February 7

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Inside February 7, 2018 .qxp_Layout 1 2/6/18 7:58 PM Page 7 6TH FEBRUARY 2018 TUESDAY CURRENCY PARIS CODE BUYING SELLING US Dollar USDGHS 4.4000 4.5600 RATES Pound Sterling GBPGHS 6.2200 6.4000 Euro GBPGHS 5.4000 5.5700 10 DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH ECG staff assured of job security BY ROSEMOND BOATENG ADDAI Rosemond.adjetey@yahoo.com MR SAMUEL Boakye -Appiah, Managing Director (MD) of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has assured its workers and stakeholders that ECG has not been sold contrary to what others believe. The MD, speaking at the company's Golden Jubilee celebration in Accra, emphasised that with the introduction of a concessionaire to invest in, manage and operate its distribution assets, ECG will continue to exist albeit with a different focus. "The new ECG will be an active and responsible asset owner, will engage in bulk energy trading, provide knowledge and skills to support other utilities through consultancy services and upgrade the training school," he said. He added that the new ECG will also embrace the introduction of renewable energy into Ghana's energy mix to improve reliability of supply to its customers. Challenges and achievements Mr Boakye- Appiah, who highlighted on the theme ‘50 Years Of Powering The Socio-Economic Growth and Development of Ghana,’ said the company though had chalked major successes also had some various challenges. He said “by far, the worst challenge in recent memory is the protracted power crisis of 2012- 2016. During the crisis, ECG's image fell to an all -time low and our distribution network was weakened as a result of frequent switching for load shedding. “Our finances suffered because customers reacted to the crisis by not paying their bills. With the necessary political, financial and technical interventions the crisis was resolved last year and ECG is back on its feet.” He said. According to the MD, ECG is yet to receive the Regulatory Benchmarks for system losses and network reliability. He explained that achieving cost reflective tariffs that are affordable for its customers remains a major challenge. “A significant achievement is the fact that we are concerned and have survived all the turbulence that had plagued many state-owned enterprises in the history of our country. We have achieved significant laurels locally and internationally. We have brought smiles to many homes and communities who turn the lights on for the first time in their lifetime,” he added. Modernisation Mr Boakye –Appiah hinted that ECG is automating and digitising its networks and business processes using the latest technologies in the industry. He explained that the company’s networks operations are partially automated at the medium voltage level; at the primary level, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) covers four out of the six administrative regions and the secondary SCADA has been extended to 17 district control centres throughout its operational regions. Mr William Owuraku Aidoo, Deputy Minister of Energy said the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia went to Washington to meet with the World Bank and managed to renegotiate the key aspects of the contract namely the non-loss of jobs by ECG workers, and 20% participation of Ghanaians. He explained that Ghanaians should be confident in what the government says, that no staff in ECG will lose his/her job and that is exactly what is pertaining. Ghana Beyond Aid achieved yet? ONE OF the key priorities of the New Patriotic Party administration is to move ‘Ghana beyond Aid’. The government has been tough on working to reduce the over-dependency on donor support for development. In the build up to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday, February 8, 2018, Citi Business News has taken a look at how far government has come in reaching this goal. Indications, however, suggest that more needs to be done to attain this feat. Prez Akufo-Addo leads agenda President Akufo-Addo has been leading the charge of building a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ and is convinced that the abundant mineral resources shouldn’t permit Ghana to seek support from donors to implement key policies. Speaking in an address with the French President Emmanuel Macron in Ivory Coast as well as delivering a speech as part of the Royal African Society’s leadership series in London, the President stressed the need to add value to traditional exports. “This is not right; we need to change the statistics. If we simply grind and sell the cocoa in paste form, instead of selling the cocoa beans, we double our earnings. In much the same way we will double our earnings from gold if sold refined than in the raw state. We are determined to process these products,” he stated. These thoughts have been reiterated across several platforms by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. Govt works to grow Ghana Beyond Aid The recent one constituted the •President Nana Akufo-Addo theme for the third Aliu Mahama Memorial Lectures presented by Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori- Atta. For Mr Ofori-Atta, working to improve critical sectors like the financial, oil and gas, rail and road infrastructure, among others should propel the plans to attain a Ghana Beyond Aid. For instance, the Minister highlighted the need to attract investors to revamp operations at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). But this might have to be triggered as TOR has been compelled to suspend its operations few weeks into this year due to operational challenges. Also, the estimated 21 billion dollar investments into the railway sector is yet to be completed to fast track the carting of agricultural goods such as cocoa from producing centers to market centers. The European Union Ambassador to Ghana, William Hanna admits that donor support has reduced hence the need for Ghana to improve her trade with other countries. Although government is saddled with huge records of revenue leakages estimated at 10 billion Cedis, Mr Ofori-Atta is confident of reversing the trend. Economist at the University of Ghana, Dr Ebo Turkson however suggests that the government would need to be tough on addressing corruption if it is to reach this goal as expected. “If we fight corruption, we can do a lot of public sector savings because a huge amount of public sector resources get fizzled out due to corruption. If we are able to fight corruption, these are huge amounts of monies that we can save and that would be an alternative to aid and those monies can be channeled into other productive sectors.”
Inside February 7, 2018 .qxp_Layout 1 2/6/18 7:58 PM Page 8 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018 11 Politics Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe — Frederick Douglass Minority can’t hold Parliament to ransom – Mensah-Bonsu BY KOBINA WELSING THE MAJORITY Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has slammed the Minority for attempting to scuttle the cash-for-seat report before Parliament. According to him, some Minority members are still hallucinating and yet to recover from the 2016 election defeat. The Minority in Parliament on Tuesday stormed out of Parliament to avoid being part of the debate to approve and adopt the report of the committee which probed extortion claims against the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The five-member ad hoc committee of Parliament in its report cleared the Trade Minister Minister Alan Kyerematen of any wrongdoing over claims that they charged expatriates $100, 000 to secure seats close to President Akufo-Addo at an awards ceremony. Ahead of the boycott, the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu told the House there was no need to rush the report since Members of Parliament (MPs) are yet to study it. “I got a copy of my report only this morning and it’s only fair and proper…why the rush and why are you in a hurry? 146-page report in the interest of transparency and accountability, this matter cannot be railroaded through Parliament. “I need to read like any other member to satisfy myself…You can proceed but the Minority is unable to participate in the debate,” the Tamale South lawmaker declared before marching his members out of the Chamber. But, addressing Parliament, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said the debate on the report will proceed with or without the minority. According to him, National Democratic Congress MPs have been pampered for too long and continue to be dishonest to the House. “This House will not be held to ransom by a single individual who decides to be very dishonest. Mr. Speaker this House will not pander to pedestrianism…clearly they want to hold this House to ransom. “People are still hallucinating and people are still yet to come out of where they found themselves after the elections,” the Suame MP said. •Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader in Parliament Statement: NPP’s silence on attacks on journalists dangerous •Jonh Boadu, acting general secetary, NPP and Freddie Blay, acting chairman, NPP WITHIN THE last two months, some five journalists have been attacked or threatened by activists of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). As if these acts are endorsed or supported by the NPP, the leadership of the party has remained silent on the attacks despite calls for the party to condemn such acts to deter further perpetration of similar acts by party activists. The first incident, which took place at the party’s national headquarters involved four journalists; Godfred Tanam, Prince Afum, Ebenezer Ackah and Marie-Franz Fordjoe of TV3, Ghanaweb and Citi FM respectively. In the said incident that took place on December 21, 2017, the journalists, who were covering a protest at the premises of the NPP headquarters, were brutalized by heavilybuilt security officials. The security persons slapped and kicked the journalists just for covering a protest at the premises of the headquarters. Following the incident, several public figures and organisations called on the leadership of the NPP to address the issue by condemning the assault and punishing the perpetrators. On January 23, 2018, the MFWA followed earlier appeals with a petition to the Acting Chairman of the party, Mr Freddie Blay. Till date, the NPP has neither acknowledged receipt of the petition nor acted on it. This complicit attitude of the NPP leadership has the potential of fostering a culture of impunity among party foot soldiers and activists with journalists bearing the brunt of their wanton aggression. Indeed, the recent death threat issued against journalist Kwakye Afreh-Nuamah of TV3 by known party activists and the silence of the party leadership can only be seen as evidence of the consequence of the culture of impunity that is being nurtured by the party. As if to call the bluff of the journalist, another known member of the party called the journalist and also threatened him for reporting the matter to the police. It is regrettable that the NPP, which prides itself as a tolerant, law-abiding and media-friendly party, has failed to publicly condemn these acts by its activists. Instead, some leaders of the party and government officials have reportedly rather appealed to the threatened journalist to withdraw the case from the police. The MFWA finds the NPP leadership’s silence over its supporters’ attacks on journalists rather baffling. This is because the party’s general secretary recently condemned a similar vigilante attack on Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, a member of the party. It therefore appears that attacks on journalists do not really matter to the leadership of the party. Failure to punish perpetrators of violence against journalists only goes to encourage others to abuse journalists. An entrenched impunity constitutes a major threat to the safety of journalists. In 2016, Ghana’s press freedom rankings dropped from “Free” to “Partly Free” following a number of similar press freedom violations, which were not addressed. The MFWA is concerned about the continued silence of the leadership of the NPP on recent attacks by its activists on journalists and is therefore urging the leadership of the NPP to, as a matter of urgency, act to address the growing culture of impunity for crimes against journalists. We urge the party to call its members to order and punish perpetrators of violations against journalists to serve as deterrent to others. The party cannot look on as journalists are abused. The safety of Ghanaian journalists is at stake and an urgent action by the party will help assure journalists that press freedom will be promoted and protected under the government of the New Patriotic Party.
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