Watch out - spies around

An American consulting group based in Virginia, USA, called the Services Group, headed by one Mihiri Desai, is reported to have been retained by the Rawlings government to compile a list of all Ghanaian Associations and organisations operating in the US with the "ostensible purpose .... to persuade Ghanaians living in the US to invest in their country."

This move has been greeted with scepticism and suspicion in certain quarters. An open circular to Ghanaians living in the US from Professor George B. Ayittey, President of the Free Africa Foundation based in Washington DC, questioned the motives of the group by stating: "First of all, the motives are highly suspect and I believe this list is being complied for intelligence purposes. If Ghanaians want to invest in their country, would it take prodding from an American consulting firm or the Government of Ghana? don't these Ghanaians have enough information about their own country to make that decision?"

Others in the US posed this question: "if, indeed the country is booming, as the (P)NDC wants the world to believe, do Ghanaians need a foreigner to tell them about it? In the late 1970s when Nigeria was awash in petrodollars, did Ghanaians need anybody to tell them to flock to Nigeria?"

The idea of hiring a foreign firm to undertake such an exercise has naturally scandalised large sections of the Ghanaian community in the US, who see it as another NDC ruse to spirit away the country's meagre foreign exchange earnings into foreign hands.

Prof. Ayittey, who has often been very critical of the Rawlings government asked: "So Is the Rawlings government saying it has no faith in the expertise of its own citizens and that this job cannot be done by A Ghanaian?" It is this unnecessary excessive reliance on expensive foreign experts that has helped ruin Africa. Every year, African governments spend at least $4 billion on these experts. And if they have solutions to Africa's problems, we should not be in such a mess."

Meanwhile, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre has been named as the facilitator for the recruitment of the consulting group. This has been confirmed by Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Executive Chairman of the Centre. Mr Ahwoi however disagreed vehemently when the issue of spying on Ghanaians was put to him. He was unhappy with the political undertones being given to whet he said was an otherwise government policy. He explained that such negative ways of looking at every government initiative has the effect of killing the enthusiasm of foreign investors.