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02 DAILY QUOTE I am blessed to have so many great things in my life - family, friends and God. All will be in my thoughts daily — Lil' Kim. CONTENT ANNIVERSARIES Fri. Dec. 7 — Farmer’s Day Tues. Dec. 25 — Christmas Wed. Dec. 26 — Boxing Day DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018 Published by: EIB Network / Heritage Communications Ltd. Managing Editor: William Asiedu: 0208156974 Editor: Kofi Enchill: 0265653335 ISSN: 0855-52307 VOL 7 Location: Meridian House (Starr FM) Ring Road. Box AD 676, Adabraka, Accra,Ghana. Telephone: +233-0302- 236051, 020-8156974 026-5653335 www.dailyheritage.com.gh Adverts/Mktg: Paul Ampong-Mensah 024-4360782 Fax: +233-0302-237156 Email: news@dailyheritagegh.com.gh heritagenewspaper@yahoo.co.uk FOREIGN Libyan elections should be delayed to 2019 PG.04 ARTS & ENT ‘NOTE Cosmetics’ brand officially launched in Ghana PG.14 BUSINESS Deposits are safe and will be protected — Alhassan Andani SPORTS AWCON Mascot excites fans ahead of tournament PG.10 PG.15 Special Prosecutor office “almost hopeless” – Amidu BY KOBINA WELSING THE SPECIAL Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has stated that his office finds itself in an almost hopeless situation a year after it was established by President Nana Akufo-Addo. According to Mr. Amidu, the office of the Special Prosecutor one year after its establishment has only a small three bed room house as an Office woefully inadequate for the job it has been tasked to do. In a new article, Mr. Amidu, the citizen vigilante writes that the “Whitaker’s scenario which I have just read reinforces my own conviction that the effective way to stifle the fight against corruption is to apply Whitaker’s scenario. It also reminds me of the almost utter hopelessness in which the newlyestablished Office of the Special Prosecutor finds itself almost one year after the President caused its establishment as his flagship and vision to fight corruption in Ghana with an overwhelming national consensus and support. “One year down the line it has only a small three-bedroom house as an office, which is woefully inadequate for lack of sheer physical space to accommodate any reasonable number of employees, lack of subsidiary legislation, and consequently also financially crippled without any ability to acquire the requisite expensive operational anti-corruption and other equipment for the Office let alone to function efficiently. • Mr Martin Amidu, Special Prosecutor “Creating unilateral unrealistic and crippling budget ceilings for such a deprived agency has same effect as the Whitaker scenario. By analogical reasoning, the Whitaker scenario reported by the Associated Press resembles the situation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor since its establishment in spite of the President’s sincere commitment to his vision.” Below is the full article by Martin Amidu: THE WHITAKER SCENARIO – STIFLING INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE AGENCIES OF FUNDS The former United States Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, on 7th November 2018 announced his resignation as US Attorney General and made it clear it was at the request of the President –“at your request”. The Chief of Staff of the Justice Department, Matthew Whitaker, whom Jeff Session appointed in September 2017, was appointed the Acting Attorney General to the displeasure of the opposition Democrats because of the likely effect of the new acting appointment on Robert Mueller’s investigations into the allegation of Russian meddling into the 2016 US elections. The opposition Democrats fear that the new Acting Attorney General will assume full oversight over Mueller’s investigations and are demanding that like Jeff Sessions, he recuses himself from those investigations because of his previous comments on the probe. Acting Attorney General Whitaker’s comments were made before he joined the Justice Department. Whitaker’s comments before Sessions appointed him to the Justice Department has just opened my eyes to how an independent investigation and prosecutorial agency such as Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor can be disabled from effectively and efficiently performing its mandate without direct interference with its so-called independence and impartiality. The Associated Press of 8th November 2018 has an article captioned: “With new Justice Official, fate of Russia probe in question”. That caption has no relevance to how to disable an independent investigation institution from performing its duties but what is attributed to the new Justice Official, Whitaker, has. The Associated Press article says: “Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney from Iowa who twice run unsuccessfully for statewide office…., once opined about a scenario in which Trump could fire Sessions and then appoint an acting attorney general who could stifle the funding of Mueller’s probe. In that scenario, Mueller’s budget could be reduced ‘so low that his investigation grinds to a halt’. Whitaker said during an interview in CNN in July 2017 before he joined the Justice Department.” Whitaker’s scenario which I have just read reinforces my own conviction that the effective way to stifle the fight against corruption is to apply Whitaker’s scenario. It also reminds me of the almost utter hopelessness in which the newly-established Office of the Special Prosecutor finds itself almost one year after the President caused its establishment as his flagship and vision to fight corruption in Ghana with an overwhelming national consensus and support. One year down the line it has only a small three-bedroom house as an office woefully inadequate for lack of sheer physical space to accommodate any reasonable number of employees, lack of subsidiary legislation, and • CONTINUE ON PAGE 5
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018 03 2019 budget… Cut down many projects RENOWNED ECONOMIC Think Tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), has cautioned the government to urgently reexamine its many programmes and policies and prune them down to avert economic instability. According to the IFS, though the government has recognised the need for broad-based economic growth as a means to tackle unemployment and is, thus, embarking on programmes in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, and industrialisation to transform the economy, “the programmes and initiatives are too many. “Some of them are also too grandiose. They require very large amounts of funding. How can the government fund these numerous and grandiose programmes and initiatives, given that the country is on a fiscal consolidation path; government revenue has consistently fallen short of initial budgets since 2012; and there is presently no available free fiscal space, since three rigid expenditure items in the forms earmarked expenditure, compensation of employees and debt service expenditure have consistently exceeded total revenue and grants since 2013?” Some government projects that have a huge toll on government revenue are Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Program (IPEP); One District, One Factor (1D1F); The National Industrialization Revitalization Program – A Stimulus Package for Industry; Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones; US$10 million National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NEIP) and Planting for Food and Jobs. • To avert economic instability, IFS cautions govt Others are establishment of a GH₵400 million Fund to de-risk Agriculture; Development of Modern Storage Facilities through ‘One-district, One Warehouse’ programme; Akufo-Addo Programme for Economic Transformation (AAPET); and the establishment of Zongo Development Fund to develop Zongos and inner cities into centers of opportunity. “The government has also launched the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) to directly provide jobs for the youth, specifically university graduates. These are on top of high money-consuming initiatives like the Free Public Senior High School Programme; US$1 million for each constituency; etc. “It is commendable that the government has recognised the need for a broad-based approach to economic growth. However, the programmes and initiatives are too many. For instance in 2017, these three rigid expenditure items alone amounted to GH₵46.35 billion, exceeding total revenue and grants of GH₵41.50 billion by 11.7%. Indeed, these programs and initiatives can only be accommodated if the government •Dr John Kwakye, addressing the media resorts to large amounts of borrowing.” Need to control borrowing At a press conference in Accra, Dr Said Boakye, a senior fellow at the Institute, speaking on ‘IFS’ Expectations of Ghana’s 2019 National Budget,’ also urged the government to avoid large amounts of borrowing. “Recent announcement of its desire to borrow US$50 billion in a century bond is clearly the result of its inability to raise large sums of revenue to fund these numerous programs and initiatives. “Large amounts of borrowing stand the risk of reversing the fiscal gains made in the past two years. Why? “It will impose additional significant debt service burden. The country’s fiscal state continues to be weak and fragile. Large amount of borrowing can therefore plunge the country into serious fiscal difficulties and macroeconomic instability.” Speaking on ‘Revenue and Expenditure Issues,’ Dr John K. Kwakye, Director of Research, IFS, also urged the government to completely overhaul the tax-exemptions regime, plug all loopholes, deal with vested interests, check abuse and reduce exemptions to the minimum. “Tax rebates granted to the mining sector and free zones should be reviewed to maximise intakes from those sectors. Some of those tax rebates were granted decades ago; they have become obsolete and are inimical to Ghana’s interests. “The tax rebates need to be renegotiated to bring them in line with modern trends and standards. There is a need to revalue real properties periodically to ensure that assessed taxes are commensurate with the commercial values of the properties,” Dr Kwakye noted. The media engagement was moderated by Prof. Newman Kusi, Executive Director, IFS. Below are the presentations by Dr Said Boakye and Dr John Kwakye: Revenue and Expenditure Issues PRESENTED BY DR JOHN KWAKYE Like the 2017 budget, the 2018 budget has also been characterized by significant shortfall in revenue. In fact, Ghana’s revenue mobilization effort continues to fall short of its own potential as well the effort of many of its peers. Ghana’s tax/GDP of 16-17% has been estimated conservatively by the World Bank to be about 5% of GDP below its potential and compares unfavorably with the average of about 25% for low-middleincome countries. The reasons for Ghana’s low tax effort include: the near-exclusion of the informal sector from the tax net, high level of tax exemptions, pervasive tax evasion, overlygenerous tax incentives offered to the extractives and free-zones companies, under-taxation of real properties, illicit financial flows and other tax fraud and corruption. The tax intake during 2017- 2018 has been further affected by the decision to reduce and/or eliminate several taxes and levies in line with Government’s stated economic management philosophy of “shifting economic policy from taxation to production.” There is a need for far-reaching measures to increase domestic revenue to acceptable levels. IFS has written and spoken extensively on this issue, but it is important to repeat here some of our recommendations to turn the situation around in the 2019 budget. Our recommendations are actually tailored to addressing the lapses in the tax policies and administration enumerated above. Roping most of the informal sector into the tax net is key to increasing the overall intake. Here, recent efforts to digitize various areas of economic activity promise to increase taxation from the informal sector. • CONTINUE ON PAGE 11
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November 12

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