Parliament has inched towards the passage of the Intestate Succession Bill when the bill passed through its second reading stage.

The Bill, which was laid before the House on November 3, 2009 and referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for consideration and report, seeks a more responsive approach to the needs of nuclear families whose parents and spouses die intestate.

According to members of the committee, they had spent more than two years to deliberate on the bill because of its sensitive nature. When passed, the bill will replace the Intestate Succession Act, 1985 (PNDC Law 111).

According to the memorandum accompanying the bill, its objective is to remove the anomalies in the present law relating to intestate succession and to provide a uniform intestate succession law that would be applied throughout the country irrespective of inheritance system of the intestate and the type of marriage.

Source: Daily Graphic

According to the memorandum, the present law on intestate succession appears to be overtaken by changes in the Ghanaian family system.

The importance of the extended family system was gradually shifting to the nuclear family as pertained in other parts of the world.

However, the well-entrenched family law system had provided very little protection for surviving spouses and children.

In its deliberation, the committee observed that intestate succession and its attendant socio-legal issues continued to pose challenges largely due to the pluralistic nature of the family law system of the country.

It said after over 25 years of the coming into force of PNDCL 111, there were still difficulties in its implementation due to the increasing importance of the nuclear family.

The committee’s report said some key issues that emerged during deliberations, particularly during the public hearings, had been addressed in the bill.

They included the need for enhancement of provisions for children of school age, the need to put a cap on the amount to be treated as household property, the need for enhancement of entitlements for the longest serving spouse within the context of a polygamous marriage, status of additional spouse married under customary law in relation to the spouse under the ordinance.

The Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, moved the motion for the bill to go through the second reading and he was seconded by the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bandua.

The second reading stage of a bill is a stage when the principles underlying the introduction of the bill.

But before he could move the motion for the House to debate on principles of the bill, some members from the Minority side raised concerns about the whereabouts of the substantive Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

The Minority argued that a deputy minister was put in place to assist the substantive minister and in a case where there was no substantive minister, “who is the deputy minister there to assist?”.

After a lengthy debate, however, he was allowed to move the motion.

The Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, observed that the time was ripe for Ghana to take the bull by the horn and enact an interstate succession law that would stand the test of time and enhance the wellbeing of children whose parents died before they become independent in life.

Source: Daily Graphic

The African Union High Representative for Somalia Jerry John Rawlings paid a one day visit to Mogadishu Wednesday where he held meetings with various stakeholders as part of the AU’s continued efforts to resolve the current political standoff in the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP).

Mr Rawlings held talks with the president of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) H. E. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Prime Minister H. E. Abdiwelli Mohammed Ali and UN Special Representative for Somalia Ambassador Augustine Mahiga at Villa Somalia before holding separate meetings with all the parties involved in the current political crises in parliament.

Speaking to journalists shortly after meeting President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, H. E. Jerry John Rawlings said that on behalf of the African Union, he is committed to help in resolving the current crises in parliament.

Source: citifmonline

From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Correspondent in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Jan 26, GNA – The 18th African Union (AU) meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, which officially opened last Monday, has assigned Ghana’s President John Evans Atta Mills major roles during the session of heads of State and Government.

Aside delivering the keynote address, which is on the theme: “Boosting Intra African Trade,” President Mills, who leaves Ghana for the meeting on Friday, would also be the Guest of Honour at the unveiling of the statue of Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah at the forecourt of the newly constructed AU building.

The conference centre project, fully-funded by the Chinese government and constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), within Sino-African relations, is China’s largest-scale aid project for Africa in decades.

The building would be inaugurated next Saturday in the presence of all the Heads of State and Governments at the meeting.

The centre covers a construction area of some 50,000 square meters, and will house a 2,550-seat big conference hall, a 650-seat medium conference hall, five press conference rooms and two VIP rooms, among many other facilities.

According to Mr Koku Anyidoho, Director of Communications at the Office of the President, President Mills had invited Dr. Francis Nkrumah; and Madam Samia Nkrumah, Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), who are both children of the first President to join in the unveiling of the statue in honour of their father.

Dr Nkrumah, who also played a leading role in the African liberation struggle, was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity, now the AU, as well as the Pan Africanist Movement.

High on the agenda at the summit would be the voting to elect new leaders to the continental body.

While the AU typically promotes regional diversity in its leadership, some observers have opined that it would be better to favor countries that have best adhered to AU protocols.

The Heads of State and Government as usual at the first meeting in the year, would elect a new chairperson, likely to come from West Africa for a one-year term.

The new chair is usually selected on a rotating regional schedule, with leaders from North, South, East and West Africa getting a fair shot at the top seat.

Meanwhile, a tough diplomatic battle has taken shape at the Union ahead of the Presidential session to elect the Chairperson of the AU Commission.

The AU Commission Chairperson Dr Jean Ping, elected to the position on February 1, 2008 and seeking re-election, is facing South Africa’s Interior Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is vying on a platform of change to the continental body, which her country blames for failing to prevent conflicts.

Dr Ping’s supporters say their candidate is almost certain of an absolute majority when the elections come on 29 January, but Dlamini-Zuma’s backing from the Southern African bloc is not being ruled out.

South Africa has proposed to delay the elections of the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson during the AU’s ministerial meeting on 26 January, but a counter proposal to delay the election of eight other commissioners had also been tabled.

Ghana’s candidate for the post of Political Affairs Commissioner has been withdrawn in favour of Aisha Laraba Abudulai, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea.

GNA

The President’s Assignment Phase 4 of 5

…The Story Of How Some Banks & Financial Institutions Are Reinvesting ECG’s Cash, Leaving The Power Supplier Stranded & The Million Ghana Cedi Defaulters
Anas Aremeyaw Anas reports from ECG Electro-Volta House
When debts collection was becoming burdensome for the Electricity Company of Ghana a few years ego, they came out with a smart idea, banks and other financial institutions who the ECG has contracted to take payment on their behalf.

All of this was to ease the hustle of electricity bill payment and the purchase of prepaid units, banks and to some extent telecom companies have been allowed by ECG to sell power and receive payments on behalf of ECG. This move looked good on paper but bad in practice, the third parties (the banks especially) involved are taking advantage of the situation at the expense of the ECG. Some of them have refused flatly to duly transmit the monies they collect to the ECG. The effect this refusal to transmit monies to the ECG is double edged.
On one hand, the ECG is unable to get their badly needed revenue, whilst on the other hand, customers who must have paid, suffer disconnection resulting from the fact that monies paid do not usually reflected on the ECG system, and when they do, the reflect very late. We gathered on the ground that, the cause of the long delays by commercial banks in transferring customer’s payment of their electricity bills to ECG was because they were busily investing ECG cash into their own businesses.

Some banks contracted by the ECG to help in their revenue collection drive, were not taking commission on the monies they took on behalf of ECG, this again we established was ostensibly to outwit competitors and get a large chunk of customers paying ECG monies to them.

EZI Savings and Loans Company who operate account Number 4003032- ECG; have been holding unto ECG cash in the Nungua District for over a year. As at August 2011, this company was holding as much as GH¢ 50,042.12 (over ¢ 500 million old cedis). When the promo of this story aired they hurriedly rushed to pay Other banks steeped in this unethical business practice, unacceptable by all standards are; Ecobank The Trust Bank, Amal Bank – now Bank of Africa, Agricultural Development Bank, United Bank for Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, Guaranteed Trust Bank, Stanbic Bank Ghana, Unibank and several others.

Revenue recipients for ECG include; Bonded Cashiers, Private Sector Collectors (PSC) and the Banks. Yet figures in our possession from the ECG Intranet points to the fact that banks have consistently posted low returns from monies that they have collected on behalf of the ECG.

’The banks are reinvesting these monies into their own businesses, contrary to the contractual agreement they have with ECG.’ Kwame Tefle a banker told this reporter

The erstwhile board chairman of the ECG, Dr. Kweku Osafo, in an interview told us of some more shocking revelations on especially how rural banks were stifling the ECG financially.

Several rural banks out in the districts were unwilling to pay ECG monies into the company account. TIGER would in due course publish a full list of all banks whose defaulting status is crippling the ailing power supplier.

We staggered on a case in the Ashanti West Regional Office, as far back as August 2011. The ECG regional manager was requesting the help of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to track some unauthorized money collectors.
The two agencies caught in this illicit act were; SUFFICIENCY FINANCIAL SERVICES and MERCHANT MOBILE MONEY; these entities had gone as far as issue fictitious receipts to unsuspecting customers.

Stories of many such entities abound, whiles milking the state, they deepen customer frustration in search on better services within the power delivery sector, a very critical component of the national development drive.
Here is an ECG that is in dire need of revenue and yet the banks find it prudent to hold onto these monies and by so doing inconvenience us all. For how long shall we entertain this, who is watching who?

THE WORLD BANK/GEDAP EPISODE

GEDAP stands for the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project.

This is a very large project that the World Bank and other aid donors have been working on mainly with the ECG, and other agencies within the power sector. The project has been running since 2006; and is worth some 250 million dollars. Most of that money is for system improvement in electricity distribution.

The GEDAP Project is split under two phases (GEDAP 1 and 2) GEDAP 1 was estimated to cost over US$ 171 million to be used in respect of; corporate strengthening, system upgrade, commercial and technical capacity upgrade, intensified of existing distribution networks and grid extension in six regions.
GEDAP 2 however was aimed at capacity expansion and network improvement and institutional development.
Under institutional development of GEDAP 2, US$ 27.7 million was allocated to: ‘REPLACEMENT OF CREDIT METERS WITH SPLIT-TYPE PRE-PAID METERS IN ASHANTI REGION.’
Considering that the Ashanti West region of the ECG recorded the most losses as a result of collusion on the part of officials and customers, the World Bank wanted to partner ECG to reduce losses in the region on a pilot basis.
Metering has over the years been a thorny area, because supposedly, it is the conduit through which customers fleece the state of much needed revenue. Replacing old credit meters with prepaid meters was seen as the ideal panacea, and the World Bank had earmarked as much as US$ 27.7 million for that purpose under GEDAP 2.
But till date, the tender documents for the contract are yet to be floated. Simply because the last board insists that they want to look for money to fund the metering of both Ashanti regions (East and West).
The bigger problem however is that; mother Ghana is on the threshold of being blacklisted by the World Bank because the board is trying with to sole source the metering of Ashanti to a company.
GEM is the only local meter assembling plant in the country and the action of the board could at best be seen as empowering local industries and its associated creation of employment for people.
Senior management of ECG are split on the effectiveness of the meters, whiles a section see the e-cash meters as effective as far as recommending the module to other countries, another faction say it has failed to solve revenue losses and have at best worsened the plight of customers.
GEM has provided documentation from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) indicating that their meters are of global specifications, they further insist that their production was based on specifications given by THE ECG. Again, some people within ECG are vigorously disputing that it meets ECG specifications.
The erstwhile board’s insistence to award the Ashanti West metering contract with the funds coming from an outside party (the World Bank) means the World Bank, might theoretically withdraw their monies in that respect.
Not just of the metering component of US$ 27.7 million but the whole $70 million GEDAP 2 facility as they see the Ashanti West metering as part of their integrated plan to better the lot of citizens and to assuage ECG’s troubles in the region.

THE MILLION CEDIS INDUSTRIAL DEFAULTERS GANG
In phase 2 of this series, we brought to the fore the list of companies under the Special Load Tariff (SLT) bracket of ECG, who owed ECG huge monstrous debts. We were unable to bring the industrial defaulters whose overall debts stood at GH¢ 21,388,686.52 equivalent to some US$ 13,979,533.67.
Here, we shall break our silence on the million cedis industrial defaulters gang, who owe the ECG. The industrial defaulters comprises especially the Manufacturing and Steel Companies in Tema, also in there are the Timber companies and the mining concerns, that guzzle electrical power from the ECG and fail woefully to pay for.

Chiranno Goldmines GH¢ 5,207,828.12
Tema Steel Company GH¢ 3,014,376.70
Western Steel Company GH¢ 3,011,792.63
Ferro Fabric GH¢ 2,536,738.73
Special Steel GH¢ 2,515,228.90
John Bittar and Sons GH¢ 2,436,640.23
Sentuo Steel Ghana Limited GH¢ 1,683,840.14
Tema Steel Company GH¢ 1,583,832.70
Noble Gold Bibiani GH¢ 1,316,365.31
Tema Oil Refinery GH¢ 1,192,367.00
TOTAL GH¢ 21,962,271.73 equivalent US$ 14 million ECG Also Owes

The ECG is owed lots of monies by companies and individuals to the tune of GH¢ 460 million. But the major supplier of the power that we use is also indebted to other state agencies from whom they buy power.
As at the last time that we entered the ECG system, ECG also owed GH¢ 148 million cedis: the breakdown of which are as follows;
ECG owes the Volta River Authority (VRA) GH¢ 80 million, the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) GH¢ 60 million and GH¢ 8 to Sunon Asogli Power Plant, all amounts in respect of power purchases.

The bigger problem however is the amount of losses that the company records in respect of distribution and commercial losses which currently stands at 29.5% each year.

As per ECG’s calculations, every percentage lost translates monetarily to some GH¢ 60 million cedis. Therefore the ECG losses every year is a whooping amount of GH¢ 1,770,000,000.00. By implication, the ECG’s losses even aside defaulting consumers of power is an area that management must move quickly to arrest.
One wonders what the Revenue Protection Division, Loss Control and Customer Services Directorate were doing to better the lot of the company; especially as they are supposed to ensure that the ECG improves its revenue collection.
We are aware of nefarious activities by some of ECG’s disconnection officers and contract meter readers, who collect monies from customers and allow them to pile up their debts.
We are well aware of the mines and other big timber firms in the Western Region who are given preferential treat by some big men at the Electro-Volta House, a situation that has emboldened some of these companies to use electrical power and expecting that the ordinary tax payer picks up the bills at the end of the month.

We are aware of how the regional management of ECG have on several occasions been handicapped in the performance of their duties with ‘orders coming from Electro-Volta House whenever they decide to tread the right and fair path.
The politics of power supply to the Tema Oil Refinery is another very spiky area that we have observed during the course of our stay at the ECG Head Office, these and many more are within TIGER’s domain and the story would certainly be told someday.

In tomorrow edition, we would find out how much board members take as board fees, who takes what.
Stay tuned.

Source: anas aremeyaro

Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Sammy Awuku has said the recent cabinet reshuffle by President John Evans Atta Mills will not yield the desired results because Œthey are just reshuffling old birds¹.

According to him this is a reshuffling of ³team B players with new addition from team C², saying, ³it is nothing new².

³This is just team B playing team C in a match that doesn¹t look like it will produce any result. It is likely to be a draw², he told Xfm 95.1 in an interview.

Citing instances of former Deputy Tourism Minister, James Agyenim-Boateng¹s movement from the Ministry of Information to the Ministry of Tourism and back to the Information Ministry, he said, ŒŠI don¹t see the head and tail of this reshuffle¹

He also said the introduction of some new faces will add nothing new the NDC government going into the 2012 general elections.

MP for Ablekuma South Constituency, Hon Fritz Baffoe will be the new Information Minister, while that of the Nabdam Constituency, Hon Moses Asaga will take oversight responsibility at the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare.

However, Mr Awuku said ?I do not foresee any significant impact the introduction of new faces like Fritz Baffoe and Moses Asaga would bring to the NDC¹; rather adding, ³the ship is already sinkingŠit¹s like the titanic. It is almost already submerged¹.

He wondered why Hon Moses Asaga, who was sacked by President John Mills in 2009 as Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing designate, has now been called by the President ³to help the NDC salvage an already sinking boat².

He therefore called on Ghanaians to ³reshuffle the NDC² come the general election in December.

³What we have to do is pray that December arrives quickly, reshuffle the government and president and bring in capable hands from the New Patriotic Party (NPP)².

Meanwhile Gender activities have sharply criticized President John Mills for not appointing women in his latest ministerial reshuffle announced Wednesday.

The list of 19 appointees with six new entrants had no female nomination.

Story by Dennis Nii Lantey Lawson/ Xfm 95.1/ Accra/ Ghana