On Saturday May 18, 2024, three topics were discussed on TV3’s The Key Points show.
The topics are:
- Free fall of the Cedi: Implications for cost of doing business.
2. Speaker petitioned over EOCO’s conduct on Cecilia Dapaah’s case.
3. Martin Amidu petitions President for removal of Kissi Agyebeng as Special Prosecutor.
Here are 18 key points from the show:
- Set up a bi-partisan committee to probe EOCO on Cecilia Dapaah case – Kpebu tells parliament
Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu who is among some Ghanaians who have petitioned Parliament to look into the case of large sums of money found in the home the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has asked Parliament to set up a bi-partisan committee to investigate how the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) failed to do its work relative to this matter.
To Kpebu, there is more to be investigated in relation to this matter.
“We want Parliament to set up a bipartisan committee to investigate how EOCO reneged on its duty to investigate Cecilia Dapaah. When we see money of this quantum in the home it points to money laundering, so go into the sources of the income,” he said.
Some prominent Ghanaians including former Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo have filed a petition to Parliament seeking a bipartisan probe into the conduct of EOCO in the investigation regarding the stash of money found in the residence of Madam Cecilia Dapaah.
2. Cecilia Dapaah case: Available evidence points to alleged money laundering – Kpebu
Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu who is among the Ghanaians who have petitioned Parliament to look into the case of the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has said that available evidence points to money laundering.
He asked Parliament to set up a bi-partisan committee to investigate how the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) failed to do its work relative to this matter.
“We want Parliament to set up a bipartisan committee to investigate how EOCO reneged on its duty to investigate Cecilia Dapaah.
“When we see money of this quantum in the home it points to money laundering, so go into the sources of the income,” he said.
He added “evidence available points to money laundering, the details of the docket is enough to investigate her.”
3. How ‘stinking’ case of Cecilia Dapaah has been handled shows we’re not serious in fighting corruption – Ricketts-Hagan
Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, has said that the way and manner the case involving the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has been handled is shameful.
To him, the banter between the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on this matter is shameful.
“This is a clear example that this country is not serious about fighting corruption. For this woman still to be walking around freely with EOCO and OSP banging their heads together is shameful, it does not give any body the desire to help fight corruption.
“The case gets twisted everyday, explanations don’t add up different stories are being told all the time,” he said
“This case stinks, it looks like a clear corruption,” he added.
4. Cecilia Dapaah case: We want to know the story behind the story – Domelevo on petition to Parliament
Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has said that the petition that they have filed against the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over the matter involving the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources is seeking to know the truth of the matter.
He wondered whether the failure of EOCO to go into the matter is the prophecy of the President that is materailsing.
President Akufo-Addo had indicated that Madam Cecilia Dapaah would be exonerated and her integrity restored even before the matter was handled by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
“Is this the prophecy of the President that at the end of the investigation her integrity would be restored, that is materialising?” He asked.
Regarding the petition to Parliament to probe the matter, he said “All we are seeking to do is to know the story behind the story of Cecilia Dapaah case.”
5. EOCO should have investigated Cecilia Dapaah case – Appiah-Kubi
Lawmaker for Asante Akim North, Kwame Andy Appiah-Kubi has said that it would have been in the interest of the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah if the case of large sum of money found in her home is investigated.
He said that the investigation would afford her the opportunity to provide all the evidence for her to be exonerated.
“Even if I were her, I would have advised that they should go into the matter put me before court and then provide all the evidence,” he said.
6. When you fight corruption, corruption will fight you – Domelevo on petition to remove Kissi Agyebeng as SP
Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo has said that he suspects that the petition that is seeking to remove Kissi Agyebeng as Special Prosecutor is a fight against him for his efforts to tackle corruption.
He said that “once you fight corruption, corruption will fight you back.”
He added “my only surprise is that this petition is coming from Martin Amidu. If I were in his position, I would not do anything to remove his successor from the post.”
On Friday May 17 the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo wrote to Kissi Agyebeng to provide his comments on the petition that has been filed by his predecessor Martin Amidu for his removal. The Chief Justice’s letter says that the comments of Mr. Kissi Agyebeng is to help establish a prima facie case or otherwise.
7. Kissi Agyebeng likely to be asked to step aside as Special Prosecutor – Domelevo
Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has said that he has picked up information that the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, would be asked to step aside for investigations to be conducted into the allegations made against him in the petition seeking his removal.
Mr Agyebeng’s predecessor, Martin Amidu, has petitioned President Akufo-Addo his removal.
“By next week they may be asking him to step aside until the investigation is finished, somebody whispered into my ears that is what is going to be done,” he revealed.
Domelevo further stated that he suspects that the petition that is seeking to remove Kissi Agyebeng as Special Prosecutor is a fight against him for his efforts to tackle corruption.
“Once you fight corruption, corruption will fight you back,” he intimated.
He added “my only surprise is that this petition is coming from Martin Amidu. If I were in his position, I would not do anything to remove his successor from the post.”
8. Akufo-Addo’s neck-breaking speed in forwarding petition against Kissi Agyebeng surprising – Domelevo
Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo has accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of selective justice owing to how swiftly he forwarded the petition against the Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng to the Chief Justice for action to be taken.
Domelevo pointed out that there were petitions of this nature presented to the President, but he never acted on them.
“This selective way of administering justice is not helping the country. I am surprised with the conveyor belt’s neck breaking speed in forwarding the petition,” he said.
9. Cecilia Dapaah’s in-law said she distributed $10k each to passengers in order to bring $200k into Ghana – Kpebu
A private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has disclosed some intriguing details of the docket on the Cecilia Dapaah case.
According to him, one of the persons who submitted a statement on the matter to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) is a niece of Madam Cecilia Dapaah’s husband, Mr Daniel Osei-Kufuor.
He said the niece, who he did not name, became a person of interest because Mr Osei-Kufuor mentioned her as the one who gave him a sum of $200,000 for keeps. An amount which was also allegedly stolen by the house helps who are currently being prosecuted for stealing.
Mr Kpebu disclosed that in her statement that is included in the docket that was submitted by the OSP to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Mr Osei-Kufuor’s niece wrote how she managed to bring the above-mentioned amount into the country.
“She wrote in her statement that when she was coming to Ghana, she distributed the $200,000 dollars in bits of $10,000 to some of the passengers on the plane she boarded. And upon arrival in Ghana, she retrieved the monies from them. Such cock and bull story. It is in the docket and Tiwaa says there is nothing to prosecute? Mr Kpebu asked.
Mr Kpebu mentioned this, among other staggering details as reason for which he and other Ghanaians have petitioned Parliament to look into the case of large sums of money found in the home the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources.
10. Cedi Depreciation: It could be GHC25 to $1 by end of year if… – Ricketts- Hagan predicts
A former Deputy Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has predicted further doom in respect of the depreciating cedi compared to some major foreign currencies such as the dollar.
He said if the managers of the economy do not institute the appropriate measures to curb the trend, the Cedi could end the year at GHC25.00 to $1.00.
Mr Ricketts-Hagan made this prediction while contributing to discussions on the implications of the cedi deprecation for cost of doing business in Ghana.
“The situation now with the currency, it’s likely to get worse. I have a feeling that this government is trying to prevent that, and this is what they are doing- You know, this is all happening at a time when we are not paying our external debt, we are negotiating that external debt and there is a deliberate attempt by this government not to complete that.
Because, if we do complete that, we will have to start paying and once we start paying the dollar situation will get worse. So, if we are able to complete this transaction, it will not be good for Ghana…and they will have to.
The negotiation on the table is a bad one. They are trying to get a relief of about $10b and that is what they are focusing on. That is about a third of our debt.
The problem of our currency now and of economy, is not about how much hair cut you get, but it is actually about how much space you get within the next three to five years. So, the proper solution is to renegotiate our debt by refinancing the whole international bond market and get a fresh start. A fresh loan that will give us a clean slate and structure a bond that will give us a three-year zero-coupon bond and start some amortisation that will be going up.
What they have on the table, they have taken their barber shop there, going to do their usual hair cut which these guys are not buying. Because these are seasoned negotiators. So, what they want to do is push this, hoping that NDC government will come to power, and they will push this on the lap of the NDC. Because when we come, we will have no choice but to negotiate that external debt. We will have to start paying one day.
If it happens like that, maybe we will be able to have the trust to start a better negotiation than what is on the table. Because the IMF is pushing us to do this negotiation without the IMF itself not understanding what is happening in the international capital market.
IMF is good at helping you negotiate a multilateral and bilateral kind of a transaction. This is new. We’ve never done it before. So if we go with what IMF is telling us- negotiate and try and get some percentage cut off, that’s not what we need. We need a is fiscal space to be able to build our economy.
Unfortunately, the news is not good. The long-term solution is industrialisation, which has failed. This government is over. The medium to short term, which is to do with inflows coming in, the inflows are not coming. That is why $150m they had to call us from our houses to approve it, otherwise there is going to be a problem. So, the cedi is going to end up about 18 by the end of the year. And if the negotiation happens, the cedi could end up at about 20, 25,” Mr Ricketts-Hagan explained.
11. Economic crisis: The proper solution is to renegotiate our external debt; not hair cut – Ricketts-Hagan
A former Deputy Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has suggested the way out of the prevailing economic crisis.
He says Ghana’s economy needs a fiscal space of up to five years to turn around. This, he noted, can be achieved if the managers of the economy renegotiate the country’s external debt properly.
The National Democratic Congress’ MP opined that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) prescriptions will not resolve the country’s current economic woes.
Mr Ricketts-Hagan made this suggestion while contributing to discussions on the implications of the cedi deprecation for cost of doing business in Ghana.
“The problem of our currency now and of economy, is not about how much hair cut you get, but it is actually about how much space you get within the next three to five years. So, the proper solution is to renegotiate our debt by refinancing the whole international bond market and get a fresh start. A fresh loan that will give us a clean slate and structure a bond that will give us a three-year zero-coupon bond and start some amortisation that will be going up,” he explained.
12. Cecilia Dapaah Saga: EOCO should tell its inability to prosecute to the marines – Domelevo
Daniel Yao Domelevo, a former Auditor-General, has expressed discontent about the inability of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate the alleged money laundering case involving the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.
Mr. Domelevo indicated that there’s no justification for EOCO’s apparent failure to investigate the case that the Special Prosecutor forwarded to it.
The former Auditor-General could not hide his frustrations with state institutions failing the people of Ghana in the fight against corruption.
According to him, EOCO could go beyond their limits if they were interested in investigating the former Sanitation Minister.
“EOCO is one institution that at times go beyond their mandate,” he said, indicating that when his office—Auditor-General—was investigating senior minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo in the Kroll and Associates case, “quickly EOCO decided to investigate me for alleged procurement offences when they themselves know that the public procurement law, the head of independent constitutional bodies are not part of the entity tender committee.”
Responding to whether or not EOCO’s side of the story that there is nothing to investigate is believable, Mr Domelevo mince no words, saying, “In fact they themselves don’t even believe the story they are telling us, and they can say those [stories] to the marines, but I don’t think anybody will believe EOCO.”
13. Cecilia Dapaah Saga: The turf war between state institutions unfortunate – Appiah-Kubi
Member of Parliament (MP) for the Asante Akim North Constituency, Andy Appiah-Kubi, has observed that the apparent turf war witnessed between state institutions in Cecilia Dapaah’s alleged money laundering case was unfortunate.
He said it is worrying to witness state institutions mandated to fight corruption engage in shifting blame on one another, adding that the alleged money laundering case involving the former Sanitation Minister should not be politicised.
“In most cases, when issues of national interest come up, the best way to dissolve it is to make it partisan, so that it becomes a war between supporters of this party and supporters of that party,” he said.
He maintained that such an attitude kills “the initiatives that people bring to the fore,” stressing that the case of the former Sanitation Minister has no political colours.
Mr Appiah-Kubi, one of the petitioners asking the Speaker of Parliament to constitute a bipartisan probe into EOCO’s conduct in Cecilia Dapaah’s alleged money laundering case, emphasised that EOCO should have investigated the matter.
“To be honest with you, investigations are instigated by suspicions and when you suspect something, it doesn’t automatically mean the person you suspect against is guilty, but we have to start investigations. My worry is that all state institutions mandated to investigate matters of this nature, they are all shifting blame onto one another, it is a source of worry.
14. Petition on Cecilia Dapaah Saga: I have faith in Parliament to some extent – Kpebu
Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has expressed confidence in Parliament to probe the Economic and Organised Crime Office’s (EOCO) actions in handling the alleged money laundering case involving the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.
Mr Kpebu and some prominent Ghanaians, including former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo, have filed a petition to Parliament seeking a bipartisan probe into the conduct of EOCO in the investigation regarding the stash of money found in the residence of Madam Cecilia Dapaah.
According to the petitioners, EOCO had more than enough basis to investigate the former Minister for money laundering, as she has been inconsistent and unable to provide the source over the huge amount of money seized at her residence by the Special Prosecutor.
Mr Kpebu accused Madam Tiwaa Addo-Danquah of covering up corrupt officials.
He maintained that Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng must be celebrated for blowing the whistle on an alleged money laundering case against the former minister for EOCO to investigate.
15. Managers of the economy don’t understand the problem of the cedi – Ricketts-Hagan
The Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has observed that the issues of Cedi depreciation are complex, asserting that the current managers of the economy have not fully come to understand the problems of the local currency.
He said one needs enough comprehension of the problem of the Ghanaian economy to better manage it.
“The story of the cedi is quite a complex one and I have come to believe and I don’t make this statement lightly…that the current managers of the economy actually have not fully comprehended the problems of the exchange rate.
“Therefore, the solutions that they are prescribing is actually not working because if you don’t understand what the problem is, it will be very difficult for you come up with a solution,” he said.
16. Akufo-Addo’s government has stopped paying external debt; they want to push it on next NDC administration – Ricketts-Hagan
A former Deputy Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has alleged that Akufo-Addo’s government has decided not to settle the country’s external debt.
According to Mr Ricketts-Hagan, the plan is to dilly-dally in order to handover to the next government, which he believes will be that of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The NDC MP said this while contributing to discussions on the impact of the depreciating cedi on cost of doing business in the country.
“…this is all happening at a time when we are not paying our external debt. We are negotiating that external debt and there is a deliberate attempt by this government not to complete that.
Because if we do complete that, we will have to start paying and once we start paying the dollar situation will get worse. So, if we are able to complete this transaction, it will not be good for Ghana.
The negotiation on the table is a bad one. They are trying to get a relief of about $10b and that is what they are focusing on. That is about a third of our debt.
So, what they want to do is push this, hoping that NDC government will come to power and they will push this on the lap of the NDC. Because when we come, we will have no choice but to negotiate that external debt. We will have to start paying one day.
If it happens like that, maybe we will be able to have the trust to start a better negotiation than what is on the table,” he explained.
17. Cedi depreciation: Let’s have a national economic dialogue – Appiah-Kubi
Andy Appiah-Kubi, the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North, has called for a national dialogue to come up with solutions to the difficulties facing the Ghanaian economy and the depreciation of the cedi.
According to him, the country needs to revise its economic arrangements to develop a blueprint that will make it a country worthy of living in.
Mr Appiah-Kubi emphasised the importance of value addition to Ghana’s raw materials to rake in enough revenue and stabilise the local currency.
“Reference to the Guggisberg economy was the fact that we were exporting raw materials to feed European industries, if we have a good understanding of that we need to reverse it so that our raw materials will find value addition.
“We can have a national forum on the economy and let’s agree to accept other people’s opinions. The country is for all of us so that if we do it well it becomes a habitable place for all of us. So, a national economy forum probably at this time to think through our difficulties and come out with a blueprint that will sustain Ghana as a country worthy of living in,” he stated.
18. Cedi depreciation: We have lost 20% of our capital – GUTA President
The depreciation of the cedi in simple terms means loss of capital and we have lost about 20 percent of our capital, the President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng, has said.
The local currency has witnessed a significant reduction in value against major trading currencies, especially the US dollar.
Currently, the cedi, which was trading against the dollar at GHC 11.98, is now hovering around GHC 14.85 at the forex bureaus, resulting in a depreciation rate of close to 20% since the beginning of the year.
Additionally, the former Deputy Minister for Finance, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has predicted that the local currency could be trading at GHC25.00 to a dollar by the end of 2024.
Dr. Obeng, paints a disturbing picture of the dire consequences of the depreciation of the cedi for members of the association, forcing some businesses to fold up.
Responding to how businesses are faring under the circumstances, he explained that “depreciation is simply a loss of capital so if the currency is depreciating this much, for now we can confidently say most of us have lost about 20% of our capital.”
“The goods that we import even we go to China…we trade in dollars, when we are shipping the goods, we also pay in dollars now the freight charges have gone up the roof like the COVID era. Then the goods come, and the duty is also benchmarked in US dollars,” he added.
Watch the whole show here:
https://web.facebook.com/100064554705592/videos/3420186821616720
The post 18 Key Points from the show on May 18 first appeared on 3News.
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