fact that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of former President J. J. Rawlings started the process, he indicated that it was halted when the GaDangme Council protested, warranting the Lands Commission, under the leadership of Dr Ohene Larbi, to enter into negotiations with the Council before the 2000 elections.
Unfortunately, he said, the process was halted when the NPP won the elections, and explained that when the government’s attention was drawn to it, the response was that it was an earlier policy which the government would pursue.
He referred to a July 12, 2002 advertisement in the Daily Graphic, in which the GaDangme Council cautioned the NPP government about the sale of the bungalows and served notice to the government to initiate legal process to restrain government from selling off GaDangme lands acquired compulsorily for public purposes and to recover possession of all such lands.
He said as of now, there were 42 of such cases currently pending before the courts.
He said the sale of the government bungalows and lands to private individuals and companies was a breach of Articles 1 (1) and 20 (6) of the Constitution as well as of the Oath of Minister of State. Therefore, anybody who bought bungalows or lands should be disqualified from holding public office.
Article 1 (1) of the 1992 Constitution provides that, “The sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution,” while Article 20 (6) states that, “Where the property is not used in the public interest or for the purpose for which it was acquired, the owner of the property, immediately before the compulsory acquisition, shall be given the first option for acquiring the property and shall, on such re-acquisition refund the whole or part of the compensation paid to him as provided for by law or such other amount as is commensurate with the value of the property at the time of the re-acquisition”.
Part of the Oath of Office of Ministers of State states that, “I will, to the best of my judgement, at all times when required, freely give my counsel and advice for the good management of the public affairs of the Republic of Ghana;...”
According to him, the use of the bungalows by civil servants and public officers was of benefit to all Ghanaians, while the sale of bungalows to private companies and individuals benefited only those private companies and individuals and not the general public.
He said Article 295 of the Constitution defines Public Interest as used in Article 20 (6) as “public interest includes any right or advantage which enures or is intended to enure to the benefit generally of the whole of the people of Ghana”.
Mr Akwettey said from all indications, the NPP government did not work in the public interest, but “was gang-raping public lands and property under its principle of property-owning democracy”.
He served notice to take the individual beneficiaries to court to nullify all the sales, saying “there is too much impunity in the system”.
Mr Akwettey said the NPP government could have enhanced the housing sector by creating communities or estates such as was done by Dr Nkrumah, with the creation of the Ringway Estates, Labone and Kanda, among others, while the Acheampong regime created the Dansoman and Teshie-Nungua Estates.
He said there was nothing wrong for the NPP government to have taken tracts of land to develop into estates and sell them to public officials if it so wished.
“But to sell government bungalows and lands to themselves and their cronies is unpardonable, and each one of them should be recovered. It is a gamble the beneficiaries took and they must pay the price for it,” he added.
Mr Akwettey said it was for such abuse of the system that he initiated a suit for the removal of the late Chief Justice, Mr Justice George Acquah, after he allegedly compromised with the land around the Rangoon Avenue at 37 Military Hospital area by the Lands Commission, resulting in his frustration of cases brought against the Lands Commission.
He said the NPP government was by those decisions throwing public officials to landlords to exploit and certainly bound to affect productivity.
According to him, if the colonial masters and subsequent governments had pursued such policies, there would not have been any public lands or bungalows for ministers and other officials to live in.
“I lived in a government bungalow for 21 years, and if my colleagues and I, who were in public service then, had bought those properties, would there be any government bungalows for public officials to live in?” He asked.
Mr Akwettey said the sale of the International Students Hostel to individuals was a sad commentary on the performance of the NPP government.

2 OFFICERS INTERDICTED * For professional misconduct

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 4, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
TWO senior police officers, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Danso Adei-Acheampong and Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Abanga, have been interdicted for professional misconduct.
Additionally, ACP Adei-Acheampong, who is the Hohoe Divisional Police Commander, and Chief Inspector Abanga of the same division, have been referred to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters in Accra to be investigated for possible prosecution.
They were accused of collecting GH¢6,000 from one Ernest Adzabo, a Tema-based businessman, and handed over to him exhibits retrieved from a destroyed Indian hemp farm in the Volta Region without taking any statement from him and also, not requesting of any ownership proof of the items.
The two senior police officers have also been accused of not mentioning to the court that the police had retrieved some exhibits from the original nine suspects, as well as releasing eight of them without consultation with the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), with whom the police organised a joint operation to destroy Indian hemp farms in the Hohoe Division last month.
During the exercise, six million Indian hemp plants on a 90-acre of farm land were destroyed.
Items retrieved from the farm included two gasoline generators, one water pumping machine, two compressor machines, two weighing scales, four water hoses, seven unregistered locally manufactured guns, including one which was fully loaded, a number of live ammunition, gun powder, 69 decoplast containers, two boxes of pyraquet, one bag of rice, two bags of sugar and a quantity of dried leaves believed to be Indian hemp.
Sources at the Police Headquarters told the Daily Graphic that the action against the two officers was ordered by the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, to underscore her abhorrence for corrupt and unprofessional conduct and to instil discipline as part of measures to redeem the sunken image of the Ghana Police Service.
The source said on April 26, 2009, a whistleblower called the NACOB to notify its officials of the release of the exhibits to someone believed to be a financier of the Indian hemp plantations.
The sources said when the Police Administration’s attention was drawn to it, Mrs Mills-Robertson despatched a team, including the Executive Secretary of NACOB, ACP Robert Ayalingo, the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio-Atinga, and a member of the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) Bureau to visit the Hohoe Divisional Police Command to investigate the allegation.
According to the sources, ACP Adei-Acheampong allegedly admitted releasing the items to the alleged owners with the explanation that the owners denied cultivating the Indian hemp farms and was, accordingly, advised by the investigator, Chief Insp. Abanga to release the items, including the unlicensed weapons.
They said when asked about the identity and addresses of those who claimed ownership of the items, ACP Adei-Acheampong was unable to provide any as the police failed to take statements from them.
The sources said the visiting team was also informed that Chief Insp. Abanga proceeded on leave a day after the items were handed over to Adzabo, while eight suspects were also released on bail, with the exception of one person, Kwame Agbeko, alias Bob Rasta, who was remanded by the court.
Mrs Mills-Robertson told the Daily Graphic at the weekend that the conduct of the two police officers was highly unprofessional and embarrassing.
She was hopeful that other police officers would not repeat such mistakes, but would follow laid-down procedures in handling of suspects and exhibits.
She said she had already indicated to the personnel that nobody would be allowed to tarnish the image of the service, no matter their rank.
“If you will punish a junior officer for an offence, why not a senior officer. Senior officers should be leading by example,” she added.
Commenting on the issue, ACP Ayalingo said NACOB had adopted a strategy dubbed “Operation-Search-and-Destroy” of Indian hemp plantations at this time of the year, which he described as the cultivation season.
He said 12 more locations have been identified in other parts of the country and pledged that NACOB would destroy them before the rains set in.
ACP Ayalingo appealed to district assemblies to liaise with the local police and assist in identifying Indian hemp plantations.
He said it would be to the credit of any District Chief Executive or district assembly helping to successfully fight the drug war in their areas of jurisdiction.