The Office of the President on Monday April 08, 2013 issued a statement denying that President Mahama does not have any shares in RIg. The name of this company even sounds suspicious and why is the President being alleged to ... read full comment
The Office of the President on Monday April 08, 2013 issued a statement denying that President Mahama does not have any shares in RIg. The name of this company even sounds suspicious and why is the President being alleged to have anything to do with such company? Do we know the meaning of Rig? I will let readers find out for themselves.
The Presidents could have forestall all the rumours and innuendos about his reputation of being corrupt if he has done what the constitution stipulates he should have done. The President swore on the Bible that, he will uphold all the constitutional obligations that his Office obliges him to do so why has he not declared his assets? The declaration of assets by some categories of public officials is a constitutional duty these officials are supposed to do as a duty stipulated by Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution. As usual with President Mahama, he is banking on Ghanaians mentality that seems to get on an issue with fire and brimstones and cool off within a matter of days to weather this storm too as he did about the allegation that, President Mills set up a committee to investigate his elleged scheming on contracts he signed on behalf of Ghana. He has never addressed this issue because the three committeee members including one Mr Aboah are still alive to give evidence if he give false testimonials. Maybe President Mahama has forgotten what he told Ghanaians when he was trying to be President on the declaration of the assets issue and this is what he said in October 2012;
Prez Mahama: I'm Ready To Declare And Publish My Assets If...
Date: 23-Oct-2012
President John Dramani Mahama says he is ready to declare and publish his assets if the Constitution requires him to do so.
Answering questions at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) evening encounter last Thursday, President Mahama said if the ongoing revision of the asset declaration regime was concluded and it required a President to declare and publish his assets, he would comply."
We are four months into his administration and despite constant reminder from many quarters for him to declare his assets, he has refused to address that issue.
GII Calls For The declaration Of Assets
Date: 19-Feb-2013
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has called on some key public officials to declare their assets and liabilities as stipulated in the 1992 Constitution to help fight against corruption.This was contained in a press statement signed by Mr Vitus A, Azeem, Executive Director of GII and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday.
President Mahama should be in the showbiz business instead of masquerading as a President and pulling out stunts. What is this prevarication about him paying taxes? Let President Mahama tell us how much he earned apart from his salary as a President and disclose to Ghanaians how much he paid in taxes. Standing infront of a window chatting with a woman in a PR stunt will not help anybody. Let Mahama tell his Party with majority in Parliament to change that constitution article that prevents the President from paying taxes on his salary. How can a messenger earning less than a quarter the whole year than what Mahama earns a month pay taxes on his meagre income but the President with other benefits not available to a Teacher who earns about half the whole year what Mahama earns in a month pay taxes but the President doesn't? Let me divert here for a moment.
The 1992 Constitution drawn by Rawlings appointed praise singers seems to have been promulgated to protect Rawlings. Every article in the 1992 constitution seems to be a fraud just to protect Rawlings. Where in this world is the President who earns more money than any government worker, living in free housing, free cars, everything is free and still not pay taxes on his income? Such a stupidity in the constitution should be exorcised immediately. That is really disgraceful for a President of a country not to pay taxes on his salary as a President.
It's sad even educated people like this Ace Ankomah has fallen for this PR stunt by MAHAMA. First and foremost the Ghana constitution mandates the President should not pay taxes on his salary as President, that is, he lives free on his GHc144,000. He only pays taxes on incomes earned from other sources and in Mahama's case, what source could it be?
The most important question relevant here is this; does the President has to work on a second job? I am not saying the President has no right to earn income apart from his salary. He might have been a farmer, Doctor or Lawyer in partnership entity or was a businessman like Aliue Mohammed the former Vice President who has a large business interest but should the President be involved in running the side business at the same time he is President? Shouldn't he put his other business in a blind trust to avoid conflict of interest? Was MAHAMA as Vice President and President giving advantage to his side business by indirectly awarding those businesses government contracts? Who are MAHAMA business partners and what other side business is he doing as President.
MAHAMA filing his taxes is not a big deal but he should tell Ghanaians what other businesses he is involved in and who are his business partners to show that he is being transparent. How much did he earn in 2012 and how much taxes he paid. Let President MAHAMA make his tax papers public.
This prolepsis on the part of Mahama could be deduced from his recent advocation for the passing of the information bill. Mahama will get more kudos from me and a lot of Ghanaians if he will make information on his tax forms available to the public. A lot of Ghanaians will like to know the other business interests of President Mahama and who are his busness partners, how much he earns outside his salary as the President.
In USA, the President and his appointees are mandated by the constitution to put their other business interests into a blind Trust not knowing who their businesses are involved with so that there will be no conflict of interest.
In Mahama's case, he is involved with some dubious figures who are living large on government contracts they they don't even do after getting paid for them. How can Mahama give $8 million for guinea fowl project to his friend Agambire of rLG communication and all we got is 600 guinea fowls and 20 eggs? He also gave the same friend $17.5 million for planting of 5 million trees in the three Northern Regions only to plant 300,000 trees. Agambire is supposed to be a majority holder in the guinea fowl project with 60% interest with a contribution of 13 million dollars. The fact is that, Agambire has not contributed a dime in the guinea fowl or the tree planting projects which the government has sunk close to 26 million dollars in with Mahama's friend Agambire without doing anything earning 16 million dollars of taxpayers money. If these projects are abandoned today, Agambire and his rLG and Asongbata NGO(which means you wash my back and I wash yours) will take 60% of all assets in this corrupt partnership. Is it not worth knowing if President Mahama has any business partnership with Agambire vast business empire and why government contracts are being given to him that benefits President Mahama indirectly?
I know the Mahama pompom waving sycophants are going to come after me for asking these pertinent questions but in order to deepen our democracy, it is the only way our nascent democracy can be nursed from its infancy to maturity that all Ghanaians will be proud of.
Justice Sarpong
(CARDINAL of TRUTH)
gh 11 years ago
MPs Must Do Psychiatric Test, So Are the Voters
"A renowned lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana School of law, Kwame Gyan, has called for a strict enforcement of the requirement that anybody seeking to be a parliamentarian mu ... read full comment
MPs Must Do Psychiatric Test, So Are the Voters
"A renowned lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana School of law, Kwame Gyan, has called for a strict enforcement of the requirement that anybody seeking to be a parliamentarian must prove that he is of sound mind."
I do agree with Lawyer Gyan but he should have gone further in his request for people who should get Psychiatrist test before they can participate in the polical process including the voters.
It might sound discriminately but even in USA, South Africa and other democracies, during the early stages of their democratic dispensation, some classes of people were not allowed to vote because it was thought their understanding of the issues were not up to par and I think that is what our nascent democracy needs but I am not counting on it.
We have come so far in our educational system and modern discrimination rules will not allow anybody to prevent people who have reached the voting age in Ghana from voting but we have to add a requirement to vote in Ghana by asking people to have a minimum IQ score to vote. Most of our voting population don't understand the issues including those so called educated Ghanaians if what we read in the forum is a correct gauge of the overall population.
Of those seeking Parliamentary seats, the recent vituperations from some of them indicates they need Psychiatrist evaluation. Read what some of them have said recently and you will agree that, some of them lack basic common sense. These People don't even know when to keep their mouths shut. Knowing the public are against the humongous amount they are receiving as ex-gratia, if they are intelligent, they would have kept their mouths shut and stayed away from the cameras and the news but they are too dumb to know that, instead some of them are trying to convince the public why they should be given this gratuity despite the fact that they have indebted the country to the tune of twenty billion dollars($20billion)
Below quotations from some of these people are true testomonials why they need Psychiatrist evaluation.
the work of a parliamentarian since it is a profession that transforms a person into a borrowing machine in order to survive. She continued that the life of an MP is based on continuous borrowing in order to fulfill the enormous demands of their constituents.“I pity those MPs who couldn’t make it back into parliament…. They owe debts as high as Mountain Afadjato”,
, Hon. Gifty Klenam, NDC MP,Lower West Akyem
Member of Parliament for Dormaa Central, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, insists that MPs cannot let go of their ex-gratia as it is the means through which they can offset some expenditures that come with their job."When an MP loses his seat, it is difficult to secure a job because of his or her political branding, so they have nothing to feed on except for the ex-gratia package. Some of us have red accounts, rent and salary arrears, committee allowances that were never paid for 4 years. Add all that to the ex -gratia and nothing is left,"
Kwaku Agyemang Manu, NPP MP, Dormaa Central
MPs Must Do Psychiatric Test, So Are the Voters
"A renowned lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana School of law, Kwame Gyan, has called for a strict enforcement of the requirement that anybody seeking to be a parliamentarian must prove that he is of sound mind."
I do agree with Lawyer Gyan but he should have gone further in his request for people who should get Psychiatrist test before they can participate in the polical process including the voters.
It might sound discriminately but even in USA, South Africa and other democracies, during the early stages of their democratic dispensation, some classes of people were not allowed to vote because it was thought their understanding of the issues were not up to par and I think that is what our nascent democracy needs but I am not counting on it.
We have come so far in our educational system and modern discrimination rules will not allow anybody to prevent people who have reached the voting age in Ghana from voting but we have to add a requirement to vote in Ghana by asking people to have a minimum IQ score to vote. Most of our voting population don't understand the issues including those so called educated Ghanaians if what we read in the forum is a correct gauge of the overall population.
Of those seeking Parliamentary seats, the recent vituperations from some of them indicates they need Psychiatrist evaluation. Read what some of them have said recently and you will agree that, some of them lack basic common sense. These People don't even know when to keep their mouths shut. Knowing the public are against the humongous amount they are receiving as ex-gratia, if they are intelligent, they would have kept their mouths shut and stayed away from the cameras and the news but they are too dumb to know that, instead some of them are trying to convince the public why they should be given this gratuity despite the fact that they have indebted the country to the tune of twenty billion dollars($20billion)
Below quotations from some of these people are true testomonials why they need Psychiatrist evaluation.
the work of a parliamentarian since it is a profession that transforms a person into a borrowing machine in order to survive. She continued that the life of an MP is based on continuous borrowing in order to fulfill the enormous demands of their constituents.“I pity those MPs who couldn’t make it back into parliament…. They owe debts as high as Mountain Afadjato”,
, Hon. Gifty Klenam, NDC MP,Lower West Akyem
Member of Parliament for Dormaa Central, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, insists that MPs cannot let go of their ex-gratia as it is the means through which they can offset some expenditures that come with their job."When an MP loses his seat, it is difficult to secure a job because of his or her political branding, so they have nothing to feed on except for the ex-gratia package. Some of us have red accounts, rent and salary arrears, committee allowances that were never paid for 4 years. Add all that to the ex -gratia and nothing is left,"
Kwaku Agyemang Manu, NPP MP, Dormaa Central
Alfred Abayateye has made the strongest case yet why MPs should be paid ex-gratia.Those who are crying; when they go to the MPs and they ask the MPs to give them money to go and pay their school fees, to go and have operations and all of those things...Does the constitution of Ghana say that the MP should pay somebody’s child’s school fees? Does the constitution of Ghana say that the MP should pay when you are sick? And if the MP is able to do this for you and by the constitution he is being paid, they are crying for it.”
Alfred Abayateye, Former NDC MP for Sege
"It is very disheartening that on daily basis MPs are treated like thieves. Why? Have we stolen anybody’s money?" ---Kojo Adu-Asare, Former NDC MP from Adenta---
Kofi Jumah has said medical doctors and teachers cannot compare themselves with MPs because MPs are on a higher pedestal compared to the two professions."
Kofi Jumah, "Former NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Asokwa
while calling for a debate on the quantum of money paid as ex-gratia, however argued that many persons who lost their parliamentary seats have seen their careers come to an end because they chose to take up the contract of a legislator.The former Energy Minister in the Kufuor administration said unlike a long term job, being an MP was a short term contract, renewable at the whim of the electorate, and therefore attracted higher compensation due to the risk involved.The former Energy Minister in the Kufuor administration said unlike a long term job, being an MP was a short term contract, renewable at the whim of the electorate, and therefore attracted higher compensation due to the risk involved.
Professor Mike Oquaye NPP Former Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya
The MP bemoaned the situation where MPs find themselves under intense pressure to satisfy numerous demands on them from their constituents.We pay our drivers, maids, rent, buy [their] own fuel and manage your constituency. Ask them how many did not have to borrow money to manage their constituency? Before the end of the month they are broke,"
Rashid Pelpuo, NDC MP,Wa Central
In a fit of rage, the NPP firebrand likened the work of a parliamentarian to people who carry faeces or “toilet” in pans on their heads; an undignified job to be precise.
Kennedy Agyapong,NPP Member of Parliament for Assin Central
Appiah-Ofori said MPs like any other public servant are entitled to a retirement package therefore "condemning us for what is rightfully ours is quite unfortunate.He indicated that MPs are the poorest people in the country "but the title of honorable makes it very rewarding.MPs pay the school fees, hospital bills, funeral bills among others for their constituents but if you refuse to foot these bills, they will vote massively against you.
Paul Collins Appiah Ofori,Former NPP Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odobeng- Brakwa.
Reading through these quotes, the supporters of NPP and NDC have to realise that, these MP's care only about themselves and not the people who voted for them to represent their interest in Parliament. When it comes to thebenefits going to their pockets, you cannot differentiate between an NDC MP and and NPP MP, they all sing the same tune and dance to the same song, they march in sync like a chrolographed Olympics sw2im dancers
The Office of the President on Monday April 08, 2013 issued a statement denying that President Mahama does not have any shares in RIg. The name of this company even sounds suspicious and why is the President being alleged to ...
read full comment
MPs Must Do Psychiatric Test, So Are the Voters
"A renowned lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana School of law, Kwame Gyan, has called for a strict enforcement of the requirement that anybody seeking to be a parliamentarian mu ...
read full comment