In this blog post, we go back to 2019 to find out the status of three groundbreaking anti-corruption cases in our bid to pursue cases from start to finish, prevent impunity and ensure reform.
The cases we will be focusing on are the Galamsey Fraud case, the Missing Excavators case and the ‘Contracts for Sale‘ procurement scandal.
GALAMSEY FRAUD
On Wednesday, 27th February, 2019, ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas released a 27-minute documentary titled “Galamsey Fraud Part One.” In an article published on Ghana Web ahead of the premier of the documentary, Anas authored the following: “A measure to minimize the mess and menace of illegal mining in the motherland is being undermined by men mandated to manage the menace, leaving Ghana at the mercy of mercenary miners and monstrous money-grabbers within the corridors of power.”
https://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CW-Show-radio-promo-Joy.png788940adminhttps://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CW-logo-100by80.pngadmin2020-07-29 10:02:122020-08-07 15:05:15An update on 3 major unresolved corruption cases
Corruption is a significant obstacle to development, democratic consolidation and environmental security, particularly in the developing world. It involves a misuse of power in serving private ends at the public expense. Corruption occurs in both the public and private sectors.
There are different forms of corruption. Political corruption is a classic example. It is often committed by politicians and top government officials acting alone or collaborating with other actors to advance private agendas.
https://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/theconversationarticle.png324324adminhttps://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CW-logo-100by80.pngadmin2020-07-24 13:53:582020-07-24 13:54:01How parts of the media in Ghana aid – rather than fight – corruption
The illegal export of Rosewood from Ghana to China has dropped by about 90% since July 2019, according to Washington DC-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
A report by the group published in July 2019 titled BAN-BOOZLED: How Corruption and Collusion Fuel Illegal Rosewood Trade in Ghana, revealed the illegal trade had been ongoing despite a ban dating back to 2011.
https://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Rosewood2.jpg387640adminhttps://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CW-logo-100by80.pngadmin2020-07-24 13:44:062020-07-24 13:44:09Illegal export of Rosewood from Ghana to China drops by 90%
A Corruption Watch investigation has found that Procurement Minister, Sarah Adwoa Safo, allegedly gave GHc3,000 and a GLICO Life Insurance package worth GHc10,000 to delegates in the just ended NPP primaries.
Her challenger, Michael Aaron Oquaye Jr., Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, on the other hand, allegedly gave GHc3,000, a 32-inch Nasco flat screen television set and an Indian-made cloth to the 500 delegates. The candidates targeted 500 delegates which they needed to win.
Last dinner to election @ residence of Mike Oquaye Jr
Meanwhile a Corruption Watch follow up check on the GLICO insurance cover found that the cover took effect three days to the election, June 17, 2020 and will expire on June 16, 2021. The “Insurance Interest” was for the benefit of “Delegates of the Dome Kwabenya Constituency”
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A former car industry boss who swiftly amassed riches under Algeria’s ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison on corruption charges.
https://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/afp_mass_protests_by_algerians_angry_at_corruption_and_cronyism_.jpg400770adminhttps://corruptionwatchghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CW-logo-100by80.pngadmin2020-07-17 11:40:222020-07-17 11:40:26Algeria ex-car boss gets 16-year jail term for corruption
An appeal hearing for a top presidential aide in the DR Congo has been set for July 24, less than a month after he was sentenced to 20 years’ hard labour for corruption, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Vital Kamerhe, 61, a veteran political figure who was President Felix Tshisekedi’s chief of staff, was convicted on June 20 of diverting more than $50 million (44 million euros) of public funds.
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Senior Programmes Officer at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Paul Kwabena Aborampah says for Ghana to mitigate the phenomenon of vote-buying in the various electoral process, certain drastic measures would have to be taken including expanding the various electoral colleges.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said the move would make it extremely difficult for aspirants to pay their way through the electoral process.
Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakaria, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), has refuted claims by policy think tank Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), that she used MASLOC funds to induce NPP delegates during the June 2020 NPP primary in Yendi which she lost.
In a two-page rejoinder copied to GhanaWeb, Hajia Zacharia indicated that CDD-Ghana’s Corruption Watch report was not factual, and questioned why the reporters used the caveat ‘allegedly’.
“I would like to point out that there is no iota of truth in this statement. If the reporters were truly confident in their ‘findings’, why did they find the need to use the caveat ‘allegedly’? You make a categorical statement in your headline that votes were bought and yet in your opening paragraph, you introduce alleged inducement,” parts of her statement read.
She indicated that the term ‘buying’ connotes the presence of offer and acceptance and ‘inducements’ would imply persuasion.
Hajia Abibata Zakaria stressed that there was no vote-buying on her part and it is false for an organization with a huge stature and capacity such as the CDD to state that MASLOC money was used to induce NPP delegates during the primaries.
“There is no evidence to back this claim. Unless they were purposely excluded, some of the beneficiaries of a transparent loan scheme were always going to be members of various political parties including the NPP and some would-be delegates. The generalization that the beneficiaries were all delegates is unfair and unproven. They were not and I told you so but you chose to call them delegates,” her statement read further.
The CDD-Ghana’s Corruption Watch report stated that, On Thursday, May 21, 2020, Hajia Abibata Zakaria distributed GHC1,000 state cash under the guise of MASLOC loans to NPP delegates of Yendi constituency where she was a parliamentary aspirant for the June contest.
This, she noted that, was “an unfair impression of dolling out state money. I wish to emphasise that it was MASLOC that distributed the loans and not me as an individual. I supervised the process in my capacity as a deputy CEO.
CDD indicted Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakaria told the NPP delegates in a video that, although MASLOC loans were not yet to be distributed, she had ensured that as deputy CEO of MASLOC, loans to her constituents were not only distributed to them but also the number of recipients had been increased above what was permitted.
“Though this gathering is not a political rally for me, there is no way we will do this without letting you know why we brought [it] here,” Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakaria told the delegates back in June. “Here is my Northern Regional Manager, he’s aware that MASLOC gives to a maximum of five groups in the Northern Region, but I’ve not regretted the fact that Yendi alone has been honoured with 35 groups. If I’ve not done so, you have the right to blame me because I can’t have such an opportunity and not help you my people.”
Some constituents in the Effia and Kwesimintsim Constituencies in the Western Region are in shocks over the parliamentary candidates of the New Patriotic Party cited in the vote-buying exposé published by Corruption Watch.
Speaking to Citi News the constituents said the investigative piece is only a confirmation of allegations they heard during the primaries.
