The Fourth Estate CMS

Author: Seth J. Bokpe

  • Town topics: Ken Ofori-Atta’s moral high horse and need for integrity vaccine

    There’s a new virus going round in Ghana. It may not be as deadly as COVID-19 or the influenza that is giving life to the nose mask business again.

    But it is depressing. It’s called PEB— Post Election Blues. The symptoms? Grumbling, a mixed feeling of self-pity and regrets, resentment and smoldering anger towards the government.

    The cure is a good governance vaccine. But it appears in the midst of the challenges with COVID-19 vaccines and the Russian-Ukraine war, we’ve run out of wisdom to produce this vaccine.

    When Ghanaians went to the polls and elected the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016 and 2020, we thought we found the perfect solution to a virus of economic instability, corruption and mismanagement that plagued the nation under former President John Mahama.

    The problem is, after six years in office, President Akufo-Addo and his administration have proven to be the wrong antidote.

    At a time, we need a vaccine with ingredients including integrity, transparency, accountability and a stable economy desperately, President Akufo-Addo and his band have simply lost the plot.

    When he stood before Ghanaians in 2017, the President swore to defend the public purse – a pledge he had repeated on countless occasions on the campaign platform.
    But the mounting public debt, high cost of living, corruption, nepotism, cronyism and the shifting goal posts on his promises have shredded the pledges and goodwill the government enjoyed.

    Photos] Colour & tradition meet politics as Ghana swears in President | Africanews
    President Akufo-Addo has gone back on his promise to defend the public purse        Credit: Aljazeera

    If I had any belief that the president and his finance minister had an agenda to fix the difficulties facing the country, I discarded that on my way to work on Monday, June 13, 2022.

    The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s comments when he appeared on GTV’s Talking Point programme clearly showed the government’s misplaced priorities. Neither did our white-cloth-wearing, bible-quoting finance minister disappoint his critics in making an absurd case for the President’s private pledge nor did he explain the gross violation of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution.

    That constitutional provision states that:
    No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund except
    a. to meet expenditure that is charged on that Fund by this Constitution or by an Act of Parliament; or
    b. where the issue of those moneys has been authorised
    i. by an Appropriation Act; or
    ii. by a supplementary estimate approved by resolution of Parliament passed for the purpose;
    or iii. by an Act of Parliament enacted under article 179 of this Constitution; or
    iv. by rules or regulations made under an Act of Parliament in respect of trust moneys paid into the Consolidated Fund.
    2. No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund, other than the Consolidated Fund and the Contingency Fund, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament.

    According to Mr Ofori-Atta, while Ghana had achieved tremendous success on the political and economic fronts with tangible monuments to show, it lacked a symbol of spirituality, hence the need for the National Cathedral.

    “At any point in time when these buildings were built in Europe, was it ever the right time? How do we fund it? will become the question. Is the executive mindful of the current situation? We shouldn’t snuff out our religiousness or spirituality because we are poor. The Lord will understand if we put our widow’s mite in there,” he said.

    Mr Ofori-Atta, who is seen as an apostle of piety, has been on a flip flop ever since he announced the cathedral project in parliament in 2019.

    The cost of that project has moved from $100 million, to $ 250 million through $300 million, but the Ghanaian taxpayer will now be billed $350 million to build a house for a God who lives in hearts.

    In the last three years, Mr Ofori-Atta and the government’s praise singers have not been truthful to Ghanaians. I wonder how anyone would think that a cathedral built on a foundation of deception will please God.

    The government has been dodgy and cunning about what the state kitty will pay in support of a project that has already cost us millions in state properties, including the passport office, judges’ homes, the scholarship secretariat and the residence of the Malian Ambassador to Ghana.

    Even more sly is the decision not to tell us how much the so-called seed money will cost us. We’ve already blown GHc 200 million into the project without parliamentary approval.
    If the finance minister has a message of religiosity and spirituality for us, it should start with propriety within his ministry.

    Finance Minister to read Ghana's 2019 Budget on November 15 - Ghana Talks Business
    Mr Ofori-Atta has been shifting goal post on the cost and how much the government is contributing to it    Credit: Graphic

    While he jumps on a high horse to jibe critics of the government, his ministry has been cited as the most reckless when it comes to fiscal responsibility between 2015 to 2020.

    This is according to data from the Fiscal Recklessness Index 2020 report released by Imani Center for Policy and Education and Oxfam Ghana, which ranked financial irregularities for ministries, departments, and agencies within the five-year period.
    Ken Ofori-Atta was not in office in 2015 to 2016. But what has happened under his watch from 2017 to date should leave him worried.

    “Two key irregularities account for the trend observed at the Finance Ministry: (1) tax irregularities and (2) cash irregularities. For example, the Finance Ministry is responsible for 99.63% (GHc9.10 billion) of the combined GHc9.12 billion tax irregularities from 2015 to 2020. Likewise, the Finance Ministry accounted for 80.10% (GHc 2.35 billion) of the combined GHc2.93 billion cash irregularities from 2015 to 2020,” the report said.

    The Auditor-General’s Report also sings from the same hymn book about financial irregularities involving the Ministry of Finance.

    It is, therefore, baffling that the man who heads the most financially irresponsible institution in Ghana is preaching spirituality to us.

    It appears Mr Ofori-Atta can’t resist the temptation of annoying us whenever he gets the opportunity to speak about the cathedral.
    Hear him in 2019:

    “From 1957 to where God has brought us and the blessings, He has given us and now a small land we are giving to God should rather be given to real estate agents? I get afraid because we are a Christian country, even if we don’t do it, the stones themselves will get up and do it,” he told Asempa FM in defence of the decision to build the cathedral at that location.

    Isn’t it obvious that most Ghanaians are against the construction of the cathedral, which should give him the opportunity to rally his stones to work?

    Ghana does not need the Cathedral of all cathedrals to turn the clock of moral degeneration. In the last 30 years, we have built more mega churches than ever before, but corruption is getting worse.

    Our performance on the corruption barometer, the Corruption Perception Index, continues to give us annual migraines.

    Ahuntumano community shares streams and rivers with livestock
    In 2022, communities continue to share drinking water with animals           Credit: GNA

    There is nothing spiritual about building a cathedral when our hospitals lack beds, when God’s children share drinking water with animals, when children lie on their bellies to learn, when congested public senior high schools are running shifts because of lack of facilities.

    Mr Ofori-Atta’s sense of propriety needs raking for him to see the desperate needs of people who rely on the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, whose pittance of allowances have been in arrears for months.
    Comic analysis

    In trying to justify this misplaced importance, he played with Israel and Saudi Arabia’s tourism figures.

    “Constructing such a facility secures a steady arrival of religious tourists. Israel hosts more than four million people annually with an associated $6 billion contribution to the economy. The Hajj pilgrimage on the other hand brings in 2.5 million attendees, with an associated economic impact of $8 billion,” he said.

    How sad.

    The idea of comparing tourism figures from Saudi Arabia and Israel where the footprints of Christianity and Islam could be traced makes Mr Ofori-Atta’s analysis comical.

    What makes Ghana an attractive destination for Christian pilgrims? A cathedral?

    Lalibela: 11 churches, each sculpted out of a single block of stone 800 years ago - 60 Minutes - CBS News
    The famous Libela rock-hewn churches don’t attract more than 100,000 pilgrims annually      Credit: CBS

    Even Ethiopia, Africa’s ‘Jerusalem,’ famous for its rock-hewn churches in Lalibela does not attract more than 100,000 people annually to such world heritage sites.

    We know that President Akufo-Addo and his finance minister are not thrifty because they were not born into a family of straw. But sadly, the reality hasn’t dawn on them that they’re managing the purse of people who live frugal lives and that the choices of the administration must reflect the priorities of these poor people.

    We didn’t elect them to fix our spiritual deficits. We have been battling that with our spiritual leaders, some of whom have been hoodwinked into applauding this misplaced priority.

    If there is anything we need right now, it is the common sense to fix the needs of the distressed Ghanaian and not a grandiose cathedral promised God in Jerusalem.

    YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:

    The students who are taught how to cry

    Billions in the bush: 8 hospitals delayed, abandoned

     

  • Five Ghanaians petition CHRAJ to investigate Akufo-Addo’s ministers, others who failed to declare their assets

    Five Ghanaians petition CHRAJ to investigate Akufo-Addo’s ministers, others who failed to declare their assets

    Five Ghanaian citizens have petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe some ministers and deputy ministers in the Akufo-Addo administration over their failure to declare their assets.

    In a petition dated June 14, 2022, the petitioners, who are all residents of Accra and Tema, want CHARJ to open investigations into whether the failure of the said ministers and deputy ministers to declare their assets breached the oath of office they swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”

    Article 286 of the Constitution and Section 1 of Act 550 place an obligation on public officers to submit a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owed by them, directly or indirectly, to the Auditor-General, (i) before taking office, (ii) at the end of every four years, and (iii) at the end of their term of off.

    The petition is in reaction to a series of stories The Fourth Estate published revealing that more than 400 public officeholders either never declared their assets or did so partially.

    Dissatisfied with the conduct of these appointees, the petitioners—Nicholas Opoku, Lolan Sagoe Moses, Crystal Selorm Amudzi, Francis Boye and Elias Elias Ashkur—want CHRAJ to open investigations into:

    1. a. The failures of public officers not listed in Appendix 1 (booklet containing list of those who declared their assets) to declare their assets.

    b. Whether the failure of the above-mentioned public officials to declare their assets amounts to a breach of the oaths of office they swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” as mandated by Article 286 (7) and the Second Schedule of the Constitution.

    1. Take appropriate action against the defaulting public officers pursuant to CHRAJ’s mandate in Article 287 of the Constitution, including but not limited to:

    a. Directing each of the defaulting public officers to promptly declare their assets to the Auditor-General.

    b. Initiating legal actions at the courts against the defaulting public officers to compel them to promptly declare their assets to the Auditor-General or have them sanctioned for default, pursuant to CHRAJ’s mandate under Section 9 of Act 456.

     The petitioners argue that given the importance of asset declaration as a tool in the fight against corruption, “we take a serious view of these constitutional violations.”

    Article 287 of the Constitution states that “An allegation that a public officer has contravened or has not complied with a provision of this Chapter shall be made to the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice…who shall, unless the person concerned makes a written admission of the contravention or non-compliance, cause the matter to be investigated.”

    This constitutional mandate is reiterated in Section 7(e) of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice Act, (Act 456).

    Background

    On March 4, 2022, The Fourth Estate wrote to the Audit Service, using the right to information law, to request information on public office holders who had declared their assets from January 2013 up to that date.

    The Audit Service responded with the data on May 17, 2022. Combing through the two booklets of almost 350 pages, The Fourth Estate did not find the names of 27 ministers and deputy ministers of state officers who served or were still serving in the Akufo-Addo administration. These ministers had never declared their assets since the Akufo-Addo administratin began in 2017.

    At least 90 others, including the Vice-President, Mahamudu Bawumia; former senior minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo; parliamentary affairs minister, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta, failed to fully comply with the asset declaration law.

    Only 19 ministers in President Akufo-Addo’s first and second terms fully complied with the law.

    In February this year, CHRAJ banned the former board chairman of the Public Procurement Authority, Prof Douglas Boateng, from holding public office for two years for failing to declare his assets.

    CHRAJ also banned the former PPA boss, A.B.A Adjei 10 years for his role in the contract for sale deal and also directed him to declare his assets within three months.

  • Four problems Council of State ex-gratia could have solved

    The first loan of the Akufo-Addo administration was approved in April 2017, a little over three months after taking office.  That loan was a $2million facility from Societe Générale Bank.

    It was used to buy new cars for members of the Council of State, advisors of the president, who are often made up of accomplished Ghanaians.

    Per Ghana’s constitution, members of the Council of State are also entitled to ex-gratia.

    An immediate past member of the Council of State, Togbe Afede XIV, has announced his reasons for rejecting GH₵365,000 ex-gratia paid to him.

    Togbe Afede XIV, a businessman and paramount chief of Asogli State in the Volta Region, has called the sum “unconscionable” and “inappropriate”.

    “I believe it was paid to everybody who served on the Council of State. However, I thought that extra payment was inappropriate for a short, effectively part-time work, for which I received a monthly salary and was entitled to other privileges. So, I was very uncomfortable with it,” he said in a press statement.

    He continued, “I want to add that my rejection of the payment was consistent with my general abhorrence of the payment of huge Ex Gratia and other outrageous benefits to people who have by their own volition offered to serve our poor country.”

    In total, GH₵8.76 million was paid as ex-gratia to the members of the Council of State for their four years of service to the state.

    What the Council of State ex-gratia could do?

    If the GH₵8.76 million was put into infrastructural development, it could have built 12 six-classroom blocks at a cost of GH₵ 700,000 each.

    Or

    If it went into procuring dual desks for schools, it could have procured 87,600 desks at GH₵ 100 each and saved 226,542 pupils from learning on the bare floor.

    Or

    It would have provided 4,171 beds to deal with Ghana’s no-bed syndrome in public hospitals.

    Or

    In the health sector, it could give life to 604 pre-mature babies in need of incubators, sold at GH₵ 14,500 each. Incubator shortages in the country’s major hospitals is a major headache for the healthcare systems. In some facilities, three babies have to share a single incubator while some health facilities don’t have any at all.

    Data from the Ghana Health Service indicates that at least 8,700 children pre-term babies die in the country annually.

    Council of State members

    Some Ghanaians have long described the Council of State as a useless entity. Members are supposed to advise the president but the Supreme Court ruled in  in 2015 that their advice was not binding on the president.

    The following is the full list of the members of the Council of State from 2017 to 2020, the period Togbe Afede XIV served:

    1. Greater Accra: Nii Kotei Dzani, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ideal Group of Companies
    2. Ashanti: Nana Owusu Achiaw Brempong, a 63-year-old chief of Agona Akrofoso and entrepreneur
    3. Western: Ms Eunice Jacqueline Buah, a 52-year-old businesswoman of Takoradi
    4. Upper East: Tongo-Rana Kubilsong Nalebgtang, Paramount Chief of the Tongo Traditional Area (known in private life as Robert Nachinab D. Mosore)
    5. Upper West: Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton IV, Paramount Chief of the Tumu Traditional Area
    6. Eastern: Nana Somuah Mireku, a 63-year-old accountant
    7. Brong Ahafo: Mr Kodwo Agyenim-Boateng, a 73-year-old retired public servant
    8. Volta: Mr Francis Albert Seth Nyonyo, a 50-year-old oil and gas dealer from Anloga
    9. Northern: Bo-Na Professor Yakubu S. Nantogma, a 74-year-old Chief of Bogu, near Savelugu in the Northern Region
    10. Central: Obrempong Appiah Nuamah II, Omanhen of the Twifo Mampong Traditional Area

    Appointed members

    1. Lt. General Joseph Boateng Danquah (rtd), a former Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces.
    2. Nana Owusu Nsiah, a former Inspector General of Police.
    3. Mr Sam Okudzeto, a former President of the Ghana Bar Association.
    4. Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, a former Accra Mayor.
    5. Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Juabenhene.
    6. Nana Kofi Obiri Egyir II.
    7. Alberta Cudjoe
    8. Alhaji Aminu Amadu.
    9. Dr Margaret Amoakohene of the School of Communication Studies at University of Ghana, Legon,
    10. Alhaji Sahanun Moqtar
    11. Georgina Kusi (Georgia Hotel)
    12. Alhaji Sule Yiremiah
    13. Paa Kofi Ansong
    14. Togbe Afede XIV, Agbomefia of Asogli State and President of National House of Chiefs (ex-officio member of Council of State)

    ALSO READ:Asset Declaration: Bawumia, Ofori-Atta, Osafo-Maafo, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and 89 others did not fully comply

  • Asset Declaration: Bawumia, Ofori-Atta, Osafo-Maafo, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and 89 others did not fully comply

    Asset Declaration: Bawumia, Ofori-Atta, Osafo-Maafo, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and 89 others did not fully comply

    When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was sworn into office in January 2017, one of the first constitutional obligations he embarked on was the declaration of his assets.

    The Fourth Estate’s sources in government say the Chief of Staff sent reminders to ministers and other top appointees to declare their assets.

    In July 2017, the president said, “I declared my assets within two weeks of my inauguration and so has the Vice-President. The ministers have declared their assets, and I am insisting that all those required to do so under the law, should comply.”

    In March 2022, The Fourth Estate wrote to the Audit Service using the right to information law to request information on public office holders who had declared their assets from January 2013 up to that date.

    The Audit Service responded with the data in May 2022, with two booklets of information of almost 350 pages. The booklets contain the names of all public office holders who have declared their assets and the dates of declarations in all the regions of Ghana from 2013 to May 2022.

    That information revealed that 28 ministers and deputy ministers of state who served or are still serving in the Akufo-Addo administration did not declare their assets at all.

    The information also revealed that the president and 19 of his ministers have fully complied with the asset declaration law. The president and his ministers on that list, who have served since 2017, have declared their assets at least three times.

    They declared at the beginning of the first term and declared at the end of the first term. They again declared their assets at the beginning of the second term in office.

    President Akufo-Addo, for instance, first declared his assets on January 24, 2017. On February 17, 2021, he declared again for the end of his first term.

    Then, on May 7, 2021, the president declared his assets to cover the beginning of his second term. He did this in conformity with Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and Act 550.

    However, the vice-president and more than 90 ministers and deputy ministers who have served in Akufo-Addo’s government have not fully complied with the law as the president did.

    Some ministers who spoke to The Fourth Estate in the course of this series have argued that declaring one’s assets at the beginning of the first term and at the beginning of the second term cover for the end of the first term.

    To them, not declaring at the end of the first term doesn’t amount to a breach because the end of the first term and the beginning of the second term are almost within the same period.

    The declaration of assets is administered by the Auditor-General. When The Fourth Estate contacted the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, for a clarification on the Law, he said that could better be explained by the lawyers such as the Attorney-General.

    “It’s an Omission but it’s not grave,”—Attorney-General

    The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, told The Fourth Estate that the constitution required political office holders such as ministers of state to declare their assets at the beginning of their term in office and at the end of their term.

    Dame to Parliament: You can't control admission into Ghana School of Law - Asaase Radio
    Attorney-General & Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame                               Credit: Asaase Online

    For those continuing after the four years, they are supposed to declare at the beginning of their second time, making it three declarations for ministers who have served in the Akufo-Addo administration since 2017.

    “That is the constitutional requirement, and that’s why I did mine like that,” he said.

    Mr. Dame declared his assets on July 20, 2017. He filed his exit declaration on January 26, 2021. On his elevation to the position of Attorney General in this second term of the president, he declared his assets on May 25, 2021.

    Two lawyers, Samson Lardy Anyenini and Martin Kpebu, are of the view that a full declaration and compliance with the law ought to follow what the president and 19 of his ministers did.

    Citing the ruling of the Supreme Court in J.H. Mensah v Attorney-General, the two lawyers argue that every appointee’s tenure ends after the four years when the president’s tenure ends.

    “The argument that they are continuing and should not declare their assets at the end of the tenure cannot be right because no appointee walks into the position even if they are reappointed,” Samson Lardy Anyenini said. “All of them go through a fresh appointment and vetting.”

    The Attorney-General, however, noted that if someone declared their assets at the beginning of the four years and files again at the beginning of a continuing second term of four years, their failure to declare at the end of the first term is not a grave offence.

    He said the essence of declaring at the beginning and at the end of the four years is to ascertain the amount of assets and liabilities that were added on when the public officer was in office.

    With that, he said the period between the end of the first term and the beginning of the second term is a few days or weeks, within which not much would change.

    He said the continuing appointees who failed to declare at the beginning and those who served for one term but failed to declare when exiting commit grave breaches of the asset declaration law because it will be difficult to know what has been added to their assets and liabilities while they serve in office.

    ALSO READ: The 18 Akufo-Addo ministers who fully complied with assets declaration law

    A good number of office ministers and deputy ministers, however, do not appear to appreciate the assets declaration requirement at the end of the term. Here are some of the notable names in that list:

    Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia: Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, declared his assets twice since coming into office. He first declared at the beginning of the first term, on January 27, 2017. When he was sworn into office in January 2021 to begin the second term he declared his assets again. The Fourth Estate’s checks revealed that he declared on February 8, 2021.

    The world is moving away from certificate to skills – Bawumia
    Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia declared his assets twice, instead of thrice         Credit: Office of Vice-President

    The Office of the Vice President explained to The Fourth Estate that vice-president complied with the asset declaration law based on the legal advise he received on the matter.

    The Office said the exit declaration was within the same period as the beginning of the second term of the Akufo-Addo administration and the assets or content of the declaration was the same. In the vice-president’s view, the declaration at the beginning of the second term covered the declaration at the end of the first term since the assets were the same.

    However, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anticorruption Coalition (GACC), Beauty Emefa Narteh, said the Vice-President’s asset declaration deficit was disturbing.

    “This is a surprise and a shock that a simple thing as asset declaration, the Vice-President was not minded to do the needful, I find this worrying.”

    Below is the list of all ministers, deputy ministers and other appointees in Akufo-Addo’s first and second terms who declared their assets once or twice:

    ALSO READ: Akufo-Addo’s First & Second Term: 27 ministers who didn’t declare asset at all

    Other former appointees who declared their assets only once during Akufo-Addo’s first term of Akufo-Addo’s government are:

     

     

    What the law says 

    Article 286 (5) requires the President, Vice-President, the Speaker, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, ministers and deputy ministers of state, ambassadors, the Chief Justice 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.

    Per the law, by the end of the President’s first term, all his appointees should have declared their assets twice—before or when they assume power and when the term ends—according to Article 286 and the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act.

    Section 1(4) of the Act clarifies when this should be done:

    “The declaration shall be made by the public officer— (a) before taking office; (b) at the end of every four years; and (c) at the end of the term of his office and shall in any event be submitted not later than 6 months of the occurrence of any of the events specified in this subsection.”

    For those who were called back in the second term, which began on January 7, 2021, they were to march back to the Audit Service and hand over the list of their assets and liabilities. This will make it a third declaration for this group.

    Section 4 of Act 550 requires public office holders to declare their assets and reliabilities related to:

    (a)lands, houses and buildings;
    (b) farms;
    (c) concessions;
    (d) trust or family property in respect of which the officer has beneficial interest;
    (e) vehicles, plant and machinery, fishing boats, trawlers, 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

    You can reach the writer of this story, Seth J. Bokpe, via email at [email protected] You can follow him on twitter @thekekeli

    Adwoa Adobea-Owusu, Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Paul Gozo, Clement Edward Kumsah & Prosper Prince Midedzi of The Fourth Estate also contributed to this story. 

  • Akufo-Addo’s First & Second Term: 27 ministers who didn’t declare assets at all

    Akufo-Addo’s First & Second Term: 27 ministers who didn’t declare assets at all

    For years, Herbert Krapa served Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a man who is a stickler to rules when it comes to assets declaration.

    Now a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Krapa was President Akufo-Addo’s special aide when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was in opposition. He would even go on to study law, a profession that gave the president a name and fame.

    While in opposition in 2010, Mr Krapa preached and took on the late President J.E.A Mills for not holding his ministers accountable for failing to declare their assets.

    “Then comes the matter of asset declaration, which is supposed to be a mandatory constitutional requirement and so, cannot stricto senso be left to the funny discretion or indiscretion of anyone,” he wrote in an article published online.

    But it appears Mr Krapa forgot this memo when he was sworn in as a deputy minister in June last year alongside 39 other ministers. Per the law, he should have declared his assets by December 2021.

    On March 4, 2022, The Fourth Estate wrote to the Audit Service, using the right to information law, to request information on public office holders who had declared their assets from January 2013 up to that date.

    The Audit Service responded with the data on May 17, 2022. Combing through the two booklets of almost 350 pages, The Fourth Estate did not find the names of 28 ministers and deputy ministers who served or continue to serve in the Akufo-Addo administration since 2017.

    It is from this data that The Fourth Estate found that Herbert Krapa has not declared his assets. He has not followed the example set by the president who appointed him.

    By May last year, President Akufo-Addo had declared his assets and liabilities three times. The president first declared his assets on January 24, 2017. On February 17, 2021, he declared again for the end of his first term.

    On May 7, 2021, the president declared his assets for the beginning of his second term. He did this in conformity with Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and Act 550.

    Defaulters in Akufo-Addo’s Second term (2021 to date)

    Mr Krapa is not alone in breaching the asset declaration laws. Eight other ministers and deputy ministers currently serving in government also failed to declare their assets. These ministers and deputy ministers are:

    Thomas Mbomba : He is a  Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration and a first-term legislator who represents Tatale-Sanguli.

    Kwaku Ampratwum- Sarpong: The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration also represents the people of Mampong in Parliament. He is a second-term MP.

    Frederick Obeng Adom:  A Deputy Minister of Transport, he is a first-term lawmaker for Upper West Akim.

    Kofi Amankwah-Manu: The  Deputy Minister of Defence represents  Atwima Kwanwoma Constituency in Parliament . He is a first-term parliamentarian.

    Ama Pomaa Boateng: She is a third-term lawmaker, representing Juaben constituency in the Ashanti region and the Deputy Minister of Communication and Digitisation.

    Abdulai Abanga: He is a first–term legislator for Binduri and the  Deputy Minister of Works & Housing

    Yidana Zakaria: The  North East Regional  Minister was an Assistant Registrar of the Tamale campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) before he was appointed.

    Richard Obeng: The capital market analyst is  Western North Regional Minister.

    Ministers’ responses

    A call to Kwaku Ampratwum- Sarpong, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration, dropped after the reporter introduced himself. Subsequent calls and a WhatsApp message to him were not responded to.

    Messages to Richard Obeng, Western North Regional Minister and Herbert Krapa were not responded to. Others could not be reached for responses.

    Defaulters in Akufo-Addo’s first term (2017 to January 2021)

    By the end of President Akufo-Addo’s first term, he had appointed almost 130 people.

    They took the sacred Oath of Ministers, to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

    The Fourth Estate has found that at least 19 of them failed to declare their assets and liabilities.

    On July 18, 2017, president Akufo-Addo said that all his appointees had declared their assets.

    Information available to The Fourth Estate, however, reveals that at least 19 of the ministers and deputy ministers of his first term did not declare their assets even once since 2017.

    Prof Kwesi Yankah: The Fourth Estate could not find the name of the minister of state in charge of tertiary education, who served in the Akufo-Addo administration from 2017 to 2020. An academic don, Prof. Yankah contested the 2020 parliamentary election in the Agona East Constituency on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) but lost. He was in office from April 4, 2017, to January 7, 2021.

    Tangoba Abayege: She succeeded Rockson Bukari as the Upper East Regional Minister after Mr. Bukari was moved to the presidency as minister of state in 2018. Like her predecessor, Tangoba Abayege did not declare her assets. Tangoba Abayage, who lost the Navrongo Central parliamentary polls in 2020 was also missing from the list. Before becoming regional minister, she was Ghana’s ambassador to Italy. She was in office from November 2018 to January 7, 2021.

    Salifu Adam Braimah: He was the Savannah Regional Minister, who contested but lost the Salaga South parliamentary seat. He did not disclose his assets. He was in office from March 27, 2019, to August, 2019.

    Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson: When the Bono Regional minister-designate came to the floor of parliament for approval in April 2019, it met stiff opposition from the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC).

    The NDC lawmakers alleged at the Appointments Committee of Parliament that Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, who had been a former Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, committed perjury in the declaration of assets and refund of money to the state as demanded in the Auditor General’s report.

    There were also unanswered questions regarding the redistribution of a vested land. But the report of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, which recommended Ms Kumi-Richardson’s approval by majority decision, cleared her of all the allegations by the Auditor General.

    After secret voting, the minority had their say but the majority had their way.

    Despite this, Ms. Kumi Richardson did not declare her assets when parliament approved her to become a regional minister. She served from March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021.

    Also, on the list of the ministers and deputy ministers who failed to declare their assets are the following and the portfolios they served:

    • Sulemana Alhassan–Upper West Regional Minister (March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021)
    • Carlos Ahenkorah–Deputy Minister, Trade and Industry  (April 11, 2017, to July 3, 2020)
    • William Owuraku Aidoo–Deputy Minister, Energy (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021.) He was reappointed when President Akufo-Addo won a second term.
    • Vincent Sowah Odotei–Deputy Minister, Communications (April 2017 to April 2020).
    • Bernard Oko Boye–Deputy Health Minister (April 20, 2020, to January 7, 2021).
    • Anthony N-Yoh Puowele Karbo–Deputy Minister, Roads & Highways  (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021)
    • Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe–Deputy Minister, Fisheries & Aquaculture (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021)
    • Siaka Stevens–Deputy Regional Minister, Bono  (March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Samuel Yeyu Tika–Deputy Regional Minister, Savannah ( March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Tahiru Tia Ahmed–Deputy Regional Minister, North East – (March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021)
    • Johnson Avuletey–Deputy Regional Minister, Volta Region – (March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Thomas Adjei Baffour–Deputy Regional Minister, Central – March 3, 2017, to January 7, 2021
    • Joseph Tetteh–Deputy Regional Minister, Eastern  (March 3, 2017, to August 2018)
    • Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey–Deputy Regional Minister, Greater Accra (March 3, 2017, to January 7, 2021).

    Two out of the 19 defaulters, Carlos Ahenkora and William Owuraku Aidoo, are still lawmakers in the current Parliament. But Vincent Sowah Odotei, Bernard Oko Boye, Anthony Karbo, Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe, Siaka Steven and Joseph Tetteh lost their seats in the 2020 election.

    Four others who were deputy regional ministers in Akufo Addo’s first term have been offered new jobs in the president’s second term.

    They are William Owuraku Aidoo,  Bernard Oko Boye, Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey and Samuel Yeyu Tika. They are expected to declare their assets in their current positions but they haven’t.

    The MPs in the list also swore the oath of lawmakers to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

    But they desecrated the oath.

    Responses to The Fourth Estate

    Assets declaration is seen as crucial in fighting corruption by helping to track illicit wealth public office holders acquire while in office.

    You may also want to read: EXCLUSIVE: Sir John did not declare his assets

    Per the law, any assets acquired by a public officer holder after the initial declaration, which does not come from “sources reasonably attributed to income, gift, loan, inheritance or any other reasonable source would be classified” as illegal.

    The Fourth Estate reached out to the ministers whose names were not found in the assets declaration list for comments. Here are those we contacted and their responses.

    Thomas Adjei Baffoe –Deputy Regional Minister, Central

    The Audit Service stated that no public office holder declared their assets in the Central Region from 2017 to 2019.

    But Thomas Adjei Baffoe, who served as deputy Central Regional Minister from March 2017 to January 7, 2021, insisted, he did.

    “I declared my assets. I deposited them at the regional office of the Audit Service. It was even one of the employees of the Local Government who does audits, who did it for me. His name is Ben Issah,” he told The Fourth Estate.

    Asked for the evidence of his declaration, he said he was not sure he took it from the said officer but said he would check and get back to this reporter because he was not in Cape Coast.

    Prof Kwesi Yankah–Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education

    All attempts to reach him failed. Calls, texts and WhatsApp messages were not responded to.

    Carlos Ahenkora–MP for Tema West & former Deputy Minister of Trade

    He resigned in July 2020 after public pressure mounted on the president to sack him for breaching the COVID-19 restrictions. He had tested positive for the virus and went to campaign instead of self-isolating.

    Mr. Ahenkora told The Fourth Estate he fulfilled his asset declaration obligation and that he submitted his forms to the Tema office of the Audit Service.

    “It is not true. I have declared my assets,” he said, but added, “I don’t know if I can give you the date, but I did declare my asset. Check with the Audit Service.”

    “The Audit Service has given us the document [list of those who declared their assets] we needed, from 2013 to 2021,” this reporter pointed out to him.

    “My brother, I am telling you that I have declared my assets and I am asking you to check well before you make pronouncements, because I know I declared my asset in 2017,” he said.

    “I didn’t finish the term because I resigned along the line. I am 120% sure that I declared my asset,” he added.

    “So, when you exited, too, you declared?”

    “I resigned so I did not declare. My term was terminated. I did not finish.”

    “But, sir, when you exit, you still have to.”

    “I don’t have that information. I didn’t have that advice.”

    William Owuraku Aidoo–Deputy Minister of Energy (MP, Afigya Kwabre South)

    He said he declared his assets in the Ashanti regional office of the Audit Service in Kumasi.

    “I did. I did it in Kumasi after the elections,” he said but couldn’t remember the exact date.

    When The Fourth Estate asked if he declared in 2021, after he exited as a deputy minister, his tone turned condescending.

    “But in what capacity are you calling me. You are a journalist. You cannot call and interrogate me like this.

    “Sir, I am not interrogating you. I’m just giving you a fair…”

    “Why don’t you write to me,” he snapped

    “I should write to you?”

    “Yes, if you think there is something I have not done right, write to me. Today is Sunday, you don’t have the temerity to call me that I haven’t declared my asset (sic). Massa, don’t call me again.”

    Tangoba Abayege–Upper East Regional Minister (former Ambassador to Italy)

    She said she declared her assets to Parliament prior to her vetting because she thought that was expected of her.

    “I didn’t know it was supposed to be the Audit Service. It was Parliament that vetted me. That is where I submitted every document, including my tax clearance certificate.”

    She, however, urged the Audit Service to make the declaration easy because some of the questions were cumbersome and unreasonable, including the value of family land, which she said she didn’t buy.

    Anthony Karbo–Deputy Roads & Highway Minister (former MP, Lawra)

    In a response to a WhatsApp message, he said, “It was done as far back as 2017 and submitted to Audit Service. Thank you.”

    A follow-up question on whether he declared in Accra or Wa and if he also declared again when he exited and any evidence was not responded to.

    Joseph Tetteh–Deputy Eastern Regional Minister & Former MP, Upper Manya Krobo

    He said prior to the 2016 elections, he filed the document at the Audit Service Head Office in Accra as part of the election requirement.

    “We did it before we entered Parliament,” he said.

    “So, you did it as an aspirant?”

    “Yes, by then.”

    “So, when you became an MP, you did not?”

    “No, I didn’t. I also became a minister. I didn’t until I left parliament.”

    “When you read Article 286 and Act 550, it says when you become an MP you have to declare your assets and when you become minister, you have to.

    “Ah! That is what I didn’t do. I didn’t do anything like that.”

    “But is there any reason why you didn’t?”

    “I thought I did it before entering Parliament. Maybe parliament would take that one. I was not asked to do it again.”

    “There was no orientation to do it again?”

    “I can’t remember.”

    “The president said at a point that you all had declared your assets.”

    “I can’t remember.”

    “He said it on July 18, 2017, that all his appointees had declared their assets. At that time, I’m sure you were a deputy minister.”

    “July 18, yes, yes, I was a deputy minister.”

    Joseph Tetteh said he would check from his personal assistant if he did, but he couldn’t remember.

    Johnson Avuletey–Deputy Volta Regional Minister

    He said when he was in office, he didn’t add any property to what he had, so he didn’t know what to declare.

    “I was in my own house before I was appointed. Is it necessary for me to declare that one too?” he asked, suggesting it was only properties gotten from the public office that had to be declared.”

    “When you come to the office, you have to declare within six months and when you exit, too, within six months, you have to declare,” The Fourth Estate reminded him.

    “Ok, ok,” he said, like someone who just received a new insight.

    “Was there no orientation on this?”

    “We didn’t have any orientation about that. I was not given any form to declare my assets. When I was an assemblyman, I declared assets. When I became a deputy minister for just two years, there was nothing like that,” he added.

    Rockson Bukari–Upper East Regional Minister

    Mr Bukari told The Fourth Estate his lawyer did it on his behalf in Bolgatanga.

    He, however, said he couldn’t remember where he had put the receipt.

    Asked whether he did when he left office, he said he couldn’t remember.

    But he said he would get in touch with his lawyer for clarity.

    Evelyn Ama Kumi Richardson–Bono Regional Minister

    She insisted she declared her assets.

    “Please, I declared,” she said.

    “Do you have records of it?

    “Yes.”

    “I would be very grateful if you could provide the evidence. You know when you file it, they give you a receipt.”

    “Well, I’ll see if I can submit the receipt.”

    “I would be grateful if you do because we want to get this clarity.”

    “I did. Even Parliament was demanding a copy. So, I sent it to them.”

    “When you were leaving, too, you declared?

    “When I was leaving, I think I picked a form. But I’m not too sure…”

    Vincent Sowah Odotei- Deputy Minister, Communication (former MP, La-Dadekotopon MP)

    He was relieved of his job in April 2020.  Calls, text and WhatsApp messages to him were not responded to.

    Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe – Deputy Minister, Fisheries & Aquaculture (former MP, Ekumfi)

    He said he completed his application with his personal assistant and handed it over to him for submission. He, however, admitted not declaring his asset when he left office.

    Samuel Yeyu Tika – Deputy Regional Minister, Savannah (now Deputy Chief Executive, Minerals Commission)

    He told The Fourth Estate he declared his assets in the Tamale office of the Audit Service.

    He, however, said he couldn’t remember the exact dates he filed the document.

    He was also not sure if he filed it when he contested for parliament or afterward but was confident that he did.

    He said he would reach out to his accountant for the details. He later called to say the accountant was not sure.

    Siaka Stevens, Deputy Bono Regional Minister 

    He said before he became a deputy minister, he had declared his asset as a member of parliament.

    “I spent two years in office as a Deputy Minister. I didn’t add anything to it.”

    “When you left office, did you declare?”

    “If you exit? I’ve not seen that portion of the law that says so.”

    “So, when you enter office, you declare within six months and when you exit too, you have six months to do so.”

    “I’m not privy to that law.”

    “You can check Article 286 and Act 550”

    “I’ll check.”

    “But where did you file it?”

    “I filed it in Accra. The day I went to file, I even met Akua Donkor. I went right after her.”

    Mr Stevens became a deputy minister in March 2019.

    He said he didn’t declare his asset as a deputy regional minister.

    “We were there for only two years.”

    “Sir, the law doesn’t say if you’re there for two years you shouldn’t declare your assets. If you even spent six months, you have to. A lot can happen in six months.

    With that, he laughed …

    “As for that, I didn’t do it.”

    Sulemana Alhassan–Upper West Regional Minister

    When he was asked about his asset declaration profile, he laughed out loud and said, “I’m no more even in the system.”

    According to him, he had started the process with the regional coordinating director at the time, but could not remember if the document went to the Audit Service.

    Tahiru Tia Ahmed– Deputy Regional Minister, North East

    He couldn’t be reached for comment.

    Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey–Deputy Regional Minister, Greater Accra (now Metropolitan Chief Executive, Accra Metropolis)

    She didn’t respond to calls, text and WhatsApp messages.

    Bernard Oko Boye — Deputy Health Minister (now CEO, National Health Insurance Authority)

    He didn’t respond to calls, text and WhatsApp messages.

    What does the Asset Declaration law say?

    By law, ministers are to declare their assets within six months in office and latest six months after the end of a government’s first term.

    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 a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owed 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 (b) 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 law requires that the President, Vice-President, the Speaker, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, ministers and deputy ministers of state, ambassadors, the Chief Justice 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 required 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 beneficial interest;
    (e) vehicles, plant and machinery, fishing boats, trawlers, 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.

    Sack them

    Reacting to The Fourth Estate’s findings, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Beauty Emefa Narteh, expressed disappointment at the revelations. She wants the president to be more than just a role model in asset declaration.

    “You can’t appoint people and then they do the opposite of what you do. What measures did the president put in place to even ensure that his appointees do what is required in terms of asset declaration?” she asked.

    She continued, “It shouldn’t take the president too much to determine if his appointees have declared their assets or not. As an appointing authority, he could have added that they show evidence of declaration. He could have easily confirmed it. This situation is a wake-up call to the president to ensure that his appointees do not go contrary to what he is promoting.

    “Based on this information, those who are currently in government, I think the president should do the needful by sacking them for embarrassing him in such a manner.”

    She said the President should be worried about the non-compliance because the appointees may be breaking other laws on his blind side.

    CHRAJ investigations 

    She also urged the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to immediately investigate such appointees.

    In February this year, CHRAJ banned the former board chairman of the Public Procurement Authority, Prof. Douglas Boateng, from holding public office for the next two years after CHRAJ found out in the Contracts for Sale investigations that he had failed to declare his assets.

     Asset declaration law is a weak law

    Critics of Ghana’s asset declaration laws say it is opaque because what is declared cannot be verified or published by the Auditor-General.

    A former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, agrees. “What is missing in Ghana’s situation is verifying the assets to ensure that it’s in conformity with what has been declared.”

    Mr Domelevo recommends a lifestyle audit for public office holders to match their income with their possessions, he told Joy News.

    “The current asset declaration is a substandard measure of transparency and accountability. If we can’t verify what you declared, where lies the transparency and accountability. It’s unfortunate,” Beauty Emefa Narteh agrees.

    Anti-corruption campaigners believe the repealed Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Law 280 in 1998 which regulated asset declaration during Rawlings’ military and civil administration was much more transparent.

    Under that law, public officials had a thirty days grace period to declare their assets and it had to be done every two years. The Auditor-General also had 14 days to publish all assets declared by public office holders.

    However, even that law had its critics who claimed it was nothing more than a charade.

    For instance, the Ghanaian Chronicle reported on October 26, 1992, that the bank balances declared by some senior members of the PNDC were less than one month’s pension of a retired civil servant.

    But, unlike the current laws, it had a relatively stiffer punishment for those who broke it.

    Section 4 of that decree stated that persons who contravened the law were “liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred penalty units or to imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both the fine and the imprisonment.”

    With the current system, at worse, a person guilty of failing to declare his or her assets can only be banned from holding public office for 10 years, according to provisions of Act 550.

    The law, however, gives CHRAJ  a lot of discretion to decide the appropriate sanction. It is probably the reason the former Board Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority, Prof Douglas Boateng, was in February this year banned from holding public office for two years.

    That discretion, Beauty Emefa Narteh said, must be taken away and specific punitive measures put in place to deal with any kleptomaniacs in public office.

    You can reach the writer of this story, Seth J. Bokpe, via email at [email protected] You can follow him on twitter @thekekeli

  • Exclusive: Akufo-Addo’s 18 ministers who never declared their assets

    Exclusive: Akufo-Addo’s 18 ministers who never declared their assets

    At the peak of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first term, he had sworn in more than 126 ministers and deputy ministers. Some of them resigned and were replaced.

    They took the sacred Oath of Ministers, to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

    But, five years later, The Fourth Estate has found that at least 18 of them reneged on one of their first and basic obligations to the constitution—the declaration of their assets and liabilities.

    President Akufo-Addo has complied fully with the asset declaration law since coming into office as president in January 2017. He has declared his assets three times since assuming office.

    Records available to The Fourth Estate indicate that the president declared his assets on January 24, 2017, February 17, 2021, and May 7, 2021.

    His ministers and deputy ministers who served in his first term and are serving in his second term are supposed to also have declared their assets and liabilities three times by now.

    On July 18, 2017, president Akufo-Addo said that all his appointees had declared their assets.

    Information available to The Fourth Estate, however, reveals that at least 19 of the ministers and deputy ministers have not declared, not even once since 2017.

    What does the Asset Declaration law say?

    By law, ministers are to declare their assets within six months in office and latest six months after the end of a government’s first term.

    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 a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owed 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 (b) 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 law requires that the President, Vice-President, the Speaker, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, ministers and deputy ministers of state, ambassadors, the Chief Justice 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 required 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 beneficial interest;
    (e) vehicles, plant and machinery, fishing boats, trawlers, 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.

    On March 4, 2022, The Fourth Estate wrote to the Audit Service, under the right to information law, requesting information on public office holders who had declared their assets from January 2013 up to that date.

    The Audit Service responded with the data on May 17, 2022. Combing through the two booklets of almost 350 pages, The Fourth Estate did not find the names of 19 ministers and deputy ministers who have served in the Akufo-Addo administration since 2017.

     

    Who are the defaulting appointees?

    Prof Kwesi Yankah: The Fourth Estate could not find the name of the minister of state in charge of tertiary education, who served in the Akufo-Addo administration from 2017 to 2020. An academic don, Prof. Yankah contested the 2020 parliamentary election in the Agona East Constituency on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) but lost. He was in office from April 4, 2017, to January 7, 2021.

    Tangoba Abayege: She succeeded Rockson Bukari as the Upper East Regional Minister after Mr. Bukari was moved to the presidency as minister of state in 2018. Like her predecessor, Tangoba Abayege did not declare her assets. Tangoba Abayage, who lost the Navrongo Central parliamentary polls in 2020 was also missing from the list. Before becoming regional minister, she was Ghana’s ambassador to Italy. She was in office from November 2018 to January 7, 2021.

    Salifu Adam Braimah: He was the Savannah Regional Minister, who contested but lost the Salaga South parliamentary seat. He did not disclose his assets. He was in office from March 27, 2019, to August  2021.

    Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson: When the Bono Regional minister-designate came to the floor of parliament for approval in April 2019, it met stiff opposition from the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC).

    The NDC lawmakers alleged at the Appointments Committee of Parliament that Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, who had been a former Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, committed perjury in the declaration of assets and refund of money to the state as demanded in the Auditor General’s report.

    There were also unanswered questions regarding the redistribution of a vested land. But the report of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, which recommended Ms Kumi-Richardson’s approval by majority decision, cleared her of all the allegations by the Auditor General.

    After secret voting, the minority had their say but the majority had their way.

    Despite this, Ms. Kumi Richardson did not declare her asset when parliament approved her to become a regional minister. She served from March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021.

    Also, on the list of the ministers and deputy ministers who failed to declare their assets are the following and the portfolios they served:

    • Sulemana Alhassan–Upper West Regional Minister (March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021)
    • Carlos Ahenkorah–Deputy Minister, Trade and Industry  (April 11, 2017, to July 3, 2020)
    • William Owuraku Aidoo–Deputy Minister, Energy (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021.) He was reappointed when President Akufo-Addo won a second term.
    • Vincent Sowah Odotei–Deputy Minister, Communications (April 2017 to April 2020).
    • Bernard Oko Boye–Deputy Health Minister (April 20, 2020, to January 7, 2021).
    • Anthony N-Yoh Puowele Karbo–Deputy Minister, Roads & Highways  (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021)
    • Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe–Deputy Minister, Fisheries & Aquaculture (April 11, 2017, to January 7, 2021)
    • Siaka Stevens–Deputy Regional Minister, Bono  (March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Samuel Yeyu Tika–Deputy Regional Minister, Savannah ( March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Tahiru Tia Ahmed–Deputy Regional Minister, North East – (March 27, 2019, to January 7, 2021)
    • Johnson Avuletey–Deputy Regional Minister, Volta Region – (March 27, 2019, to January 2021)
    • Thomas Adjei Baffour–Deputy Regional Minister, Central – March 3, 2017, to January 7, 2021
    • Joseph Tetteh–Deputy Regional Minister, Eastern  (March 3, 2017, to August 2018)
    • Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey–Deputy Regional Minister, Greater Accra (March 3, 2017, to January 7, 2021).

    Two out of the 19 defaulters, Carlos Ahenkora and William Owuraku Aidoo, are still lawmakers in the current Parliament. But Vincent Sowah Odotei, Bernard Oko Boye, Anthony Karbo, Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe, Siaka Steven and Joseph Tetteh lost their seats in the 2020 election.

    Four others who were deputy regional ministers in Akufo Addo’s first term have been offered new jobs in the president’s second term.

    They are William Owuraku Aidoo,  Bernard Oko Boye, Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey and Samuel Yeyu Tika. They are expected to declare their assets in their current positions but they haven’t.

    The MPs in the list also swore the oath of lawmakers to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”

    But they desecrated the oath.

    Responses to The Fourth Estate

    Asset declaration is seen as crucial in fighting corruption by helping to track illicit wealth public office holders acquire while in office.

    You may also want to read: EXCLUSIVE: Sir John did not declare his assets

    Per the law, any assets acquired by a public officer holder after the initial declaration, which does not come from “sources reasonably attributed to income, gift, loan, inheritance or any other reasonable source would be classified” as illegal.

    The Fourth Estate reached out to the ministers whose names were not found in the asset declaration list for comments. Here are those we contacted and their responses.

    • Thomas Adjei Baffoe –Deputy Regional Minister, Central

    The Audit Service stated that no public office holder declared their assets in the Central Region from 2017 to 2019.

    But Thomas Adjei Baffoe, who served as deputy Central Regional Minister from March 2017 to January 7, 2021, insisted, he did.

    “I declared my assets. I deposited them at the regional office of the Audit Service. It was even one of the employees of the Local Government who does audits, who did it for me. His name is Ben Issah,” he told The Fourth Estate.

    Asked for the evidence of his declaration, he said he was not sure he took it from the said officer but said he would check and get back to this reporter because he was not in Cape Coast.

    • Prof Kwesi Yankah–Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education

    All attempts to reach him failed. Calls, texts and WhatsApp messages were not responded to.

    • Carlos Ahenkora–MP for Tema West & former Deputy Minister of Trade

    He resigned in July 2020 after public pressure mounted on the president to sack him for breaching the COVID-19 restrictions. He had tested positive for the virus and went to campaign instead of self-isolating.

    Mr. Ahenkora told The Fourth Estate he fulfilled his asset declaration obligation and that he submitted his forms to the Tema office of the Audit Service.

    “It is not true. I have declared my assets,” he said, but added, “I don’t know if I can give you the date, but I did declare my asset. Check with the Audit Service.”

    “The Audit Service has given us the document [list of those who declared their assets] we needed, from 2013 to 2021,” this reporter pointed out to him.

    “My brother, I am telling you that I have declared my assets and I am asking you to check well before you make pronouncements, because I know I declared my asset in 2017,” he said.

    “I didn’t finish the term because I resigned along the line. I am 120% sure that I declared my asset,” he added.

    “So, when you exited, too, you declared?”

    “I resigned so I did not declare. My term was terminated. I did not finish.”

    “But, sir, when you exit, you still have to.”

    “I don’t have that information. I didn’t have that advice.”

    • William Owuraku Aidoo–Deputy Minister of Energy (MP, Afigya Kwabre South)

    He said he declared his assets in the Ashanti regional office of the Audit Service in Kumasi.

    “I did. I did it in Kumasi after the elections,” he said but couldn’t remember the exact date.

    When The Fourth Estate asked if he declared in 2021, after he exited as a deputy minister, his tone turned condescending.

    “But in what capacity are you calling me. You are a journalist. You cannot call and interrogate me like this.

    “Sir, I am not interrogating you. I’m just giving you a fair…”

    “Why don’t you write to me,” he snapped

    “I should write to you?”

    “Yes, if you think there is something I have not done right, write to me. Today is Sunday, you don’t have the temerity to call me that I haven’t declared my asset (sic). Massa, don’t call me again.”

    • Tangoba Abayege–Upper East Regional Minister (former Ambassador to Italy)

    She said she declared her assets to Parliament prior to her vetting because she thought that was expected of her.

    “I didn’t know it was supposed to be the Audit Service. It was Parliament that vetted me. That is where I submitted every document, including my tax clearance certificate.”

    She, however, urged the Audit Service to make the declaration easy because some of the questions were cumbersome and unreasonable, including the value of family land, which she said she didn’t buy.

    Anthony Karbo–Deputy Roads & Highway Minister (former MP, Lawra)

    In a response to a WhatsApp message, he said, “It was done as far back as 2017 and submitted to Audit Service. Thank you.”

    A follow-up question on whether he declared in Accra or Wa and if he also declared again when he exited and any evidence was not responded to.

    • Joseph Tetteh–Deputy Eastern Regional Minister & Former MP, Upper Manya Krobo

    He said prior to the 2016 elections, he filed the document at the Audit Service Head Office in Accra as part of the election requirement.

    “We did it before we entered Parliament,” he said.

    “So, you did it as an aspirant?”

    “Yes, by then.”

    “So, when you became an MP, you did not?”

    “No, I didn’t. I also became a minister. I didn’t until I left parliament.”

    “When you read Article 286 and Act 550, it says when you become an MP you have to declare your assets and when you become minister, you have to.

    “Ah! That is what I didn’t do. I didn’t do anything like that.”

    “But is there any reason why you didn’t?”

    “I thought I did it before entering Parliament. Maybe parliament would take that one. I was not asked to do it again.”

    “There was no orientation to do it again?”

    “I can’t remember.”

    “The president said at a point that you all had declared your assets.”

    “I can’t remember.”

    “He said it on July 18, 2017, that all his appointees had declared their assets. At that time, I’m sure you were a deputy minister.”

    “July 18, yes, yes, I was a deputy minister.”

    Joseph Tetteh said he would check from his personal assistant if he did, but he couldn’t remember.

    • Johnson Avuletey–Deputy Volta Regional Minister

    He said when he was in office, he didn’t add any property to what he had, so he didn’t know what to declare.

    “I was in my own house before I was appointed. Is it necessary for me to declare that one too?” he asked, suggesting it was only properties gotten from the public office that had to be declared.”

    “When you come to the office, you have to declare within six months and when you exit, too, within six months, you have to declare,” The Fourth Estate reminded him.

    “Ok, ok,” he said, like someone who just received a new insight.

    “Was there no orientation on this?”

    “We didn’t have any orientation about that. I was not given any form to declare my assets. When I was an assemblyman, I declared assets. When I became a deputy minister for just two years, there was nothing like that,” he added.

    Rockson Bukari–Upper East Regional Minister

    Mr Bukari told The Fourth Estate his lawyer did it on his behalf in Bolgatanga.

    He, however, said he couldn’t remember where he had put the receipt.

    Asked whether he did when he left office, he said he couldn’t remember.

    But he said he would get in touch with his lawyer for clarity.

    • Evelyn Ama Kumi Richardson–Bono Regional Minister

    She insisted she declared her assets.

    “Please, I declared,” she said.

    “Do you have records of it?

    “Yes.”

    “I would be very grateful if you could provide the evidence. You know when you file it, they give you a receipt.”

    “Well, I’ll see if I can submit the receipt.”

    “I would be grateful if you do because we want to get this clarity.”

    “I did. Even Parliament was demanding a copy. So, I sent it to them.”

    “When you were leaving, too, you declared?

    “When I was leaving, I think I picked a form. But I’m not too sure…”

    • Vincent Sowah Odotei- Deputy Minister, Communication (former MP, La-Dadekotopon MP)

    He was relieved of his job in April 2020.  Calls, text and WhatsApp messages to him were not responded to.

    Francis Kingsley Ato Cudjoe – Deputy Minister, Fisheries & Aquaculture (former MP, Ekumfi)

    He said he completed his application with his personal assistant and handed it over to him for submission. He, however, admitted not declaring his asset when he left office.

    • Samuel Yeyu Tika – Deputy Regional Minister, Savannah (now Deputy Chief Executive, Minerals Commission)

    He told The Fourth Estate he declared his assets in the Tamale office of the Audit Service.

    He, however, said he couldn’t remember the exact dates he filed the document.

    He was also not sure if he filed it when he contested for parliament or afterward but was confident that he did.

    He said he would reach out to his accountant for the details. He later called to say the accountant was not sure.

    • Siaka Stevens, Deputy Bono Regional Minister 

    He said before he became a deputy minister, he had declared his asset as a member of parliament.

    “I spent two years in office as a Deputy Minister. I didn’t add anything to it.”

    “When you left office, did you declare?”

    “If you exit? I’ve not seen that portion of the law that says so.”

    “So, when you enter office, you declare within six months and when you exit too, you have six months to do so.”

    “I’m not privy to that law.”

    “You can check Article 286 and Act 550”

    “I’ll check.”

    “But where did you file it?”

    “I filed it in Accra. The day I went to file, I even met Akua Donkor. I went right after her.”

    Mr Stevens became a deputy minister in March 2019.

    He said he didn’t declare his asset as a deputy regional minister.

    “We were there for only two years.”

    “Sir, the law doesn’t say if you’re there for two years you shouldn’t declare your assets. If you even spent six months, you have to. A lot can happen in six months.

    With that, he laughed …

    “As for that, I didn’t do it.”

    • Sulemana Alhassan–Upper West Regional Minister

    When he was asked about his asset declaration profile, he laughed out loud and said, “I’m no more even in the system.”

    According to him, he had started the process with the regional coordinating director at the time, but could not remember if the document went to the Audit Service.

    • Tahiru Tia Ahmed– Deputy Regional Minister, North East

    He couldn’t be reached for comment.

    • Elizabeth Kwatsoo Tetteh Sackey–Deputy Regional Minister, Greater Accra (now Metropolitan Chief Executive, Accra Metropolis)

    She didn’t respond to calls, text and WhatsApp messages.

    • Bernard Oko Boye — Deputy Health Minister (now CEO, National Health Insurance Authority)

    He didn’t respond to calls, text and WhatsApp messages.

    Sack them

    Reacting to The Fourth Estate’s findings, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Beauty Emefa Narteh, expressed disappointment at the revelations. She wants the president to be more than just a role model in asset declaration.

    “You can’t appoint people and then they do the opposite of what you do. What measures did the president put in place to even ensure that his appointees do what is required in terms of asset declaration?” she asked.

    She continued, “It shouldn’t take the president too much to determine if his appointees have declared their assets or not. As an appointing authority, he could have added that they show evidence of declaration. He could have easily confirmed it. This situation is a wake-up call to the president to ensure that his appointees do not go contrary to what he is promoting.

    “Based on this information, those who are currently in government, I think the president should do the needful by sacking them for embarrassing him in such a manner.”

    She said the President should be worried about the non-compliance because the appointees may be breaking other laws on his blind side.

    CHRAJ investigations 

    She also urged the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to immediately investigate such appointees.

    In February this year, CHRAJ banned the former board chairman of the Public Procurement Authority, Prof. Douglas Boateng, from holding public office for the next two years after CHRAJ found out in the Contracts for Sale investigations that he had failed to declare his assets.

     Asset declaration law is a weak law

    Critics of Ghana’s asset declaration laws say it is opaque because what is declared cannot be verified or published by the Auditor-General.

    A former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, agrees. “What is missing in Ghana’s situation is verifying the asset to ensure that it’s in conformity with what has been declared.”

    Mr Domelevo recommends a lifestyle audit for public office holders to match their income with their possessions, he told Joy News.

    “The current asset declaration is a substandard measure of transparency and accountability. If we can’t verify what you declared, where lies the transparency and accountability. It’s unfortunate,” Beauty Emefa Narteh agrees.

    Anti-corruption campaigners believe the repealed Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Law 280 in 1998 which regulated asset declaration during Rawlings’ military and civil administration was much more transparent.

    Under that law, public officials had a thirty days grace period to declare their assets and it had to be done every two years. The Auditor-General also had 14 days to publish all assets declared by public office holders.

    However, even that law had its critics who claimed it was nothing more than a charade.

    For instance, the Ghanaian Chronicle reported on October 26, 1992, that the bank balances declared by some senior members of the PNDC were less than one month’s pension of a retired civil servant.

    But, unlike the current laws, it had a relatively stiffer punishment for those who broke it.

    Section 4 of that decree stated that persons who contravened the law were “liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred penalty units or to imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both the fine and the imprisonment.”

    With the current system, at worse, a person guilty of failing to declare his or her assets can only be banned from holding public office for 10 years, according to provisions of Act 550.

    The law, however, gives CHRAJ  a lot of discretion to decide the appropriate sanction. It is probably the reason the former Board Chairman of the Public Procurement Authority, Prof Douglas Boateng, was in February this year banned from holding public office for two years.

    That discretion, Beauty Emefa Narteh said, must be taken away and specific punitive measures put in place to deal with any kleptomaniacs in public office.

    Editors note: In an earlier version of this story, Rockson Bukari, was listed as one of the appointees who didn’t declare his asset. He has, however, produced evidence showing he did it on April 28, 2018. He, however, didn’t repeat the obligation when he exited office.

    Adwoa Adobea-Owusu, Evans Aziamor-Mensah, Paul Gozo & Prosper Prince Midedzi of The Fourth Estate also contributed to this story. 

  • EXCLUSIVE: Sir John did not declare his assets

    The Fourth Estate can report that the late Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, whose will has left some Ghanaians in shock and stoked the call for accountability in governance, did not declare his asset while in office.

    Popularly called Sir John, Mr. Afriyie was a former general secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). He died of Covid-19-related complications on July 1, 2020, while still in office as the head of the Forestry Commission.

    The massive wealth he bequeathed to his family and loved ones has shocked many Ghanaians since The Fourth Estate exclusively revealed the contents of his will. Of particular interest have been the large parcels of land he owned at the Achimota Forest and the Ramsar site, a protected area he had warned people against acquiring land while he was in office.

    Some have also questioned when he acquired the properties.

    Information The Fourth Estate has requested and received from the Audit Service reveals that Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie did not declare his assets before taking office and did not declare them throughout his tenure as the CEO of the Forestry Commission.

    Per the laws regulating asset declaration in Ghana—Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act—Mr Afriyie should have declared assets relating to the following:

    (a) lands, houses and buildings;
    (b) farms;
    (c) concessions;
    (d) trust or family property in respect of which the officer has beneficial interest;
    (e) vehicles, plant and machinery, fishing boats, trawlers, 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.

    Sir John had a long list of properties including 13 houses at various locations in Accra and Kumasi and his hometown, Sakora Wonoo, in the Ashanti Region. These houses are:

    1. House on plot number GA54480 located in Ogbojo, East Legon, and dated February 12, 2018
    2. House on plot number GA 55329 located at Oyarifa No. 2, dated May 11, 2018
    3. House on plot number GA 55475 located at Oyarifa No.1, dated September 27, 2017
    4. House on plot number GA 5881 located at Adjiringanor, Accra, (white House), dated August 7, 2019.
    5. A 6-bedroom house located at Patangbe, Ogbojo, near East Legon.
    6. A  4-bedroom house located in Mempeheusem, East Legon
    7. A 3-bedroom house on plot number TDA 4140 located in Mempehuesem, East Legon
    8. Another 3-bedroom house on plot number TDA 4140 located in Mempehuesem, East Legon
    9. A 4-bedroom house on plot number GA56838 located in East Legon and dated October 25, 2018
    10. A 5-bedroom house located in Sakora Wonoo
    11. A 4-storey building located in East Legon, with 10 apartments, each apartment consisting of 3-bedrooms; and five apartments, each consisting of two bedrooms
    12. A house at East Legon Hills
    13. A house in Kumasi, Ashanti region

    Assets Sir John dated while in office

    Sir John was appointed the CEO of the Forestry Commission in March 2017

    His will does not state when most of the landed properties, money in bank accounts and investments were acquired or the businesses he owned were set up.

    However, he named dates along with the registration details of five of the houses in his will. Incidentally, all five dates were while he was the CEO of the Forestry Commission.

    When he was just six months in office, his house acquired at Oyarifa No. 1 is dated September 27, 2017 with the registration.

    A second house at Ogbojo in Accra is dated February 12, 2018, along with the details in the will.

    A third house in Sir John’s collection is dated May 11, 2018, in the will, and a fourth on October 25, 2018.

    By his 30th month in office, Sir John, a lawyer and NPP’s general secretary from 2010 to 2014, had five houses registered in his name. The fifth one came on August 7, 2019.

    Eight other houses contained in his will do not have the dates of acquisition.

    His listed wealth also included 12 parcels of land.

    Sir John’s will also contains 15 foreign and local bank and investment accounts (both individual and corporate ) with one of the local banks having GH₵ 2 million.

    His list of businesses includes a fuel station located at Kentinkrono in the Ashanti Region; 10 fuel tankers (worth about $780,000, according to The Fourth Estate’s checks); one teak plantation located at Nkawie in the Ashanti Region; a rubber plantation located in the Eastern Region; three stalls located at the new Kejetia market in Kumasi, also in the Ashanti Region and Farms at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

    That is not all.

    He owned a fleet of 15 private vehicles, including a Lexus LX570, Lexus V6, Mercedes Benz E68 Sport AMG, Honda Pilot V6, Honda Accord Sport, Toyota Landcruiser V8, Ford 150 and Lexus Saloon Car, 2019 model.

    The Fourth Estate verifies if Sir John declared his assets

    The Fourth Estate has, through a right to information request to the Audit Service, found that Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, who led the country’s forestry sector regulator for almost four years failed to file his assets and liabilities as required by law.

    This is clearly in violation of Article 286(1) of the 1992 Constitution, which requires public office holders to declare the assets they hold directly or indirectly before taking office, at the end of every four years; and at the end of their term of office.

    The law requires that the President, Vice-President, the Speaker, Deputy Speakers of Parliament, ministers and deputy ministers of state, ambassadors, the Chief Justice 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.

    Sir John did not.

    Asset declaration just a formality?

    Critics of Ghana’s asset declaration laws say it is nothing more than a formality since there is no means to verify what public office holders disclose.

    This is because laws forbid public disclosure of the assets declared by the public officers concerned unless demanded as evidence by a court of competent jurisdiction, a commission of inquiry appointed under Article 278 or before an investigator appointed by the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

    But anti-graft crusaders including, Vitus Azeem, a former executive director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, had described the law as opaque with parliament lacking the will to amend it because it wouldn’t favour public office holders.

    “It does not make the law an effective tool to fight corruption,” he said, and points to the possibilities of dodging as the ideal situation should be that the Auditor-General could open the envelope and verify if the assets mentioned did exist or “if it was just a blank sheet that has been put into an envelope”.

    The case against asset verification 
    There have been a lot of cases made against the verification of assets declared. Civil Society Organisations, including the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) noted some of these arguments against asset declarations in their research and publications. One argument against closing the assets declared to the public is the socio-cultural setting.

    Some argue that in the context of Ghana’s extended family system, which relies heavily on  relatives, disclosing public office holders’ assets would make them vulnerable to undue pressure from needy relatives.

    Another justification has been that publicising the assets of public officials could deter “good” persons from entering public service.

    However, CDD-Ghana has shredded these arguments describing them as a red herring.

    CDD has noted that politicians and other elites are themselves given to needless displays of ostentation and self-importance, mainly as a way of establishing their “big man” credentials and reputation as “patrons”. It argues that it is disingenuous for these same elites to resist the disclosures of their assets on the grounds that it would give undue publicity to the private wealth of public officeholders.

    Controversies in the Sir John era as Forestry Commission CEO

    During Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie’s tenure of office, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a damning report on the illegal trade and felling of rosewood trees had continued despite a ban being in place since 2012.

    “Since 2012, over 540,000 tons of rosewood – the equivalent of 23,478 twenty-foot containers or approximately six million trees – were illegally harvested and imported into China from Ghana while bans on harvest and trade have been in place,” the report said.

    The investigations found “a massive institutionalised timber trafficking scheme, enabled by high-level corruption and collusion.”

    When he addressed a press conference on September 5, 2019, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said from 2012 to May 2019, a total of 300,368.94 cubic metres of rosewood equivalent to 257,230 trees had been exported and not six million trees as alleged by the EIA.

    As an antidote to the illegal rosewood trade, he said the commission had decided to among other things, burn all seized rosewood in order to deter people from engaging in cutting down the tree since all other measures had failed.

    It didn’t happen.

    In the heat of the crackdown on illegal mining (galamsey) in 2018, some residents of Koboro in the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region, a notorious illegal mining hub, labeled Sir John as an illegal miner.

    In his defence, he explained that he had contracted a company to undertake a reclamation exercise and not an illegal mining activity in the Apamprama Forest located in the area.

    His will, however, revealed that he had interests in gold mining companies while he was in office.

    YOU CAN ALSO READ:

    FULL DETAILS: Achimota Forest lands, gold businesses and guns in Sir John’s will 

    FULL LIST: All the 75 properties contained in Sir John’s will 

    VIDEO : Sir John warned chiefs against selling the Ramsar lands he willed to his sisters

  • VIDEO FLASHBACK: Sir John warned chiefs against selling the Ramsar lands he willed to his sisters

    VIDEO FLASHBACK: Sir John warned chiefs against selling the Ramsar lands he willed to his sisters

    “We have also put out a number of publications in the dailies, alerting people that the Forestry Commission has not given any chief or individual any right to sell land or authorise the putting up of buildings within the Ramsar Site. We have also warned the public not to purchase land within the Ramsar Site, from anybody.”

    Those were the words of the late chief executive officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, when he visited the Sakumono Ramsar on August 7, 2018.

    But almost four years later, it has emerged that the man whose duty it was to protect the Ramsar site from human activity actually got a portion of the land for himself.

    Popularly known as Sir John, the self-acclaimed knight of Ghana politics actually got 5.07 acres and willed it to his four sisters: Abena Saah, Comfort Amoateng, Abena Konadu and Juliet Akua Arko, and their children.

    That is more than 20 plots of the protected land, which is a buffer zone to protect Tema, Sakumono and their environs against flood, pollution, breeding of fish for the Sakumono Lagoon as well as for recreational activities.

    The Ramsar sites are also serve as the relaxation and feeding grounds for over 70 waterbird species. That particular site serves as the breeding ground for about three marine turtle species.

    The Ramsar sites are not for human habitation, a reason the Forestry Commission head warned the chiefs and people who traded the land for development projects.

    Sir John with some community leaders when he toured the Ramsar site             Credit: Graphic Online

    As he went round with a retinue of chiefs, Forestry Commission officials and officials of the Tema Development Company, Sir John asked owners of unauthorised buildings at the Sakumono Ramsar site to rectify their stay on the land as tenants as no chief had the right to sell the protected area to them.

    “When I saw the encroachment in Klagon, I thought that was even serious, but what I’ve seen here even makes it worse. Indeed, both the right side and the left side are all parts of the Ramsar site and yet, the massive encroachment we’ve seen beggars disbelieve(sic),” he said.

     He continued, “Those who alleged that they bought it from the chiefs should go back and collect their monies. If they got it for free, fine then there is nothing to worry their head about. But whatever it is, we can’t let them[houses] stand. It will be demolished.”

    The Sakumo Ramsar Site was established alongside four other coastal Ramsar Sites in 1992.

    It is the only wetland wholly owned by the government. The other four sites—Keta, Songhor , Muni-Pomadze, Densu Delta– belong to stools.

    While insisting that the commission had no intention of demolishing existing properties on the site, he warned that the Commission would not tolerate any new development in the area which had been encroached upon by developers who had filed the wetlands and built structures without permits.

    “After 2006, we noticed that the place was being encroached by illegal developers. We did carry out some demolition in the past with the support of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly and TDC,” he said.

    Sir John also said the commission had demarcated the area, setting a buffer zone that could not be crossed.

    But it appears he crossed that buffer zone before crossing to the other side.

    It is not just at the Ramsar site Sir John acquired land, he also acquires lands in the Achimota Forest.

    In total, he acquired four parcels of land at the Achimota Forest, the biggest one being 5.541 acres.

    These details are contained in the  will he made less than two months before his death.

  • Endangered Dreams: The hopeful children battling deprivation

    Fifteen-year-old Kojo Ibrahim was a pupil at Laterbiokorshie Basic School in Accra. His dream was to become an electrical engineer.

    But that dream suffered violence about a decade ago when his parents fought, leading to his mother packing out of the house. The separation of the marriage also marked the beginning of a separation between Kojo and his dream.

    Kojo’s father, Kofi Akalinya, a night security man at Ashfoam Company Limited in the North Industrial Area in Accra, had difficulty taking care of him.

    Pushed against the ‘financial wall’, Kofi Akalinya decided to take his son to his hometown. That is how Kojo’s dream to become an electrical engineer was electrocuted. His father truncated his education in Accra at Basic Five and sent him to Kalaxi,  arguably the most deprived community in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region. Here, there is no electricity.

    Kojo’s dream appears frozen

    The distance between Kalaxi in the northernmost part of Ghana and Otengkope-Dawa in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region down south is over 800 kilometres.

    But Melody Nartey and Abraham Dadibo, who live in Otengkope-Dawa, have much in common with Kojo of Kalaxi. They are united in deprivation, and their aims of reaching their dreams through the bridge called education are dimming before their young and helpless eyes.

    At 18, Melody’s dreams of becoming a nurse to save lives, while 15-year-old Abraham dreams of becoming a pilot.

    But with the dying prospects of education at the moment, Melody’s future is under threat and Abraham’s destiny is in jeopardy.

    The fates of Kojo, Melody and Abraham reflect the world of many children across Ghana.

    Kojo’s life at Kalaxi

    Kalaxi may bear some semblance to Galaxy, a popular Samsung mobile device, in spelling and pronunciation. But Kalaxi is the exact opposite of the sought-after Samsung mobile phone brand, with nothing to crave for except, perhaps, tuo zaafi, a popular staple in Northern Ghana.

    kalaxi_images
    Life’s struggle for Kojo include cooking in this dilapidated kitchen

    Sticky, starchy, and full of carbohydrates, tuo–zaafi, which in Hausa means ‘stirred (tuo) hot (zaafi)’, is made by cooking maize or millet flour with water, and it is traditionally served with slimy okra soup.

    On a daily basis in Kalaxi, Kojo stirred hot this meal on a traditional firewood stove. He did this to serve a family of nine. At the same time, his dream of becoming an electrical engineer that could enable him to handle sophisticated electrical gadgets gave him a cold stare.

    Kojo had hope that his father, who was serious about his education, would return home one day and take him back to Accra to continue schooling and live his dream. His father did return home a year later, but he died before anything meaningful to Kojo’s dream could be made.

    Having lived with his uncle and grandfather for the past six years at Kalaxi, located in the south-eastern part of the Sissala East District and farthest from the municipal capital, Tumu (60km away), Kojo’s dream to become an electrical engineer appeared to have died with his father.

    He is willing to go back to school, but no one is listening to him; not even his uncle and grandfather.

    “Anytime I tell them I want to go to school, they don’t take my words seriously. They don’t pay any attention to my pleas and rather tell me to go to the farm. When I was with my father in Accra, he was serious about my education and did everything possible to keep me in school,” he reflected on his past and present circumstances.

    Kojo knows his mother lives at Glefe, a slum at Dansoman Last Stop in Accra, and she could offer help, but he has never seen her ever since she packed out of marriage and home.

    “Even if I get someone to take me to school without giving me anything, I will be very content with that. The person should not give me anything. I only want the person to sponsor my education. That’s all,” Kojo said prayerfully.

    According to him, he had the technical ability to repair electrical gadgets when they go faulty, a claim that only defines destiny, as he looks for an opportunity to flee Kalaxi and free his galaxy of dreams.

    River Kunkono, a barrier to Kalaxi’s development

    The people of Kalaxi are mainly farmers of food crops such as maize, millet and beans, but since they do not have access to fertiliser to boost crop yield, they only farm for subsistence.

    At least two hundred people dwell in Kalaxi. 65 of them are children of school-going age.

    The deprivation of Kalaxi is ‘proudly’ sponsored by many factors, including lack of electricity, market, health facility, school and social amenities. Not even aid from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) sniffs at Kalaxi.

    The only facility Kalaxi can boast of is a borehole, which was drilled in 2005 by Moses Dani-Baah, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for the area.

    In order to access the essentials of life they lack, inhabitants of Kalaxi like Kojo need to scale a water barrier by crossing the ox-bow-shaped River Kunkono. In short, survival at Kalaxi largely depends on crossing River Kunkono.

    There is one dilapidated canoe shared by all the communities along the banks of River Kunkono. This means whenever the canoe goes to one side of the river bank, anyone seeking its services may have to wait patiently for its return, which can take hours.

    The canoe snails on sail because it is man-powered, thus prolonging the journey across the water. Apart from enduring such prolonged voyage, sailors also use containers, not as a paddling device to aid velocity, but as a safety weapon to constantly scoop out water seeping through openings in the dilapidated canoe.

    This, undoubtedly, is a risky venture for inhabitants of Kalaxi, who cross the river on a daily basis, but it is riskier for them not to do so because that could spell death. In some instances, pregnant women due for delivery and need to be transported across the river to access health facilities in other communities, spend long hours waiting for the arrival of the canoe and sometimes their babies arrive before the canoe arrives.

    Talata Alumsinya lost her husband six months ago when he drowned in River Kunkono, imposing a huge burden on her as a single mother of five.

    “He was returning from the farm with three other persons when he fell into the river, and although he managed to swim out, no one knows what pulled him back in and got drowned,” she recalled the sad event.

    With the burden of catering for five children as a single mother now, Talata wishes for a school to be established at Kalaxi so her children and others in the community would not have to go through the risk of crossing River Kunkono before going to school.

    “The widows here do not have any form of assistance. Those with older children can farm to help themselves but those who are young cannot do so. Such families suffer from hunger,” she said.

    Why girls perform better than boys

    The danger posed by the mode of transportation, coupled with the distance from Kalaxi to the bank of River Kunkono (about 3km), is a major disincentive for children at Kalaxi to attend school at other communities across the river. The river sometimes dries up in the prolonged dry season.

    Although River Kunkono had dried up when The Fourth Estate visited in March 2, 2022, only two girls from Kalaxi attended school that day.

    Alumsinya Doris, a Form 1 junior high school (JHS) student, and Ajuidiok Juliana, a Class 6 pupil, had to trek a long distance to Kanjarga to school because it offers better prospects than the Musidema Basic School at a nearer community.

    According to Shadrach Asumang, a Class 4 teacher at Musidema Basic School, one major challenge the school faces is low enrolment and attendance rate, as well as lack of teaching and learning materials.

    “When it gets to the rainy season, when the parents start farming, they want the male students to leave school and support them on the farm.

    “So when it gets to the rainy season where there are a lot of farming activities, only the girls come to school. That is why academically, the girls perform better than the boys in this community,” he said.

    The Musidema Basic School has a population of less than 200 with its share of the deprivation. In some of the classrooms, there is no furniture at all.

    “Some of the pupils have to sit on the bare floor and stoop over before they can write or copy what is on the board,” Mr Asumang said.

    Why the people will not vacate their community

    The Chief of Kalaxi, Kwame Aspuru, bemoaned the neglect of Kalaxi, claiming that not even a mere visit by government officials had happened because it is cut off from the rest of the Sissala East District by River Kunkono.

    He said anytime it rained heavily, Kalaxi got flooded and all their food crops and homes were destroyed by the rains, adding that River Kunkono also overflowed its banks, making it impossible for schoolchildren to cross it and go to school.

    Chief Aspuru said although they had petitioned the Sissala East Municipal Assembly for help, no one had responded to their plight.

    “Since I was born, I have never witnessed the government bringing us any relief items before. No help comes from anywhere.

    “As for election times, they do everything possible to get here but right after the elections, we don’t see them again,” Chief Aspuru lamented.

    However, the Sissala East Municipal Chief Executive, Fuseini Yakubu Batong, said the district assembly made efforts earlier to relocate the inhabitants of Kalaxi to Gbenebisi, a nearby community, but that was not successful.

    “When we are pleading with them to help us relocate them closer to Gbenebisi, they are also dragging their feet and reluctant to do so,” he said.

    The Chief of Kalaxi explained their reluctance to relocate, saying, “we cannot leave our land to go and settle on someone’s land. What if someone else comes to claim our land?

    “They should try and bring us the needed help because my people will not agree to leave their land and settle on another man’s land,” he said.

    He pleaded with the authorities to come their aid and provide them with road, electricity, school and health facility to end their suffering.

    According to the Sissala East MCE, however, it would be difficult to connect Kalaxi to electricity, construct a health facility for the people of Kalaxi due to River Kunkono.

    “It’s a difficult task but we are looking at how to relocate the people so that when they are across the river, help can easily reach them,” he said.

    Reality check & reunion

    Over the years, about 200 inhabitants of Kalaxi have relocated to Kalaxi Number 2 in the Builsa South District in the Upper East Region in order to escape deprivation.

    According to Chief Aspuru, his people recently approached him to suggest a relocation to Kalaxi Number 2 since their kinsmen who left Kalaxi to settle at Kalaxi Number 2 had been provided with electricity, a road, a school and health facilities.

    “I have no option than to allow them to relocate if they insist; and when that happens, and the community becomes empty, I will also be forced to leave and there will be no more Kalaxi,” he said softly.

    If there would ever be any relocation, it is obvious Kojo would prefer Glefe down south, where his mother lives, to Kalaxi Number 2, up north, where his kinsmen may sojourn. But he knew little about how to locate his mother. All she knew was that she lived in Glefe Last Stop and that she is called Yaa, and she sold groundnut.

    Three weeks after returning to Accra from Kalaxi in the Upper West Region, The Fourth Estate , armed with that scanty information, went to Glefe to look for Yaa, the groundnut seller.

    It took only about 10 minutes to search and find Yaa, the groundnut seller and mother of Kojo Ibrahim.

    A week earlier, Kojo had already found his mother, Lamisi Yaa Abadankade, and mother and son reunited, 10 years after a separation between his parents put them (Yaa and Kojo) apart.

    “Since he has been able to safely come back, I will try my best to enroll him in one of the schools in the community so he can continue with his education,” Yaa promised.

    It was a promise to reunite Kojo and his dream of becoming an engineer.

    Gloom future for schoolchildren at Otengkope-Dawa

    Unlike Kalaxi, Otengkope-Dawa has a school, but Aggressive Academy is a caricature of a school on the verge of death. And it is dragging along the dreams of Melody and Abraham.

    Otengkope-Dawa is about one hour drive from Ghana’s capital, Accra, but the school structure with crack-walled, potholed floored, and doors and windows yet to be fixed, is not different from what is seen in some of the most deprived communities far away from the capital.

    It is in that dilapidated school, badly hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, that lie the destinies of Melody, Abraham and other children at Otengkope-Dawa.

    Background

    Otengkope-Dawa is a farming community in the Ningo-Prampram District. Its population of about 900 inhabitants grow mainly vegetables such as pepper, okro and tomato.

    The community did not have a school and so children had to cross a highway separating the community from another town to attend school. On many occasions, children were knocked down and killed by speeding vehicles.

    Parents in the community then decided not to expose their children further to the risk of crossing the highway, and that deprived children in the community of education until they were eight years, when parents deemed them mature enough to cross the highway safely.

    The lack of education for the children at an early age especially, is an affront to the 2004 Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, which promotes holistic early childhood development and programme packages that address the physical, mental, social, moral and spiritual needs of the child.

    A native of Otengkope-Dawa, Beatrice Adelah, driven by strong desire and passion to help address the problem, established a community school for the benefit of children in her native home.

    The Aggressive Academy currently has a population of 110 pupils and with four teachers, including the founder.

    However, when COVID-19 struck the country, Aggressive Academy reeled under the severe aggression of the pandemic. Some of the teachers and caregivers, unpaid for a long while, abandoned post to seek better jobs elsewhere.

    Even Borwin Addo, the eldest daughter of Ms Adelah, who left her pursuit of nursing to read education in order to support her mother’s dream of providing education to the children of Otengkope-Dawa, is in deep reflection now.

    “I sometimes want to leave because there is nothing good here. I need to get something doing that can earn me some good money for my future and my kids,” Miss Addo said.

    Due to the seasonal drought and poor crop yield, many parents do not have money to buy books, uniform and other essentials for their children. As a result, some of them have dropped out of school.

    Current situation Aggressive Academy

    Aggressive Academy lacks facilities such as furniture, teaching aid and toilet, compelling students to attend to the call of nature at a nearby public place of convenience, while the younger ones defecate in bushes around.

    The school has five classrooms, which accommodate pupils from Nursery 1 to JHS 2. One room is shared by JHS 1 and JHS2 classes, while classes 4, 5 and 6 also share one classroom. Classes 1, 2 and 3 occupy one room. Nursery 1 and 2, as well and KG 1 and 2 share the remaining classroom.

    The children study in extremely deprived environments

    Plea of students and parents

    Berzo Sampson, 16, and Kwenortey Ruth, 15, both in JHS 2, are deeply worried about the deteriorating state of the school building.

    “Because our classrooms do not have windows and doors, while learning, animals like goat and fowls enter the classroom. This  distracts us. There are cracks in the walls of our classroom and because it is built of mud, we fear that one day it may collapse on us,” Sampson said.

    “As we are in Form 2, we have to join another school for Form 3 because there is no classroom for Form 3. We wish to have extra rooms so we can transit easily to Form 3,” Ruth added.

    Faustina Kwetey, a single mother of three, who is also into pepper and okro farming, said: “We want our children to have a better future, and Madam Beatrice has done well over the years, but we need help to upgrade the school to ensure the safety of our children.”

    A Senior Programmes Officer of Child Rights International, Jennifer Nartey, said there was the need for schoolchildren to  learn under good conditions. He said the absence of a safe and supportive environment amounted to deprivation, which was against the child’s rights as stipulated in the Children’s Act.

    “It is sad that in this day and age, children have to go to school in this condition. These are some of the very important things we need to address immediately. If we say children are the future leaders, then we need to provide them with all the needed facilities and items to enable them grow and develop well,” she said.

    A Way forward

    The District Chief Executive for Ningo-Prampram, Al-atiff Tetteh Amanor, said he had heard about Aggressive Academy, but the deplorable condition of the school had not been made known to him.

    “What touched my heart was the fact that children had to suffer the risk of being knocked down by vehicles in their bid to access education,” he said.

    The elders of Otengkope-Dawa are also concerned about the dilapidated structure of the school and the challenges of education in the community but they seem helpless about the situation.

    “Even though we are aware of the present difficulties in the school, our financial constraints have been a major challenge, so we have not been able to assist as we wish.

    “We are mainly vegetable farmers and the absence of a dam or alternative source of water means we farm only one season within the year (May – August) which fetches us a little to feed our families,” William Adelah, a chief of the community, recounted.

    He was, however, optimistic when he said, “We wish to see Aggressive Academy as the best school in the community because the students do well in their academics in spite of their depravity. So we call on all and sundry to assist.”

    The founder, Madam Beatrice Adelah, is not giving up hope.

    “The thing that is giving me the morale in this school is these children; some of them will become nurses, teachers and others, and they will say, ‘It was Madam Adelah’s school that I attended’.

    “If I do not get help, this school might collapse and all my efforts will be in vain.” she said solemnly.

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    The writers of this report, Joseph Kwaku Kpormegbey & Deborah Pokua Bempah, are Fellows of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship at the Media Foundation for West Africa.

  • Between E-levy errors & safety of journalists: the mess in govt’s response

    The government in the last few days has been caught in a public relations nightmare over two issues it wished wouldn’t have clashed—the error-ridden implementation of the e-levy and the release of the Press Freedom Index.

    Masters in drowning controversies and scandals, President Nana Akufo-Addo and his band are struggling to ward off the mob of public opinion ready to literally lynch it over the two issues.

    Ghanaians are angry about the deductions that accompany the E-levy with some even in the exemptions bracket paying the levy. Journalists and their sidekicks in advocacy are mourning the deterioration in the safety of journalists in Ghana.

    The government’s responses to what many consider legalised pickpocketing (E-levy) and the country’s disastrous outing on the annual press freedom index released by Reporters Without Borders expose the level of insensitivity on the part of some government officials.

    Two outrageous things caught my attention during the day— a five-page statement released by the Ministry of Information trying to explain away Ghana’s performance on the global ranking.

    The Ministry of Information was desperately trying hard to justify our position on the ladder by blaming it on the methodology. The same methodology that pushed up Sierra Leone. Same one ranked Burkina Faso, a country led by military dictators, ahead of Ghana.

    The government sought to suggest that it did well everything within its control on the list of the new methodologies the SRF employed. However, the country flunked the only thing that lay outside its domain and in the hands of  journalists and media owners.

    “It is worthy of note that Ghana’s dip in ranking was largely influenced by two of the new parameters, namely the Economic and Safety of journalists where the country scored 47.22% and 62.25% respectively.

    The country comparatively performed better in guaranteeing safety of journalists (62.25%) juxtaposed to the economic factors that influence media work (47.22%) underpinned by poor salaries for journalists and the lack of financial sustainability of some media houses, making a number of them economically less viable,” the statement said.

    What it, however, failed to acknowledge is that, in media circles in Ghana, walls have ears. The subtle threats to media houses that the government will boycott their platforms and withdraw advertisements also threaten independence of the media.

    As our elders put it, “You can’t bite the hand that feeds you.” The dozens of media houses that depend on the advertising pie means they virtually have to look the other way when the government misbehaves.

    The suggestion that journalists and media owners should own up for the country’s fall, however subtle it was put in the statement, is repulsive and should not be coming from the Ministry of Information.

    Again, the government shot itself in the foot when the Deputy Minister of Information, Fati Abubakar, seemed to suggest that the journalists assaulted by security personnel had done something wrong.

    Hear her:

     “Acts of some overzealous policemen in handling cases of some journalists suspected to be involved in crimes are not the doing of government,” 3news.com quoted her as saying.

    How sad.

    In 2019, investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale was killed after a key member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kennedy Agyapong, displayed his pictures on Net 2 TV, inciting the public to attack him.

    Ahmed Suale: Two years on, no closure yet - Graphic Online
    The killers of Ahmed Suale are yet to be found                          Credit: Graphic Online

    Ahmed Suale was later shot and killed by unknown gunmen, but nobody has been held responsible for his killing to date.

    In January 2022, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, was arrested, detained and charged by the police for alleging on Facebook that the president’s family had used the presidential jet for shopping. This was after he apologised and retracted the comments.

    In February this year, Kwabena Bobbie Ansah of Radio XYZ was also arrested, detained and put before the court by the police for making disparaging comments about the president’s wife, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo.

    In June 2019, national security operatives allegedly tortured editors of modernghana.com. Their crime was that they had published negative reports about the minister. Their equipment and phones were seized in a  raid, and as of 2021, the gadgets had still not been returned to them.

    On May 4, 2018, a member of the New Patriotic Party, Hajia Fati, slapped Ohemaa Sakyiwaa of Adom FM in Accra. The journalist had gone to cover an event at the party’s head office in Accra.

    Unprofessional Adom FM reporter' resembled onion seller - Hajia Fati defends assault - Graphic Online
    Hajia Fati (left) said she mistook Ohemaa for an onion seller

    In these instances, what was the criminal motive of the journalists involved? Comments like Fati’s numb the seriousness the government should attach to dealing with those who see journalists as punching bags.

    In trying to shield itself from blame, the government can’t run away from the use of national security operatives to oppress journalists. Most of these operatives are party boys, taking directives from party men. Even if they aren’t, the national security minister is appointed by the president.

    Fati Abubakar admitted that the “government, however, acknowledges that these events negatively affect Ghana’s ranking, has instituted the coordinated mechanism for the safety of journalist, ran by the National Media Commission so that some of these issues can be addressed.”

    It would have been nice to add the success story of this mechanism, which is only on paper.

    The only thing to clap for about what she said during the event commemorating World Press Day is one of the most repeated lines about “Government is putting in the necessary steps including taking inputs from technocrats and industry experts to facilitate the passage of the Broadcasting bill.”

    It’s another skeptical promise. But it’s better than none.

    Away from the press freedom ranking, the government began legally picking our pocket from Sunday through a tax regime that virtually leaves some of us double taxed.

    But in trying to encourage people accept the tax—or is it to instill fear?— the deputy minister of finance, John Kumah goofed.

    Speaking on Neat FM, he sought to suggest legal ramification for people who refuse to accept mobile money payment as a way of avoiding the E-Levy.

    Social media was deep frying him on Thursday. Before he starts screaming that he was misquoted, I went looking for audio recordings of the interview.

    While rallying the public to pay the levy to support the government’s development agenda, he also warned mobile money vendors that the law would deal with them if they are caught defrauding people.

    But his faux pas came when he said ” those who refuse to accept momo and infringe on the law will be reported.” This is to mean that their refusal to accept momo as a form of payment means a crime of a sort has been committed.

    A rejection of mobile money transactions isn’t a rejection of a legal tender. A business can choose to operate a mobile money account or not. There is no law binding any business owner to running a momo account. For most business owners, the convenience of customers informs their decision to accept mobile money payments.

    For instance, almost every day, we patronize the services of a fruit seller who visits the office. The value of the purchases are less than GHC 10, most people pay by cash. This lady is kind enough to accept momo. I said kind because she is under no obligation to receive payment via momo.

    Is the deputy finance minister saying this woman can be dealt with by law if she refuses to accept momo?Will the owners of Heavy Do Chop Bar, the Managing Director of the Palace Mall or Shoprite,or the investors the president is luring into the country via his luxurious travels be arrested for opting out of mobile mobile payment options?

    The thing about misinformation is that when the enlightened recipient receives, he or she get revulsed by it.

    I was. I went scanning through the law to educate myself.

    Perhaps it could be a useful arsenal when the attendants at Goil refuse mobile money.

    Before doing this, however, I was damn sure the deputy minister was misinforming his audience or publishing fake news. A few journalists have ended up in police cells for what won’t even earn the deputy minister a slap on the wrist.

    As I checked it out, it turned out, the man who the Ghana Revenue Authority will be accountable to had his own version of the law. I don’t know if it was meant to instill fear in the public but it backfired. Public anger is swelling on social media.

    It is to be expected that the government will be in denial about the two cases.  But the magnitude of the response, especially from these two deputy ministers leaves one wondering if they really understood the magnitude of those words.

    It is obvious this administration has ticked the box of naysayers who say that in a typical African country, ordinary people don’t expect much of politicians, because people get tired of repeated empty promises.

    Again, in a typical African country, people have no delusions about what politics means to politicians. It has become a norm that those who have power have it for themselves, their friends and families.

    It is becoming increasingly clear that the idea that the state is a tool for people’s growth is a Western concept, only copied by the Asian Tigers.

    In Africa, we have a different script. Our leaders aren’t democracy ‘giraffes.’ They don’t copy from the originators. They remain happily Africans and are happy to serve or rather be served the African way.

    It is ironic that the two deputy ministers are in the government of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia whose chorus in 2016 still rings loud in my ears when issues of our economic woes come up for discussion:

    teachers are suffering,

    nurses are suffering,

    doctors are suffering,

    traders are suffering,

    journalists are suffering,

    Our  suffering yesterday hasn’t changed much today.

    Therefore, what we expect of people who drink from the tax payer’s well is a little sensitivity to our plight. John Kumah and Fati Abubakar should come again.

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