The Fourth Estate CMS

Author: Seth J. Bokpe

  • TESTING RTI LAW: The 33 public institutions that passed or failed

    TESTING RTI LAW: The 33 public institutions that passed or failed

    By  Kwaku Krobea Asante & Seth J. Bokpe 

                          ——————————————————————

    “I don’t care where the letter is coming from. Drop it in that box and leave.  There is COVID-19. I will not sign anything!”

    With those words uttered in very harsh tones, a receptionist at the Ministry of Education dismissed a journalist from The Fourth Estate.

    No amount of explanation, including the fact that the letter was a right to information (RTI) request and needed to be acknowledged, would make her budge that afternoon of March 29, 2021.

    She ranted, insisting no letter was moving beyond the airconditioned reception on a day the sun was at its fiery worst.

    The letter was one of 36 requests The Fourth Estate made to 33 public institutions. Those requests were a test of the efficacy of the Right to Information (RTI) law, which had been described as an antidote to corruption.

    Needless to say, the Ministry of Education, where the receptionist works, is one of the institutions that refused The Fourth Estate access to information 14 days after the letter was submitted.

    When Parliament passed the RTI law in 2019, its main advocates–the media, civil society groups and anti-corruption campaigners–touted it as another arsenal to crush corruption. They said it would increase transparency in the government, ensure proactive disclosure of information and set rules for requests and responses.

    Passing Ghana’s RTI law did not come easy.  It had triggered political promises and failures before and after elections.

    From the outset, it appeared successive governments did not want to open up for scrutiny through the RTI. But civil society organisations moved from push to shove. And finally got it done.

    The journey

    In 1996, a leading governance think tank in Ghana, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), wrote to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to request information. The IEA made the request in the exercise of its fundamental right to information as enshrined in Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution. The request was to test a law that hadn’t been given the opportunity to even fail.

    That request triggered what has been arguably the longest advocacy for the passage of a law (the RTI law) in recent years. It would take 19 years for Ghana to pass a law that Sweden approved in 1776.

    The IEA drafted the RTI Bill in 1999. It was reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007, and presented to Parliament in 2010.

    ALSO READ: RTI Commission orders Scholarship Secretariat to release beneficiaries list

    The bill gathered momentum in the dying embers of the Mahama administration in 2016 but hit a snag. Members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) protested the timing of the intended passage of the bill. The NPP had won the 2016 elections and suspected that the outgoing government wanted to set traps with the law.

    However, in 2019, after another round of sustained pressure from civil society, the Akufo-Addo administration passed the law. Ghana joined a global league of more than 100 countries that had passed the RTI law.

    Fifty-six (56) days after the passage of the bill, on May 21, 2020, President Akufo-Addo assented to it within 24 hours of receiving the law. The assent was broadcast on national television.

    “I am very happy that this law has finally been passed, and I did make the commitment that, when it was brought to me, I would give my assent to it right away. It was, in fact, brought to me yesterday afternoon,” the President said.

    “But, on second thought, I felt that I should sign it in the plain view of the Ghanaian people, for you to know that this long, winding parliamentary process has finally come to an end,” he added.

    The passage and assenting of the RTI law (Right to Information Act, 2019, Act 989) drew commendations from many local and international stakeholders and civil society organisations.

    The law, which took effect on January 2, 2020, is expected to make it easier for the public to request and receive information from public institutions in Ghana.

    But it is beginning to dawn on civil society and the media that the celebrations were premature. Very few people are using the law and very few institutions are willing to release information.

    Testing the law 

    Between March and July 2021, The Fourth Estate put the Right to Information Act to a litmus test. The objective was to assess how effective the legislation was being implemented in public institutions.

    The Fourth Estate made 36 requests for information from 33 ministries departments and agencies (MMDAs) working under the three arms of government –-the executive, legislature and judiciary. The Fourth Estate purposively selected MMDAs that are related to the functioning of the RTI law

    There was also a focus on institutions that have recently engaged in key activities or projects of crucial concern to national development. In some cases, one institution received more than one request for information.

    The following institutions received The Fourth Estate’s requests for information:

    Nearly 60% of the applications by The Fourth Estate were refused access to information

    The RTI law emphasises time and feedback. It stipulates that an information officer of a public institution must respond to an applicant within 14 days of receiving the request for information. The response must indicate if the information requested is available and whether access will be granted or not.

    “Where an information officer fails to determine an application within fourteen days after the application is received by the public institution, the application is deemed to have been refused and the applicant has the right to seek redress under sections 31 to 39.” Section 23 (5) of the RTI law states.

    At the end of 14 days after making the requests, 52% (17 out of the 33) institutions failed to acknowledge or respond. In RTI terms, they refused The Fourth Estate access to information.

    Even though  16  other institutions provided feedback to The Fourth Estate’s applications, not all of them followed up with granting us access to the information. Many of them merely acknowledged the requests but failed to provide the information.

    However, the following institution must be separated for commendation. They did not only respond to The Fourth Estate’s application but granted access to the information within 14 days.

    Internal review

    In the case of refusal and neglect to provide the information requested, Section 31 of the law provides a pathway—application for internal review:

    “Except as otherwise provided in this Act, a person aggrieved by a decision of the information officer of a public institution may submit an application for internal review of that decision to the head of the public institution.”

    The Fourth Estate followed the process and made an application to the heads of all the institutions whose information officers did not respond to the requests or failed to give us the information requested.

    The heads of the institutions included sector ministers, the Speaker of Parliament, CEOs and managing directors of state-owned enterprises. Some of the institutions provided the information following the appeal. In the case of Parliament, The Fourth Estate did not only write an internal review after the initial application, but it also wrote a reminder letter.

    This means The Fourth Estate wrote three times to the institution that passed the RTI law before the information was finally granted, a case of the priest not believing in his own sermon.

    Some of the responses received following the internal appeal to the heads of institutions revealed the lack of awareness and understanding of the RTI law among public institutions. They also underscored the general aversion to transparency and how the internal communication structures of the civil service are set up to block such requests.

    A general aversion to releasing information despite the existence of the RTI law

    The spirit of the RTI law encourages proactive disclosure of information. The law stipulates that public institutions must publish periodically a manual providing key and specific pieces of information relating to their work. The manual has not been produced by any public institution yet.

    Section 18 (5)] of the RTI law envisages that institutions guide applicants in making their requests as they may not have detailed knowledge about the work of the institution:

    “Where an application does not sufficiently describe the information required, the public institution to which the application is made shall so inform the applicant and offer the applicant the necessary assistance to identify the information.”

    GETFund

     The Fourth Estate wrote to the GETFund requesting the list of scholarship beneficiaries and the amount disbursed to them under the Fund for 2019 and 2020. The request also included a list of education infrastructure the Fund had sponsored from 2016 to 2020.

    The GETFund, after failing to make a determination on the request within 14 days, hand-delivered a letter signed by its Administrator to the premises of The Fourth Estate. 

    “The response to your letter is ambiguous,” the letter said.

    But a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and RTI advocate, Zakaria Tanko, differed with the GETFund.

    “These are all legitimate requests, and the request is going to a public institution. I can confidently say none of this is exempt [not supposed to be released] information,” lawyer Tanko said.

    Similar responses were received from many institutions.

    Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources

    The Fourth Estate requested a copy of the contract on the regional waste recycling plant from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources. It made the request following news reports that the contract was between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and Jospong group, hence stated that the Ministry provided it “contracts for the construction of regional waste recycling plants between the Government of Ghana and the Jospong Group.”

    However, the Ministry, in a letter signed by Anthony Komla Dovlo, responded blankly stating that “there is no contract between the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, and for that matter, Government of Ghana, and Jospong.”

    The ministry ignored provisions of section 18 (5) of the RTI law. It was not interested in providing any further detail on the said contract or either guide The Fourth Estate to know where to access the information.

    Ghana National Fire Service

    The Ghana National Fire Service denied The Fourth Estate a request for reports on the Accra Atomic Junction Gas explosion, the June 3 fire disaster, and the fire outbreak at the Ghana Revenue Authority office near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in 2020. The fire service cited ethical constraints.

    “Fire reports involving institutions and individuals cannot be made available to you. Legally, we are not bound to release such reports until permission has been granted by such institutions and individuals concerned,” is aid.

    “The ethics of our profession does not entreat us to divulge such information to a third party who was directly involved in [the] said incident,” the service added.

    Ministry of Works and Housing

    The Ministry of Works and Housing declined to release a copy of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors audit report on the Saglemi Housing Project. It also did not grant our request to know the government’s contribution to developing the Saglemi Housing Project since 2017.

    The head of RTI at the ministry, Zakaria Musah, said in a letter that the matter was under investigation at the CID and that the request would only be ready after the investigations.

    Mr Tanko did not understand what the ministry meant when they say the matter was under investigation.

    “For that Saglemi Housing, I don’t know whether the case has gone to court, nobody has been arrested,” he said.

    “If you make that request to the police, then the police could say it is subject of investigations. But even that, if the subject is made aware of the content of the information, then you are entitled to receive the information as well. I’m not too sure what level of investigation they are talking about.”

    General observations on RTI law’s functionality

    Aside from the general unwillingness on the part of public institutions to release information, The Fourth Estate made some other observations based on the responses received from the institutions.

    There appears to be a widespread low understanding of the law and the principles on which it functions. Specifically, many of the institutions were conflicted on whether RTI law overrode their Acts, which also guide them on how to release information.

    The Ghana National Fire Service provided The Fourth Estate information on fire outbreaks and locations in Ghana from 2016 to 2020 and charged GHs 150.00. They explained that it was the standard fee they charged for the information requested, and so requesting for information under the RTI law was no different. Meanwhile, Section 78  of the RTI law indicates that an applicant only pays for the reproduction of the information requested.

    Also, the RTI Commission, in a landmark ruling, directed the Minerals Commission to charge GHs 1.90 instead of the equivalence of $1,000 the Minerals Commission had asked The Fourth Estate to pay based on one of their establishing Acts.

    Poor internal communication

    The Fourth Estate also observed that poor internal communication channels and red tapeism that characterise the civil service are a major blockade to the functioning of the RTI law. Many of the institutions including the DVLA, GNFS, and EOCO, provided feedback to The Fourth Estate that they did not receive the initial application for information.

    Meanwhile, for every application, The Fourth Estate ensured that the officers, mostly front desk officers, who received the request signed or stamped a copy as evidence that the request has been filed. Interestingly, many of these institutions would later find the application after the appeal to the heads of the institutions.

    There also appears to be no clearly defined structure or destination in some of the institutions where applications were supposed to go. Indeed, a considerable number of the front desk officers who liaised between the general public and institutions did not know a thing about the RTI law and who must be the recipient of the applications.

    Therefore, based on their own discretion, the front desk officers directed the requests to whichever department they were convinced must deal with the request. This creates a high possibility of an RTI application getting missing in a public institution.

    The RTI law indicates that an applicant must state in which means they want the information delivered to them. In all the requests, The Fourth Estate indicated that the information be sent to it via email or that we should be invited to pick it up.

    More than half of the institutions that granted access invited us to pick up the letters in person even when we had suggested the information should be scanned and sent to us via email. In fact, the EPA’s initial response to The Fourth Estate’s request was sent through the post office box without notifying the news portal that it has been sent.

    Law passed, let’s make it work 

    With these teething problems to grapple with, a Programmes officer at the Media Foundation for West Africa, Adiza Moro Maiga, did not mince words.

    “Passing the law is not enough. The challenge is getting it running, and effective. If we don’t put in the structures to make sure it is working well and serve the purpose for which it is passed, then it becomes problematic,” she said.

    Ms Maiga, who has been on the frontline training CSOs, journalists and community activists on the RTI law, said the challenge has moved from having the law passed to “having it work.”

    RTI Commission’s Reviewing

    In what is supposed to be the last stage of the appealing process, after the heads of institutions failed to respond, The Fourth Estate wrote to the RTI Commission. The requests were the first the Commission received since it was established in October 2019.

    In all, The Fourth Estate made 11 appeals at the Commission against 11 institutions that had either failed to provide full disclosure of information or didn’t respond to our requests at all. Some of the institutions had also transferred our request to other institutions but had failed to follow it up.

    At the time of filing this report, the Commission had written to all of these institutions requesting an explanation or justification for denying The Fourth Estate information.

    In the cause of the appeals, the Ministry of Education and Legal Aid Commission released partial information to The Fourth Estate.

    In an interview with The Fourth Estate, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Mr Yaw Sarpong Boateng, said the challenges with the release of information had been because in the past civil servants swore the oath of secrecy before taking office to protect information within the system.

    “This is a novel situation we find ourselves in. Hitherto, people who have operated with secrecy are being confronted with disclosure. We obviously will have some challenges. But with education and time, we will cross the bridge,” he said.

    Mr. Zakaria Tanko, who is also a member of the RTI Coalition, said, “The more you make information available to people, the more they want to hold you accountable. The more they will feel empowered, the more you will be called upon to be transparent and open in your affairs and the more issues about corruption will be in the spotlight.”

    He continued: “If you want to find out why it was difficult to pass the right to information law, it is because of the fear of the unknown. It is like you are arming your enemies. During training with some MMDCEs, they were clearly angry with the government for passing the RTI law because even without the right to the information, they claimed they were being harassed by journalists and now the media is being given ammunition.”

    READ ALSO: 

    Release information for GH₵2 not GH₵6,000: RTI Commission orders Minerals Commission

    The Fourth Estate petitions RTI Commission over refusal of 11 MMDAs to release information

    Minerals Commission sues RTI Commission for ordering it to charge GH₵2 for information

    MFWA-NCA case: A judgment that monetises our fundamental right to information

  • Bongo scandal: ARB Apex Bank investigates Maltaaba Community Bank

    Bongo scandal: ARB Apex Bank investigates Maltaaba Community Bank

     The ARB Apex Bank has opened investigations into how officials of the Bongo District Assembly and the Maltaaba Community Bank conspired to allow the assembly to withdraw money from a contractor’s account without his permission. 

    ARB Apex Bank, which regulates rural and community banks in Ghana, has dispatched a team to the Upper East Region to further probe the matter for possible sanctions.

    Sources at the ARB Apex Bank told The Fourth Estate that their probe is to establish the role the bank and individuals of the bank played in the transaction.

    This follows an investigation by The Fourth Estate’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, which revealed that the Maltaaba Community Bank was twice complicit in allowing the withdrawal of money from the account of Asumbekere Karim Anagbila, the CEO of Aporgan K-A Enterprise, without his approval.

    In total, the assembly withdrew GH₵187,520 in two tranches of GH₵ 31,000 and GH₵156,000 respectively.

    When Karim confronted the bank about the first withdrawal, the text notification on his account was disabled only to be activated after the money was withdrawn.

    The Fourth Estate’s investigations have revealed that both withdrawals were facilitated by officials of the Bongo District Assembly.

    The withdrawals were in respect of a shady contract the Bongo District Assembly’s management allegedly awarded to itself using Karim’s company without his permission.

    The deal was fronted by Baba Nsobilla Sebastian, an official of the National Health Insurance Authority in the Bongo District.

    Karim’s company, Aporgan K-A. Enterprise, was awarded a contract in November 2020 to drill 10 boreholes within six months in some communities in the Bongo District at the cost of GH₵219,820.

    But another contract was signed the same day as a contract awarded to Aporgan K-A Enterprise. Effectively, both contracts were awarded to Aporgan K-A Enterprise, but one was without Karim’s knowledge or permission.

    The payment was to be made based on the amount of work executed at every stage of the contract for which the contractor raised the certificate for payment.

    The consultant for the project, according to the two-page contract, was the head of the works department of the Bongo District Assembly, David Aruk, who withdraw the first tranche. Karim said when he detected the withdrawal of money from his account by the head of the works department of the assembly, he followed up to enquire from the assembly and he was given rather worrying details.

    Officials of the Bongo District Assembly said someone had used Karim’s company for another contract with the assembly so the GH₵31,000 withdrawn from his account was in respect of that contract.

    After the first withdrawal, Karim complained to the bank and the assembly and cautioned them never to withdraw any money without his permission.

    As a sign of good faith, he said the assembly officials asked him to deposit a blank cheque with the assembly, which he did with only a signature on the cheque.

    The agreement was that when the work was done and he inspected it, he would go with the assembly officials to withdraw the money.

    He said this meeting was held at the district assembly on June 12, 2021. The assembly’s officials present included the District Coordinating Director, the District Finance Officer, the Head of Works Department, and others.

    But the assembly breached the agreement.

    It withdrew GH₵156,000 without the contractor’s approval

    The bank failed to notify Karim and also failed to tell him who took the money from his account. In fact, they allegedly deactivated the notification on his account.

    Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, the then DCE for Bongo, has insisted he did nothing wrong in the transaction. He admitted awarding the contract to two different persons who presented the same business for the advertised job, but he said that was normal.


    He said the boreholes were drilled and were in use, and that was the most important thing. The Fourth Estate visited three of the sites where handpumps had been fixed and the boreholes were being used.

    The DCE swore that he did not benefit financially from the contracts. He believed the agitation over the deal was an attempt by his detractors to undermine his chances of being retained as the DCE of Bongo by President Akufo-Addo.

    “I can tell and swear by your camera and the video you’re using that this whole contract, even GHc1 has not come to my pocket. I swear same by my vehicle,” he said.

    “If someone got the money and bought pito or beer for me, [it’s] different. But to take part in that project process and they say, ‘chief executive, take this one’, I swear by my car lorry steer, as I leave here, I shouldn’t get home.”

    Subsequently, the DCE said he had ordered the assembly to withhold the payment of money to the main contract awarded to Karim’s company. He said the payment would not be made until the scandal surrounding the illegal withdrawals from Karim’s account had been resolved.

    Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive who headed the assembly during the scandal has not been re-nominated by the President. He has been replaced by Rita Atanga.

    Read the full story:

    THE BONGO SCANDAL: Assembly withdraws GH₵187,000 from contractor’s bank account without permission

  • Dear Sea, you are invited into our homes. The sand is gone

    Dear Sea, you are invited into our homes. The sand is gone

    Keta literally means “on top of sand.” When you remove the sand, there will be nothing on top. And that is exactly what sand winners are doing to this popular community by the coastline. When sand winners win, everyone else will lose.

    Here is the story of Keta and Anloga, communities in the Volta region losing their soil cover while the sea waits for the intrusive destruction of the economically viable towns.

    ————————————————————————————————–

    Keta is a stretch of land sandwiched between a lagoon and, literally, the deep blue sea. Over there, economic life consists basically of fishing in the lagoon or in the sea and farming on the land.

    “I used to produce vegetables like shallot, okro, cabbage, and carrot depending on the season,” Joel Ahiabu looked back at those days when he could earn between GH₵ 2,000 and GH₵ 3,000 a month depending on the season.

    Mawuli Aziati, a resident of Anloga also recalled the days when fishing fetched enough to take care of the family. Not anymore.

    “Our fishermen go to the sea and bring back almost empty nets. The fish stock is depleted,” he said and pointed accusing fingers at pair trawling, a type of fishing banned in Ghana’s waters.

    Joel said he also lost his farmland.

    “The landowner said his brothers in Accra wanted to build. So, at the end of my last harvest, I shouldn’t plant anything again,” the 30-year-old explained.

    With the two main economic activities in decline, the youth of this area are literally digging elsewhere for jobs. They are digging sand.

    “If you can’t farm or catch fish, you can fetch sand and sell. It is in abundance,” Mawuli Aziati rationalised. Sand winning, removing the soil cover for building and construction, is on the rise. It is an acknowledged reality in Keta, residents told The Fourth Estate.

    “It costs GHc 60 for a trip of sand. Even that is expensive for most people. So, they fetch it themselves. You don’t expect us to see free sand, and yet go searching for it elsewhere,” Mr Aziati continued.

    But the cost of each trip of sand is cheaper than the problems the miners create. While the youths remove the sand, the sea is removing the community. When sand winners win, everyone loses.

    Catching sand winners

    It’s 8 p.m. Five men—one behind the wheel, the other in the passenger seat and three others—were in the bucket of a rickety pickup truck. Inside the pickup were head-pans and shovels.

    The five men whizzed past a semi-lit Zotorglo street in Keta, where The Fourth Estate team had parked a black SUV with tinted glass.

    As the truck whizzed past, the men in the bucket cast suspicious glances at a black SUV and headed towards the beach.

    The Fourth Estate’s SUV followed the pickup truck to the beach in an audacious attempt to patrol a sprawling coastline at 8 p.m., the moon’s poor illumination hampering our inexperienced efforts at tracking down suspected sand winners.

    When The Fourth Estate team arrived at the beach, there was no sign of the pickup truck nor its passengers. The gang of sand winners had disappeared under the blanket of the darkness that clothed the shorelines of Keta municipality and Anloga District.

    It was the second time The Fourth Estate team was at the shore in the night. Like the fishermen who caught nothing, the team caught no one. But by sunrise, fresh evidence of sand mining littered the shore.

    Hordes of sand had been piled at the beach and footprints of vehicle tyres crisscrossed the coast.

    The sand winners pile sand on the shores        Photo: Clement E. Kumsah

    After the failed attempt to observe the sand winners at work at the beach that night, a drone was deployed into the sky to capture their illegal operation, but the screen was pitch black. Another fruitless effort on the second night of chasing illegal sand miners.

    “They normally come in the night and dawn to fetch the sand because there is hardly any patrol from the police or the local assemblies,” said Marcus Nunekpeku, a resident.

    He explained that there were countless routes from the coastline out into the adjoining communities. Once the sand winners suspected surveillance on one side of the coast, they could easily escape through a different route with or without the sand.

    Beauty & the beast

    Keta’s turquoise waters and clean beaches earn the community good reviews from local and international tourists. It’s a beauty. Only that it is next to a beast—tidal waves.

    During sea erosion, part of Keta’s sandy earth is swept away and transported by the natural force of tidal waves. Tidal waves are already strong but they are helped even more by climate change, a condition in which the weather patterns are extreme. If the sun is hot, it is really hot. If it rains, it pours in torrents. And if it is tidal waves, it is really a watery battering.

    Keta, Anloga, and other coastal communities in the Volta Region are not like some coastal communities in other parts of the country where rocky cliffs somewhat resist the troubling advances of coastal erosion. In the coastal communities in the Volta Region, the massive sand dunes acted as a natural barrier between the ocean and the land.

    But as the coast vanishes into the sea, all that is left is the sand. It is no match for the pushy ocean which has already swallowed an undocumented number of homes and social infrastructure.

    Crumbled walls like this one are common along the coast of the Volta Region          Photo: Clement E. Kumsah

    This real threat has not stopped unemployed youth armed with shovels and head pans from exacerbating the challenges confronting the fragile coastline. They cart away the only barrier between the ocean and the homes, churches, markets and even shrines.

    Although sand winning is banned along beaches in the country, it continues to be a source of sand supply for the real estate sector.

    Data on sand consumption in Ghana is difficult to come by because the industry is highly informal.

    Commenting on the possible reprisal of sand winning on the country’s coast, the Director of Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies of the University of Ghana, Prof Kwasi Appeaning-Addo, warned of the fate that awaits Keta if sand winning continued the way it had been

    “It can create a channel for waves to attack and erode the beach systems due to the forcing of wave energy at a particular point,” he explained.

    The antidote, he suggested was for local authorities to provide alternative locations for sand winning away from the coast.

    On law enforcement, which currently is lax, the marine scientist said, “agencies should be empowered to enforce the ban on beach sand winning. It should be made very unattractive.”

    Removing sand to build houses that cannot stand

    But why is this illegal activity so rife?

    Keta is an urbanised community. It is a municipal assembly, which on paper means it has the same legal status as the Ayawaso West Municipality where the University of Ghana is cited.

    Municipality is a fancy local government language for a dense population which comes with it a huge demand for housing and social services.

    People are moving from rural areas in the Volta region to urban Keta. They need houses, which usually demand sand for the construction.

    While the Ghana Statistical Service projected Ghana’s housing deficit to hit two million by 2020, the Ghana Real Estates Developers Association (GREDA) put their forecast at 5.7 million by 2020.

    This means the demand for sand in Keta is not likely to go down anytime soon unless something is done to protect the coastal community.

    But according to the District Coordinating Director of the Anloga District Assembly, Emmanuel Kwame Dzakpasu, “sand winning has not come to the attention of the assembly.”

    “They are all in the communities and they would not report any issue to us,” he said.

    Emmanuel Dzakpasu said there was a ban on winning sand at the coast, so he expected that the community members would “report to us anytime they see any truck going to the seashore to win sand so that we can inform the police to go and apprehend them.”

    He said he got the complaints after the illegality had been done. “They [community members] only complain to us that they [sand miners] have been winning sand.”

    The District Coordinating Director also had a complaint of his own: “We don’t have a standing force to be roaming the beaches to see where and when they are winning sand.”

    What is the way forward? The Fourth Estate wanted to know from him.

    “We will still engage the assembly members and let them know the dangers of winning sand at the coastline and task them to alert us anytime they see any truck at the coastline,” he said.

    “Stopping illegal sand winning won’t be easy,” said Joel, the former farmer, former sand winner and now fuel attendant.

    He earns GHC1,200 a month. It is not better than farming which earned him more than GHC2000 a month, but it is better than destroying the environment through sand winning. He remembers why he stopped. He said a scorpion stung him once and the fear of being killed by venom resolved his internal conflict of earning a living at the expense of the environment.

    The Anloga district coordinating director’s idea of stopping the illegality however remains persuasion.

    “We’ll encourage them to call the police hotline to get the people arrested,” he listed remedial steps to stop the removal of sand, a resource which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has described as the world’s second-most extracted and traded resource behind only water.

    The world’s appetite for coastal sand is not only going into real estate or construction.

    According to climate change experts, anyone who wears eyeglasses uses a cell phone and toothpaste is creating demand for mined sand, rendering coastal communities of sand winning more vulnerable to the growing effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

    The removal of the sand in Keta and Anloga also poses a threat to the tourism industry because beachfront tourism facility owners are faced with ad-hoc measures to save investments.

    “When the sea defence wall was constructed, it brought a lot of relief to us because our business was protected but the sand mining particularly at a section of the shore that is not protected exposes us to a lot of risks,” a hotel manager who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said.

    The hospitality industry has benefited greatly from the construction of the Keta sea defence wall

    Beyond Keta and Anloga, coastal communities including Biriwa and Moore both in the Central Region are also struggling to cope with degradation. And this continues from the Volta region to the Central region where truckloads of sand are scooped from the shores.

    Ghana faces a tradeoff between housing deficit, unemployment, and the need to protect the coast. While the country’s laws prohibit sand winning along the coast, the reality is that the laws are not enforced.

    Considering the sea erosion witnessed in the Keta and Anloga areas, it appears as the sand vanishes, an unwritten invitation is thrown to the sea:

    Dear Sea, you can come inside our homes, for the sandy barrier is gone.

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

    YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

  • The students who are taught how to cry

    The students who are taught how to cry

     On the fenceless campus of a school at Battor Manya in the Volta Region, two boys aggressively stared at each other. They uttered no words. Just growls.

     On the fenceless campus of a school at Battor Manya in the Volta Region, two boys aggressively stared at each other. They uttered no words. Just growls.

     On the fenceless campus of a school at Battor Manya in the Volta Region, two boys aggressively stared at each other. They uttered no words. Just growls.

    But just as one expected the pugilist in them to trade punches, one of the protagonists suddenly knelt down, gently parting short-manicured grasses. His compatriot lost interest and walked away, scratching buttocks that peeked through his torn shorts.

    About 20 metres away, another group of children huddled together. They hugged and shouted names. One bulky student with the voice of a ring-side announcer screamed invectives that are common in coastal communities in Accra. They were directed at no one. His peers burst into unrestrained laughter.

    “Break over! Break over! Go back!” a teacher shouted, his hands pointing to a row of green and white buildings. The fits of laughter came to a sudden end.

    A first-time visitor is likely to be bemused by this rare spectacle. For the teachers and children of The Three Kings Special School for the Mentally Handicapped, however, it was a daily ritual.

    But there is a part of the school’s training here that is likely to grip a visitor’s attention more than what happens on the playgrounds.

    The signboard of the Three Kings Special School  PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

    The students who are taught how to cry

    The Assistant Headmaster of the School, Wisdom Asantide, has spent two decades of his life in this school. Like an intravenous infusion, he has been trying to infuse the school’s aim into its students.

    “The children we have around,” he explained, “are children with intellectual disabilities. They have problems with communications, movement, writing skills, understanding, recall and abstract thinking. These are some of the problems they exhibit.”

    Wisdom Asantide, Assistant Headmaster of the Three Kings Special School PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

    “Their thinking is just about now. They can’t think beyond, say, ‘in the next ten minutes, I will be doing this. I will do that.’ They don’t plan as such because they don’t have the capacity to do that. So, whatever they have around is what they think about,” he said of their abilities.

    With dementia taking over their brains, some of the students store nothing in their minds. They remember nothing.

    “If you teach them the figure one, and ask again in the next few minutes, they start mentioning whatever comes into their mind. With constant practice, some will be able to identify things. That is why we are not so much into academics because teaching them the subjects we learn in a normal school will just be a waste of time. Ours is basically about giving them some self-help skills, vocational skills to survive,” Mr. Asante said.

    In ordinary life, the sight of crying children can easily irritate or draw sympathy from parents, but in Three Kings Special School, learning to cry is part of the curriculum.

    Unlike their normal counterparts, some children living with intellectual disabilities are unable to express emotions.

    “Some of them don’t even know danger. They don’t feel any pain. If they’re in a situation in which there is pain, it is very difficult for them to express it. Speech is a problem for them. So, if that person is able to cry, then you’ll know that something serious is happening to him or her.”

    A noble idea suffers setbacks

    In 1995, when the leadership of the St Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Battor understood the need to provide opportunities for the vulnerable, they settled on a school for the mentally handicapped.

    The Three Kings Special School for the Mentally Handicapped was built to help rehabilitate the behavioural and learning deficits of its students through academic and social skills necessary for easy integration into society.

    The school’s Physiotherapy Unit has been shut down because it has no instructor PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

    The church acquired land far from the prying eyes of the public and built a school that would later attract students mainly from the Greater Accra and Eastern regions.

    Five years later, the school was absorbed into the public school system and is currently administered by the Ghana Education Service.

    The oldest of three special schools in the Volta Region, Three Kings accepts students with learning and emotional disabilities from age nine. Per the school’s curriculum, a student should be ready to be integrated into society after 10 years.

    It currently houses 115 students from age 12 to the mid-30s. Many are adults with the minds of children.

    The “forest” in dormitories

    The court yard of the dormitory is now a forest PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah
    forest_in_dormitories
    Nature has invited itself into parts of the building
    Trees and shrubs have taken over the courtyard of the uncompleted dormitory
    Even the corridors have nit been spared
    Rotten mango can be seen in the tiled rooms
    Back view of the uncompleted dormitory

    Inside an uncompleted four-block dormitory at The Three Kings Special School, nature has invited itself and turned the corridors into a habitat for tree, shrubs and creeping plants—a disturbing monument of waste.

    Such is the nature of the thicket that one would struggle to walk through the verdant greenery. The entire space has the eerie appearance of a haunted home.

    This Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) project was awarded on September 24, 2007, and was expected to be completed on August 5, 2008, as a solution to the accommodation problem in the ever-growing school.

    But by the time the 2008 election was over, it was forgotten. The contractor, Omstar Construction, complained of a lack of funds to complete the 100-bed structure.

    “The contractor was serious with the job and worked until 2008 when the change of government came, and he started complaining of funds. He managed to complete the roofing and did the tiling.

    “But somewhere along the line, he stopped coming to the site and it was all about funds,” Mr. Asantide recalled in an interview with The Fourth Estate.

    A decade after the project stalled, the owner of the construction company, whose name Mr. Asantide remembered only as Nene, died.

    The dormitories, built around a courtyard, were expected to accommodate 25 students per room with provisions for caregivers, also known as mothers. The dormitories would have separate bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bath.

    Currently, the structure has been roofed and wired. The cables hang loosely in almost every room. Some ceilings have been completed. Doors and windows are yet to be fixed. Not much has been done on the 20 washrooms.

    Inside the dormitories and caregivers’ apartments, everything imaginable in an uncompleted building snaps at your attention. There is an army of wall geckos and a lounge of lizards preying on the insects that have made the space their home.

    A brown canvass (rotten mangoes) of unintended art littered the tiled floor—the handiwork of the special students. In their moments of fun, they are said to pelt the blocks and rooms with mangoes, as if to drive away the spirits stalling the project.

    Outside, foliage is overgrown around the building. With only two labourers and a 10-acre land, Mr Asantide said there were very few muscles to tame the ever-growing weed. So, they prioritized the habitable spaces.

    In 2020, the Architectural Engineering Services (AESL) went to the site to introduce a group of people to continue the job. One of them, the assistant headmaster said, is the contractor’s son. But he could not do much because of the same old story—lack of funds.

    “He said he was going to look for a loan and come back. Since then, he has not returned,” Mr Asantide recalled.

    In 2007, when the government decided to build the dormitories to ease congestion, there were 80 students. With a 44% increase in the number of students to date, the school ran out of options.

    “We had to convert some of our classrooms into dormitories even though we don’t have enough classrooms. Because of the accommodation challenges, a lot of students are on a waiting list. Parents come and go, but we are not able to help because of the accommodation problems. We can’t take all of them,” Mr. Asantinde said.

    He observed that the congestion could sometimes be suffocating.

    According to him, the crowding resulted in heat in the rooms. The students don’t feel comfortable in the rooms when the sun is high and controlling them becomes difficult for the mothers [caregivers].

    “As mothers, we have a big challenge because we don’t have our own spaces,” a caregiver told The Fourth Estate. “It makes it difficult to even cook. Sometimes, you could be cooking in the corridor and a child would just defecate by you. Some even get seizures and fall on the cooking pot. If we have our own spaces, we won’t be recording such unfortunate accidents. We are suffering.”

    No records at assembly

    north_tongu_district_assembly
    The North Tongu District Assembly, Coordinating Director, A.M Awal Suhiyini PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

    When The Fourth Estate reached out to the North Tongu District Assembly, the District Coordinating Director, A.M Awal Suhiyini, said the assembly [created in 2012] was new and had no records of the abandoned project.

    He was, however, quick to add that when the District Chief Executive, Richard Collins Arku, was informed about the state of the abandoned dormitory project, he followed up to the GETFund, where he learnt that the contractor had died.

    Mr. Suhuyini was lost between hesitation and a frown when he was asked whether the assembly was willing to complete the 14-year-old project.

    “As a district assembly, we don’t have it in our plans to complete it. As an assembly, before we can complete it, we would have to ensure that the project is terminated before it can be repackaged and re-awarded,” he explained.

    GETFund responds

    GETFund office in Accra PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

    The acting Head of Project Monitoring and Evaluation at GETFund, Godfred Schandorff, however, acknowledged the existence of the project, which was originally scheduled to be completed within a year.

    The project was estimated to cost  GH₵ 350,455. When the contractor, Omstar could not complete it, the company asked for a review of the contract sum given the rise in the cost of building materials. This was approved by the Volta Regional Coordinating Council. However, Omstar could not complete the work.

    Mr. Schandorff said the fund had fulfilled all its financial obligations to the contractor, with the last certificate of work honoured in 2009. The company had received almost GH₵ 44,000 for the work done, as it was paid based on work done in phases.

    Mr. Schandorff said although GEtFund financed projects, it did not have control over the award of contracts and supervision, except to engage the project supervisor, in this case, the Architectural Engineering Services (AESL).

    “The structures and bureaucracies of the system are beyond the control of the GETFund. To hire and to fire is out of our scope,” he said of the award and execution of contracts.

    On the way forward, he said the AESL could re-engineer the project to get it completed.

    By re-engineering, he meant the project would be revived through either the awarding institution (Ministry of Education). The ministry could terminate the contract and re-award it to another contractor or offer it to the same contractor at a new contract sum.

    From there, he said the fund would be informed to take the needed action.

    AESL reviewing the project

    That decision has been taken by the AESL. The Volta Regional Consultant, Richard Osei Amanfo, told The Fourth Estate, “It’s unfortunate the project has delayed. Currently, we are seeking rectification from the review board of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC). The contract sum has changed and needs authority (sic) to continue work.”

    He said without the approval of the VRCC, GETFund would not pay for the completion of the project.

    The son and brother of the late contractor, he said, had brought letters to the AESL and expressed their desire to continue with the project.

    AESL figures indicate that as of 2014, the cost has jumped up to almost GH₵ 817,000

    Encroachment, disappearing students

    What was in the past an isolated asylum for children with mental challenges (hhttps://backinmotionsspt.com/diazepam/) is now a highly sought-after real estate address.

    The school authorities are fending off encroachers. But they fear that it may not be too long before the school’s 10-acre land shrinks.  But Mr. Asantide is worried about the safety of the children.

    “Because the school has not been fenced, the children walk out of their limits [boundaries]. They go beyond the school boundaries and sometimes we have to go and look for them,” he said.

    Forging ahead despite challenges

    Walking into the workshops of the school is like a step into chaos after a storm-battered roof, broken ceilings, a burnt storeroom and training rooms at the mercy of the weather.

    Here, time seems to travel at a slower speed. It could take the average student months to stitch something together. Training materials are barely enough.

    The school’s only storeroom for artifacts was reduced to ashes in 2018. The Ghana National Fire Service has asked that it should be pulled down because it is too risky to be used. But five years on, nothing has happened.

    Storeroom for artefacts was reduced to ashes in 2018 PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah
    Storeroom for artefacts was reduced to ashes in 2018
    Storeroom for artefacts was reduced to ashes in 2018

    In spite of all the deficiencies, some of the teachers have reason to smile because some of the students are picking up vocations.

    Among them is 34-year-old Edem Klege. Partially blind and mentally challenged, her fingers were swift as she wove at the time of our visit.

    A 34-year old student of  the Three Kings Special School, Edem Klege PHOTO: Clement Edward Kumsah

     

    Her teacher, Cothilda Afeku, described the shy-looking tricenarian as being quick to pick up what she is taught. Her peers take at least 12 months to master bead-making and other skills.

    As her colleagues twisted and tied bundles of clothes of different colours into doormats, she smiled to herself, occasionally squinting to squeeze thread through the eye of a bead. The more she threaded the beads, the more she tapped her feet, as if to ward off tension in her legs.

    Next door, two students stared attentively at the mat as another vocational teacher, Joseph Appah, wove a labyrinth of ropes into a doormat. They take turns to make the same move.

    He has his frustrating moments teaching students with little memory to recall what they had been thought the day or term earlier, but Mr. Appah said he found joy in contributing to the change in the lives of his students.

    “I have accepted that it is my work. I’m not bothered. My aim is that at the end of the day, at least, one of them will learn it and practice [make a living out of it].”

    A WHO 2012 data estimated that of the 21.6 million people living in Ghana at the time, 650,000 were suffering from a severe mental disorder and a further 2,166, 000 were suffering from a moderate to mild mental disorder.

    The treatment gap is 98% of the total population expected to have a mental disorder, meaning only two percent of the country’s mentally sick got treated.

    In some communities, mental illness is seen as a taboo and the mentally ill are referred to as “mad people.” Ex-communicated by their families, they are forced to roam the streets in tattered clothes and eat from refuse dumps.

    But the students of the Three Kings Special School are isolated from stigmatization and are helped to have a future –a sanctuary that disability experts would want to be protected and resourced.

    It is a reason the authorities of the school say the government and interest groups in education and mental health should pay attention to their disturbing plight.

    Students of this school might have difficulty crying, but their teachers do not think those in charge of the country’s resources need to see tears before they can give a sympathetic ear to the predicament of students and caregivers at The Three Kings Special School for the Mentally Handicapped

  • “Suspend payments to Zoomlion” –Auditor-General orders as contract sum hits GH₵324 million

    “Suspend payments to Zoomlion” –Auditor-General orders as contract sum hits GH₵324 million

    At the crack of dawn, while most people are still in bed, Ama Djoleto (not her real name) wakes up at 4 a.m. to get ready for her street-sweeping job.

    Draped in her blue and orange uniform, she drags herself out of the house and walks through the dark streets of her neighbourhood with a broom in hand.

    She has her fears, fears of being harmed in the early hours of the morning because of recent happenings in her area. But she cannot afford to miss work.

    It is not the kind of job the mother of two wanted. The salary is bad, she says. Her monthly take-home is GH₵ 180 or $30. The job comes with a lot of contempt from road users and the danger of being hurt.

    So, for about GH₵ 6 a day, she sweats her dawn away, risking being knocked down by vehicles on the Achimota-Ofankor highway for what she describes as a pittance.

    Ama is among the 45,000 people across the country who are working under the Sanitation Model of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA). The YEA recruits them but they are supervised by Zoomlion to sweep. This contract has been running since 2006 when the National  Youth Employment Programme was first initiated to provide hope for the teeming unemployed youth in Ghana.

    Zoomlion Clears Air on payment to sanitation staff – Today Newspaper
    The sweepers are paid GHc 180 out of the GHc 600 Zoomlion is paid

    The government allocates GH₵ 600 to each sweeper. Out of this, GH₵ 180 goes to the sweeper and GH₵ 420 to Zoomlion as logistics and management fee monthly.

    This means, out of the GH₵7,200 allocated to each sweeper annually, they receive GH₵2,160, while the lion’s share of GH₵5,040 goes to Zoomlion.

    The amount allocated to the beneficiary used to be GH₵500, out of which GH₵ 100 went to the beneficiaries and GH₵400 went to Zoomlion. The review in the allocation happened about two years ago.

    But the Auditor-General’s report on  2020 Management and Utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds said this was done without any documented approval.

    “This allowed Zoomlion Ghana Ltd a monthly entitlement of GH₵ 500 management fees for each of the 45,000 personnel on the Module in the sum of GH₵ 270 million per annum. The fee was increased to GH₵ 600 in 2019, raising the annual fee payable from GH₵270 million in 2018 to GH₵ 324 million in 2019,” the Auditor-General’s report said.

    The figures also mean that the management fees went up by GH₵54 million out of which the sweepers take home 30% of the amount allocated, while Zoomlion takes 70%.

    The Audit Service said it did not get any relevant documents to authenticate the payments. However, the Auditor-General said the payments were made on the instruction of the YEA Executive Director.

    The District Assemblies Common Fund made the payments and told the state auditors that “the implementation and supervision of work done were within the domain of the YEA,” the audit report said.

    With that in mind, the Auditor-General wrote to the YEA, requesting evidence of engagement of personnel and related employment records for verification.

    According to the report, the YEA confirmed that a new contract was signed between the YEA and Zoomlion Ghana Ltd in 2019.

    However, the Auditor-General was not convinced.

    The report, therefore, recommended to the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund to “suspend further payments on the module until we are provided with the related employment and performance records by YEA for our validation.”

    The Auditor-General continued, “We also recommend to the Administrator to make future payments based on submission of certified work performance by YEA countersigned by the Coordinating Directors of Assemblies or their representatives.”

    Meanwhile, various investigations into the implementation of the programme have revealed that the sweepers sometimes have to buy their own brooms—the main tools for their trade.

    In 2013, after the GYEEDA Scandal by Manasseh Azure Awuni, the government set up a committee that reviewed the contracts and found many anomalies with the Zoomlion contract. The Committee recommended the discontinuation of the contract, but the government did not do it.

    The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the time put pressure on the Mahama administration to terminate the contract. After winning the 2016 election, however, the NPP government rather increased the management and logistics fee for Zoomlion.

    That is not all the concerns the latest audit report found.

    The Auditor-General also said the DACF paid a little over GH₵ 3.8 million to Zoomlion for fumigation and SIP services for 38 newly created assemblies that had not begun operations.

    Zoomlion asked to sustain fumigation of institutions
    The Auditor-General says Zoomlion was paid, although it did not fumigate assemblies that were yet to be operational

    The assemblies were not inaugurated in March 2018 and their agreements with Zoomlion took effect from April 2018.

    The payment is 2018, the Auditor-General said, contravened Regulation 39 of the now-repealed Financial Administration Regulations, 2004 (L.I 1802) which required heads of accounts to ensure that payments were cleared.

    “We considered the payment to be unjustified and loss to the Fund, as the allocation to the newly created assemblies did not warrant payment to Zoomlion Ghana Ltd for no work doNE,” the report said.

    It explained that the assemblies indicated that Zoomlion Ltd would perform extra services to recover the amount.

    It, therefore, directed the administrator of DACF to provide evidence of the scope of work undertaken by Zoomlion Ltd to offset the payment to recover the GH₵3.8 million from Zoomlion.

    In yet another deal, the Auditor-General asked a Jospong company to cough up GHc 95 million, which one of its waste management subsidiaries, Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited, received from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

    Zoomlion commissions Lavender Hill Faecal Treatment Plant
    Lavender Hill Treatment plant

    YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: ROBBING THE ASSEMBLIES (PART THREE) 

  • Government pays a Jospong Company GHC 95 million without any contract—Auditor-General

    Government pays a Jospong Company GHC 95 million without any contract—Auditor-General

    The Jospong Group of Companies has found itself on the grime pages of the Auditor-General’s report again.

    This time, the Auditor-General is asking the company to cough up GHc 95 million, which one of its waste management subsidiaries, Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited, received from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

    The state’s chief auditor has, therefore, ordered the Administrator of the DACF, Irene Naa Torshie Addo, to recover the fund which went into waste treatment plant construction by the Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL).

    SSGL has been receiving the funds since 2016 without any legal backing, the Auditor-General said. However, the payment of GHc 19 million last year, being an outstanding amount for the GHc 95 million, triggered an enquiry by the Auditor-General.
    In its report on the 2020 Management and Utilization of the District Assemblies Common Fund and other Statutory Funds, the Auditor General said the payments were illegal and unconstitutional.

    Aborted babies, condoms filling Lavender Hill Treatment Plant
    The Lavender Hill plant

    “We could not establish the basis for the payment of the GH₵ 95 million as support to a private entity with no government ownership. We were also of the view that Article 252 (3) of the 1992 Constitution does not permit the allocation of the Common Fund to private entities and would be a loss to the Assemblies if not recovered,” it explained.

    The report said the only justification for the payments was a letter from the office of the President and dated June 15, 2016.

    That letter did not authorize the payment of monies to the Jospong subsidiary. It rather stated “the intention of Cabinet to provide a credit guarantee for the completion of the Accra Waste Treatment Plant, Mudor Faecal and the old Lavender Hill.”

    To unravel the basis of the payment of the GH₵ 95 million, the report said Auditor-General conducted a review of the transaction from the inception and noted how the Cabinet of John Mahama’s intention was ignored.


    The report found three things:
    i. The letter from the office of the President specified that the intention of the Cabinet was to provide a credit guarantee for the completion of the three facilities.
    ii. The payments commenced in 2016 with an annual provision in the approved payment formula.
    iii. The then Administrator, Kojo Fynn, did not obtain any contractual document to support funding to a private entity or enter into any legally binding arrangement to recover the support made to Sewerage Systems GH Limited.

    Who owns Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited?  

    The Fourth Estate’s checks at the Registrar General indicate that the SSGL was incorporated on July 17, 2012.

    The company has two shareholders – Emmanuel Boate, a one-time Chief Operating Officer of Zoomlion, and the Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw-Agyepong.

    The directors of the company are Joseph Siaw Agyepong and Emmanuel Boate; Florence Cobbold and Haidar Said, the General Manager and the Managing Director of the SGGL respectively.

    Another director of the company is Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, now the Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya West Constituency and a member of the Works and Housing and the Appointments committees of Parliament.

    She also served as the Chairperson of the SSGL board from April 2016 to January 2021. At the time company was being registered in 2012, she was a member of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority board.

    Then there is also the current Technical Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Kwabena Adjei Mensah. He was was once the Executive Director of the Zoomlion Group of Companies.

    SGGL’s mother company, Zoomlion, has for years, been at the centre of controversial waste management contracts that its critics say fleece the state for little or no work done.

    Jospong Group’s related waste plant and the government’s role

    This is not the first time a subsidiary of the Jospong Group is involved in a murky arrangement with the government of Ghana in the construction of a waste treatment plant.
    The Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), which is owned by the Jospong Group, was built under a similar arrangement, except that there was a written agreement in the previous one.

    On December 5, 2011, the Secretary to Cabinet, Ben. C. Eghan, wrote a memo to the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning.

    The memo said, “H.E the Vice President [Joh Mahama] has on behalf of H.E. the President [J.E.A Mills] given executive approval for government to grant security and guarantee for a loan facility of an amount of GHC 80 million to complete the construction of two compost plants in Accra, which will utilise social waste materials and human waste sludge from the Accra Metropolitan Area, Tema Metropolitan Area and parts of the Eastern and Central Regions.”

    Cabinet Memo sent to the Minister for Finance in 2011

    On December 14, 2011, the ministers for Finance, Local Government and Rural Development, and Food and Agriculture tabled a joint memorandum in parliament “for the credit agreement between the Accra Compost Plant Ghana Limited and Standard Chartered Bank.”

    Joint Memo sent to parliament by three ministries on the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant

    The memorandum to parliament said the government, through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), was “to make the compost plant fully operational by providing raw materials through the solid/liquid waste generated by both household and industrial activities.”

    The memo to parliament also said the “MLGRD will undertake to guarantee the payment of fees for accepting all the solid wastes and human waste sludge accepted by Accra Compost Plant.”

    The memo went on, “With the provision of sovereign guarantee for the GHC80million loan facility, Government is set to have a leading ownership role and full oversight responsibility for the operations and management of the compost plant.”

    In June 2012, before the Accra Compost Plant started operation, the government of Ghana signed a contract with the company and committed to paying a monthly fee of GH1.62 million to the company. That figure was increased to GHC3million a month in 2016 and paid to ACARP.

    ACARP is, however, fully owned and managed by the Jospong Group of Companies.

    The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, according to the contract, “may” inspect the operations of the company but it has to give the company a one-week notice before it could be allowed to inspect its operations.

    The Ministry pays the company, but it does not independently verify the tonnage of waste materials the company claims to be receiving from some assemblies.

    The government of Ghana pays for the cost of operating ACARP (monthly breakdown shown above). The company is owned and managed by the Jospong Group.
    A bill from ACARP to the government

    Zoomlion and Jospong Group have featured in almost all the Auditor-General’s report on the DACF, but only one of them have made it past just the report because the Auditor-General decided to act.

    On October 29, 2018, the Auditor-General surcharged Zoomlion for GH¢184 million for a fumigation contract the Ministry of Health (MOH) for which it was paid by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).

    That was after an audit conducted by the Auditor-General on the accounts of the NHIA made findings that Zoomlion had between the years 2009 and 2017 had allegedly been paid a total amount of GH¢184.9 million devoid of due process.

    The Auditor-General’s beef was that the company continued to receive payment from 2009 up to August 2018 even though its four-year (from 2009 to 2013) contract with the Ministry of Health had expired.

    The waste management company appealed the decision at the Accra High Court on December 5, 2018, and urged the court to set the surcharge aside.

    But the High Court, presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, did not find Zoomlion’s argument convincing. It upheld the Auditor-General’s constitutional power to disallow and surcharge the company. The court accordingly dismissed the appeal.

    Zoomlion took another step up the judicial ladder and went to the Court of Appeal, which referred the matter to the Supreme Court as it said the case hinged on constitutional interpretation—which is a mandate of the apex court.

    In a decision that got anti-corruption campaigners scratching their heads, the Supreme Court overturned the surcharge and disallowance.

    The current revelation on the GHC95 million payment is just one of many infractions committed by government officials and state institutions and the Jospong Group in the contracts funded by the District Assemblies Common Fund.

     

  • Sputnik-V Scandal: Parliamentary Committee report points out inconsistencies

    Sputnik-V Scandal: Parliamentary Committee report points out inconsistencies

    “We keep on seeing the same irregularities and a lot of things that continue to come. All these irregularities go with sanctions and people should be punished. People should be punished for some of these bad things that they are doing.

    “Some individuals, who appear before the committee are people who don’t seem to have the knowledge and skills, have been put in certain places and they themselves don’t seem to appreciate and understand the type of work that they are doing.”

    Those were the words of the current Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu on December 13, 2013, while he chaired the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the sixth Parliament.

    As Chairman of the PAC, he led masters of accounting and good corporate governance to demand answers from institutional heads found culpable in the Auditor General’s report. Most of these breaches for which he wanted people punished were related to procurement, one of the major avenues for corruption and wastage of state resources in Ghana.

    By that same stroke, Mr Agyeman-Manu appeared before a nine-member Adhoc committee of Parliament formed on July 8, 2021, after two National Democratic Congress MPs, Haruna Iddrisu and Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, raised alarm about the deal. Chaired by the Deputy Minority Leader, Alex Afenyo-Markin. The committee was to investigate a procurement contract between Ghana and a United Arab Emirate royal, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum and a private company, S.L. Global, for the supply of Sputnik-V Covid-19 vaccines.

    The findings of the committee have all the ingredients of impropriety – failing to obtain parliamentary approval for an international agreement, signing of agreements without a cabinet endorsement, failing to seek Public Procurement Authority(PPA) approval for the two agreements,  payment of more than GH₵ 16 million to Sheikh Al Maktoum for 300,000 vaccines that never arrived and claiming to have no knowledge of the payment.

    Producers of the vaccine were selling it at $10 per dose, but through the middleman, Ghana was buying it at $19 per dose.

    Kwaku Agyemang Manu announced the cancellation of the contract the day before he first appeared before the investigative committee.

    Key Findings of the Committee 

    • The Committee found that the Procurement and Supply of the Sputnik-V Covid-19 Vaccines between the government and the private office of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum constituted an international agreement and required Parliamentary approval as required by Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution. This is advice the Attorney-General also offered.
    • The Committee found that S. L. Global was a Ghanaian Incorporated Company, hence the Ministry’s agreement with the firm did not qualify as an International business or economic transaction where parliamentary approval would be required.
    • The Ministry of Health did not seek approval from the Board of PPA under Sections 40 and 41 of Act 663 before signing the Agreements. The Ministry, however, applied for ratification under Section 90(3) (c) of the Act. Which has still not been granted.
    • The Committee also found that PPA has not concluded its investigations into the matter.
    • The use of Sheikh Al Maktoum’s office and the engagement of S.L Global clearly constituted using middlemen for the purchase and distribution of the vaccine, the committee said.
    • The Committee found that the amount of US$19.00 was the agreed price per dose of the vaccine under the Ministry’s Agreement with Al Maktoum.
    • It was US$18.50 under the Agreement with S. L. Global. But the actual price is $10.
    • The Minister explained that the prices achieved under the two agreements included the cost of documentation, shipping, packaging, logistics and expenses in relation to transportation of the vaccine from its place of origin to Ghana.
    • The Committee found that the Ministry entered into the two agreements without cabinet approval but only based on a ministerial decision, based on the advice of the COVID-19 Emergency Operating Committee.
    • It also found that although the minister swore under oath that no money has been paid, almost $2.85 million being half the contract sum of $5.7 million (the equivalent of GHc 16.3 million) has been paid.

    Recommendations

    The committee schooled the Health Minister, a three-term MP, on how the House treated issues that needed urgent attention. Going best practices, the committee noted that the agreements would have been taken under certificate of urgency in accordance with the Standing Orders and the practices of the House.

    “The point must also be made that, even if it was an emergency, the Minister should have found time to communicate effectively and engage with the Committee on Health. The extensive engagement would have saved the Ministry from the negative reactions from the citizenry and some Members of Parliament,” the committee emphasised, before launching into the recommendations.

    The recommendation read:

    “ The Committee, therefore, recommends that, in future, any such transaction, whether local or international, be subjected to broader stakeholder consultations and should be taken through due process of law including Parliamentary approval. Other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should take a cue from the recommendation, not only in the case of agreements but also on issues relating to policies and programmes to be implemented.”

    It also urged the Minister for Finance to take steps to recover the of US$2,85 million paid the office of the Sheikh being the cost of the Sputnik-V vaccines that were proposed to be procured.

    Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

    No punitive measures

    The recommendation of the lawmakers, however, falls short of one thing–punitive— a word Mr Agyeman-Manu, the Dormaa Central Member of Parliament, threw at institutional heads who appeared before the PAC from 2013 to 2017.

    It appears Ghanaian politicians have a thing for Sheikh Al Maktoum.

    It’s the same Arabian Sheikh who, during the peak of Ghana’s energy crisis, sold the country a power plant (Ameri) that the Akufo-Addo administration would later declare overpriced.

    This time, it’s the Russian Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccines.

    Priced at $10 by the Russians, Ghana signed a deal to get a single dose for $19, almost twice the unit price of the vaccines.

    But what are the political sins of Agyemang-Manu that many are calling for his head?

    It started with a Norwegian media entity, Vergens Gan’s (VG) revelation that Ghana had been shortchanged in a vaccine transaction.

    Month of regrets

    When he appeared before the committee on July 19, 2021, Mr Agyeman-Manu, who has been Minister of Health since 2017, said the abnormal times blurred his thoughts.

    “Those were not normal times, and I was seriously in a situation that didn’t make me think properly, the way you think, that now I will actually abreast myself with the situation,” he said.

    On March 9, 2021, the Ministry of Health signed an agreement with Sheikh Al Maktoum.

    A week later, the Ministry again signed another deal for a variation of the vaccine, known as Sputnik light. This time with a Ghanaian company S.L Global Limited. But it will be reviewed to Sputnik-V later.

    The UAE royal’s website describes his business as a portfolio of a privately held group of companies that focus mainly on infrastructure development, energy projects, LNG terminal development, commodity & oil trading, water desalination, water recirculation as well as education and agricultural projects.

    There is no mention of any expertise in health.

    In the case of S.L Global, its website says it was established in 2016, as a partnership between a leading global healthcare investment group https://newliferehabcenterpakistan.com/valtrex/, which is not named, and accomplished and passionate Ghanaian entrepreneurs, which are also not named.   It also claims the SLG is vested in the provision of funding for and delivery of Healthcare projects and infrastructure in Ghana.

    Further, it also claims to have secured the right to roll out the Sputnik vaccine in Ghana with all necessary documentations firmed up locally and abroad.

    According to the report of the Adhoc Committee, the minister claimed he approached the office of Sheikh Al Maktoum and S.L Global after all diplomatic channels to get vaccines from the Russian manufacturers buckled.

    Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum
    Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum

    However, closer scrutiny of the paper trails made available to the parliamentary committee indicated that the minister wrote to the Russian Minister of Trade on March 23, 2021, two weeks after he signed the deal with Sheikh Al Maktoum and a week after that of S.L Global.

    The letter to the Russian Minister of Health meant for their Foreign Affairs Ministry was dated April 28, 2021. This was done 50 clear days after the Sheikh Al Maktoum transaction was signed and 43 days after the S.L Global one.

    No letter was sent to the Russian Embassy in Accra which is less than a kilometre from the Jubilee House and less than five kilometres from the health minister’s office at Ridge.

    The Ministry did not have any contact with the manufacturers of the Sputnik-V COVID-19 Vaccines in Russia prior to the execution of the contract with the Sheikh’s office.

    “He intimated that he proceeded to deal with entities that demonstrated the availability and capacity to deliver vaccines with acceptable efficacy and safety standards. He informed the Committee that per the negotiations made, Sheikh Al Maktoum had the necessary capacity to do the distribution or supply the vaccines,” the report said.

    Interestingly, while the Ministry of Health claimed it had hit a diplomatic wall in its attempts to reach out to the Russian authorities, on February 21, 2021, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), which finances and markets the Sputnik-V globally announced that the Ministry of Health had registered the vaccine against coronavirus.

    On the website of the Sputnik-V itself, the Russian manufacturers were inviting partners.

    “Russia is open to international cooperation in combating the global threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and other future epidemics. We are actively cooperating with more than 14 countries producing our vaccine abroad, including India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Belarus, Serbia, Turkey, Vietnam, etc. We are looking forward to new partners willing to join this initiative and help us save lives.”

    Developed by Gameleja Institute in Moscow, it is funded and sold through the RDIF. The fund has established a company in Russia known as the Human Vaccine LLC.

    That company has also appointed the anonymous and recently established company Aurugulf Health Investment LLC in Dubai as a distributor.

    Aurugulf has, in turn, hired Sheikh’s private enterprise as its sales agent. At the same time, according to the committee’s report, Auruguff Health Investment also appointed  S. L. Global Limited as its agent in Ghana.

    While at least 51 countries have rolled out the vaccine, the EU’s European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organisation are yet to approve it.

    In fact, it has got some medical experts scratching their heads over its efficacy. At the time the Ministry of Health was signing contracts to procure the vaccine, Argentine President Alberto Fernadez who had the Sputnik-V jab in January this year was reported to have contracted COVID-19 in April.

    However, the respected medical journal LANCET has given its stamp of approval, rating the vaccine, which has become Russia’s tool of soft power as  91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 and 100% effective against severe and moderate disease.

    A Deal Gone Bad

    When Mr Agyeman-Manu contacted the office of the Sheikh, he claimed that he had doubts that they could deliver the vaccines.

    To cure that, he requested proof of capacity.

    “He was guided by four principles in all his engagements in relation to the procurement of the vaccines. ‘He said his principles were: availability and capacity to deliver the vaccine, pricing, safety and efficacy,’” the committee quoted the minister as saying.

    To demonstrate that they had the vaccines, the report said “the outfit of the Sheikh brought in 15,000,” instead of the 20,000 vaccines they promised to authenticate their capacity to execute the deal.

    That was on March 3, 2013. The 5,000 deficit did not wave red flags at the minister.

    Rather, the Ministry entered into negotiations for the vaccines the Sheikh’s office priced at US$19. The ministry ordered 3.4 million, although the general consensus among its officials was that it was too expensive.

    As part of the agreement, Ghana was to receive 300,000 doses of the vaccine in April, it did not come.

    President Akufo-Addo in COVID-19 update to the nation on May 2, said 1.3 million doses of the Sputnik vaccines would arrive in the country on May 15

    Again, it didn’t happen.

    The signs were on the wall that it was a possible mirage.

    From the accounts of the minister, the vaccine was to be administered in two doses—the company’s 15,000 comprised 10,000 of the first dose and 5,000 of the second.

    “He [the minister] informed the committee that when it was becoming imminent that the outfit could not supply the vaccines, the ministry insisted that they would not allow the dealer to take the vaccines back but rather, 5,000 doses be brought to complement the second dose for us to get 10,000 for the first dose and another 10,000 for the second dose,” the report said.

    That request was heeded and the Sheikh’s office added the extra 5,000 vaccines to bring it the total to 20,000 out of the 3.4 million the country wanted.

    The Minister admitted to the committee that after consistently defaulting on the deadlines for delivering the vaccines, which were to be delivered two weeks after signing the agreement, Sheikh Al Maktoum’s asked for July 22 to honour the deal.

    But he lacked the courage to terminate the deal because of hopelessness in finding another supply, the report said:

    “He also said since we were still looking for vaccines, he found it very awkward to actually start invoking termination clauses in the Agreement. He further disclosed that the Ministry delayed in issuing the Letters of Credit (LCs) and therefore he found it very difficult to invoke breach of supply timelines. He explained that the contract was to be operationalised by orders and because the Ministry’s LCs actually delayed, it could not push the Outfit to comply with the delivery dates as contained in the Agreement.”

    The agreement was later terminated on July 14, 2021.

    According to the report, the Ministry of Finance received a request from the Ministry of Health in a letter dated March 10, 2021,  in respect of the purchase of Sputnik-V, COVID-19 vaccines from the Office of H. H Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook AI Maktoum for the supply of 300,000 thousand doses at the total cost of US$5,700,000.

    Under clause 4.2 of the Contract Agreement, 50% of the payment was to be made through the establishment of a sight Letter of Credit (LC) and the remaining 50% through a confirmed letter of credit.

    The Bank of Ghana in its letter of  March 31, 2021, stated that out of the total amount of US$5.7 million owed Sheikh Al Maktoum, an amount of US$2.85 million, representing 50%. was paid to him. That translates into a Cedi equivalent of GH¢16.3million converted at the exchange rate of US$1 to GH¢5.73.

    In the case of S.L Global, the  Ministry of Finance received a request for the establishment of Letters of Credit for the supply of 5,000,000 Sputnik-V COVID-l9 vaccines at a total cost US$92.5 million.  The Letters of Credit to be established was to cover 15% of the cost. Under the original transaction, it was to be pre-financed by S.L. Global and payment was to REPORT-OF-AD-HOC-COMMITTE-FINAL be done within a period of three (3) years.

    The Ministry did not seek cabinet approval nor take the Attorney General’s advice on the matter.

    No financial commitment was made, the report said.

    “The Ministry of Finance was in the process of requesting for the term sheet and Public Procurement Authority approval when it had notification that the contract had been revised/reviewed. The Ministry of Finance received an amended Contract without the relevant approval documents and therefore no further action had been taken.”

    This is not the first time Sputnik-V procurement is digging holes under a public office holder. The case of Slovakia offers a salutary warning to others.

    Former Prime Minister, Slovakia, Igor Matovič lost his job to the pandemic.

    Its Prime Minister, Igor Matovic, secretly arranged to import 200,000 doses of the Russian vaccine. He was forced to leave his post in April because he’d failed to consult his coalition partners on the vaccines, which the state regulator declined to approve for use,  the BBC reported.

    Will Agyeman-Manu be the next to fall?

    READ THE FULL REPORT:

    REPORT-OF-AD-HOC-COMMITTEE-FINAL

  • Simplified: Why CSOs want Parliament to investigate $1.65 billion Aker Energy deal

    Simplified: Why CSOs want Parliament to investigate $1.65 billion Aker Energy deal

    Ghana will be shortchanged if the government goes ahead to fork out $1.65 billion for shares in two oil blocks, the Alliance of civil society organisations working on Extractives, Anti-Corruption and Good Governance, has warned.

    The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) wants to acquire stakes in two oil blocks—a 37% share in the Deep Water Tano/Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) operated by Aker Energy and a 70% stake in the South Deep Water Tano( DWT/CTP) field operated by AGM Petroleum.

    The deal, according to the Ministry of Energy, will result in the formation of a joint operating company with Aker Energy, AGM and GNPC Explorco, the operating subsidiary of the state oil company, as partners.

    The GNPC is counting on Norway’s Aker and the United State’s AGM to build the muscles of  GNPC Explorco, to become a profitable operator–exploring and drilling  oil.

    Over the years, there have been waning interest from western investors in pumping money into the hydrocarbon (petroleum) industry considered as one of the many catalysts for climate change. It’s at a time a time there is a demand for a cut down in carbon emissions. With the increasing consciousness about cleaner energy, the GNPC fears that as the funding sources for the sector dry up,  Ghana will be left with billions of barrels of crude underground and without the financial and technical capacity to drill.

    The World Bank and the Bank of England have already raised red flags about the serious risk climate change posed to trillions of dollars of fossil fuel (petroleum) investments.

    But it is not deterring the GNPC. By this deal, the 38-year-old national oil company wants to position itself for the global energy transition at a time the national budget is heavily dependent on funds from oil and gas.

    However,  the CSOs, who appear to be on a rescue mission say Parliament remains the last hope for stopping the deal, which they say has no value for money.

    Although Parliament’s Joint Committee on Energy and Finance has recommended approval of the government’s request for a loan to seal the deal, the 15 CSOs say the lawmakers need to step in, given that the executive has failed the due diligence test, “ostensibly glossing over important threats of the transaction to the country’s fiscal situation.”

    A breakdown in a memo the Ministry of Energy sent to Parliament shows while US$1.3 billion is for acquiring Aker’s interest, US$350 million is for the development cost of developing one of the blocks –Pecan phase 1.

    However, the Committee slashed down the amount requested by the government from US$1.65 billion to US$1.45 billion. They also asked the GNPC to go back and further negotiate the cost down.

    The CSOs, including the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition, Integrated Social Development Centre, Institute for Energy Security (IES), Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG) and Imani Centre for Policy and Education, want the lawmakers to “institute a full-scale investigation into the transaction.”

    The purpose, they say, should be to “verify the actual cost incurred by Aker so far on the Blocks, clarify the inconsistencies in the presentations by GNPC and allow for open consultation and hearing to provide opportunities for independent expert opinions.”

    In 2018, Aker Energy bought the deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block from Hess Energy for $100 million, announcing plans to embark on a “significant” oil exploration and production in Ghana, Reuters reported.

    When Aker took over the oil blocks, it triggered what would become major amendments in the Petroleum (Exploration and production) Act, 2016 (Act 919).

    The CSO say two amendments to Akers agreement tamed the regulator—the National Petroleum Commission—limiting its regulatory powers on the activities of the company.

    The consequence was not lost on energy experts, who believed that the changes reduced the state’s share in the partnership with Aker, and snuffed out GNPC Explorco’s involvement in the deal in a manner that would build its operating capacity.

    But by May 2021, the plans went south as Aker announced plans to offload part of its 50% shares.

    Oil and gas news portal, Africa Oil+Gas reported that after the COVID-19 wreckage, the Norwegian oil and gas giant struggled to come up with funds to continue the project, which it was so passionate about almost three years ago.

    After baiting interested investors around the world with no success, Aker found a buyer in the GNPC

    However,  the CSOs believe the deal is a waste of state resources.

    In a five-pointer, the CSOs concluded that GNPC had failed to examine the issues in the transaction properly.

    Making a case for the GNPC’s lack of capacity to be an operator, they pointed to a billion dollars sunk into the company’s operations in the last 10 years in anticipation that it would become an operator.

    According to them, the investment does not reflect on the field or GNPC’s balance sheet.

    “So far, about US$1 billion has been given to the Corporation, but it has failed to drill one well. The country needs a clear pathway for supporting the national oil company, rather than using billions of dollars of the public’s money in risky bets that might instead go to support Ghana’s health, education and economic development,” they said in a value-for-money analysis of the deal.

    They continued: “otherwise, the guise of the energy transition will only be a smokescreen to waste more resources and line the pockets of foreign companies and people who may be short-changing the country deliberately.”

    While Aker is blaming a global economic downturn, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic to sell its interest, the CSOs insist that Ghana has more to lose than gain.

    “For a US$1.65 billion transaction, any prudent investor in the upstream oil and gas business cannot accept the quality and content of the memo and the supporting documents presented to Parliament (the primary investor in this case). This generates several questions that should elicit adequate probing to safeguard the interest of the country,” the CSO said in a statement.

    The GNPC proposal, the CSOs say, cited valuations from third-party analysts as the basis for okaying the transaction.

    But the sceptical CSOs are not impressed.

    “However, the valuations ignore the possibility that the oil price might not be as high as assumed, that reserves might be less than assumed or that costs might be higher than assumed. Before development, there is very little certainty about these factors,” the statement said.

    To lend credence to their argument, the CSOs cited an Ernst & Young study that found that “65 percent of big upstream projects ran over budget— (and) by a hefty 53 percent on average. Another study noted that all successful new oil producers in Africa, Ghana included, netted less revenue than they expected, partly due to higher costs. GNPC should be familiar with this reality, given Ghana’s experience with all three producing fields.”

    That was not all. They also took issues with Aker claims it had invested about US$800 million so far on the blocks in a document submitted to Parliament.

    While GNPC claims it has verified the expenditures, the CSOs have doubts about the figures, insisting that it “appears inflated if juxtaposed against the amount of work done by Aker and the value of its acquisition three years ago.”

    The CSOs then went into the viability of Aker and GNPC’s figures.

    Aker Acquired Hess’s interest in the DWT/CTP for US$100m in 2018. Before selling its interest to Aker, Hess had appraised the field with estimated recoverable oil of 450 million barrels.

    Before it lost interest, Hess drilled 12 wells (seven exploratory wells and five appraisals well).

    Jubilee oil fields, Cape Three Points.

    According to Ministry of Energy figures, Cape Three Points holds an estimated 550 million barrels of oil with a potential extra 400 million barrels in its bowels.

    “With that amount of work done, the highest valuation Hess got was about US$400 million in 2016 when it farmed out 40 percent to Lukoil and Fuel Trade for the entire field. Akers claim it has spent about US$420 million on five well drilled on the two blocks, the CSOs said.

    Crunching the figures again, they said:

    “In another document presented to the country’s Economic Management Team (EMT), the US$420 million relates only to the three wells on DWT/CTP. Given that the DWT/CTP cost is shared among the partners of the block the total expenditure claims for the wells could be in the region of US$600 or US$750 million compared with US$400 million by Hess for 12 wells, depending on which of the documents used. This is very high regardless of which of the information is used.”

    The CSOs are demanding more transparency and have asked for the US$280 million  to be accounted for properly.

    “GNPC claims that money was used for ‘certain activities essential for establishing resource in the blocks,’ This is overly ambiguous and cannot be accepted as a cost with this kind of description which questions the distinction between that activity and data acquisition and studies done as part of exploration and appraisal.”

    GNPC’s response

    GNPC Head Office

    A source in the GNPC, who did not have the right to speak officially told  The Fourth Estate that the deal was worth every cent as it would give the GNPC a muscle in a sector dominated by foreign interests.

    The source said the GNPC wanted to tap into the offshore capabilities of Aker and AGM to develop its operator capabilities which for years has been latent.

    Bright Simmons enters fray

    A Vice President of Imani Africa and Founder of mPedigree, Bright Simons, has described the development as “strange.”

    In a series of tweets, he said, “the shockingly hollow 10-page memo[sent to Parliament] contains none of the technical info lawmakers need to understand why Ghana should bear this risk at this time.

    “For eg[example] the entire memo is premised on the idea that Ghana borrowing this money to buy stakes in the fields from Aker & AGM will lead to [the] acquisition of technology & more skilled personnel for Ghana. But how exactly? The money will go to Aker & AGM. What tech is 2 be transferred?”

    He was not done yet: “The twists & turns regarding the AGM block are particularly strange. Ghana was initially entitled to ~43%.

    “The Government attempted to reduce this to ~18% to make it “more attractive” to investors. It retreated to ~34%. Why borrow now to increase stake to 70% b4 appraisal is complete?” he asked in another tweet.

    It will not be the first time Ghana’s  CSOs in the extractive industry are going after a deal the government is signing.

    In 2020, it took the CSOs to scuttle the implementation of the Agyapa deal.

    In that transaction, Agyapa Royalties Ltd wanted to trade 49% of its shares for $500 million in a company registered in Jersey, a tax haven. But the processes leading to the transaction were described as opaque.

    With the CSOs up in arms against the Aker Energy deal, it remains to be seen if Parliament will be willing to give them a listening ear or sit in the corner of the GNPC, which has been making a case for more state involvement in the upstream oil and gas business in Ghana.

  • The Fourth Estate petitions RTI Commission over refusal of 11 MMDAs to release information

    The Fourth Estate petitions RTI Commission over refusal of 11 MMDAs to release information

    The Fourth Estate has petitioned the Right to Information (RTI) Commission on the refusal of 11 ministries, departments, and agencies to grant access to information it requested under the right to information law.

    Together with an earlier petition sent to the RTI Commission on the Minerals Commission’s refusal to grant The Fourth Estate information, the petitions are the first the RTI Commission is receiving since it was inaugurated in October 2020.

    The 11 public institutions comprise four ministries, a metropolitan assembly, a security service, two regulatory institutions and three other state agencies. In all, 12 petitions were sent because two were sent against one of the ministries.

    The RTI law, Right to Information Act, 2019, (Act 989), requires that applicants seeking information exhaust internal review mechanisms with such institutions before seeking the intervention of the Commission.

    The internal review entails appealing to the head of the public institution after the information officer of the institution denies the applicant access to the information sought. Per the law, the information officer is deemed to have denied an applicant access to information if the officer fails to communicate a decision on the availability or otherwise of the information requested 14 days after receiving the application.

    The Fourth Estate followed the process. However, most of the institutions did not even acknowledge receipt of the applications and subsequent appeal to their heads.

    Others either sent emails or made phone calls to acknowledge receipt of the requests but failed to supply the information requested, leaving The Fourth Estate with no choice than to seek the intervention of the RTI Commission.

    Section 43 (2) of the RTI law  clothes the commission with powers, including resolving complaints through negotiation, conciliation, mediation or arbitration; and the power to make any determination as the Commission considers just and equitable including issuing recommendations or penalties in matters before the Commission

    The 12 applications to the RTI Commission for review filed on July 7, 2021, come on the heels of a similar one The Fourth Estate filed against the Minerals Commission on June 17.

    The Minerals Commission had demanded the cedi equivalent of $1,000 for information The Fourth Estate requested on companies licensed to undertake mining in Ghana between January 2013 and May 2021, and companies whose licenses have been revoked or suspended within the same period.

    But quoting the highest fee any institution has yet demanded to release information under the RTI Law, the mining regulator asked for the highest fee yet for an RTI request.

    Per Regulation 4 of the Minerals and Mining (Licensing) Regulations, 2012 (LI 2176), such fees apply to requests that of commercial value including exploratory data of mining zones.

    With Parliament yet to pass a legislative instrument to guide fess and charges for RTI requests, some state institutions are demanding what advocates of the law described as “outrageous” fees.

    Others are also using their internal laws and regulations to treat RTI requests as a source of internally generated funds, the law’s advocates have said.

    However, the courts say the RTI law supersedes all other internal laws and regulations regarding request for data under the right to information law.

    A High Court judge, Justice Gifty Agyei Addo, who presided over the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) case on RTI fees, stated in her judgment that agencies should not apply their respective legislative instruments to determine charges relating to Right to Information requests.

    “Clearly, the framers of Act 775 did not intend it to be the Right to Information Act. That is why specific legislation was provided for in the Right to Information Act, Act 989,” she ruled.

    “The respondent [NCA] has therefore misconceived the applicability of fees and charges intended for the objects of their enabling statues as if it is also applicable to request for information under Act 989,” the court said in reference to NCA’s request for GHc 2,000.

    Samson Lardy Anyenini, private legal practitioner, said the cost of production could mean that an individual is charged for the cost of printing, photocopying or for the cost of CD-ROM or USB drive on which information is supplied.

    The Executive Secretary of the Right to Information to Commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng, said public institutions should not turn the fees into another source of internally-generated funds.

    At MFWA’s forum in Accra on June 17, 2021, Mr. Boateng said the fee an organisation charged must be for reproducing the information and not for profit.

    “The Law does not intend that any public institution would profit from generating information. We have made a proposal as requested by the law under the section that talks about fees to the Ministry of Finance, which is supposed to lay it before the Parliamentary Subsidiary Legislation Committee, where such approvals are given.

    “We are hoping that when it goes through, it will reflect obliviously the intention of the law,” he said.

    The law, which took effect on January 2, 2020, is meant to make it easier for persons to request and receive information from public institutions in Ghana.

    The RTI Bill was first drafted in 1999, reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but presented to Parliament in 2010.

    Parliament passed it after sustained pressure from civil society organisations. But even after the passage in 2019, the government deferred its implementation to 2020.

    President Akufo-Addo in October 2020 inaugurated the seven-member RTI Commission to intervene when an applicant’s request for public information is denied.

     

     

     

     

     

  • KILLED BY THE BULLET: Fatal Police, military brutality victims since 2017

    KILLED BY THE BULLET: Fatal Police, military brutality victims since 2017

    There was the usual cacophony at noon—a cocktail of voices hurling the names of their wares at passersby, pockets of people haggling over the prices of goods, and the occasional blaring of horns from vehicles to warn those who spilled carelessly into the narrow streets.

    But these scenes were not new to Thomas, 23. His full name, Thomas Partey, immediately brings to mind the Arsenal and Black Stars midfielder. They are cousins.

    Like his cousin the footballer, Thomas was used to noise and chants as he worked to earn his daily bread. While Thomas, the soccer star, delivers passes in boots to the satisfaction of football fans, Thomas Partey, a courier, delivered goods in a wheelbarrow from the market to the destinations of his customers.

    At about an hour past noon at the Krobo Odumase market on May 22, 2019, he delivered some goods to a client near the district assembly building. While returning to the market, he was met with a deafening uproar of voices, clamouring, yelling and chanting at the same time. This was louder than what he was used to at the market. A teeming group of young people, clad in red, was heading towards the district assembly.

    The crowd was protesting what residents considered high electricity charges in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality. The electricity distribution company, PDS, in the company of the police, had commenced a power disconnection exercise of some communities in the municipality because of unpaid bills.

    The young people were marching to the office of the municipal chief executive to press home their grievance when they clashed with the police. They threw stones and sticks while the police returned with live bullets.

    Thomas, who had dropped out of school to focus on his dream of becoming a businessman, pressed on to get to work in the market despite the mayhem. But he was already caught up in the police-protesters exchange. And he would never get to the market again.

    A policeman shot him.

    “He shot him in the back and the bullet appeared at the chest,” Wilfred Sam Partey, retired educationist and father of Thomas Partey, told The Fourth Estate how his son died.

    “I don’t know much about guns, but the distance between where the boy was standing and where the police fired the gun was about 80 to 100 metres,” Sam Partey added.

    In a provisional report on the shooting signed by Superintendant Michael H. Addae, the police explained the incident, without admitting they shot Thomas.

    “The police tried several times preventing the youth from entering the assembly premises, but they resisted and rather attacked the police by throwing stones, bottles and other dangerous objects at the police, with others armed with machetes and knives advancing fiercely, threatening life and property, amidst the firing of guns,” the report said.

    “In the process, the police also fired warning shots to disperse them, but they refused to retreat and were still firing. Later, it was detected that a man, aged about 23 years, who was among the protestors, sustained serious injuries in the chest. But the name of the victim was not immediately known,” the report concluded the report without naming Thomas Partey.

    Thomas Partey was rushed to St Martin De-Porres Hospital at Agormenya for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival. His body was deposited at the morgue of the same hospital for preservation and autopsy.

    Thomas Partey had a dream of becoming a prominent businessman through his courier work

    An autopsy report dated May 25, 2019, and signed by Chief Superintendent Dr O. Owusu Afriyie of the Police Hospital, confirmed that Thomas died from a gunshot fired at a close range. The report said he died from a “severe chest injury and haemorrhagic shock”.

    Aside from Thomas Partey, seven others were severely wounded.

    Ruth Mankattah, an 18-year-old student of the Odumase-Krobo Anglican Junior High School (JHS), who was preparing to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), was shot in the right knee. Her left leg suffered a minor injury from another bullet.

    Her right leg was later amputated.

    Odumasi-Krobo shooting was at close range - Autopsy report - Graphic Online
    Ruth Mankattah, 18, (left), now an amputee, and Kortey Tetteh are two surviving victims of the shooting at Manya Kpongunor in Odumase-Krobo

    Sam Partey, Thomas’ father, said apart from some GH₵ 9,000 he received from the district assembly to cater for the funeral, he hasn’t received any form of compensation or communication from the government, despite having written to the Office of President, The Inspector General of Police, the Minister of Energy and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

    According to Sam Partey, the then Energy Minister, Peter Amewu, ordered the PDS to act on his petition. But he heard nothing from the company.

    “I wrote to the offices that they should seek justice for my son,” he said.

    Sadly, not only has Sam Partey been denied justice, he doesn’t even know which officer pulled the trigger on his son.

    The killing of Thomas Partey in this manner is not an isolated case. A committee of enquiry is currently sitting to establish the killing of two unarmed civilians and injuries to four others who were wounded by a joint police-military team at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

    They were shot when the youth of the area protested the murder of their colleague, Mohammed Ibrahim, aka Kaaka, by unknown assailants. Kaaka had been threatened for continuously broadcasting on social media broken systems and infrastructure and calling state institutions and the government to fix them.

    The killing of the protestors in Ejura adds up to numerous reported cases of police and military brutalities that have claimed the lives of unarmed and mostly innocent civilians.

    The Fourth Estate has tracked such incidents of fatal police and military brutality as reported in the media in the last five years. We tracked relatives of some of the deceased for interviews.

    The Fourth Estate counted at least 72 extrajudicial killings by either the police or the military since 2017. More than 120 persons recorded severe injuries from such brutalities within the same period, ranging from broken limbs to amputations.

    Twenty-three (23) of these victims were killed when the police or/and the military-controlled protestors, or by stray bullets from the security. Some were also killed mistaken for criminals. In one instance, the killer was identified as a national security operative.

    The rest were alleged to be armed robbers who were killed either during  “gunfire exchanges” with the police or when they were conducting an arrest.

    The number of citizens killed by the police and military may be more in a wider and more comprehensive search.

    Below are details of the 23 who were killed by police and military brutalities in the last five years.

    The Foase Four: Kwadwo Fori, 47; Douglas Addai, 35; Prince Boateng, 29; and Danso Seth 24, killed at Foase in the Ashanti Region, on February 7, 2017

    These four were allegedly shot and killed by a joint police/military force which fired into a crowd of protestors

    The four died after a joint police-military force allegedly opened fire on a crowd protesting against the siting of Atwima Kwanwoma District capital at Twedie instead of Foase. Thirty-two other victims suffered injuries. The government paid GHc 1.4 million as compensation to the families.

    The Asawase Zongo Seven: Musah Seidu, Mohammed Bashir Musah, Mohammed Kamal, Babonte Farar, Razak Sulley, Oliver Konlang and Abdul Hanan Bashir; killed at Manso Nkwanta, Ashanti Region, on July 7, 2018.

    Photos of five of the seven killed in Asawase. Police said they were robbers but there was no evidence to support the allegation.

    A police patrol team shot the seven young men in Manso Nkwanta. The Ashanti Regional Police command alleged that they were armed robbers killed during a gunfire exchange with the police. This was sharply contested by leaders of the Zongo communities where the seven resided.

    The incident occurred days after a policeman, Lance Corporal Daniel Teiku, while on duty, was shot dead by suspected armed robbers at Ayirebikrom, near Manso Nkwanta. The killing of the seven was therefore believed to be a reprisal by the police. The situation sparked agitation in Zongo communities in the Kumasi metropolis.

    A seven-member committee led by Justice Obeng Deawuo, which was set up to investigate the killings, reported that there was no evidence that the seven were armed robbers. The committee’s finding was reported to have led to the interdiction of the 21 police officers involved in the operation. But the 21 are yet to face the law.

    The Government paid Ghs 1.750 million as compensation to the families of the seven. Each family received  GHc 250,000, but they say that is not enough. They are still calling for justice, three years after the incident.

    “The absence of our brother has affected the financial, economic and social wellbeing of our family,” a spokesperson for the family of Musah Seidu told The Fourth Estate.

     “He left behind five children, a wife, and two aged parents. His mother died 62 days after he was killed because of the emotional and psychological torture following the gruesome murder of her child,” he said.

    The wife of the late Musah Seidu, Humu Abubakar, says she’s still in grief and has had to deal with the torture of her growing children who occasionally ask about their father.

    “Three years after his death, my kids continue to inquire about the whereabouts of their dad. I have had to lie to them that he’s travelled. I lock myself and cry anytime the children ask me about him. I have left everything to God because, in Ghana, there’s no justice,” she shared her pain with The Fourth Estate.

    “When I saw the killings in Ejura, I remembered my dear husband and the way they put his remains in a pick-up truck, took pictures of him and shared them on Facebook. I know the families of the deceased in Ejura are going through what I have been experiencing,” Humu added.

    Emmanuel Osae, 36, killed in Brenase  (near Ofoase), Eastern Region, on  April 30, 2021

    Police shot into protestors who were demanding that a motor rider who rammed into the motorcycle of a teacher in the town should repair the damage. A 36-year-old man, Emmanuel Osae, died after he was hit by a bullet. Three others sustained gun-shot wounds. Residents of Brenase accused the police of firing, unprovoked and indiscriminately.

    The Techiman South Killings: Abdallah Ayarick, 18, and Mohammed Kajuden, 41, at Techiman, Bono Region on December 7, 2020

    Eighteen-year-old Abdallah Ayaric was allegedly shot to death by the military during the 2020 elections

    The two were killed when the military shot at unarmed citizens who had suspected some malpractices in the collation of electoral results in their area and gone to the collation centre to protest. Nine others were recorded to have sustained various degrees of injuries following the shootout.

    Abudulai Mustapha, 32, at Daboya, Savanna Region, killed on November 14, 2019

    Mustapha was reported to have been shot and killed by the police after he allegedly stabbed another police officer. He was alleged to be of unsound mind.

    Mary Aboagye, 38, at Ankaful Junction, Central Region, killed on January 10, 2019

    Mary was killed by a stray bullet during a crossfire between the police and alleged armed robbers. Her husband, Aboagye Okyere, 47, and one other person were also hit but survived.

     

     

    Nyable Mordzifa, 25, at Senchi, Eastern Region, killed on September 29, 2019

    Nyable Mordzifa was accidentally shot by a police officer at the Senchi Police Station in the Asuogyaman District. She was in the company of a group of angry youth who had stormed the Senchi Police Station to demand the release of two members of their community. The two were reported to have attempted to disarm some policemen.

     

     

    Eric Ofotsu, 28, at Ashaiman, Greater Accra Region, killed on April 5, 2020

    See the source image
    A soldier shot Eric Ofotsu to death in Ashaiman during the lockdown

    Eric Ofotsu, aka ‘No Yawa’, who, according to reports, was homeless and mentally challenged was shot dead at the Ashaiman market by a soldier during the enforcement of the Covid-19 lockdown protocols.

    Eyewitnesses alleged that the soldier had earlier attempted to hit Ofotsu with a stick, but he grabbed it and threw it away and both went their separate ways after onlookers’ intervention. The soldier allegedly rallied his friends later and shot Ofotsu in the head. The Ghana Armed Forces, however, claimed he was shot for trying to disarm the soldier.

    Unnamed killed at Odumase Krobo, Eastern Region on July 21, 2018

    An unnamed bullion van driver met his untimely death when a police officer who was guarding the money-hauling van shot and killed him accidentally at Manya Kpongnor.

    Eyewitnesses said the bullion van driver met rowdy mourners in a funeral procession on the main Odumase Krobo road. In an attempt to clear the road, the police officer, Constable Amidu Osman, fired warning shots. A bullet from his rifle hit the driver and killed him instantly.

    Ibrahim Abass, 30, at Odorkor, Greater Accra, killed on December 7, 2020

    A national security officer shot Abass to death at a Collation Centre in Accra during the 2020 election

    Ibrahim Abass, a national democratic congress (NDC) activist, was shot and killed at the Odorkor Police Church, which served as the Ablekuma Central election collation centre. His assailant, Collins Quarcoo, alias Kola, was later identified as a national security operative.

    Abass died a day later at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where he was receiving treatment for gunshot wounds.

    Richard Aheheto, 36, Akweley Kasoa, Central Region, killed on April 1, 2019

    Richard Aheto was reportedly killed by an Ak-47-wielding police officer who was attempting to arrest him. News reports that quoted an eye-witness said the officer chased Richard to his house and engaged in a heated argument with him, which ended in his (Richard’s) killing.

    However, a statement released by the police indicated that a patrol team came to restore order in the area but were attacked by a mob including others who tried to disarm an officer.

    Muntala Mohammed, 26, Abdul Nasir Yussif (aka Di Maria), at Ejura (Ashanti Region), killed on June 28, 2021

    The brutal killing of these two, Murtala Mohammed (left) and Nasir Yussif, in Ejura is the latest incident to rake the conscience of the nation

    The two were killed when a joint police-military force opened fire on the youth who were protesting the murder of their colleague, Ibrahim Mohammed Iddrisu (Kaaka), a social media activist. Four other people sustained serious injuries. A 16-year old boy had his leg amputated as a result.

    On July 3, 2021, a delegation led by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia visited Ejura to commiserate with the families of the deceased. The delegation included National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, and the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah.

    On behalf of the government, the vice president presented a cash amount of GH¢20,000 to each of the three bereaved families (including Kaaka’s) to help them in the performance of funerals of the deceased.

    The government has instituted a 3-member committee that is probing the situation that led to the killings in Ejura.

    A cross-section of Ghanaians and civil society organisations have expressed concerns about what they call the worrying line of questioning by the committee. The committee’s concentration on the media reports as the possible cause of the protests instead of the killing of the protesters has led many Ghanaians to conclude that nothing much would come out of it.

    And it doesn’t appear such killings would stop, especially because the perpetrators are often left unpunished.