ALSCON: RUSAL wants $502m compensation

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Read Time:4 Minute, 44 Second

By EMMA UJAH, Abuja Bureau Chief

RUSAL, the Russian company which bought the controlling shares of the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, Ikot-Abasri, Akwa-Ibom State, has demanded $502 million (about $78.8 billion) compensation for it to quit the nation’s only aluminum manufacturing company, in line with the Supreme Court order.

A top source at the Presidency told Vanguard that the Russians made the demand as an alternative to their holding on to ALSCON.

The Supreme Court had ruled that the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, gives ALSCON to BFI Group, an American-registered company promoted by a Nigerian, Dr. Reuben Jaja and his team, which originally won the privatisation bid with an offer to pay $410 million for 77. 5 per cent of ALSCON shares in 2004.

RUSAL was disqualified by the BPE from the financial bid process after submitting a conditional bid, in contravention of the bidding guidelines. It eventually, offered $250 million out of which it proposed to pay only $130 million to government and use the balance to dredge the Imo River and other facilities.

The technical committee of the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, then under the Chairmanship of Mr. Akin-Kekere Ekun, disqualified RUSAL at the financial bid opening on June 14, 2004, over its conditional bid.

Angered by the decision of the government of Chief Olusegun Obsanjo to give ALSCON to RUSAL, the original winners of the bid, BFI Group dragged BPE to court to stop the transaction with RUSAL but lost.

Ever since, the Jaja group continued in the legal battle both in Nigeria and the United States where it has its headquarters until it finally got justice at the Nigerian Supreme Court in July, last year.

RUSAL ignores order

As learnt, RUSAL claimed it ignored the Supreme Court judgment on the company’s ownership because it legally owned the multi-billion naira firm but that it was prepared for settlement if properly compensated.

RUSAL’s spokesman and Director of Public and Government Relations, Mr. Albert Dyabin, had told a press conference in Abuja, recently, “RUSAL wishes to confirm that RUSAL is the legal owner of ALSCON. RUSAL’s legal ownership of the plant has not been affected by any litigation.

“No member of the RUSAL group is or has been a respondent in any case affecting the ownership of ALSCON. RUSAL is, however, fully prepared to defend its rights to the smelter, including in legal proceedings.”

RUSAL has dragged the Federal Government before the International Court of Arbitration in London over what the Russians considered a breach of contract over the ALSCON transaction.

The Russians are at the Arbitration Court where they are seeking an order prohibiting the Federal Government from executing the decision of the Supreme Court to its detriment and, alternatively, granting damages in the event that RUSAL should suffer a loss to its ownership of the stake in ALSCON.

Sources revealed that officials of the Ministry of Justice have been briefed on how best to handle the negotiations that may arise from the current development.

However, it was learnt that the $502 million compensation demand by RUSAL was outrageous considering the fact that they have consistently run down the value of ALSCON.

Crashed value

ALSCON was valued at about N129 billion in 2006 but RUSAL was alleged to have brought in a Russian audit firm, ZOA Deloitte and Touche CIS, Moscow which crashed the company’s value to a mere N30.976 billion (about $240 million) the following year, 2007.

The deficit arising on the revaluation was taken to profit and loss account for that year while the surplus was credited to the fixed assets revaluation reserve.

ALSCON’s financial statement indicates that in 2008 the value of the company fell to N25.185 billion; in 2009 it fell to N19.351 billion; in 2010, it went further down to N14.848 billion and by 2011 it came to N14.574 billion.  RUSAL claimed to have invested about N24.54 billion (about $ 160 million) in ALSCON since it took over in February 2007.

BFIG battle

At a point, the original preferred bidder in the privatisation process, BFI Group of America, insisted that BPE fraudulently sold the company to RUSAL against its own rules and alleged that the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo had predetermined to sell ALSCON to RUSAL and that it only used the American firm to create a semblance of a genuine privatisation process.

According to the California-based organisation, “RUSAL failed to provide a required $1 million bid bond, thereby failing to comply with government rules for participating in the ALSCON bid process, yet RUSAL was still allowed to bid.

“BFI Group fully complied with the government’s strict bid bond requirements as a contractual precondition for bidding and on national television officially requested a certificate of RUSAL’s compliance. The government denied BFI Group’s repeated requests in this regard. No complying RUSAL bid bond was produced because none exists.

“The government in public announcements steadfastly and overwhelmingly favoured RUSAL despite its non-compliance with bid rules and inferior conditional bid terms, while BFI Group bid unconditionally in accordance with the bidding rules of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“RUSAL has been consistently favoured by the government over many months, having submitted a conditional bid price of just $5 million with an additional $200 million to be paid over 20 years or by 2025, while BFI Group was coerced by the government to bid against itself to increase its initial bid from $280 million to $410 million.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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India, Nigeria trained doctors top UK blacklist

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Read Time:1 Minute, 16 Second

These are not good times for Nigerian doctors in the United Kingdom as Nigeria ranks second on the list of the doctors struck off the General Medical Council, GMC, register in the United Kingdom. This could have an effect on Nigeria–trained doctors who want to practise in the United Kingdom.

A recent statistics released by the United Kingdom General Medical Council on doctors showed those it has struck off its list.

The figures released under the Freedom of Information Request by Daily Mail UK, showed that three-quarters of the doctors struck off the General Medical Council, GMC, register in the past five years were foreign-trained with India-trained doctors topping the list of foreign-trained doctors of the GMC register in the past five years.

Nigeria-trained doctors ranked second. Egypt trained- doctors  came third on the list.

The figures show that in UK, 194 of the 285 doctors struck off for misconduct or incompetence in the past five years were foreign-trained, while 29 of the 39 removed from the medical register in the past year received their medical degree overseas. This data focuses on the number of doctors struck off in Britain since 2008.

On the reverse side, doctors from countries like Hong Kong and New Zealand have clean records. Hong Kong has the best record, with none of more than 700 doctors working in the UK struck off or disciplined in the past five years while New Zealand’s 600 medics also have a clean record.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Ogun civil defence arrests two armed pipeline vandals

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Read Time:1 Minute, 37 Second

The Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Wednesday said it had arrested two suspected pipeline vandals.

The two suspects – Hammed Soyele (35), and Sakiru Emida (55) – were arrested at Ajede Road, in Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state, a statement by the command’s Public Relations Officer, Kareem Olanrewaju, said.

The corps said the two suspects were “operating with guns alongside others now at large.”

Items recovered from them are, “two Dane guns, 325 litres of petrol loaded in a car, 25 50-litre empty kegs, an unregistered motorcycle, one Hyundai car with number plate Lagos-AS 745 SMK, and a pumping machine used for pumping fuel in to containers,”

The statement added, “The surveillance team deployed in the place by state Commandant, Aboluwaye Akinwande, to monitor the activities of vandals relayed the information, but the suspects took off before the arrival of our combat team.

“However, luck ran out on them when they were sighted by another surveillance team on routine patrol. The suspects were pursued and one of them was arrested at gun point on Ajede Road, Ogbere. In the course of our investigations, it was discovered that the suspects were members of a gang.

“Our investigators arrested the other suspect, Emida, at the gang’s Ola Oluwa camp site near the NNPC pipeline.”

The NSCDC spokesman said Soyele had confessed to committing the crime.

Soyele, according to the NSCDC spokesman, said, “I have been in the business for long and I do work with others, including Sakiru. We had had many operations in the past.’

The statement added that NSCDC was poised to “deal ruthlessly” with vandals.

Akinwande, it said, had charged the corps divisional officers to effectively monitor the areas under their jurisdiction to ensure that they were free from the threats posed by vandals.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Pastor accused of raping 12-year-old girl

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Read Time:3 Minute, 48 Second

A pastor, Alasco Sobowale, has been accused of raping a 12-year-old girl (name withheld) in Epe, Lagos State. The pastor was said to have allegedly had carnal knowledge of the girl at their home located at 10, Togodo Street, Temu Town.

The victim’s aunt, Mrs. Ngozi Anjorin, told PUNCH Metro that the incident occurred on December 15, 2012.

Anjorin said the victim only spoke Igbo Language and had recently arrived Lagos from Imo State.

She said Sobowale, who also speaks Igbo, allegedly lured her niece to the toilet around 9pm and had sex with her.

She said, “My niece was sent to Lagos about two weeks before the incident so I could send her to school because she doesn’t speak English Language. She only speaks Igbo and only I and the pastor, who is our neighbour, speak Igbo.

“On that particular night, my children were in the room watching television but I couldn’t find my niece. I kept on shouting her name but I got no answer. I then proceeded to the toilet which is detached from the building. I knocked on the door of the toilet and the pastor immediately ran out and I saw her inside the toilet.

“When I inquired of her what she was doing inside the toilet with the pastor, she said he lured her into the toilet and covered her mouth with his palm so she wouldn’t scream. She said the pastor brought out his penis and forced it into her anus. She said he also put his penis in her vagina and when she discharged a particular fluid, he used a handkerchief to scoop it.”

Anjorin said Sobowale, who lives with his wife and children in the same compound, fled after the incident.

Anjorin said two days later, she reported the matter to the Epe Police Division and the policemen began to look for him.

It was learnt that two days later, the police were able to arrest him.

Residents told our correspondent that after Sobowale’s arrest, some of his church members accused a six-year-old girl of bewitching the pastor and had her flogged and paraded.

A source, who craved anonymity, said, “Sobowale is not actually the head pastor. His wife is the senior pastor of the church known as Okiki Imole. A few days after the incident, a six-year-old girl was branded a witch and accused of manipulating the pastor to commit the dastardly act.

“The poor girl was beaten up and paraded round the town. They said when the pastor was conducting deliverance for her; her spirit took over his body.”

Anjorin said the alleged rape victim was rushed down to Epe General Hospital where tests were conducted on her.

A copy of the doctor’s report made available to PUNCH Metro, stated that the victim’s “vaginal hymen is no longer intact and bruises were observed in the anal region.”

The report further stated that there was sperm residue in the victim’s private part and it was concluded that she had been sexually assaulted.

A doctor, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said because Sobowale had not provided his sperm sample, it was impossible to ascertain if it was his own sperm that was found in the victim’s private part.

PUNCH metro learnt that Sobowale was released a few days later and charges against him dropped.

Anjorin however protested the development, adding it was not safe for her niece to live in the same compound with Sobowale.

A neighbour, who craved anonymity, said it was the habit of policemen in the area to cover up such crimes.

 â€œWhenever a crime of this nature occurs, the police would ask the suspect to offset the victim’s hospital bill and then grant the suspect bail. It is very common in areas like Epe because it is not situated in the metropolis,” he said.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, confirmed that the girl was raped.

Braide said the police had not taken sides, adding that the pastor was released on bail because courts were not in session.

“The pastor is in charge of a white garment church in the area. He will be charged with sodomy. He was released on bail because courts are not sitting but once courts resume, he will be charged,” she said.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Police ban PDP congresses in Yola

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Read Time:57 Second

FIVE persons including two women yesterday sustained serious  injuries in an auto-crash in Akure metropolis.

The crash which occurred at about 11 30a.m. yesterday on Lafe Junction area on the popular Oyemekun/Adesida.

Eyewitness account said it involved a Nisan Sunny commercial cab marked ONDO XB 800 KTP, which reportedly lost control while on top speed and ram into a mini truck packed by the side of the road.

The truck belonging to Furniture Company marked ONDO XA 747 WWW was packed off the road only for the taxi to ram into it.

Reports said that the severity of the impact pushed the truck over the kerb used to demarcate the pedestrian walkways from the main road and over the drainage channel.

Those injured including the driver and a woman that sat in the front of the car were rushed by sympathizers to the State Specialist Hospital while three others at the back including another woman were rushed to private hospitals.

Men of the Motor Traffic Division of the Akure Area Command of the Ondo State Police Command have towed the wrecked commercial cab off the road.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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60 die in Côte d’Ivoire stampede

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Read Time:2 Minute, 33 Second

At least 60 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in a crush during new year festivities in Côte d’Ivoire’s main city, Abidjan, officials said.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday as people were heading home from a fireworks display at a stadium in the city’s Plateau district.

Most of the dead are believed to be children aged between eight and 15.

Details of what caused the stampede are unclear, but the government has pledged to investigate the tragedy.

The death toll is expected to rise.

The crush happened after the fireworks ended in the 65,000-capacity Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium at about 02:00 local time.

“During the fireworks everything was proceeding normally,” Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said. “At the end of it people wanted to go home, back to their home districts.

“Near the Hotel Tiama and the Houphouet-Boigny stadium there was a stampede. We were notified of injuries and deaths, and as regards casualties, we learnt that there was a heavy toll. The circumstances surrounding the incident will form the subject of an investigation.”

Reports vary as to what caused the crush.

According to some reports, thousands of people were trying to leave the festivities at the same time as another large crowd was arriving, the BBC West Africa correspondent reports.

But one of the wounded told Reuters that the arrival of the security forces had triggered a panic which resulted in a stampede.

“The great mass of people caused a very large stampede which caused 60 deaths, more than 200 people were injured,” Lt Col Issa Sako, head of the military rescue effort, told reporters.

“In the stampede, some people were trampled and suffocated by the crowd.”

At least two hospitals in the city have received the wounded, some reportedly with life-threatening injuries.

President Alassane Ouattara has visited some of the wounded in hospital and promised that the costs of their medical treatment will be covered by the government.

The governor of Abidjan, Robert Beugré Mambe, said he had also visited the wounded and the families of those who had lost loved ones. “We bow our heads respectfully before the memory of all those who died,” he said.

The site of the crush was littered with abandoned clothes and blood stains as light dawned.

Relatives went to the scene to get news of missing loved ones.

The distraught mother of a nine-year-old boy told local media: “I have just seen all those bodies, but I can’t find my son.”

The Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium was named after the founding president of Cote d’Ivoire.

The fireworks event had been organised to celebrate the peace recently re-established after a period of unrest triggered by former President Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to recognise Ouattara’s victory in 2010 elections.

The night before the tragedy, the stadium hosted a concert by US performer Chris Brown.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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‘Korean unification may cost South 7% of GDP’

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Read Time:1 Minute, 51 Second

Unification of the two Koreas could cost the South up to seven per cent of annual Gross Domestic Product for a decade though the South would benefit in various ways such as cheap labour and the North’s resources, South Korea’s Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, Korea has been divided since the end of World War Two and the Stalinist North and capitalist South have been fierce rivals since the 1950-53 Korean war.

But both Koreas see themselves as the rightful leaders of the Korean people and while there would appear to be no chance of unification in the immediate future, people in both Koreas harbor that hope.

The Finance Ministry said in a report on mid- to long-term policy-making strategy that if the two Koreas unified within the next eight years, South Korea would likely pay from one to seven per cent of its annual GDP every year for 10 years.

“Unification will contribute to the expansion of the economy’s potential growth through increased labor, investments, production and economic cooperation,” the ministry said in the report.

Seven percent of South Korea’s GDP last year of 1,237 trillion Korean won ($1.15tn) would be 86.6 trillion won ($80.62bn).

The estimates reflect the costs as seen in the short-term, or until 2020.

Though relations between the North, which has twice tested a nuclear device, and the South have been particularly bad over the past few years, they could soon improve.

South Korea’s conservative president-elect, Park Geun-hye, has said she could hold talks with North Korean Kim Jong-un but she wants the South’s isolated and impoverished neighbor to give up its nuclear weapons program as a precondition for aid, something the North has refused to do.

The South Korean government has yet to release a formal estimate for the cost of unification. The Finance Ministry’s estimate was based on projections by research institutions.

However, research outsourced by the Unification Ministry in 2011 estimated it would cost South Korea a total of 371.5 trillion won to 1,253.5 trillion won if unification occurred by 2020.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria President Likens Nation’s Unrest to Syria

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Read Time:2 Minute, 45 Second

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has likened attacks by a radical Islamist sect in his West African nation to the ongoing civil war in Syria, an unlikely acknowledgment from the seat of power about the violent unrest gripping the country.

Jonathan’s comments Sunday are widely viewed here as hyperbole because the estimated 45,000 people killed in the Syrian uprising is far more than those killed by Nigeria’s extremist sect. But Jonathan’s remarks offer a glimpse into the worried leader’s mind as his weak government remains unable to stop attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. Though government and security officials have sought to downplay the sect’s guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings, the group is blamed for killing at least 792 people in 2012 alone, according to an Associated Press count, the worst year of violence yet.

And with Jonathan also referencing the apocalypse before parishioners at a church in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, it offers a bleak assessment of Nigeria heading into the New Year.

“We have challenges, no doubt, especially the recent terrorist attacks on all of us and the church is one of the main targets,” Jonathan said. When the preacher “was making reference to the bombings … I was just wondering, could this be a clear way of telling us that the end times are so close?”

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, continues to attack civilians and government forces at will, despite a heavy presence of soldiers and police officers there. The sect wants the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people to enact strict Shariah law and release its imprisoned members. It also has loose connections with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Somalia’s al-Shabab, according to Western military officials and diplomats.

Just in the last few days, gunmen suspected to belong to Boko Haram attacked a village in Nigeria’s arid northeast, rounding up men, women and children and killing at least 15 by cutting their throats.

Speaking Sunday before an EYN church in Abuja, Jonathan acknowledged the sect killed people this holiday, but said his government had stopped the group from committing more killings.

However, his speech offered stark comparisons to the situation in his country, comparing it to Syria and the Central African Republic, which now faces rebel attacks that threaten the nation’s stability.

The CAR rebels “were quite close to taking over the capital city just as Boko Haram is taking over Abuja (and wanting) for me and those working in government to run and hide somewhere else,” Jonathan said. “Let me agree with you that we have challenges. … No part of the country is free.”

This isn’t the first time Jonathan, who sometimes fumbles through public speeches, has made dire pronouncements about security in Nigeria. On Jan. 8, 2012, speaking before another church service, Jonathan said the threat of Boko Haram was worse than the nation’s 1960s civil war, which killed 1 million people. The president also suggested Boko Haram had infiltrated the government and the nation’s security forces.

“Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won’t even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house,” Jonathan said at the time.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Abidjan: Chris Brown at ‘African Grammys’ with Rihanna

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Read Time:1 Minute, 47 Second

Abidjan – US rapper Chris Brown arrived with singer Rihanna in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan on Sunday, where he was due to perform at an African music awards show.

Brown was billed as the star attraction at the glitzy Kora Awards, dubbed the “African Grammys”, that recognise musical achievements from around the continent.

The event was initially set to take place on Saturday, but was delayed at the last minute. Organiser Ernest Adjovi initially blamed the delay on Brown missing his flight, but later said heavy rains and other logistical hiccups were behind the postponement.

R&B star Brown landed overnight in Abidjan, the Ivorian economic capital. Rihanna, who hails from Barbados, was by his side, wearing dark glasses.

The pair have a tumultuous history, and celebrity watchers obsessed about whether they are an item again after Brown admitted assaulting Rihanna in a case dating back to the 2009 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Past Kora ceremonies have been attended by Nelson Mandela and the late “King of Pop” Michael Jackson.

Brown, whom fans call Breezy, was also slotted to perform at a “Peace for Africa” concert at a stadium in Abidjan on Sunday afternoon.

Artists including the Nigerian duo P-Square, winner of the last top Kora prize in Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou in 2010, will also take part in that event.

The Kora Awards were due to start at 20:30 GMT at a luxury hotel.

For Ivory Coast, which is still recovering from four months of post-election violence that ended in April 2011 after claiming some 3 000 lives, the event signals a return to normalcy.

But the awards have drawn fire over the price of admission, with tickets costing one million CFA francs for a seat in the luxury hotel for the ceremony.

Such a sum is far from the reach of this poor west African country, the world’s top cocoa producer.

Brown was sentenced to five years probation, a year-long domestic violence programme and 180 days of community labour after pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2009.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Ghana: Overcoming Corruption in Ghana – A New Dimension Towards a Model

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Read Time:10 Minute, 20 Second

As the year 2012 draws to a close, it is germane to reflect once more on our lives in order to plan ahead for the year 2013. This article is the final in the series of four articles on corruption. In this last one, as in the second, I wish to propose a model which I have dubbed the OPENS model. O stands for Organizational, P for Political, E for Economic, N for Natural resources and S for Socio-cultural factors. We can therefore safely state that corruption emanates from these five broad sources in all the countries of the world.

Organizational corruption is associated with bureaucracy, red tape and officialdom. It is a systems or structural corruption which manifests itself in the way an organization is structured, or the way it operates. This organizational corruption may also be linked to the culture of the organization. The internal or immediate micro environment of the organization may determine whether corruption exists or not. This may be a stable or competitive and turbulent environment. In most rigid and tall organizational structures in stable and less changing environments, with many levels of hierarchy, decision making is slow as many conservative procedures have to be followed, such as excessive form filling and having to produce many documents. Of importance, also are internal controls and effective risk management measures which are in place.

Organizations operating in stable and uncompetitive environments in LDCs tend to be corrupt, such as the civil service, the police, the judiciary, tax and revenue offices, local government, licensing offices, public educational institutions, and public health institutions in Ghana. The degree of freedom or decision making latitude or centralization/decentralization will also determine whether or not corruption exists. If the organization is highly centralized, it gives room for corruption. If it is also highly decentralized, there is crisis of control and lack of standardization, giving rise to petty and localized corruption. Therefore, the ideal structure is a middle way of some centralization of critical functions, and some decentralization of less critical functions. Dysfunction and atrophy, in organizations which do not undergo change, can cause corruption. This is why we need more of mixed economies and Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

Organizations which substitute technology for labour, and which tend to ignore people skills and 360º communication, may also experience heavy doses of corruption.

Political corruption becomes prevalent where too much power is concentrated in the hands of the ruling elite, where election results are manipulated and it is a foregone conclusion, where multiparty democracy is endangered, because minority political parties are crowded out of political space, and the NGOs are crippled, muzzled and given no political space. Fortunately for Ghana, our democracy is burgeoning, as there is political space for opposition political parties, and we have a lot of checks and balances in place, among the arms of government, namely the executive, legislature and judiciary.

It seems our judiciary is not doing very well in Ghana because of organizational capture and paralysis. This is because the judicial procedures are long, convoluted and obscure. Oversight in the judiciary is weak as members of the bar and bench, manipulate the system to gain personal pecuniary advantages by invoking legal technicalities. This is where we need a radical shake-up of the judiciary by the Legislature and Executive, despite their independence. We need to strengthen the gatekeeping functions. Judges and magistrates delay cases unnecessarily in order to continue exploiting clients financially. They forget the axiom of justice delayed is justice denied.

Even though judicial independence is cherished, I think the Executive and Legislature in Ghana have to move in to stop the rot in the judiciary by using their checks and balances. Political corruption can also be stopped in its tracks by considering the funding for the political parties. Politicians have to declare their assets prior to taking office, and after leaving office. We need more entrenched separation of powers.

Economic genesis of corruption results from lack of state intervention or state failure, whereby the state is supposed to support the unemployed and the vulnerable, such as widows, the disabled, dependants, students and old people. The state should create a lot of job openings for graduates, and consider providing transfer payments to students, the old and invalids. Government has to consider using revenues from taxes and exports to subsidize education, health, pensions and agriculture to help close the wide income gap and help redistribute income to ensure equity. Economic corruption arises whereby many people are unemployed, and the few employed people have to cater for large numbers of dependants at home. Furthermore, salaries and wages in Ghana are too low, such that workers become corrupt so as to top up their meager incomes. It is said that demand for higher wages should be backed by increases in productivity and profitability.

Employers pay according to their ability to pay and their cost structure, as well as industry standards and government guidelines. However, employers should consider paying a living wage, and not salvation or mere subsistence wages. If they do so, they create room for workers to engage in corruption. The Ghana government has tried in the past one year to streamline salaries through the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), but many critics and onlookers have given a lowdown of the program as an exercise in futility, and perhaps a political gimmick. It is important that our leaders look again into salary or wage structures in Ghana to bring them in line with international market standards. This calls for genuine political will on the part of our political leaders.

That will also stop the brain drain and encourage many skilled Ghanaians in the Diaspora to troop back home. In the past year, Ghana has been rocked by mighty and gargantuan political scandals, such as the judgment debts, STXgate, Woyomegate, Isofotongate, among others. These gargantuan judgment debts have been linked to political machinations and they do not augur well for the financial stability of the country. Political corruption also manifests in the tender and procurement processes involving government departments.

Added to this is the single sourcing in the award of contracts, such as the South Korea STX multi-billion contract for 1.3 million housing units, which fortunately for us, floundered because the Ghana Parliament did not approve it because of its questionable origins. Government needs to monitor closely the levels of inflation so that if the cost of living is low, there will be less tendency for economic-related corruption. Perhaps, the tax base needs broadening to capture those in the informal sector so that workers can pay less tax. Government needs to automate collection of revenues at the toll gates, entry points, among others. There should be regular head count of government workers to prevent ghost workers’ names on payrolls.

The staff at the Auditor and Accountant General’s office needs to be rotated often, or transferred or appraised often, in order to throw out the bad eggs who engage in corrupt practices. Currently, some senior teachers who were promoted more than four years ago have not had their salaries adjusted, for them to be put on the correct salary scales and to collect their salary arrears. The officers at the Accountant General’s office deliberately hold on to such promotions so that they can be bribed to start effecting payments to the teachers concerned. Is this transparency?

Our N in the OPENS model stands for Natural resources. One cardinal natural resource whose discovery and eventual exploitation leads to massive corruption is oil. Others might settle for diamonds, as we have had the case of blood diamonds in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola. In Nigeria and Angola, they had brutal civil wars. We also continue to have skirmishes in the Congo DR because of the country being awash with rare earth minerals such as uranium, tantalite, and other resources such as diamonds, gold, copper, among others. The type of corruption which is associated with the possession of some natural resources is a serious one as these strategic reserves attract the attention of the MNCs, superpowers and foreign business predators. Nigerian oil production has been a curse rather than a blessing because of their leaders having a high propensity and proclivity for collusion and shady business deals, which rob their citizens of the enjoyment of proceeds from the sale of oil. They are simply kleptomaniacs.

The few ruling elite collude with foreign business tycoons to siphon oil wealth into the accounts of some selfish individuals, some of whom own private executive jets and mansions in foreign capitals. Natural resource corruption is geopolitical and has deep international linkages. This type of corruption can be fought only in cooperation with international agencies such as Interpol, WTO, Transparency International, EU, UN, among others. It also calls for patriotic leaders and citizenry.

S in my OPENS model stands for Socio-cultural corruption. This is a vast and ramified area, which I cannot fully exhaust in an article like this. In a country with a large population and one which is growing rapidly, corruption is a condition sine qua non. In such a country, corruption is the order of the day and a way of life. Consider countries like India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, among others. Social corruption also arises where men are polygamous and they have large families, including the extended family. In such collectivist societies, there is a lot of tribalism, nepotism, favoritism, among other vices.

Giving of gifts is a norm. Women in some cases are disempowered so they cannot contribute to the family income. This being the case, males are the ones who have to struggle to support large families. Men, therefore, become heavily prone to corrupt practices at work, so that they can earn extra money to meet their heavy family responsibilities. Besides, our social practices such as lavish traditional weddings, funerals and festivals mean that people have to use fair or foul means to raise enough money for such social eventualities. This is the more reason we need to emancipate and empower our women to make them economically viable citizens, by giving them access to jobs and business opportunities.

The saving ethic is not well pronounced in Ghana because of low incomes. Educationally, few people even get up to high school or college or up to first degree level. Few people in Ghana and Africa are professionals. This being the case, few people are aware of high professional ethics or the need for transparency and accountability in business. Many people cannot read or write or speak English. Such high levels of illiteracy mean that only a few people are exposed to the ill effects of corruption. Someone commented on my first article in this series that corruption is in the DNA of the African. I think I disagree with him because corruption knows no racial barrier. Even in the advanced countries, there are worse cases of corruption, especially in the corporate world. I hereby propose that we can model corruption by using an exponential function, axb, where ‘a’ is a constant representing the national culture.
Thus, the corruption function is
i=n
Corruption = log a + b (log ∑xn)
I = 1
Xi – made up of corruption variables
X1 – % of population with bachelor’s degree
X2 – per capita income
X3 – % of the informal sector
X4 – % of unemployment
X5 – gender parity or equality
X6 – level of media freedom
X7 – Human Development Index
X8 – % of labour force who are professional
X9 – rate of population growth
X10 – degree of bureaucracy in government institutions
X11 – measure of pluralism or political space
X12 – perception of human rights in the country
X13 – % of forex earnings generated by natural resources
X14 – residual or unexplained factors not captured in the variables above

The ‘b’ coefficient could be assigned weights to the X variables, and they should add up to 1 or 100%. A weight assigned should reflect the importance of the variable. This could be subjective, but it could be done by aggregating views of experts or the opinion poll of the public. The summative result should be disaggregated and each variable examined for its correlation coefficient significance for corruption.

Contact: kwesiattasakyi449@gmail.com
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter @KwesiSakyi

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Codewit World News

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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