The Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) mobilized an amount of GH₵  24.4 billion in 2018, thus exceeding its target for the year.

This means an excess of GH₵  850 million representing 3.5 per cent of planned collection target of GH₵ 23.5 billion.

Mr Kofi Nti, the Commissioner General of GRA, said the increase in domestic revenue collection was largely due to the public sensitization and deployment of GCNet’s Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (tripsTM) for the DTRD.

Mr Nti acknowledged the importance of intensifying education on the usage of tripsTM and urged staff to continue to use the system and report any challenges encountered for swift resolution to enhance user experience and improved revenue mobilization.

“Even for 2018, when we faced considerable challenges, we were able to achieve a 16.4 percent growth over the 2017 collection. There is room for improvement,” he said.

Overall, domestic revenue generated and processed in 2018 through the tripsTM tax administration system stood at GH₵ 19.4 billion.

This represents a 30 per cent increase over the 2017 collection of GH₵ 15.4 billion.

Over the past five years, there has been a sustained increase in the domestic tax collection processed through (trips TM), from GHC 3 billion generated in 2014,GH₵ 9 billion in 2015 to almost GH₵ 12 billion in 2016.

Since the introduction of tripsTM for domestic tax collection, a total of GH₵ 55 billion has been collected.

Data on domestic tax revenue generation indicates that December 2018 posted the highest collection of GH₵ 3.1 billion, an all-time high, which was also twenty per cent higher than the December 2017 collection of GH₵ 2.6 billion.

The second highest monthly collection of GH₵ 2.3 billion in 2018 was recorded in June, representing a 62 per cent increase of GH₵ 1.4 billion over the same period in 2017.

The third highest monthly collection in 2018 was GH₵ 1.9 billion which showed a 26.5 per cent rise over the same period in 2017 which stood at GH₵1.57 billion. Except for January 2018, all collections recorded for all other months were in excess of GH₵ 1 billion.

Besides in 2018, by end of July collections had crossed GH₵ 10 billion mark, an improvement over the 2017 milestone which occurred in September.

These achievements were made possible with the migration of 69 GRA tax offices nationwide onto the trips TM system for the processing of taxes.

In 2018, GCNet supported GRA to complete the nation-wide migration of tax offices across the country onto the trips system to broaden the tax base and facilitate the issuance of Tax Identification Numbers (TINs). Over the period, over two million Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) have been issued with more than a million generated.

Return processing activity increased with 615,558 returns recorded in 2018 representing an 86 per cent increase compared to 2017 when 331,055 returns were recorded.

Mrs Aba Lokko, Communications Manager of GCNet, said GCNet remains committed to partnering GRA to realize its core mandate through technical support by deploying robust, time tested and proven e-applications that make processes seamless in the clearance value chain.

”In 2018, GCNet provided logistic support by donating some four hundred and fifty (450) laptops valued at $247,000.00 to the GRA through the Ministry of Finance to facilitate field operations to boost domestic revenue collection initiatives by officers of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD), she said.

Source: GNA

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The Volta Regional Police Commander, Mr Francis Ebenezer Doku, has cautioned that the class of weapons wielded by some residents of Alavanyo in the Kpando Municipality could pose major challenges to the nation’s security.

He said some young people in the traditional area possess AK 47 rifles, SMGs, M16s among others, and underscored the need for disarmament and demobilization in the farming area also known for the manufacturing of small arms.

The Regional Commander said this when he briefed the Media on a shootout between the youth of Alavanyo-Dzogbedze and some military personnel, where two persons lost their lives on Sunday.

Earlier, the youth allegedly attacked a police team, which was said to be in the community to pick illegal arms in the possession of some individuals, and seized an AK 47 rifle belonging to one police officer.

Mr Doku told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the Regional Command was sending an administrative report to Police Headquarters for voluntary surrender of weapons for rewards under a moratorium.

He said, the weapons gave the bearers confidence to attack heavily armed state security forces, making efforts at ending violence in the enclave unsuccessful.

The Commander said the Police have intelligence on the massing up of arms in the area, notably Dzogbedze, as well as the illicit cultivation of Indian hemp, and appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders to help bring the youth to order.

Mr Doku said though calm has returned to the area, the Police are on high alert to respond to any untoward situation. He added that, the Command is working to retrieve the AK 47 rifle and cuffs seized from the police on Sunday .

GNA

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Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), said the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has become a reputable and solid regional development finance institution, meeting significant financing needs in trade development and trade finance in Africa.

Afreximbank and the African Development Bank have enjoyed a collaborative and productive relationship since its inception 25 years ago. 

The 25th anniversary celebration witnessed a critical US$500,000 grant agreement collaboration between the African Development Bank and the Afreximbank.

In recent years, the African Development Bank has supported Afreximbank with trade finance packages of $450million in 2017, $280million in 2014, a $150million Line of Credit in 2010, as well as a $250million support package to mitigate trade risk.

Dr Adesina, who spoke at a gala dinner at the 2018 annual meetings and 25th Anniversary of Afreximbank in Abuja, in a release, assured that the Bank will remain supportive, steadfast, and strong in its assistance to the export-import bank’s continued growth.

“Africa is in a hurry because it is hungry for economic transformation. We must move quickly from old methods of intervention in dealing with emerging challenges and taking advantage of opportunities.

“The recent positive Moody’s rating is a signal of how well Afreximbank is managed, and the mark of the shareholder’s confidence is further manifested in the increase of Afreximbank’s capital base,” Adesina said.

 As a founding parent, the African Development Bank is proud of its instrumental role in laying Afreximbank’s foundations and the achievements that the institution has made as its strategic partner, particularly in trade finance in Africa, Adesina said.

The Bank is also collaborating with African Union Commission, Economic Commission for Africa, Regional Economic Communities, Afreximbank and other partners to ensure that African countries can offer better trade facilitation, increased trade finance, and beneficial policies to increase trade.

Adesina said the signing of Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (AgCFTA) agreement in March 2018 by the majority of African countries will enable Africa to trade more with itself and also enhance the continent’s attractiveness as an investment destination.

The President said: “this is especially so in the trade finance space. We need to be smarter and faster in responding to growing opportunities and emerging challenges faced by majority of the continent’s small businesses.”

African countries are showing resilience as exemplified in the share of intra-African trade, which has increased from 10 per cent in 2000 to 16 per cent last year.

Since the AgCFTA was signed, the African Development Bank has earmarked US$ 4.5million to help boost intra-African trade and create more synergies with the Bank’s High 5 priorities.

“We need to significantly expand intra-African trade. For example, the equivalent figure for Europe is close to 80 per cent. For this to happen, Africa needs to be bolder in its approach and broaden its appeal by reducing administration and transaction costs, especially at borders, as well as overcome market segmentation and improve the overall investment climate.”

The project, funded by the Fund for Private Sector Assistance (FAPA), is aimed at promoting the development of ‘factoring’ as an alternative trade finance instrument in Africa. The investment confirms the African Development Bank’s commitment to support extra- and intra-Africa trade promotion.

“If Africa is to integrate and improve the living standards of its people, we must use innovative financial solutions such as factoring and credit insurance, which offer keys to unlock the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa,” President Adesina stated.

He spoke on how finance and investments were at the very sharp end of economic transformation, pointing out that the Bank was opening another highway to African investment through the Africa Investment Forum (AIF), scheduled for November 7-9, in Johannesburg.

“The Africa Investment Forum, Africa’s investment marketplace, will provide a unique platform for investment negotiations, finance, transactions, and a marketplace for closing deals to accelerate the economic development of Africa.”

The President of Afreximbank Bank, Benedict Oramah, extolled the unflinching support of the African Development Bank, adding that both institutions shared a common vision – a reason Afreximbank aligns its goals to the High 5 priorities of the Bank.

Source: GNA

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As the first rays of daylight pierced a thick haze blanketing the Ndogpassi neighborhood, several dozen angry men appeared, seemingly from nowhere. They formed a human barrier across the main entrance to a natural gas power plant in the east of Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital.

Some of the men laid across the roadway, forcing employees of the plant to abandon their cars and enter the facility on foot. As daylight emerged and a crowd of onlookers grew, the men began to sing Cameroon’s national anthem.

That episode, in the summer of 2016, signaled the start of a long protest against Gaz du Cameroun (GDC), fueled by accusations of corruption, payoffs to public officials, and lying to the community about the start-up and operation of this important power plant, which is actually owned by the British Victoria Oil and Gas, plc based in London.

The principal complaint: the promise of a substantial number of permanent jobs for local residents has gone unmet.

“GDC says that local residents aren’t qualified. Yet, at the same time, the company is training people from outside, hiring them and refusing to do the same for us,” said a protestor in the crowd. He wouldn’t give his name to a stranger, citing fear of reprisals from the security forces. “Only two people from the neighborhood, out of forty, have been hired by GDC for the new drilling operations.”

To cut the tension, authorities brokered a meeting between the disgruntled residents and company officials.

A month later another group of residents took to the streets, protesting that the company brought on local youth only as temporary hires, and groundskeepers. Today the community is overwhelmed by youth unemployment and plagued by a foul odor from the drinking water, damage to the local environment and brutal police retaliation when they speak out.

Local complaints and accusations of broken promises to the community have not prevented gas-industry analysts from heaping praise on VOG’s Cameroonian affiliate. The Petroleum Economist, the prestigious London-based trade publication, lauded VOG’s management of Cameroon’s natural gas production facility as exemplary. Upon receiving the “Energy Company – Small cap of the Year” award for 2015, Kevin Foo, founder and executive director of VOG, said the prize was testimony to the dedication and hard work of the teams in Douala and in London.

And indeed, when Cameroonian President Paul Biya first launched the project in 2013, residents of Ndogpassi welcomed the gas plant as a ticket out of poverty.

A two-year investigation by 100Reporters has found that the project, though managed by President Biya, has failed to pay royalties, training fees and taxes to the Cameroonian treasury, even as it made payments to investors totaling millions of dollars.

Now, after years of silence, the Cameroonian government admits the plant’s owners have missed tax payments to the Cameroon treasury, and has identified possible violations of resource, Social Security and environmental rules. In March, it threatened to terminate the contract with the VOG subsidiary that runs the plant. Executives for the company and its various international subsidiaries declined to comment about the government’s accusations.

Gas to the rescue

Before the construction of this power plant, which covers some 20 square miles, industrial and business users in Douala burned heavy and expensive fuel oil. And these users had to deal with regular supply interruptions that hurt production. Natural gas was seen as the solution: clean, reliable and less expensive, especially for businesses with their own generators.

Two exploratory wells in Ndogpassi yielded enough proven reserves to satisfy consumption needs in the region through 2043.

“Energy is at the heart of any development process,” Biya said in November 2013. “Without it, there can be no industry, no transformation of raw materials, and therefore no modern economy. There was a time when it was said that the infantry was the queen of battles. Today, one might say, paraphrasing the formula, that energy is the queen of the battle for development and progress. Together, this battle, we will win it.”

The Ndogpassi plant was a rare win on the energy front for Biya, whose earlier efforts to foster energy production in Cameroon had largely failed.

Yet even from its start, the Ndogpassi plant, designed to tap identified reserves of up to 11.3 billion cubic meters in the region, was met with questions: Could the government strike a deal that would truly benefit the national treasury? Or would accusations of corruption, opacity and favoritism mar this project, as they had so many others in the field?

On November 15, 2013, President Biya, dressed in a dark suit, strode across the rocky red ground of Ndogpassi. Accompanied by his wife, Chantal, various government officials and VOG officials, Biya officially launched the drilling operations.

Biya lauded the $100 million project as emblematic of a presidential policy of “Great Ambitions.”

The project augured well for the neighborhood, many of whose 20,000 residents lacked reliable access to safe drinking water, decent healthcare, land ownership or the Internet.

Antoine Tebu woke up early that day to witness Biya’s opening ceremony, and joined in cheering for the president. Tebu is a neighborhood chief – a citizens’ representative – and owns a welding shop. He is also the community’s spokesman before the gas drilling company.

Tebu said the euphoria was short-lived. Soon, soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), an elite division of the Cameroonian army, arrived and were posted at the facility. Tebu said they erected a barrier of cement-filled barrels 10 meters from the entrance to the GDC facility, and went on to commit acts of violence against civilians. They barred local moto-taxis from the area, and struck civilians who ventured near.

“They beat the motorbike drivers worse than they beat prisoners, so badly that blood poured from their nostrils. They then forced them to walk on all four before letting them go. They even beat the motorbike passengers,” Tebu said, adding that during this time some drivers, fearing reprisals, refused to transport residents to the plant.

Alain Tedom, 28, is the third of Tebu’s seven children. He remembered that he was celebrating his new degree in banking when he witnessed a horrific scene:

“A motorbike driver had crossed the blocked zone to drop off a passenger. On the way back, as he was crossing the barrier, a soldier stopped him, beat him and ordered him to hand over his motorbike. The driver refused,” Tedom said. “They continued beating him. Only when he was in very bad shape did he finally abandon his motorbike.”

Residents complained about this incident, but witnesses told 100Reporters that beatings continued nevertheless. And a letter to GDC from the local chief, obtained by 100Reporters, describes assaults by soldiers on local residents. — “to beat them, to make them drink dirty water. They enter bars and garages, pulling out their guns to threaten bar patrons and garage employees.”

On July 4, 2016, the report found, a BIR soldier kicked down the entrance to the garage owned by a Mr. Tato, which was located a few steps from the gas facility. After threatening the employees, the soldier “enters the office, takes out a large knife and attempts to stab the office agent in the stomach but misses, and when pulling back the knife, he cuts (sic) his own hand.”

As with other complaints by area residents, this incident was reported to authorities and GDC operators, but went unanswered.

Contacted by email, VOG initially said it would respond to questions from 100Reporters. Ultimately, however, the company declined to comment.

As supreme chief of the army, President Biya created the special military unit in the early 2000s. The force is under his direct command, and has a long record of complaints about alleged abuse of civilians.

In a telephone interview, Colonel Didier Badjeck, the Cameroonian army director of communications, said he was not familiar with the BIR units posted at the gas facility and therefore could not comment on the accounts of violence at their hands.

“But, they (the soldiers) are there on instruction from their hierarchy,” he noted.

Gas is gold

In the mid-1950s, Ndogpassi was just a village when the French company Elf-Aquitaine discovered a large reserve of natural gas beneath the surrounding bush. At that time, this type of gas had little commercial value on the international market. Elf was looking for oil, so after digging several exploratory wells, the company abandoned the project.

The Cameroonian government then accelerated a wholesale relocation of the local population to allow RDL – now known as GDC – to begin gas-drilling operations.

Seated on a wooden chair in his office, Chief Tebu recounts that during construction, GDC trucks damaged the community’s water wells. In response, GDC dug a new community well, inaugurated in March 2012 by Jonathan Scott-Barrett, then general director of the company.

“Everyone who was there drank that water. From that time, the water has had a foul odor that worries the locals,” Tebu said.

GDC said it spent some $25,000 on the well. But Tebu said that the company did not drill deep enough to reach clean water. In a 2014 financial report the company said it has spent more to maintain the well, but did not provide specific numbers.

When local residents noticed the well water’s poor quality, some began to use it only for washing dishes and doing laundry. Others, like Frank Tchinda, stopped using the water altogether, turning instead to other neighborhood wells constructed by locals.

“You would have to be blind to not see that this water is bad. It stinks,” Tchinda, 23, shouted during an interview, pointing to the yellow stains on the white tile around the borehole.

The company and the government say the water has been thoroughly tested at the Pasteur Center laboratory in Cameroon. That may be, residents say, but they remain suspicious, saying that the GDC well is the only one in the area that produces foul-smelling water.

Tebu said he first noticed the odor when his job was delivering fresh water to the plant. He said GDC officials ordered him not to use water from the community well it had dug. Today the plant has its own water well.

Jobs and revenue

“In 2015 the plant was operating at only 20 per cent capacity, and GDC registered $21.4 million in revenues – up more than 112 percent from the previous year. Gas went through pipelines buried across Doualato reach local food processing companies, breweries, electricity providers and foundries”.

As production increased, GDC began hiring local workers. Tedom, Tchinda and other residents were paid to clear brush around the facility. “Soon after, they got rid of us,” Tedom said. Just two months in, locals turned up for work one morning, only to find the entrance blocked. A GDC official said that London had ordered a halt to hiring of temporary local workers.

Nevertheless, the company’s financial report for the year said that it had “hired” 90 local residents.

Since then, GDC has brought on local workers for temporary stints via text messages. One message on April 20, 2016 was typical: “Good morning. Please be at the guard station … at 8 a.m. for a one week job. Bring your helmets and shoes.” Recently, the company has contracted with another traditional chief in the neighborhood to recruit local temporary workers.

Locals complain that they had been promised permanent jobs. In January 2016 the “unemployed youth of Logmayangui,” with Tedom and Tchinda at the top of the list of signees, sent a letter to the General Director of GDC. They complained that the company only hired outside contract workers for grounds and warehouse work. Encouraged by local chiefs like Tebu, local youth demanded stable, permanent jobs. They also denounced what they saw as nepotism at the plant, claiming new hires, coming from distant regions of Cameroon, were all family or friends of GDC employees.

GDC told Tedom it would consider the complaints when it came to work on new wells at the plant, Tedom said. But today, locals say the company continues to sign permanent contracts with English-speaking workers from Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions, leaving the locals with the temporary work.

“I would like a permanent job at the plant to help me pay for my studies,” said Tchinda, who is close to earning a woodworking certificate.

Follow the money

Jobs are not the only issue for critics of the gas facility.

During a meeting between company officials and local residents, Tebu said he realized that the Cameroonian government is also missing tax revenue from the Ndogpassi gas project.

Tebu said that local contractors pay taxes normally, but when GDC hires, it pays fewer taxes. Tax authorities can easily control local contractors but it is difficult to extract taxes from GDC, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Government documents obtained by 100Reporters suggest that the operators of the gas plant have failed to meet its fiscal obligations.

According to the concession contract, RSM must pay the government a fee each year during the exploration phase and then a larger annual fee during the production phase of the project. One such fee is earmarked for training Cameroonian nationals to work in the petroleum industry. The total owed is roughly $170,000, which has never been paid.

GDC is jointly owned, with VOG or its subsidiary owning a 55 per cent stake, RSM Production Corp. holding 40 per cent, and the Cameroonian government owning 5 per cent.

Reached by telephone, Jack Grynberg said, “I have paid nothing. It is the responsibility of the operator, VOG, to pay that money.” Later, in an email to 100Reporters, Grynberg said all questions concerning the Ndogpassi gas project should be addressed to VOG, as operator of the concession for GDC.

According to a report of the Cameroon Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, GDC is responsible for “making (liquidating) all payments due in place of (instead of)” RSM, and for integrating all monies paid on behalf of RSM into its fiscal declarations. But neither GDC’s financial reports nor its reporting to the government make any mention of training fees paid to the government of Cameroon. These fees for training programmess alone would now amount to $170,000 – three years of exploration and five years of production.

Government reports, based on statements submitted by oil and gas corporations, also indicate that between 2009 and 2011, GDC did not pay land-use fees, or voluntary contributions associated with its workforce. In its 2014 statement to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, GDC declared it had paid more than 8,400,000 Cameroonian francs, or $15,300 in voluntary social donations, but made no mention by name or by region of the beneficiaries of its largesse.

Twisted tale of subsidiary

GDC, the company extracting Cameroon’s natural gas, is listed in the British Virgin Islands, a territory that doesn’t require companies to declare revenues or beneficial owners. VOG registered its subsidiaries in six territories with weak or non-existent taxation: There are two in the British Virgin Islands, two in Guernsey, three in Kazakhstan, three in England and Wales, and one each in Russia and Cyprus. The Cameroonian subsidiary generates all the revenues for the entire group, according to an interim financial report filed by VOG financial report for 2017.

The company disputes the terms of the government concession, and has not paid fees and taxes in Cameroon. Meanwhile, the company has made millions of dollars in royalty payments and given no-interest loans to its subsidiaries.

Cameroon should receive royalty payments in the amount of 8 per cent of GDC’s monthly revenues, according to the concession contract. Despite annual revenue of more than $27 million in 2015, GDC indicated in its annual report that it would pay royalties to the state once it had recovered all “petroleum costs,” which include exploration costs, development costs, production costs, construction costs and all the other general operating expenses of the project.

GDC confirms that it has not yet paid the Cameroonian government, because it has yet to recoup all its costs. This condition, which is not included in the contract, angers Cameroonian authorities. Rather, the concession agreement says the operator “shall pay to the State a proportional royalty at the rate of eight (8 per cent) for all levels of gas production.”

In its annual report, GDC reports that, “the interpretation by the group of what constitutes ‘petroleum costs’ has not been formally agreed upon by the Cameroonian government.”

In other forums, however, VOG, the operator of the Cameroon plant, paints a different picture.

The company’s 2016 Interim Financial Report states that as of June 2016, it had recovered its “petroleum costs” and returned 40 per cent of project shares to RSM.

While VOG conditions its royalty payments to Cameroon on first recuperating its costs, the British multinational has consistently distributed royalties from the Cameroonian gas operation to its offshore subsidiaries. Cameroon Holdings Limited (CHL), one of the subsidiaries based in Guernsey, lists its only source of revenue as “GDC royalties.” According to VOG’s annual financial reports it pays royalties of up to 15 percent of GDC revenue during the lifetime of the Ndogpassi gas project to CHL.

Bramlin Limited, based in Guernsey for the duration of the gas project, is another subsidiary of VOG, and it receives royalty payments in the amount of 4.5 per cent of GDC revenue.

According to a confidential document acquired by 100Reporters, Rodeo Resources Incorporated — another company related to Bramlin and VOG — also receives 1.2 per cent of GDC revenues for the life of the project. Additionally, Rodeo receives a $500,000 production bonus for each million cubic meters of gas and natural gas condensate produced at Ndogpassi, up to a total of $10 million.

Company officials at VOG declined to comment for this report.

Holding an empty bag

In May 2017, the government charged that Cameroon lost more than $7 billion in illicit financial flows, including fraud and corporate tax evasion between 2003 and 2012. Lacking the necessary expertise to verify information, the government says it must rely on statements of companies like VOG about the production of gas and natural gas condensate extracted at Ndogpassi, the amount of earned revenue, the identities of the offshore entities, and revenue sharing.

In 2015, Cameroon joined 126 nations in an international agreement on transparency in tax matters. That was followed by a promise from the government to crack down on tax cheats.

“The coming days will permit us to collect the information we need to stop fraudulent operators, even the most sophisticated,” declared Roland Atanga, head of legislation and international fiscal relations at Cameroon’s tax authority. The senior tax inspector notes in the journal, Tax News, that working collectively with other countries to fight fraud and tax evasion, Cameroon hopes to reinforce investor confidence and improve its international visibility.

Despite the difficulties Cameroon has prying financial information from offshore oil and mining operations, the state continues to uphold Article 105 of the petroleum code, which keeps all oil, gas and mining contracts confidential. International groups have tried, without success, to convince Cameroonian authorities that these contracts must be transparent–published and made available to the public–in order to guarantee accountability.

The state-owned oil company, the Societé Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), which represents the state in all oil and gas contracts, including the Ndogpassi concession, is itself an illustration of government opacity. The public corporation, whose board chairman is also secretary general for President Biya, does not publish statistics in open data format, according to international governance auditors. They’ve also complained that statistics submitted by SNH are not accompanied by narrative reports on the activities and regulation of the industry.

In addition to reports coming from the state oil and gas Company, Biya’s own legal advisor, Jean Fouman Akame, is on the Ndogpassi management committee. During an official visit to the gas facility in April 2015, Akame stated that he was satisfied with the project’s management.

The public treasury does not share this satisfaction.

On March 10, 2017, Adolphe Moudiki, Director General of SNH, sent a notice of termination of the concession contract to GDC.

In the notice, Moudiki says GDC has failed to share monthly income proportional to production, or pay concession and exploration fees or training costs totaling nearly $800,000.

In addition, the Director General of the SNH reproached GDC for not signing the agreement of participation of the State, not holding meetings with the government prescribed by the contract, and violating government rules on oil and gas exploitation. The government claims the company has changed the concession contract without notice, has sold natural gas to customers without permission or without government agreement on prices. All this has denied the government a due share of the plant’s revenue, he wrote.

A new deal?

The accusations come just as GDC applied for a license to operate a new gas block, and announced a planned, major expansion of operations in Cameroon. The government said the company first needs to settle accounts on the Ndogpassi project, and submit to an audit, as spelled out in its concession contract.

Several government inspection missions to the gas facility have turned up other possible violations, the government said, such as not having a doctor for workers, an evacuation plan, or plans to deal with accidents.

As for the youths who took to the streets to demand work at the gas facility, they were detained by police for a few days. Now out, they vow to continue their protests until GDC offers them permanent jobs.

Chief Tebu, watching the sun sink below the horizon beyond the plant, despaired. “What are we going to do” about this plant?” he murmured.

By Christian Locka

Source: 100Reporters

Published with permission

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Thursday, said Government has recruited 3,000 unemployed persons under the Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship Programme for skill training.

He said the programme was launched at the Accra Digital Centre by Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, the Senior Minister on Thursday, February 8, with the beneficiaries undergoing a three-month training with government bearing all the expenses of training.
    
President Akufo-Addo, who made this known when he delivered the State of the Nation Address to Parliament in Accra, said the programme would be undertaken at 10 regional training centres.
    
He said ECOBANK had offered to engage all the 3,000 persons after the training.
    
President Akufo-Addo said the government was creating the necessary foundation for the creation of jobs because it was the most urgent challenge facing the government and the nation.
    
He said job creation had been at the top of his agenda and was determined to guarantee the future of the young men and women of the country.
    
The President said it had put structures in place to support small and medium scale enterprises and budding entrepreneurs through the challenging start-up years for better prospect of jobs.
   
“The number of young men and women, who cannot find jobs is staggering and a threat to our national security,” he noted.
    
In that regard, he said, every major policy the government had implemented in the past year had been essentially about the youth and would continue to equip the youth with the skills to enable them to be productive.
    
The President said he had established the “Nation’s Builders Corps” to employ 100,000 youth this year, to assist in public sector delivery in the areas of health, education, agriculture, sanitation, and revenue collection.
    
He said key stakeholders had held series of meetings on that policy and modules had been designed in each of the designated areas, adding that, details of the programme are being fine-tuned and would take off next month.
    
Touching on the labour front, he said government had transferred GH¢3.1 billion to the Tier Two Pension Funds into the custodian accounts of the pension schemes of the labour unions to guarantee industrial peace.
    
The State of the Nation Address is in compliance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, which required the President of the Nation to deliver the address at the beginning of Parliament annually.

Source: GNA

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Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) is in talks with a syndicate of banks to restructure its $20.5 million debt to be payable in five years, Nana Agyenim Boateng, the Managing Director, said on Tuesday.

The Company is also in discussions with Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and the Cocoa Marketing Company to convert the outstanding debt on cocoa beans into equity to improve debt to equity ratio and to foster investment confidence.

Already, agreement had been reached with COCOBOD to cap CPC’s medium term loan of $32.022 million at an interest rate of 1.5 per cent annually and payable in 10 years.
   
Speaking at the Facts behind the Figures Programme on the Ghana Stock Exchange, Mr Boateng said the Company’s inability to pay the loans on schedule had resulted in astronomical increases in its financing costs.
   
However, he said, management of CPC had been careful not to add to its indebtedness to COCOBOD for cocoa beans deliveries over the past five years.
   
COCOBOD, in 2005, converted $15.78 million of its old debt into equity and in 2008 a further $32.022 million of debt into long term loan at an annual interest rate of five per cent.
   
Mr Boateng said because of CPC’s dire situation, the Company was compelled to enter a three-year tolling arrangement with Touton to process 25,000 metric tonnes of beans annually.
   
The agreement with Touton will end in June 2020.
   
Mr Boateng said although the CPC had a total capacity of 64,500 tonnes, the audit of the machines of the factories gave a performance assessment of 70 to 80 per cent.
   
In this direction, he said, the Company would solicit for some working capital to boost operations and revenue earnings through a retooling and replacement of some machinery parts to enable the Company to operate at a 74.4 per cent capacity, equivalent to 48,000 tonnes.
   
He said management was negotiating with banks for financing support to enable CPC to procure 23,000 tonnes of cocoa beans from Cocoa Marketing Company for every season.
   
Under the arrangement the financial institution will pay for the cocoa beans supplied to CPC and delivered into a designated warehouse.
   
Going forward, Mr Boateng said, the Company would seek innovative ways such as improve visibility of its products to increase local consumption and designation of the confectionery factory as a fully-fledged subsidiary, among other things, to expand its revenue earning base while reducing the cost of operation.

Source: GNA

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The Audit Service has rejected a total of GH¢5.479 billion out of the liabilities of GH¢11.279 billion submitted by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to the Finance Ministry for payment. He is also asking the Attorney-General to empower his office to be able to prosecute offenders.

This was based on comparison of figures captured by the Audit Service at the various MDAs, which were backed by documents, compared to the high figures submitted by the same MDAs as their liabilities to the Finance Ministry. 

The basis of the rejection of the amount was due to the absence of relevant documentations such as warrants, contracts documents, invoices, procurements records, Stored Received Advices, among other considerations.

Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor-General, who made this known at a press conference in Accra on Monday, urged “anyone aggrieved by the disallowance to appeal to the High Court”.

“I must say that we are very happy that we did the audit because the amount rejected was not near the one per cent I thought, not even 10 per cent but close to 50 per cent,” he stated.

He said any payment made without following the due process prescribed under Article 187 (9) of the 1992 Constitution may lead to surcharge of any person who authorised or made the payment or the one who received the payment.

The Report of the Auditor-General on the liabilities of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), which covered January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, has been presented to the Speaker of Parliament and would later be tabled before the House.

The audit was conducted in accordance with the Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000, (Act 584) with the aim of making recommendation for the payment of certified claims of the MDAs.

The Report covered areas such as the determination of the veracity of the outstanding expenditures and commitment of the MDAs, which were submitted to the Ministry of Finance and to ascertain whether government received value for money on works completed or work in progress.

The 2017 budget hearings disclosed that there existed within MDAs, outstanding commitment by government for payment running into billions of Ghana cedis.

The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in April last year, alleged that, outstanding government liabilities incurred by the previous government amounted to some GHC 7 Billion.

Mr Domelevo said in view of that, the Service validated all claims submitted by the MDAs, examining in particular, warrants, contracts documents, invoices, procurement records, Stores Received Advices and  other relevant documents supporting  the liabilities as well as the bank statements of the MDAs to ensure that liabilities  have not been paid.

To control Government expenditure and minimise the risk of wrongful payments, the Auditor-General advised the MDAs to maintain proper records of all payments made to suppliers, contractors and anyone, who had rendered services to the State.

Mr Domelevo proposed an amendment of the Internal Audit Act 2000, to ensure that internal auditors in the public service become staff of the Internal Audit Agency.

This would ensure their independence from Principal Spending Officers so that internal audit is done in accordance with acceptable standards.

He recommended that the necessary disciplinary actions, including criminal prosecution, are taken against public officers who presented fraudulent and unsubstantiated claims to the Ministry of Finance for payment.

The Auditor-General said henceforth, the Service would disallow and surcharge officials who commit Government outside the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), as required by the Section 25 (6) of the Public Financial Management Act of 2016.

He commended the media for the interest it had shown in the audit report, saying; ‘‘I said to my colleagues that if Ghanaians don’t take us serious after this assignment, we won’t do it anymore, but today I can see that we have increased our resolve to do more.’’ 

Source: GNA

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Commercial airlines operating around the world have made an estimated net profit of $34.5 billion as global passenger traffic results show demand for air travel has risen.

In 2016 the industry made net profit of $35.3 billion and $38.4 billion is forecast for 2018.

While African airlines made net profit of $8.2 billion in 2016, profits dropped to $3.3 billion in 2017, and profitability forecast for 2018 is at $7.5 billion.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that global passenger traffic results for 2017 shows that demand for the year ended December 31, 2017 rose 7.6 per cent compared to 2016.

The Association indicates that the figure was well above the 10-year average annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent.

“While the rate of demand growth slowed to 6.2 per cent in December 2017, compared to December 2016, this largely was owing to less favorable comparisons to the even stronger growth trend seen in the year-ago period. Full year 2017 capacity rose 6.3 per cent, and load factor climbed 0.9 percentage point to a record calendar-year high of 81.4 per cent,” it says.

It indicates further that in 2017 international passenger traffic soared 7.9 per cent compared to 2016. Capacity rose 6.4 per cent and load factor climbed 1.1 percentage points to 80.6 per cent. All regions recorded year-over-year increases in demand, led by the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, it adds.

“2017 got off to a very strong start and largely stayed that way throughout the year, sustained by a broad-based pick-up in economic conditions. While the underlying economic outlook remains supportive in 2018, rising cost inputs, most notably fuel, suggest we are unlikely to see the same degree of demand stimulation from lower fares that occurred in the first part of 2017,” Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO was quoted as saying.

African airlines had 7.5 per cent traffic growth in 2017 compared to 2016. Capacity also rose at less than half the rate of demand, which is 3.6 per cent, and load factor jumped 2.5 percentage points to 70.3 per cent. While indicators in South Africa are consistent with falling economic output, Nigeria has returned to growth, helped by the recent rise in oil prices, IATA says.

According to IATA, while European carriers’ international traffic climbed 8.2 per cent in 2017 compared to the previous year, underpinned by buoyant economic conditions in the region, and capacity rose 6.1 per cent and load factor surged 1.6 percentage points to 84.4 per cent, which was the highest for any region, North American airlines had their fastest demand growth since 2011, with full year traffic rising 4.8 per cent compared to 2016. Capacity climbed 4.5 per cent, and load factor edged up 0.3 percentage point to 81.7 per cent.

The report notes that the comparatively robust economic backdrop supported outbound passenger demand.

“This was somewhat offset by a slowdown in inbound travel partly attributable to the new immigration and security restrictions put in place for travel to the US, as well as the extreme weather events that hit the US later in the year,” it says.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
Copyright ©2018 by Creative Imaginations Publicity
All rights reserved. This news item, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in reviews.

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Africa cannot depend on others to finance education on the continent, when it has the wherewithal to do so, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.

He said Africa has the resources and capacity to finance access to quality education of its citizens, and also promote the interests of the continent. 

“If we make our policy dependent on other people, when their policy changes, we will suffer. But, if we make the policy for ourselves, then it means that, at all times, we will be in control of our own destiny.”

President Akufo-Addo said this at the Third International Global Partnership for Education Conference in Dakar, Senegal.

The President attended the conference, which seeks to galvanise funds for education in developing nations, at the behest of the Senegalese President Macky Sall and French leader Emmanuel Macron. 

Both countries co-hosted the event.

President Akufo-Addo noted that even though Africa has enough resources to fund its development, there ought to be the elimination of corruption in public life, better arrangements for resource exploitation and the prevention of capital flight from the continent.

“Thabo Mbeki’s Commission that looked at the illicit flows of capital out of Africa, has estimated that for every year, in the last ten years, $50 billion goes out of Africa through illicit means. Can you imagine what those monies, if we had our eyes open, and we were not complicit in that illicit outflow, would mean for the capacity of our nations?” He asked.

The President stated that the challenge confronting Africa was “how we can organise ourselves to make sure that the wealth, the huge wealth of this great continent, at least, in the first time in modern history, is used on behalf of the peoples of the continent, and not those outside.” 

He was confident that “if we are able to close that gap, we will come here to Dakar to talk about education, and not the funding of education by others. We will be talking about the quality of our education, the changes we need to make to our curricula, and the emphasis we have to place on our history and sociology.

“So that, I am not misunderstood, all those who have been making the pledges, it is all good. But, I think it is extremely important for us to get our whole mindset right. We have within us the capacity to develop and promote the interest of our continent ourselves. Let’s do it.”           

President Akufo-Addo said it was ironic that Africa has the youngest population, and the richest continent on the planet, but has the worst living conditions, which he indicated could only be broken by education.

“We are going to have to make sure that every young child, boy and girl, has access to education. Not only do they have access to education, but they have access to an education that will allow them to be able to address the challenges of the 21st century.” 

President Akufo-Addo told the Conference that Ghana was determined to open opportunities for everybody. 

“So, in the last five years, before my government came, every year, over 100,000 young Ghanaian students were unable to transition from Junior High School to Senior High School, largely because of money. Many of them fully qualified, but their parents were unable to support their higher education. 

“We felt that at this stage in the history of our country, the Ghanaian State should take on that responsibility. So, as from September past, Senior High School education in the public school system has been made free,” he said.

“What it has done is that the figures have reversed. 90,000 more students entered senior school this year than the year before. It is the first step in ensuring that the educational system in our country, from kindergarten through primary to secondary, and ultimately through University, are open for everybody.”

The President opined that quality education, with greater focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics would prepare the young population of Africa for life in the 21st century and guarantee the future of the continent. 

“We have seen that in the development of the economies of Asia, in China, India, Japan, and Korea. That is the way forward, to be able to make the transition from poor to prosperity,” the President added.

Source: GNA

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Institutional investors with several trillions of dollars worth of assets under their management now want much more information about companies’ boards and business strategy.

A new survey by Morrow Sodali, which is the third in the series says institutional investors managing assets worth $31 trillion want companies to give more detailed disclosure about their board of directors, business strategies, environment, social and governance (ESG) practices.

Morrow Sodali says, the annual Institutional Investor Survey released Saturday February 3, 2018 highlights three areas of concern for investors looking ahead to the 2018 annual meeting season;

It indicates the need for clear articulation of a company’s business strategy and goals; Directors’ skills, qualifications, experience and individual contribution to the effectiveness of the board; and a detailed business rationale for board decisions and their alignment with strategy and financial performance.

The 49 global institutional investors who responded to the survey also indicated that they will prioritize directors’ skills ahead of gender or ethnic diversity. Unjustified pay will come under intense scrutiny and investor collaboration around broader Annual Shareholder Meeting topics will increase exponentially.

They will be increasingly likely to support a credible activist story and will demand that ESG issues are either fully integrated or progressing towards full integration with investment decision-making, and they will seek enhanced disclosure around materiality and sustainable metrics linked to long-term business strategy.

Morrow Sodali describes itself as a global consultancy providing comprehensive governance and shareholder services to corporate clients around the world.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

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