A 31-year-old mineworker of the Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited was electrocuted early Tuesday morning while working for the company.
Paul Agbango was killed around 4:00 a.m. Tuesday while he was working underground for a chinese mine in Upper East, witnesses told The Fourth Estate.
The Chinese mine apologised to the family Tuesday afternoon for the death of their relative in the gold-mining district in the Upper East Region.
It is the latest expression of regret in a growing string of apologies rendered over mining-related injuries and deaths recorded since 2008 when the Chinese-owned company, formerly known as Shaanxi Mining Company Limited, arrived in the district.
Before the 31-year-old mineworker joined the company on November 5, 2020, as a gathering-arm operator, 16 people had lost their lives in the mine in 2019.
“It’s so sad,” the company’s spokesperson, Ebenezer Bognaab, told The Fourth Estate as the miner’s body was being transported to the mortuary at the Upper East Regional Hospital. “We just have to empathise with the family of the deceased and allow for investigations to happen.”
He continued: “It’s unfortunate that we had to record an incident of electric shock. We are very sorry, and we empathise with the family.”
How a worker at a Chinese mine in Upper East died
A gathering arm is a tractor-like machine used for loading loose stones or gold ore.
Agbango, a native of mineral-rich Zongoyire in the Bawku West District, was electrocuted while he was using a gathering arm, per the details The Fourth Estate gathered from the mining company’s spokesperson.
“He was on a night shift. He was assigned to a working phase as usual. He had almost finished his work and was reversing to clear the muck (broken ore). In the process of reversing, the machine accidentally cut off an electric cable, exposing the cable.
“The cable got into contact with the electrified machine (the gathering arm). And that was how he got electrocuted. We have formally informed the police. The police [are] escorting the body to the mortuary. We will proceed to inform the Minerals Commission,” Mr. Bognaab explained.
Agbango (not the man in the picture) is one of many victims who had died in the mine or as a result of the mine’s activities Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
Mining in Upper East: Safety Concerns
There is a lot of gold in the belly of the earth in the district. But there is very little to show for it above the ground in terms of infrastructure.
There is only one tarred road in the entire district. While some schools in the area grapple with the shortage of furniture worried stakeholders are keenly keeping their eyes on the safety of mineworkers in the district.
Their safety concerns are rooted in a history of mine accidents that have taken breadwinners away from their families.
On May 26, 2013, gas from explosives in the mine killed three small-scale miners.
On April 2 the following year, two miners died from gas poisoining and one person was critically injured.
In October 2014, three mineworkers were pulled out dead from a collapsed pit.
In April 2015, two miners died and 8 people got injured from an explosion occasioned by the Chinese company.
The following year saw 16 miners were rushed to the Upper East Regional Hospital after they inhaled a toxic gas from a mining explosive.
In 2017, seven miners were trapped and killed many feet below ground while scooping gold ore.
Two years later, the worst disaster happened, when 16 miners were killed. Each of them frothed at the mouth after the Chinese blasted an explosive. The Minerals Commission shut down the company temporarily in the aftermath of the disaster.
Members of the area say the Chinese company has killed more than 60 people since its arrival in Talensi more than a decade ago, a number the company has repeatedly refuted.
Another Safety Assurance
When The Fourth Estate contacted the Minerals Commission Tuesday afternoon on the latest tragedy, the mining officer in charge of the district, Dickson Achindiba, said he had not been informed about it.
Agbango’s death is similar to how a Ghanaian-born Shaanxi employee died in October 2018. The miner, whose name was mentioned only as Baarn, was crushed to death underground by a huge metal-made bucket.
The company’s spokesperson at the time, Maxwell Wooma, assured the public that more measures would be put in place to ensure that workers at the mine were safe.
“You would recall that for the past three years, the mine has been safe,” Bognaab said. “Since 11th December 2019, we have not recorded a fatality. We have kept the mine so safe. Conditions of workers have improved.”
He assured: “This is one of the unfortunate incidents that we have recorded. As a mine, we will revisit our safety procedure to make sure that incidents of this nature are completely avoided.”
Looking back at history, some residents in the region feel a tragedy may strike again in the mine in the future. But they are not sure which family would receive the next apology from the company.
Meanwhile, the Upper East Regional Police Command has confirmed the incident and said the case is being investigated by the Talensi District Police.
When the government contacted the Paramount Chief of Bongo, Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, about a decade ago for a piece of land to put up a community information centre, he gladly granted the request without hesitation.
He welcomed the project as a way of improving computer literacy in the Bongo District.
But his joy gave way to regret when the government abandoned the project after completion.
“It was going to be an ICT centre and a post office at the same time. The place was fully constructed. Many years down the line, there has been no handover until it deteriorated,” he told The Fourth Estate.
The land was given for free. But the structure took thousands of Ghana cedis to construct.
“How can we in this country do all these things? We waste so much money to put up a facility but at the end of the day nothing is done,” complained the chief.
While the chief is lamenting the deterioration of the centre, several state-run schools in the district do not have computers for their information communication technology (ICT) lessons.
One such school―Abelinzanga Junior High School― uses a table drawer to represent a central processing unit (CPU) during ICT sessions.
The school is situated near Ghana’s border with Burkina Faso and has children from communities in the French-speaking country joining their Ghanaian counterparts every day to learn.
The schoolchildren say they have never seen a desktop computer and how it works.
Despite the lack of a computer, the children write ICT as a subject at the crucial Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) every year.
“It is even closer to the Bongo Senior High School and a cluster of schools,” said the chief, referring to the state-abandoned community information centre.
“The schools would have made good use of the facility, especially if computers are put there and the internet is connected to the it.”
Church takes over Bongo’s community information centre
The centre in Bongo was being used as a brothel and public toilet-until-a-church -took-over the building.
For some years, the community information centre in Bongo stood in ruins after its completion in 2012.
The building was converted by some faceless persons into a brothel. Used condoms were often spotted in the rooms.
A section of the facility also became a public place of convenience. And by 2017, about 450 louvre blades and several doors had gone missing from the structure.
At present, the Reconciliation Power Ministry has taken over the building. The Fourth Estate recently joined the church’s regular worshippers for a Sunday service. The ceiling and other fittings have peeled off despite the fact that it has never been used for its intended purpose since completion.
Bush and reptiles take over Navrongo’s community information centre
The community information centre in Bongo is not the only such facility that government has constructed and abandoned.
There are several other places across the country where the government, in the interest of bridging the digital literacy gap, constructed the facilities through the Ghana Investment Fund Electronic Communications (GIFEC).
GIFEC Administrator, Prince Ofosu Sefa Credit: Asaase
The community information centre in Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality is currently rotting away.
The centre stands in ruins on a bushy plot along the main road that leads to the main Ghana-Burkina Faso border at Paga. A pair of gates that was mounted at the facility for security purposes has lost one of its wings. The wing is fallen and rusting on the ground. The damaged side allows anybody into the unkempt compound at any time.
The burglarproof bars erected across the doors are padlocked. One of the bars fixed against the louvred windows is partly broken. The wire mesh behind that broken bar is bent in a manner that suggests the centre might have been raided and looted. The bars and their padlocks themselves are rusting away.
The life that once drew the public to the centre has gone missing. For now, the occupants of the facility are insects― some of which have made mu d nests on the building― and lizards― which hang out there regularly to feed on the insects.
The only part of the facility that still appears to be in shape is its wire-mesh fence. But one of the metal poles that support the fence is bent frontwards. That pole is about to fall completely.
Community information centre in Talensi turned into dumping ground
Entering the community information centre in Talensi, a mineral-rich district in the Upper East Region, to check its state was riskier.
There is widespread filth inside the centre’s multiple rooms. While going around the facility, The Fourth Estate sighted in those rooms women’s handbags, National Identification Authority (NIA) cards, voter identity cards, e-zwich biometric smartcards, hats, footwear, clothes and empty beer bottles among other items scattered all over the place.
One of the rooms inside the community information centre in Talensi.
Inside the abandoned centre in Talensi.
One of the identity cards spotted inside the community information centre in Talensi.
An identity card spotted inside the community information centre in Talensi.
A window of the community information centre in Talensi.
A room inside the community information centre in Talensi.
The community information centre in Talensi.
The white inner parts of the building’s walls are covered in graffiti, scribbled anonymously with charcoal. A number of the doors, generally coated with blue gloss paint, hang half-broken, with their remaining halves still hinged to their doorposts. Overhead are sections of a plywood ceiling, rotting away.
All the sockets are switchless and are partly covered in dust and cobwebs. Wires of different colours and lengths, untidily twisted together, stick out from some of the sockets in large quantities like the fibrous roots of a mature plant thoroughly exposed by soil erosion.
GES takes possession of Nabdam’s community information centre
The community information centre built by the Mills administration in Nabdam, another district in the Upper East Region, stands on the edge of an ECOWAS road.
It is located in Kongo, the hometown of the current Member of Parliament (MP) for Nabdam, Dr Mark Kurt Nawaane.
The facility was reportedly well furnished― and it once functioned. It was offering training among other key services to members of the Nabdam communities, per the information The Fourth Estate gathered.
But things ground to a halt at the facility after a new government took over in 2017. For a long time, the building was under lock and key.
Later, the centre became a ‘free guest house’ for any tertiary students who chose the district to undertake field programmes and needed temporary accommodation during their presence in the district.
Even with the tertiary students occasionally lodging there, the ‘free guest house’ was denied the maintenance it needed.
The Ghana Education Service now occupies the centre in Nabdam.
The decay process was cut short when the MP, reportedly out of goodwill, renovated the structure for the Ghana Education Service (GES) in 2018. The GES currently has no office block of its own in the district.
The MP redesigned and rebranded the abandoned community information centre and handed it to the GES. That is where the district education office is housed today. But the whereabouts of the centre’s equipment are unknown.
“It was left there. Rodents and reptiles practically took over the place. Externally it was looking like a building but we had to change a lot of things― the roofing sheets, the woodwork, wiring, painting and plumbing work.
“I used my GETFund (Ghana Education Trust Fund). I practically used the whole money, which was about Gh¢60,000 to renovate the place. It was a lot of money at that time. We secured the permission of the District Assembly before we did that renovation,” the MP told The Fourth Estate.
GNAT secures room in abandoned community information centre in Bawku West
When The Fourth Estate met Ali Mudasiru, a middle-aged shopkeeper, along a road in Zebilla, the hilly capital of the Bawku West District, and asked him for directions to the community information centre in the area, his immediate answer was a question.
“What are you going there to do?”
“Somebody just wants to meet with those in charge,” replied The Fourth Estate.
Without further question, he burst into a prolonged gurgle of laughter.
“Oh, boy! I’ve not seen anybody there since I came to settle in this district many years ago,” he said as his laughter faded out. “The place has been locked for a very long time.”
The centre in the Bawku West District is under lock and key, too.
The centre in the Bawku West District is under lock and key, too.
This is a window at the centre in the Bawku West District.
When The Fourth Estate entered the premises, the amount of dust and the thickness of the cobwebs seen on the doors of the centre confirmed the clue in Mudasiru’s laughter.
The structure is designed to accommodate both the community information centre and a district office of the Ghana Post. The postal office on that block is operating. But the side meant for the community information centre is firmly locked.
Nonetheless, the Ghana Post has a neighbour on the block― the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), which occupies an inner section of the structure.
Mentally ill man resides in abandoned community information centre in Bolgatanga
One of the rooms of the abandoned centre in Bolgatanga is now being used to store commercial firewood
The block constructed for the community information centre in Sandema, capital of the Builsa North Municipality, is not being used for the original purpose.
It is found next to a building used as a base by the Builsa North Municipal Police Command.
A person travelling on the main road from Navrongo to the office block of the Builsa North Municipal Assembly would come to the structure just before turning right towards the assembly’s premises.
Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a non-governmental organisation, is using the building as its office quarters.
The signboard of the National Youth Authority (NYA) is on the frontage of the structure. The NYA occupied the building some time ago, The Fourth Estate learns. But despite the fact that the structure is occupied by the charity organisation, it still looks abandoned― particularly when the doors are closed.
“It’s embarrassing that ICT is no longer in the building. The computers are no more in the building,” remarked the Assembly Member for the Sandema Abil-Yeri Electoral Area, Malik Adaambiik.
The community information centre in the Bolgatanga Municipality is in the same state as the one in the Bawku West District.
The abandoned building is along the main highway in Bolgatanga, facing a yet-to-be-developed large piece of land near the municipal office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
While some windows are without louvre blades, lamp holders are hanging without bulbs from the ceilings and the walls. A room with a broken burglarproof and without a door has been converted into a store where commercial firewood is kept.
There is no one inside the structure except a calm mentally ill young man who regularly sleeps on its veranda and wakes up every morning to write down his ideas and thoughts on one of the many crumpled pieces of paper mostly found around him.
From ‘the White House’ to ‘a White Elephant’― the state of the centre in Tumu
The abandoned centre in Tumu is under lock and key.
The condition of the red-roofed community information centre in Sissala East, a district in the Upper West Region, is of worry to residents, including the MP for the Sissala East Constituency, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku.
The abandoned structure is found beside a police station on the Hilla Limann Road.
Its spotless all-white coat and the round twin pillars in front had inspired some residents to label it “the White House”.
Many say it was such a delight to the eye until it was abandoned to rot away. Surrounded by a wire-mesh fence, the structure is seen today as a blot on a road named after a former president of Ghana.
After losing its original glow, the building also lost its popular tag― “the White House”. But because it is still white, some residents now refer to it in its abandoned state as “a white elephant”.
“There is a collaboration between GIFEC and the Assembly to do it,” the MP for the Sissala East Constituency told The Fourth Estate.
“The Assembly was supposed to provide some materials for rehabilitation; then, GIFEC would bring in computers and other accessories. The assembly didn’t fulfill its part. I have spoken with the [fellow] from GIFEC. We are talking so that the assembly can provide those materials and, then, they can do it.”
The staff of Yendi’s community information centre are unknown
The centre in Yendi has remained locked for a long time.
The staff of the community information centre in Wa still come to work.
Situated opposite the Upper West Regional Library, the structure still looks fairly good, too.
But the centre has been stomaching some chronic challenges in silence. It has no funds to repair damaged machines. There is no cash to restore its collapsed internet service. And, for lack of funds, it has suspended the training programmes it is mandated to undertake for the general public.
Tamale, the Northern Region’s metropolitan capital, has its community information centre constructed only a few metres away from the premises of the High Courts. The facility is operational. But just as is the situation in Wa, the centre in Tamale is plagued by a longstanding internet blackout.
The community information centre in Yendi, a municipality in the Northern Region, shares the same condition as its remote counterpart in the Bawku West District. It is another property that has been forsaken by its proprietor― the government.
Three other agencies coexist in that building, providing some crucial services to the area. A branch of the Ghana Post, which was commissioned in 2012, occupies a front section of the square-shaped structure. The backside of the building is shared by the Ghana National Service Scheme (GNSS) and a media firm, Dasuma Radio.
The doors of the facility were padlocked and layered with dust when The Fourth Estate visited Yendi. The other agencies were busy in their own corners. None of the officials of those agencies could tell the whereabouts of the centre’s staff.
The Presiding Member of the Yendi Municipal Assembly, Hussein Abdul-Karim, benefited from one of the training programmes the centre organised before it suddenly ceased to operate. He is among a number of persons who feel sad today in the municipality about the state of the facility.
“Their machines broke down. They wrote to the government for support but up to date [no favourable action has been taken]. The machines are not working. That’s why we are where we are. Nothing is going on there for more than 8 years now. Meanwhile, it is the taxpayer’s money they used in buying all these things,” he lamented.
One bag of charcoal is GH₵90. A 14.5kg of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) is GH₵240. What will you opt for?
That was the disturbing reality that confronted me last Sunday when my wife called out from the kitchen to announce the sudden death of the flames under the food she was cooking.
Our backup cylinder was also empty.
Weeks before, she had prompted me to fill the standby cylinder to prevent the situation we found ourselves in. I had procrastinated the journey because of the long drive involved. Of late, almost every Ghanaian, except those who get free fuel, keep their eyes on the fuel gauge.
For years, I have preached to my wife and all those willing to listen about the havoc we wreak on the environment any time we light coal pots.
LPG vs charcoal prices
I’m an avowed tree hugger and deeply loyal to LPG. Yes, LPG is a fossil-fuel product. But it is much cleaner. Besides lower CO2 emissions, LPG doesn’t release pollutants, including soot, that have an immediate effect on the environment.
Of late, however, the increasing cost of LPG means re-examining our options. In January last year, 14.5kg of LPG gas was GH₵ 67. By March it jumped to GH₵89. In October, it was GH₵130.
LPG price have shot up astronomically Source: Pulse
Since then, the steep climb has continued. From January last year to now, the cost of LPG gas has almost quadrupled.
If the government had been true to itself, it would have realised that it would struggle to attain the 50% LPG access for Ghanaians by 2030, which is the target of the National LPG Promotion Policy.
Statistics from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) indicate that as of October 2022, only 36.9% of Ghana’s more than 30 million population use LPG. This is up from 24.5% in 2017.
The NPA’s Chief Executive, Dr Mustapha Hamid, attributed it to “… challenges such as slow uptake in particularly low-income areas, affordability, accessibility, non-adherence to safety requirements by some operators, old and unsafe cylinders, among others.”
More and more people are switching to charcoal because of the cost of LPG. Comparatively, charcoal is cheaper. For my household, 14.5kg of LPG lasts a month. That is an average of GHc8 daily. Assuming a bag of charcoal could serve us for a month, it means we could spend only GHc 3 on cooking fuel.
This is the push factor for all those adopting charcoal. It is cheaper for the home and easily accessible as well. Although environmentally expensive, there are healthier options, including charcoal briquettes, made from bamboo and other fast-growing trees. However, these options are largely untapped.
Health hazards of charcoal use
Apart from the environmental degradation that comes with charcoal production, there are health hazards too.
Experts say charcoal contains chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have the potential to cause cancer and other serious health problems when consumed over a long period.
PAHs are a group of hundreds of different compounds that are produced during the incomplete combustion of carbon-based materials, including gasoline and wood. They have also been found in cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, and coal emissions. Sources of contamination include the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat. Studies suggest that long-term exposure to low levels of PAHs can be toxic to humans and cause reproductive problems, brain damage, and cancer.
Experts warn that long-term exposure to charcoal fire could have devastating impact on health Source: Shutterstock
The World Health Organisation estimates that about 5% of cancers in the world are caused by smoking or exposure to other carcinogenic substances, such as PAHs. The exact association between cancer and PAHs is not well understood. However, some evidence suggests that they promote the formation of tumours by interfering with the action of enzymes in the body.
In short, charcoal is not safe. But we are cutting down more trees to burn more of it.
And even more in search of gold.
Illegal miners have destroyed vast forests in search of gold Source: CitiNewsroom
In 2021, the government launched the Green Ghana project as part of an aggressive national afforestation/reforestation programme to restore the lost forest cover of Ghana and to contribute to the global effort to mitigate climate change.
It became a media confection because the government had some impressive figures to sell. According to the Forestry Commission, more than 25 million trees had been planted in the last two years.
While the president and his praise singers milked the political advantage that comes with the green investment, illegal miners are mowing down more trees in our forests.
A talk not walked
At the ongoing Climate Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, President Akufo-Addo wore verbal gloves in demanding that the West redeem its loss and damage pledges.
Although Africa has been tagged vulnerable because the economy of all African countries is nature-based enterprises, President Akufo-Addo believes Africa remains the vanguard of hope against climate change.
“With her vast land, Africa has the greatest potential to help decarbonise the world by absorbing carbon dioxide through regenerative agriculture that requires less fertiliser and reforestation with strong biodiversity content.
“My government is proud to announce that Ghana will launch projects in these areas, which will tackle at the same time climate change on global and domestic levels and social issues by providing people with dignified and sustainable jobs,” the president said.
However, the President is not walking the talk back home. Illegal miners, including brazen ones from his party and his government’s decision to mine in the Atewa Forest for bauxite, are robbing the country of the very forest and biodiversity he touted to world leaders.
It has been weeks since the Mineral Commission revealed that Akonta Mining, a company belonging to the governing party’s Ashanti Regional chairman, was illegally mining in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
But beyond burning some properties at the site, Bernard Antwi Bosiako, popularly called Chairman Wontumi, is walking a free man.
In a story with a similar plot, the Energy Commission decided not to pursue another case of illegality against another NPP Chairman.This time, it involved Dela Zuttah, the party’s Afadzata South Constituency chairman in the Volta Region. He was involved in a planned shipment of 21 containers of charcoal, which the commission described as the biggest consignment of illegal charcoal it has ever seized.
These two incidents and many others do not portray a government that would want to go an extra length to protect our environment. This reflects in the cost of LPG and the other unpunished illegalities in our forests.
Ghana is currently experiencing what experts say is the biggest onslaught on the environment through illegal mining. Not tackling these and talking big at climate change conferences is meaningless.
Climate change is real. It is washing away communitiesalong our coast. It is making weather patterns too unpredictable for our farmers to plan, thereby threatening food security. Tropical diseases are going up because of increasing warm weather.
While the government cannot control all the drivers of climate change, it has the power to ensure that LPG prices are within the means of households and that the wanton destruction of our forest for charcoal is reduced.
Averagely, Ghana’s crime rate has been on the rise since 2018. According to the 2021 public safety and crime report, violent crimes rose by 40.8% from 2020 to 2021. The same report indicates that the leading forms of violent crimes in the country were manslaughter, armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Criminal investigation is gradually becoming a very rigorous process throughout the world. The police rely on experts from various fields to successfully get to the bottom of what happens during the occurrence of crime. One of the factors that have contributed to the general rigor in criminal investigation is the lack of public and police forensic awareness in general.
Ghana Police Service Forensic Lab Source: Ghana Police Service
The Ghana Police Service commissioned the Forensic Science Laboratory in 2011 to improve criminal investigation in Ghana. This, being progress, has its own challenges, especially in crime and forensic awareness of the police and the general public
Data from the Ghana Police Service indicates that at least 200,000 complaints are reported annually since 2016. This means that on average, about 547 crimes are reported daily and 22 on an hourly basis
It is important to increase education and awareness to the public on the dos and don’ts in order to avoid self-incrimination and obstruction of justice.
Forensic awareness is thus important in preserving evidence that eventually leads to the proper delivery of justice.
Types of crime scenes and how to recognize them
Indoor types
Indoor crime scenes are usually within an enclosed, covered or roofed area like a bedroom, enclosed garage, classroom, kitchen, cabinet among others. This can also be a place where a crime has been committed, which includes an indoor space which has evidence from a crime like a rubber bag containing a bloody knife stuck under a bed.
One must note that the entire area of a crime scene might not be limited by what is seen by a victim or a witness of a crime or its scene. For instance, when a crime occurs in the master bedroom of a two-bedroom self-contained apartment, the entire apartment is considered a crime scene by the law enforcement agency in charge of the investigation.
Sometimes, this might also extend to places beyond that apartment. It is the job of law enforcement to establish the entire area of the crime scene. It is also important to note that if any suspicious object, instrument or mark such as a gun, a bloody knife, a blood-soaked towel or bedspread or towel, a bloody footprint or handprint, particularly one suspected of being part of a crime is found within an enclosed area, that place is to be considered a crime scene until otherwise confirmed.
Some odd indoor scenes
Trafficking
Crime scenes are not always bloody red. Recently, attention has been called to the rise of kidnapping and human trafficking in Ghana. These types of crimes do not always present the types of crime scenes the ordinary citizen is used to. Extra vigilance is needed to spot these types of crimes to report them.
Cyber fraud
most cyber fraudsters operate in groups Source: MyNewsGH
Data from the Ghana Police Service’s cybercrime bureau suggests that the most prevalent cybercrime in Ghana is cyber fraud, which accounts for more than 45% of all cybercrime-related cases.
It is important to look at it from an indoor crime scene perspective. Most cybercrimes are committed by actors from within a room. Besides this, most cyber fraudsters have been found to operate in groups. The public is encouraged to be vigilant when one sees a lot of people inhabiting a location and in possession of lots of computing devices such as laptops, webcams, routers and modems.
Terrorism
Because this form of crime hinges on publicity, its telltale signs are loud, just not before it is orchestrated. The variability in the way it is carried out makes it a bit challenging to spot especially in an indoor context. Here is something worth noting though: it is advisable for one to be suspicious when encountering a stockpile of unidentified crates in an indoor space. Large volumes of nitrate-based fertilizer (urea, ammonia, nitrates) in an indoor space especially one not owned by a farmer.
Outdoor crime scenes
Just like it sounds, an outdoor crime scene is an environmentally exposed location where a crime has been committed like a compound, on the road, a park, an exposed farm, a backyard garden, scenes of motor accidents, disasters, explosions and natural disasters.
Because of the level of environmental exposure, evidence from outdoor is at the mercy of environmental conditions.
Some odd outdoor scenes
Clandestine labs
Clandestine labs are used to produce illicit drugs. Because of the possible danger such actors might pose, it is unlikely that an outsider would find himself inside. Some of the signs of having a clandestine lab include having a high frequency of pungent emissions from an enclosed house, frequent generation and disposal of a lot of refuse and a consistently high level of security.
The conveyance scene
Crimes that occur on moving means of transportation are conveyance crimes. Examples could be vans (trotros), taxis, trains, planes, canoes, boats, ships etc. Basically, any crime which occurs aboard any form of vehicle is considered a conveyance crime. Car snatching and hijacking also form part of this category.
Some other things worth discussing
The electronic crime scene
The advent of information technology in light of Covid-19 has increased our reliance on electronic devices and the internet. Because of their rising nature and the generally low rate of cybersecurity awareness, it is likely a greater part of the population has already interacted with an electronic crime scene.
The commonest of such attacks are social engineering schemes in which victims or targets are called to give critical information that renders their digital security vulnerable. Other forms of attacks including the deployment of various malware to access information and hold a device or organization hostage all have one thing in common.
They involve digital devices such as mobile phones, laptop and desktop computers, smart watches and emerging domestic Internet of Things devices that store data valuable to investigation.
The human body
Certain crimes, leave valuable evidence on the human body. Sexual crimes such as rape and defilement tend to leave valuable but transient forms of evidence on the bodies of the victim or perpetrator of the crime. In such cases, it is imperative to note the evidential value of the victim and take the necessary steps to not lose them.
Despite the various forms of evidence mentioned, it is important to note that even the most organized crimes do not always go as planned and most often than not, a single crime may transcend two or more types of crime scenes.
The writer of this report, Sedem Kwasigah, is a Fellow of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship at the Media Foundation for West Africa.
“Zoomlion is also alleged to be involved with a bogus Malaria Control Programme with the NHIS and has a preferential payment treatment over suppliers of services to the scheme, such as private medical practitioners/clinics and pharmacies. This year alone, Zoomlion is alleged to have been paid GH¢35 million at the expense of providers of critical services to NHIS. No wonder the scheme has collapsed under John Mahama’s watch”.
The above was the concern of the then-opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at a press conference held on November 16, 2016, less than a month to the December 2016 Elections.
The press conference, which was addressed by the party 2016 Campaign’s policy Advisor, Boakye Agyarko, was organized to expose the erstwhile Mahama government’s shady dealings with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management company.
The NPP led, by its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was worried about how the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government headed by John Dramani Mahama, continued to waste the country’s scarce resources through dubious contracts with companies such as Zoomlion and its sister companies.
Zoomlion’s involvement in corruption scandals
Zoomlion and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Joseph Siaw Agyepong, who is also the Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies (parent company of Zoomlion), gained notoriety for their roles in most of the corruption scandals that hit the Mahama administration.
The infamous Subah Scandal, which broke out in 2013, involved one of Mr. Siaw Agyepong’s companies, Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited.
Subah Infosolutions, an IT firm, was contracted by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2010 to provide telecom traffic monitoring services for the state agency.
But investigations by Samuel Agyemang of Metro TV uncovered that even though the firm was paid a whopping GH¢144 million, it failed to render the services for which it received the payments. The journalist was stopped from publishing the investigations, so he posted it on YouTube and resigned from the station, which was later bought by the Jospong Group.
The government at the time, however, disputed the figure, stating that it paid the firm GH¢75 million and not GH¢144 million as reported by the media. A committee, which the government subsequently set up to investigate the matter, said there was a valid contract, but it could not prove that the company had done the work to merit the payment.
In 2013 the GYEEDA Scandal exposed by Manasseh Azure Awuni who was with Joy FM at the time, Zoomlion and other subsidiaries of the Jospong Group were implicated in various financial malfeasance and fraudulent deals.
The Ministerial Committee, which was set up by the government to probe the scandal after the media reports, found Zoomlion and its sister companies to have received millions of cedis as payments for works they did not do and duping hard-working but poor Ghanaians who were engaged under various modules of the agency.
The Committee recommended the abrogation of all the contracts under GYEEDA including those awarded to Zoomlion and its sister firms and the companies, as well as individuals involved sanctioned.
The government took some actions on the committee’s recommendations, cancelling many of the contracts and prosecuting a businessman, Philip Assibit, who received GH¢4 million as payment for services he and his company did not render and also, a former National Coordinator of GYEEDA, Abuga Pele, for aiding Mr. Assibit to defraud the state.
Abuga Pele (left) and Assibit jwere ailed 18 years for causing financial loss to the state
However, it neither abrogated the contracts with Zoomlion nor took any action against the company and its CEO. What it did, instead, was to reward the company with more dubious contracts that allowed it to continue to milk the state.
What the NPP said about the scandals involving Zoomlion while in opposition
The NPP, at its press conference, concluded that the government could not apply any punitive measure against Zoomlion and its CEO because the president, John Dramani Mahama was neck-deep in their fraudulent activities.
For Nana Akufo-Addo, the GYEEDA and Subah scandals were proof of the president and his government’s involvement in grand acts of corruption.
He described the actions taken by the Mahama administration as a “sham” and promised to jealously protect the public purse and retrieve every single penny the government and its friends had stolen as well as prosecute them if Ghanaians voted him in the elections.
NPP in Government
When Akufo-Addo came into office in 2017, he visited some of Mr. Siaw Agyepong’s businesses and showered praises on him.
The president, during the visit, described the allegations of corruption against the businessman and his companies, which he used to campaign for his election, as controversies which “come with being at the forefront of doing businesses”, and went ahead to express his confidence in him.
Anti-graft crusaders condemned the president’s comments, arguing that his utterances were not only a betrayal of the trust Ghanaians reposed in him but an endorsement of corruption.
The president and his government in subsequent actions reinforced the sentiments of the crusaders.
In 2017, under President Akufo-Addo’s watch, an investigative report by JoyNews’ Manasseh Azure Awuni unearthed fresh allegations of corruption against the Jospong Group.
The report revealed that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had signed contracts worth GH¢98 million with 11 subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies to undertake fumigation exercise across the country when Zoomlion Ghana Limited had already been paid by the district assemblies and the Ministry of Health to do the same job through multiple contracts.
It further exposed how the Jospong Group of Companies inflated a waste bin contract awarded to it through sole-sourcing by at least GH¢130 million.
Hundreds of waste bins did not get to the intended beneficiaries Credit: Myjoyonline
Following the exposé, the police launched an investigation into the matter and subsequently submitted a docket to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General.
But Nana Akufo- Addo, just like former president Mahama, has turned a blind eye to the sins Mr. Siaw Agyepong and his Jospong Group of Companies have committed. Rather, he has led his government to reward the business for, probably, defrauding the state with impunity, by renewing most of the shady contracts.
A Finance Ministry’s response to an RTI request by The Fourth Estate also revealed that the Akufo-Addo government has disbursed all GH¢156 million of the over GH¢264 million realized from the Sanitation and Pollution Levy imposed on Ghanaians to Sewerage Systems GH. Ltd, another company of Mr. Agyepong.
Zoomlion’s ongoing contract with government
Zoomlion GH. Ltd has 2 major contracts – Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP) and Fumigation – aside the Youth in Sanitation contract, with the various MMDAs across the country, currently running.
These contracts were first signed under John Agyekum Kufuor administration and have been renewed under the current government.
The Auditor-General (A-G), in its annual report on the management and utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds, has, on countless occasions, cited the waste management company for various contract breaches.
In most cases, the A-G recommended stoppage of payments to the company and refund of monies it unduly received. And in some cases, an abrogation of the contracts.
However, the administrator of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) continues to deduct from the Assemblies’ share of the DACF at source and pay to Zoomlion GH. Ltd without even ascertaining, in almost all cases, whether the company has rendered services to or has valid contracts with the assemblies to merit the payments.
This has resulted in payments made to the company for absolutely no work done or in a number of cases, without contractual agreements.
Zoomlion receives undue payments to the tune of GH¢40.4 million between 2017 and 2020
In its report on the 2020 Management and Utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds, the Auditor General said the payments were illegal and unconstitutional
The Fourth Estate’s analysis of the A-G’s report for the years; 2018, 2019 and 2020 indicates that the state lost, at least, GH¢40.5 million to Zoomlion GH. Ltd in payments unduly made to the company.
This includes an amount of GH¢30,590,415.58 the company received as payments for works it failed to execute and another, GH¢9,871,090.00 paid to it without any contractual agreement.
In a related development in 2020, the Auditor-General asked Zoomlion to cough up GHc 95 million, which one of its waste management subsidiaries, Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited, received from the DACF.
The state’s chief auditor ordered the Administrator of the DACF, Irene Naa Torshie Addo, to recover the fund which went into waste treatment plant construction by the Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL).
SSGL has been receiving the funds since 2016 without any legal backing, the Auditor-General said. However, the payment of GHc 19 million in 2020, being an outstanding amount for the GHc 95 million, triggered an enquiry by the Auditor-General.
Most of these payments were made between 2017 and 2020.
However, there are many instances in the reports that the A-G could not determine the value of payments unduly made to the company.
This means the total amount of money the state has lost to Zoomlion Gh. Ltd within the period could be way more than this figure.
For the year 2021, even though the company committed similar contractual breaches, resulting in financial losses to the state, the A-G, in all instances of such infractions, failed to quantify the value of the losses.
The Fourth Estate, in this report, details specific instances Mr. Siaw Agyepong’s Zoomlion. Ltd received payments for no work done and other instances, without contractual agreements, resulting in financial losses to the state and depriving the assemblies, whose shares of the Common Fund are deducted at source paid to Zoomlion.
Undue payments to Zoomlion cited in A-G’s report for 2018
The A-G’s report for 2018 indicates that unwarranted payments to Zoomlion Gh. Ltd amounted to GH¢16,073,430.41.
Of this amount, GH¢14,988,980.41 was dished out to the company for absolutely no work done whiles GH¢1,084,450.00 was paid to it when it had no contractual agreements with those assemblies it took the payments from.
The table summarizes undue payments the company received as cited in the 2018 A-G’s report.
Number
Assembly
No work done (GH¢)
No contract
(GH¢)
1.
Kumasi
Metropolitan
281,750.00
2.
Asokore Mampong
Municipal
207,000.00
3.
Offinso North
District
82,800.00
4.
Asokwa Municipal
207,000.00
5.
Kwadaso Municipal
103,500.00
6.
Adansi Asokwa
District
165,600.00
7.
Afigya Kwabre
North District
165,600.00
8.
Akrofuom District
165,600.00
9.
Atwima Nwabiagya
North District
82,800.00
10.
Obuasi East District
165,600.00
11.
Tafo Municipal
207,000.00
12.
Suame Municipal
207,000.00
13.
Oforikrom
Municipal
207,000.00
14.
Mampong Municipal
84,000.00
15.
Techiman Municipal
557,600.00
46,000.00
16.
Asikuma
Odoben
Brakwa
27,800.00
17.
Abura Asebe
Kwamankese
740,600.00
18.
KEEA
144,000.00
19.
Twifo Atti Morkwa
*946,450.00
20.
Awutu Senya East Municipal
20,440.00
21.
Cape Coast Metropolitan, Assin Foso Municipal and Assin South District
336,907.41
22.
Atiwa west District
241,500.00
23.
Birim North Municipal
483,000.00
24.
Akyemansa District
322,000.00
25.
Abuakwa North Municipal
165,600.00
26.
Fanteakwa North District
402,500.00
27.
Atiwa East District
84,533.00
28.
Denkyenbour District
579,350.00
29.
Kwaebibirem District
993,600.00
30.
Upper West Akim Municipal
869,400.00
31.
West Akim Municipal
414,000.00
32.
Birim South District
1,314,000.00
33.
Fanteakwa South District
165,600.00
34.
Ayawaso West Municipal
92,000
35.
Mion District
80,500.00
36.
Tolon District
638,250.00
37.
Savelugu Municipal
414.000.00
38.
Tamale Metropolitan
16,300.00
39.
Sawla Tuna Kalba District
1,242,000.00
40.
Gushegu District
402,500.00
41.
Chereponi District
402,500.00
42.
Karaga District
362,250.00
43.
Saboba District
362,250.00
44.
Sagnarigu Municipal
828,000.00
45.
Ketu South Municipal
45,750.00
Total
14,988,980.41
1,084,450
Grand total
16,073,430.41
Undue payments to Zoomlion cited in 2019 A-G’s report
The 2019 A-G’s report indicates that about GH¢17,008,310.67 of state funds was lost to Zoomlion Ghana Ltd. in payments unjustifiably made to the company.
GH¢8,821,971.67 of this amount were payments made to the company for absolutely no work done and the remainder, GH¢8,186,339.00 was paid to it without contractual agreements.
Below is a tabular representation of instances of undue payments made to Zoomlion as cited in the report for 2019.
Number
Assembly
No work done
(GH¢)
No contract
(GH¢)
1.
Afigya Kwabre North
80,500.00
2.
Asokwa
206,000.00
3.
Atwima Nwabiagya
80,500.00
4.
Kumasi Metropolitan
299,000.00
5.
Bosome Freho District
157,780.00
6.
Bekwai Municipal
38,125.00
7.
Sekyere Central District
201,250.000
8.
Berekum West District
414,000
9.
Atebubu-Amantin
414,000.00
10.
Pru East
414,000.00
11.
Pru West
414,000.00
12.
Kintampo North
517,500.00
13.
Nkoranza South
310,500.00
14.
Assin North District
82,800.00
15.
Gomoa West District Assembly
237,300
16.
Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Municipal
172,500.00
17.
Effutu Municipal
22,500.00
18.
Upper Denkyira East Municipal
138,000.00
19.
Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District
248,400.00
20.
New Juaben North Municipal
201,250.00
21.
Akuapem North Municipal
191,666.67
22.
Weija-Gbawe Municipal
517,500.00
23.
Ayawaso West Municipal
517,500.00
24.
Ayawaso North Municipal
230,000.00
25.
Mamprugu Maogduri District
161,000.00
26.
Yoyoo Nansuan
414,000.00
27.
Bunkprugu Nakpanduri
165,600.00
28.
Karaga District
505,310.00
29.
Tatali/Sanguli District
161,000.00
30.
Zabzugu District
161,000.00
31.
Kunbungu District
414,000.00
32.
East Gonja Municipal
510,600.00
33.
North East Gonja District
55,200.00
34.
Pusiga
165,600.00
35.
Bongo
165,600.00
36.
Binduri
165,600.00
37.
Builsa North
414,000.00
38.
Kassena Nankana West
331,200.00
39.
Tempane District
496,800.00
40.
Bolgatanga East
203,550.00
41.
Bawku West District and Bawku Municipal
266,000
42.
Wa West District
170,200.00
161,000.00
43.
Nadowli/Kaleo District
85,100.00
44.
Wa East District
127,650.00
45.
Adaklu
424,529.00
46.
Ho Municipal
517,500.00
47.
Ketu North
414,000.00
48.
Hohoe Municipal
517,500.00
49.
Nzema East
517,500.00
50.
Sekondi Takoradi
506,000.00
51.
Amenfi Central
414,000.00
52.
Amenfi West
414,000.00
53.
Jomoro
201,250.00
54.
Mpohor
40,250.00
55.
Tarkwa Nsuaem
46,000.00
56.
Nzema East
200,000.00
57.
Bia East
201,250.00
58.
Bia West
414,000.00
59.
Bibiani
371,450.00
60.
Sefwi Akontombra District
201,250.00
61.
Asutifi South District
201,250.00
Total
8,821,971.67
8,186,339.00
Grand total
17,008,310.67
Undue payments to Zoomlion cited A-G’s report for2020
The A-G’s report for 2020 reveals that a total amount of GH¢7,379,764.50 was unduly paid to Zoomlion Ghana.
Of this amount, GH¢6,779,463.50 was paid to the company for no work done while the remaining GH¢600,301.00 was paid to it when there was no existing contract to warrant the payment.
Below is a tabular representation of instances of undue payments made to Zoomlion as cited in the report for 2020.
When President John Mahama sat behind the microphones of the Twin City Radio in Takoradi in October 2015, he was categorical that all his appointees had met a crucial obligation to the state apart from swearing their oaths of office.
He told his audience, while in the Western Region to canvas for votes ahead of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer race, that all his ministers had declared their assets and liabilities as required by Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and Act 550.
He also said although the declaration was not made public, it was obligatory for all his appointees to declare their assets “when they were appointed and when they will leave office”.
President Mahama and his Vice-President, the late Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, were sticklers to rules and declared their assets and liabilities within time.
A day before his inauguration on January 7, 2013, President Mahama declared his assets. He again filed his asset and liabilities on May 17, 2017, five months after he exited office.
Vice-President Amissah-Arthur, on the other hand, did the entry and exit declarations on March 23, 2013, and March 27, 2017, respectively.
The Fourth Estate has, however, found that eleven of Mr. Mahama’s ministers and deputies did not declare their assets. The list includes the former President’s Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani, whose duties included whipping the appointees in line with their legal obligations to the state.
Data The Fourth Estate received from theAudit Service through a Right to Information (RTI) request shows that the following ministers in the Mahama administration failed to adhere to the asset declaration law:
Ministers who never declared their assets
Prosper Bani – Chief of Staff/ Minister of Interior
Mr. Bani was appointed President John Mahama’s first Chief of Staff in January 2013 (and later moved to the Ministry of the Interior). By June 2013 and June 2017, he should have declared his asset, but he didn’t.
His promise to call The Fourth Estate back to speak to the issue was not fulfilled. He did not return subsequent calls to him.
Ekwow Spio-Gabrah- Trade & Industry
He was appointed Trade and Industry Minister in the Mahama era in October 2014. Per the law, he should have declared his asset by April 2015. When the NDC exited office in January 2017. He had up to June 2017 to declare his assets and liabilities. The data shows he didn’t.
When contacted, he told The Fourth Estate that “I have been a minister in four portfolios. I always have declared my assets, as I have nothing to hide.”
When The Fourth Estate asked for the evidence of declaration, he said “I would be very surprised to find such a document—a one piece of paper—important though it is—easily amongst my paperwork. Especially, having moved house twice since then, involving a lot of packing and unpacking.”
“But the Chief of Staff [Prosper Bani] would not easily have allowed anybody to get away with not filing. I can’t account for what happens after docs have been lodged with the Auditor-General. But I can check with my PA at the time, who I am sure was entrusted to handle this with the Audit Service.”
Nii Osah Mills – Lands & Natural Resources
The soft-spoken former President of the Ghana Bar Association was appointed the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources on July 21, 2014. By January 2015 and June 2017, Mr Mills should have declared his assets.
On September 28, 2022, he declined to comment unless he had a one-on-one engagement with this reporter. He promised to call back but did not do it. He didn’t respond to subsequent calls.
Victoria Hammah – Deputy Communications
She was appointed in March 2013 but was sacked in November 2013 after she was recorded allegedly saying she would stay in politics until she has made $1million. By September 2013, she should have fulfilled her asset declaration obligations. However, she didn’t.
She could not be reached for comment.
Peter Anarfi-Mensah— Ashanti Regional Minister
A former headmaster of the Tepa Senior High School, Mr Peter Anarfi-Mensah, was appointed the Ashanti Regional Minister in March 2015. It means by September 2015, he should have declared his asset as a newly appointed minister and by June 2017, six months after the NDC exited office. He died in a ghastly road accident in August 2018
Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum – Deputy Minister, Local Government
He is a second-term MP for Nkoranza South and was appointed the Deputy Minister of Local Government in May 2013. His asset declaration deadlines were December 2013 and June 2017.
He told The Fourth Estate that he declared his assets in 2013 but did not get a receipt for it. He, however, admitted that when he left office in January 2017, he did not do it.
Victor Asare Bampoe-Deputy Minister of Health
Before his appointment as a Deputy Minister in July 2014, he was the senior fund portfolio manager at the Global Fund. By January 2015 and June 2017, he should have brought closure to his asset declaration requirements.
He declined to comment when contacted.
Hannah Bissiw- Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture
She served in the Mills administration as a deputy minister of Works and Housing. In the Mahama administration, she was appointed deputy minister of Food and Agriculture in 2013. At the same time, she was the legislator for the Tano South Constituency.
“I did my declaration. We had specific instructions from the Presidency to that,” she said. When asked for the evidence, she said “I was given a receipt, but I didn’t know that after eight[six] years in opposition, you’re going to ask me for a receipt of my asset declaration. The government should have those records.”
She said CHRAJ investigated her at a point because of a petition filed against her for the construction of a house and other projects in her hometown.
But our checks show that the incident happened in 2012 a year before her appointment as a deputy minister in the Mahama administration.
Ibrahim Mohammed Murtala – Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry
He was appointed deputy minister of Information (and later reshuffled to the Trade and Industry ministry) in March 2013, he was also the MP for Nanton. By September 2013, he should have declared his assets for the first time and done the second declaration by June 2017 after the NDC’s exit from office in January 2017.
He told The Fourth Estate that his asset declaration form was picked up by a staff of the Ministry of Information. Although the law puts the responsibility of filing the documents on public officials, Mr Ibrahim said the Audit Service should have followed up on it.
Paul Evans Aidoo – Western Regional Minister
The three-term MP for Sefwi-Wiawso was appointed the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister (and later Western Regional Minister) in February 2017. He was required to complete his asset and liabilities declarations by August 2013 and June 2017.
In a text message response to The Fourth Estate on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, he said he fulfilled his obligation under the law as MP. Asked for his receipt of the declaration, he said he was currently in his village in Sefwi and that he would search for it when he returns to Accra in October.
Aquinas Tawiah Quansah– Deputy Minister, Central Region
He was MP for Mfantsiman and was appointed Deputy Minister for the Central Region in July 2014. He should have completed his two asset declarations in January 2015 and June 2017.
He could not be reached for comment.
James Zuugah Tigah –Upper East Regional Minister
A civil servant turned politician; he worked in the office of J.J. Rawlings in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) days, auditing the accounts of senior high schools and later became the Chief Treasury Officer of the Ministry of Health. He became a regional minister in July 2014. His asset declaration timelines were due by January 2015 and June 2017.
He could not be reached for comment.
34 complied
Thirty-four others followed the footsteps of Mr Mahama by declaring their asset and liabilities when they assumed office and when they exited.
Partial declarations
Apart from the 11 who never declared their assets, 12 others declared after they left office. When the NDC exited office, at least 38 ministers and deputy ministers did not fully or partially declare their assets and liabilities.
The law is calibrated to checkmate public officials from abusing their offices with illicit enrichment.
But its critics say, it is nothing more than a political charadeas assets declared are not published unless ordered by a Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) or a court.
Until the appointment of Mr Daniel Yao Domelevo as Auditor General, the Audit Service did not verify the contents of the sealed envelopes submitted to it.
The Asset Declaration Law
The law requires that the President, Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, members of Parliament, ministers and deputy ministers of state, ambassadors, the Chief Justice, Judges of Superior Court, Judges of Inferior court and managers of public institutions in which the state has interest submit to the Auditor-General written declarations of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owed by them, whether directly or indirectly.
They are to declare their assets relating to:
(a)lands, houses and buildings;
(b) farms;
(c) concessions;
(d) trust or family property in respect of which the officer has a beneficial interest;
(e) vehicles, plant and machinery, fishing boats, trawlers, and generating plants;
(f) business interests;
(g) securities and bank balances;
(h) bonds and treasury bills;
(i) jewellery of the value of ¢5 million [now ¢500] or above; objects of art of the value of ¢5 million or above;
(j) life and other insurance policies;
(k) such other properties as are specified on the declaration form.
The political class’s failure to declare their assets is a systemic problem in Ghana. A number of ministers of the current administration, heads of state institutions judges and parliamentariansfailed to conform to the law.
In 2018, Sierra Leoneans joined long, winding queues to end their suffering in the hands of the then-governing All-People’s Congress Party (APC), which had been at the helm of affairs for 10 years.
The polls brought a retired military general, Julius Maada Bio, to power.
For a country that had been plunged into austerity by the APC administration, the hopes of citizens were beyond the sky.
The expectations were borne out of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) wave of promises.
But four years later, it has become obvious that elections have consequences. Part of President Bio’s raft of promises was the Free Quality School Education Programme. In fact, as a candidate of the country’s largest opposition party, he worked the electorates into believing the possibilities of the policy.
It was an overture that worked.
So, when Brigadier General Bio (retd) won, he got to work on it in the very first year of his administration. It was probably a lesson from a political textbook he might have picked from Ghana. Free senior high school education was a message that resonated with Ghanaians in the 2016 elections and won the then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo power.
President Bio launched the free education programme the very year he became president. But the results leave less than desired Credit: Sierra Leone State House
However, in Sierra Leone, the policy was not novel. It succeeded a similar World-Bank-funded scheme titled “Education for All” (EFA) implemented by former President Ernest Bai Koroma’s government.
The $21.31 million project funded by the World Bank had little impact before Mr. Koroma exited. The programme realised little impact in the education sector because the funds were massively misappropriated.
However, President Bio promised Sierra Leoneans he had a marshal plan for the policy.
What is the FQE Scheme?
The FQSE project was launched on August 20, 2018. The programme covers school feeding, uniforms, tuition fees, exercise and textbooks for pupils in pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools.
President Bio’s government claims it has been allocating 22% of the country’s total annual budget to education. But the data available shows the figure is 21%.
GROSS NATIONAL BUDGET
ALLOCATION TO EDUCATION
PERCENTAGE
USD EQU
YEAR
Le 4.95 trillion
Le 1.04 trillion
21%
123.372 million
2019
6.364 trillion
Le 1 trillion
21%
144.162 million
2020
Le 6.955 trillion
Le 1.53 trillion
21%
151.4 trillion
2021
Le 7.727
Le 1.7 trillion
21%
151.453 million
2022
The budgetary allocation isn’t the most critical issue the government’s free education programme. Corruption is eating away resources meant for educating young Sierra Leoneans.
The rot on the pages of the previous and current Auditor-Generals’ reports points to an alarming misappropriation of funds meant for education.
The 2019 and 2020 Auditor-General’s reports revealed that the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) spent over 6.5 billion Leones without supporting documents.
The Auditor-General again revealed in 2020 that the same ministry could not produce receipts, and vouchers covering 9.40 billion Leones ($1 million) paid to institutions and for different purposes.
The report further stated that the MBSSE’s headquarters in the provincial town of Kailahun also had a similar dodgy payment of 69 million Leones (equivalent to $8,600).
The corruption was not just monetary. It was in kind too.
In 2019, the Chinese government donated a total of 30,000 bags of rice to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education as support for the school feeding component of the FQE. But only 3,000 out of the 30,000 bags were distributed. 90% of the rice disappeared.
Auditor General’s 2020 Graphical Report Summary
Auditor General’s 2020 Graphical Report Summary
Cumulatively, over U$234 million disappeared between 2019 and 2020 in what appears to be an illegal string of payments all geared toward a tactical form of embezzlement of state resources within the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), according to the 2019 and 2020 Auditor-General’s reports.
Unfortunately, almost all of the Auditor-General’s recommendations since 2018 that monies misappropriated or embezzled be investigated and recovered have been treated like a joke cracked at a comedy show. Not a finger has been raised about some of these issues to date.
Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission seems disinterested.
With the investment in education probably finding its way into private pockets while school infrastructure deteriorates and teaching and learning materials are unavailable, it is telling on examination results.
Performance in public examinations in the last four years, since 2018 excluding 2022, has been nothing but degradingly concerning.
YEAR
NUMBER OF CANDIDATES
NUMBER OF PASSES/ REQUIREMENTS
2018
33,396
5,797(17.36)
2019
102,621
6,500 (6%)
2020
151,515
7,261 (4.76%)
2021
156,231
51,748 (33.12%)
2022
186,695
108,000 (57.8%)
Source: WAEC
As seen above, in 2020, there was an academic tsunami in Sierra Leone. The country’s rickety academic foundations were exposed. WASSCE results were a national embarrassment. The statistics of students who got 5 credits in WASSCE in 2020 was 4.5% as opposed to countries like Ghana with a score of (68.5%), Nigeria (65.8%), Gambia (64.8%).
According to figures from the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), it is estimated that 97% of pupils in grade 2 in Sierra Leone cannot read. The EGRA is an individually administered oral assessment of the most basic foundation skills for literacy acquisition in early grades, while the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGRA) measures numeracy. 60% of pupils still score 0% on the same reading and comprehension test in class 4.
Primary school pupils are doing as poorly as their senior counterparts in secondary schools although the state is pumping trillions into education Credit: Global partnership for Education
Early mathematics learning outcomes are just twice as poor. Only 10% of Grade 2 and 30% of Grade 4 pupils can do basic subtraction. Quality in Sierra Leone’s education is nothing but a virtual reality. The Free Quality Education scheme, however well-meaning, still has a marathon journey to cover before its positive impact may begin to manifest.
However, Sierra Leone’s performance in the 2022 WASSCE examination records better scores which beam a glimpse of hope for the best although the overall best candidate in the exam comes from a private school, Kamboi Lebanese Senior Secondary school in the country’s Eastern province.
Conclusion
A central aim of Sierra Leone’s Free Quality Education programme is to reduce the number of pupils in a classroom to a maximum of 50 pupils and reclaim learning quality in the education sector, but the reality on the ground strikes a bitter opposite. A series of verifications by the country’s former Auditor-General, Lara Taylor Pierce, who had been removed from office, found out that most classrooms host much more than 50 pupils
“The flagship of our strategic priorities will focus on developing the country’s human capital through free education. We believe in giving every child a good education so that they can develop themselves, support their families and build our nation for the future,” page 5 of Mr. Bio’s “New Direction” manifesto promised.
That promise, as The Fourth Estate has uncovered, lies beyond a yet-to-be-spotted horizon although some progress is trickling in. With such huge sums of monies being misappropriated in Sierra Leone’s education sector, the future of kids is bleak.
As seen in the statistics presented above, Sierra Leone’s academic output and general performance in public exams have been nothing but surprisingly mind-bugging as compared to Ghana, for instance, which has a similar free education scheme.
The writer of this report, Victor Jones, is a Fellow of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship at the Media Foundation for West Africa.
In 2021, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) expressed concerns about violations in the appointment of university retirees to substantive positions.
“The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has noted with concern the increasing appointment of post-retirement contract staff into various offices in Public Funded Higher Education Institutions (PFHEI).
“Further, PFHEIs are to note that persons who are re-engaged after retirement, subject to permission, cannot be assigned ‘position holding’ roles nor draw allowances due a person still in active service,” GTEC said in a letter dated June 8, 2021, and signed by its Deputy Director-General, Dr. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai.
The GTEC, formerly known as the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the National Accreditation Board (NAB), also issued a strong order in that letter.
“The Integrated Personnel Payroll Department (IPPD) and Budget Department of the Commission [are] by a copy of this letter directed not to process the emoluments of any post-retired staff without the requisite evidence after August 1, 2021.”
The order was served on vice-chancellors, registrars and finance directors of universities across the country. But one of the recipients of the letter, Professor Eric Magnus Wilmot, is a university retiree who has been holding a substantive top position as Vice-Chancellor of the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) since 2020.
Previously known as the Navrongo Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), CKT-UTAS became autonomous in April 2020.
Prof. Wilmot retired from UCC and was appointed Vice-Chancellor
Prof. Wilmot retired voluntarily in 2019 from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), where he was the Provost of the College of Education Studies for three years.
In 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo granted him an interim appointment for only one year as vice-chancellor for the CKT-UTAS. The interim appointment was due to elapse in July 2021.
But before the appointment elapsed, the university’s governing council issued its own appointment to Prof. Wilmot, giving him four years to serve further as vice-chancellor.
The post-retirement appointment of Prof. Wilmot as vice-chancellor, who turned 60 years on April 28, 2022, took effect on September 1, 2020. It is due to elapse on 31st August 2024― when he will be more than 62 years.
The appointment made by the council is contrary to rules governing such appointments in public universities in Ghana.
Checks by The Fourth Estate have revealed that Prof. Wilmot has been drawing salaries and allowances since his post-retirement appointment as vice-chancellor.
He received all his entitlements when he retired from the UCC three years ago. He is also entitled to more benefits when he retires for a second time by 2024 per the conditions of his post-retirement service at the CKT-UTAS.
The vice-chancellor is not the only person who has been given a substantive appointment that transcends the 60th birthday at the CKT-UTAS.
Registrar retired from KNUST
The Registrar of CKT-UTAS, Dr. Vincent A. Ankamah-Lomotey, is a former deputy registrar of the College of Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
While he was serving as a deputy registrar at the KNUST, President Akufo-Addo gave him an interim appointment in 2020 for one year as the registrar of the CKT-UTAS. He was a little over 59 years at the time, with barely a year to hit the mandatory retirement age of 60.
Months before the one-year interim appointment was to elapse in July 2021, the school’s governing council offered him a four-year appointment.
He, too, will go home with some benefits when he retires again.
Both the retiree vice-chancellor and the registrar are no longer serving the president’s one-year interim appointments, which elapsed in July 2021. They are currently serving in substantive positions on the full-term appointments issued by the governing council contrary to the rule.
Reactions from Vice-Chancellor and Registrar
When The Fourth Estate engaged the vice-chancellor on the post-retirement appointment, he said no rule had been broken.
“This letter is about those who remain to continue working after 60. It’s not about conditions for the appointment of foundation vice-chancellors or registrars. So, you are referencing a wrong letter [or] regulation,” he said.
The Fourth Estate drew his attention to the contents of the GTEC’s letter― specifically the portions where the letter says persons who are re-engaged after retirement cannot be assigned ‘position holding’ roles nor draw allowances due a person still in active service. Asked if the letter did not apply to him given that he had already retired and was occupying a substantive office at a public university under the same GTEC, he declined to answer that question.
And when he was asked if he did not see anything wrong in drawing salaries and allowances from a public office today after he had gone on retirement at a different public university and taken all his retirement benefits, he said he deserved his current post-retirement earnings.
“Why should I? I’m performing the role. I have to be paid commensurate salaries and allowances. What is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong,” he said.
On his part, the registrar told The Fourth Estate he did not apply for the job. He said he accepted the position after he received an invitation from the Ministry of Education to “come and serve”.
“I did not apply for any job. I was sitting somewhere in Kumasi when I got a call from the minister’s office, that the minister said I should come to Accra because they were going to inaugurate governing councils of three new universities.
“So, I asked the lady, ‘I am confused because I didn’t apply for any job’. I consulted my friends. They said, ‘Well, this is a national call; you need to heed’. So, I agreed,” he said.
On why he accepted the four-year term of a registrar when he was less than a year to hit his retirement age of 60, he said the governing council and the GTEC would be better placed to answer that.
Governing Council fails to provide evidence of due process
Per the convention, after the search party has been set up, the the vacancy is advertised locally and internationally. When interested persons apply, the search party does a shortlisting. Then, the shortlisted candidates are invited and interviewed.
Subsequently, the search panel comes up with the results and selects only the top two among the interviewed candidates. The top two are then presented to the university’s governing council to decide which of the two finalists should be the vice-chancellor.
Finally, the entire university is officially notified of the appointment of the new vice-chancellor through a circular. The same procedure applies in appointing a registrar.
The appointments of Prof. Wilmot and the registrar reportedly did not follow the normal. But the Chairman of the Governing Council of CKT-UTAS, Prof. Gordon A. Awandare, told The Fourth Estate that they followed the normal procedure.
Asked why such appointments were issued contrary to GTEC’s post-retirement appointment requirements, Prof. Awandare said the former Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, gave the approval after he asked for the minister’s advice “when the ages of Professor Wilmot and the registrar became an issue”.
Prof. Awandare further backed the council’s decision by making reference to President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of Martin Amidu as a special prosecutor after his retirement age.
The Fourth Estate asked Prof. Awandare for evidence that the CKT-UTAS’ governing council followed due process in appointing Prof. Wilmot as vice-chancellor― aside from the issues of his post-retirement appointment and extension of the appointment beyond his 60th birthday. He did not provide any.
The GTEC’s Director-General, Prof. Mohammed Salifu, wrote an approval letter to the governing council for the four-year appointments of Prof. Wilmot and Dr. Ankamah-Lomotey as vice-chancellor and registrar respectively at the request of the former education minister.
But when The Fourth Estate contacted Prof. Salifu on September 30, 2022, he said he was not aware that Prof. Wilmot had gone on retirement at the UCC prior to his appointment as vice-chancellor at the CKT-UTAS.
Both Prof. Salifu and Prof. Awandare said the four-year appointments of Prof. Wilmot and Dr. Ankamah-Lomotey were issued because the school was new.
However, checks show there are other equally new universities where governing councils, following the rule, have not offered any appointments that go beyond the age of 60 years.
An example is CKT-UTAS’ counterpart in the Upper West Region, formerly known as the UDS Wa Campus. That university became autonomous in the same year as the CKT-UTAS and changed its name to SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS). The school’s governing council followed due process in regularising the appointment of its current vice-chancellor, Prof. Philip Duku Osei. When Prof. Osei’s one-year interim appointment as vice-chancellor elapsed in 2021, the governing council offered him a fresh appointment that is not going beyond his 60th birthday. The university’s Governing Council Chairman, Kwaku Yamoah Painting, confirmed this to The Fourth Estate.
Former education minister denies breaking the rule
It is alleged that Prof. Salifu and the CKT-UTAS Governing Council acted under intense political pressure in the appointments. When The Fourth Estate contacted the former Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, he said his role in the four-year appointments did not break any rules.
“If such an appointment was made in an official capacity, why ask me? So, seeking my advice because this is a nascent university broke which rule? My advice was sought and [I] acted within the legal system,” said Dr Opoku Prempeh.
But stating his position on the matter, a retired UDS pro-vice-chancellor, Prof. David Millar, said the appointments were in breach of the rule and did not follow the normal practice.
Prof. Millar, however, said the four-year substantive appointments issued by the governing council did not follow the procedure of appointing vice-chancellors and registrars in Ghana.
“Where there is no chancellor, the president is the chancellor of that university. In the case of CKT-UTAS, the president is the chancellor. He has the prerogative to appoint the vice-chancellor, but he is unlikely to extend it. Very unlikely. Such appointments normally are on a short-term contract, not more than two years. You are given specific deliverables; then, you exit after a short time.
“When you want a vice-chancellor, you would put up a search party. But I know, for those people (Prof. Wilmot and Dr. Ankamah-Lomotey) there were no search parties. You see, already the main rule has been broken in that light. And when you put a search party there, you ask for a lot more applicants. It should also be advertised locally and internationally. That was not done. So, these are not normal appointments,” Prof. Millar stated.
Finance Ministry under pressure, opposes Post-retirement Appointments
As some public-university retirees still occupy substantive positions in the country and continue to draw salaries and allowances due only staff in active service, the Ministry of Finance does not conceal how it struggles to provide extra funds every month to pay retirees enjoying extra years in substantive offices.
On August 5, 2022, the ministry wrote to public institutions, highlighting the government’s inability to grant financial clearance for post-retirement contract appointments.
“Please, refer to the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy which has been submitted and approved by Parliament for the 2022 fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance wishes to inform Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies [MDAs] and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) of some Expenditure Policy Measures as outlined in the 2022 Budget Statement.
“Paragraph 324 of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy states ‘Government has, with immediate effect, suspended the granting of approval for Post-Retirement Contract Appointments, except in cases where the skills of the retiring officer are in short supply and unavoidably needed’.
In view of this, we are unable to grant financial clearance for Post-Retirement Contract Appointment at this stage. Please, treat as urgent,” said the letter signed by Deputy Minister for Finance, Abena Osei Asare, for the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Speakers at a forum organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on asset declaration by public office holders and the fight against corruption in Ghana say the lack of sanctions is responsible for the non-compliance of the asset declaration to the law by manypublic office holders.
“I find it so disappointing that when public declaration by President Nana Akufo-Addo was challenged by the MFWA and information was put out there, nothing was done,” said the Executive Director of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Beauty Emefa Narteh.
The forum was organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) following a series of publications by The Fourth Estate which revealed that many ministers, parliamentarians, and other government officials failed to declare their assets as mandated by the law.
The Fourth Estate’s Findings
Information obtained by The Fourth Estate shows that out of the 127 ministers who served in President Akufo-Addo’s first term (2017-2021), only 27 people fully complied with the law. This means only 21% of the ministers and deputy ministers declared their assets and liabilities.
In the president’s second term, 50 out of the 87 ministerial appointees (representing 57%) have complied with the law.
For the Mahama administration (2013-2017), only 39 out of the 102 ministers (including reshuffled and resigned ones), fully complied with the law, representing a compliance rate of 34%
For the sixth parliament (2013-2017), 20 out of 275 MPs (7.2%) fully declared their assets.
In the current (eighth) parliament, 95 MPs out of 275 have fulfilled their obligations to the law meant to prevent public officeholders from illicitly enriching themselves while in office.
Among the three arms of government, the judiciary is the most compliant. Out of the 96 superior court judges appointed from 2017 to date, 14, failed to declare their assets and liabilities. The judges have an 85.4% compliance rate.
President Akufo-Addo publicly said in 2017 that all his ministerial appointees had declared their assets. However, The Fourth Estate’s series showed that many of them had not, a situation Mrs. Narteh said should have prompted the president to act.
“So, if the president was deceived by his appointees that they had declared their assets while they actually had not done so, my expectation was to have a quick response from the president, sanctioning those appointees for deception, which is a criminal offence. But nothing has been done so far unless it’s been done on the blindside of the public,” she said.
Mrs. Narteh faulted the asset declaration regime for failing to provide the necessary framework for verifying declared assets and liabilities.
“So, I can say that the asset declaration regime, as it stands, has not provided the needed framework for us to be able to ascertain the issues around verification of the assets”
An anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem, noted that the “lack of commitment on the part of leadership” had contributed enormously to the non-compliance with the law.
“As far as 2008, we met the relevant committees of parliament to look at the regulations of Act 550. As of today, we don’t have the regulations of the Act, because there were disagreements,” he added.
With no clearly spelt out punitive measures in the law to deal with defaulters, the law leaves the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) with discretionary powers.
MP for Zebilla, Cletus Avoka( First left front row) was among the participants
However, a law lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, Justice Abdulai, observed that CHRAJ had not used its powers enough to compel public officeholders to comply with the law.
That, he said, had emboldened such public officials, who were aware of CHRAJ’s history of not coming down hard on defaulters.
Ghana’s laws empower the Audit Service and CHRAJ to implement the asset to declaration law. However, public officials have continued to enter and leave office without declaring their assets.
Participants at the forum attributed the loophole to the ineffective works of CHRAJ and the Audit Service and charged them to “do more”.
But in its defence, the director in charge of anti-corruption at CHRAJ, Stephen Azantilow, said the institution had been working in their best capacity to ensure compliance with the law and was currently investigating over 400 issues relating to asset declaration.
Mr Stephen Azantilow, the Director in charge of Anti-corruption at CHRAJ, mounted a strong defence against criticism that the commission is not leaving up to expectation
The investigation is as a result of a petition filed by four Ghanaians using the evidence provided by The Fourth Estate publications.
While in the past the Audit Service only accepted the documents without verifying its content, a senior officer from the legal department of the Audit Service, Anita-Delight Danquah, said the envelopes were now opened and the contents verified.
Responding to calls for the Audit Service to do physical verification of all assets declared, Ms Danquah said CHRAJ, not the Audit Service, had the capacity to handle that aspect of the work.
“Fortunately for CHARJ, they are the investigators, and we are the custodians. We audit, when you bring it. We look through. We make sure everything is set. We can’t verify if it is true or not true…maybe we should go further, but the further should be from CHARJ because they have the investigative arm. Audit Service doesn’t so we ensure that you do the basic things.”
The Editor-in-Chief of the Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, noted that although public institutions such as CHRAJ and Audit Service were working at making government officials comply with the law, there was more they could do, adding that “they won’t go hungry if they do their work. A week after he was removed from office, former Auditor General, Domelevo, had another job”.
His remarks follow his observation that some employees in Ghana’s anti-corruption institutions feared victimization, which accounts for their silence on some pressing matters.
What does the law say?
Article 286 (1) of the 1992 Constitution states that “a person who holds a public office mentioned in clause (5) of this Article shall submit to the Auditor-General written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities by him whether directly or indirectly (a) within three months after the coming into force of this constitution or before taking office, as the case may be, (b) at the end of every four years; and (c) at the end of his term of office.”
The Constitution requires the declaration to be done before the public officer takes office. However, Section 1(4) (c) of the Public Office holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act directs public office holders to meet this requirement “not later than six months after taking office, at the end of every four years and not later than six months at the end of his or her term.”
The Ministry of Finance has directed ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to charge 27 pesewas for the photocopy of an A4 size page of information requested under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
However, if the information is printed from a computer, it will cost 38 pesewas. A copy of the information on storage devices, including pen drives will cost the applicant 29 pesewas.
Applicants will pay GH₵ 1.28 for “transcription of visual images, for an A-4 size page or part thereof,” the ministry said. The announcement is contained in a statement dated September 14, 2022, and signed by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare.
The ministry’s directive follows parliament’s approval of the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, which determines what fees public institutions should charge the public for services.
The approved figures are miles lower than what theinterim feesthe RTI Commission gave in a ruling against the Minerals Commission which demanded $1,000 for information.
In that landmark decision, the RTI Commissionordered the mining regulator to charge only GHc 1.90, if the information was to be sent via email. It also instructed the Minerals Commission to charge GHc1.80 per page if it was to print the information for The Fourth Estate.
In June 2021, the Minerals Commission demanded $1,000 (GH¢5,700 to provide the information requested under the law.
The Fourth Estate had requested information on companies licensed to undertake mining in Ghana between January 2013 and May 2021, and companies whose licenses had been revoked or suspended within the same period.
The amount is the highest, yet any state institution has requested from The Fourth Estate.
But the RTI Commission annulled the decision.
Such demands per Regulation 4 of the Minerals and Mining (Licensing) Regulations, 2012 (LI 2176), apply to requests of commercial value including cadastral maps and exploratory data of mining zones.
In the absence of a legislative instrument to guide fees that public institutions should charge RTI applicants, the Minerals Commission said it fell on its internal laws to charge the fees.
The Minerals Commission challenged the RTI Commission’s decision at the High Court and lost but proceeded to the Court of Appeal, where the case is pending.
MFWA vs NCA
In July 2020, the National Communications Authority (NCA) asked the MFWA to pay GH¢2000 for information on the closure of some radio stations in Ghana.
The MFWA went to court to challenge the fees, and after almost five months of a legal tussle, the court gave its judgment on Thursday, June 17, 2021.
The Accra High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Adjei Addo slashed the cost of the information to GH¢1,500.
Ernest Norgbey Vs the EC
Justice Gifty Addo gave a similar decision on July 21, 2020, when she ruled on an RTI case brought to her court by a lawmaker.
Ernest Norgbey, MP for Ashaiman, had written to the Electoral Commission (EC) under the RTI law requesting information on the procurement procedure used by the commission to hire the services of two consultants—Dr Ofori-Adjei, an IT Consultant and Mr A. Akrofi, a procurement consultant.
The two were said to be very instrumental in the EC’s purchase of a biometric voter management system (BVMS). Mr Norgbey wanted to know whether the hiring of the services of the two consultants was in line with the Public Procurement Act.
The EC said it could not provide the information because parliament had not yet determined fees and charges for RTI requests.
The new fees are likely to lay to rest a long-running battle between applicants for information and the MDAs, which sometimes make outrageous financial demands on persons seeking information.
In recent times, the Public Procurement Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency have recently demanded GHS1000 and GHS2000 respectively as fees in response to RTI requests from The Fourth Estate.
Mr. Bani was appointed President John Mahama’s first Chief of Staff in January 2013 (and later moved to the Ministry of the Interior). By June 2013 and June 2017, he should have declared his asset, but he didn’t.
He was appointed Trade and Industry Minister in the Mahama era in October 2014. Per the law, he should have declared his asset by April 2015. When the NDC exited office in January 2017. He had up to June 2017 to declare his assets and liabilities. The data shows he didn’t.
A former headmaster of the Tepa Senior High School, Mr Peter Anarfi-Mensah, was appointed the Ashanti Regional Minister in March 2015. It means by September 2015, he should have declared his asset as a newly appointed minister and by June 2017, six months after the NDC exited office. He died in a ghastly road accident in August 2018
She served in the Mills administration as a deputy minister of Works and Housing. In the Mahama administration, she was appointed deputy minister of Food and Agriculture in 2013. At the same time, she was the legislator for the Tano South Constituency.
He was appointed deputy minister of Information (and later reshuffled to the Trade and Industry ministry) in March 2013, he was also the MP for Nanton. By September 2013, he should have declared his assets for the first time and done the second declaration by June 2017 after the NDC’s exit from office in January 2017.
The three-term MP for Sefwi-Wiawso was appointed the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister (and later Western Regional Minister) in February 2017. He was required to complete his asset and liabilities declarations by August 2013 and June 2017.
He was MP for Mfantsiman and was appointed Deputy Minister for the Central Region in July 2014. He should have completed his two asset declarations in January 2015 and June 2017.
A civil servant turned politician; he worked in the office of J.J. Rawlings in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) days, auditing the accounts of senior high schools and later became the Chief Treasury Officer of the Ministry of Health. He became a regional minister in July 2014. His asset declaration timelines were due by January 2015 and June 2017.
