General News
Auditor-General’s Report: I don’t blame judges for unlawful purchase of vehicles – Political Science lecturer

A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, says judges who were implicated for unlawfully buying vehicles in the latest Auditor-General’s report should not be blamed.
According to him, the said judges are not at fault because, there is a a defective system which encourages such practices.
Speaking on the AM Show on Wednesday, he explained that, the judges only played according to the existing practice whereby uncleared port vehicles are auctioned by the state, and therefore they did no wrong.
He, therefore, called for a review of the country’s policies on uncleared vehicles at the port.
“I am also surprised that we still have a policy which is not only insulting, but distasteful in the mouth of every rational human being. People will go outside, work and get cars bring them to this country, and then [because] they’re not able to pay taxes on them, the state finds a way of giving them out without proper value for money”, he told host, Benjamin Alakpo.
Dr Asah-Asante continued, “I don’t blame the judges because they’ll apply, and [because] they want the right things to be done, once you say it’s okay you can buy, they can.
But we have to look at the policy itself; whether it’s worth maintaining. I think this policy is moribund. It must be jettisoned and thrown into the lake of fire. We don’t need this’’.
His comments were in connection with the recent Auditor-General’s report which indicated that at least 16 past and current judges of the Superior Courts were fingered for the purchase of state owned vehicles contrary to Regulation 158 of Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378).
The regulation provides that the Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall obtain the prior written approval of the Minister for the transfer, exchange, sale, donation, contribution-in-kind, trust and any other disposal of any vehicles of the covered entity
Regulation 158 also states that, any such disposal, lease and other action referred to in Sub-regulation 1 that is made without the written approval of the Minister, is void.
However, the report revealed that some judges, including recently retired Supreme Court judges, Yaw Appau and Julius Ansah as having acquired state-owned vehicles contrary to the provisions of this law.
The Auditor-General therefore wants the vehicles recovered.
Meanwhile, former President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges, Justice Victor Ofoe has jumped to the defence of his 16 colleagues fingered by the Auditor-General for unlawfully purchasing their official vehicles
Justice Ofoe rather questioned the work done by the Auditor-General saying he does not understand why the Auditor-General believes their actions are unlawful.
“I don’t know under what law he is talking about”, Justice Ofoe told JoyNews.
Justice Ofoe argued that the Auditor-General should have sought answers from the Chief of Staff; adding that the purchase of vehicles in such a manner is not new.
“Purchase of vehicles has been there for a long time not today. We applied, and they said sell, and we buy. If there is any wrong at all, we applied and they said sell to him. It is valued by the transport office and we pay”, Justice Ofoe stated.
General News
ECG disconnects Osu Police Barracks over illegal connection

The national revenue mobilisation taskforce of the Electricity Company of Ghana disconnected three blocks at the police barracks at Osu in Accra due to an illegal connection (connected power directly without a metre).
The task force discovered the illegality on Tuesday while on its routine rounds to recover customer monies.
Aside from pursuing people who owe ECG debts, the task force takes advantage of the opportunity to look for illegal connections.
“Since it’s an illegal connection, we have the first right to disconnect before we deal with issues.” The manager in charge of external communications, Laila Abubakari told Citi News.
The disconnection is part of a national exercise to collect monies owed to ECG by customers and to also ascertain the condition of all meters.
“The Ghana police would have to come to ECG where a bill will be generated for them covering a period of 12 months,” she added.
She stated that power would be restored once they paid the surcharge.
“The administration block also owes, but due to security implications, we’ve spared that facility while we discuss further the amount involved. We consider the police accommodation facilities (blocks) a general facility, hence the disconnection”.
Meanwhile, the ECG Revenue Mobilization Taskforce was held hostage for about 30 minutes after they disconnected the Ghana Post Company over GH¢89,000 debt.
On Tuesday, the task force was at the premises to conduct its ongoing revenue mobilisation exercise when staff prevented it from leaving the Accra main office.
The disconnection exercise is in its second week of a month-long national exercise to recover GH5.7 billion from their books.
Source: adomonline.com
General News
Pastor closes church after winning bet

After winning 100 million Ugandan Shillings from sports betting, a pastor in a local church in Uganda abandoned his church members by closing the church.
Explaining his motivation, the overjoyed pastor revealed that the lottery was a gift from God and a quick way to get him out of poverty, which he had been experiencing.
He also revealed that he established the church as a source of income rather than through anointing.
“I must admit I opened this church due to greed but not anointing. I saw how several pastors make money by having large crowds and making false prophecies to attract more,” he opened up.
He stated that running a church without a calling became extremely difficult, resulting in sleepless nights. Burdened with guilt, the pastor chose to close it and seek other sources of income.
“As time went on, I realized this was not right; I started having sleepless nights and I would always have weird dreams.
“Before I opened this church, everything was normal on my side. Even without money, I did not have any strange dreams. So I decided to abolish this and look for other ways of making money” he said.
The pastor stated that he tried his luck at gambling, putting a whopping Ush1 million on the line.
“I had to pay for these games and surprisingly it took me about a month to receive them. They told me they had issues with their system and the process of securing games takes time. I almost gave up and called them scammers but they contacted me with the details and wow! I went full swing and got odd of 700,” he said.
He stopped going to church after discovering that he made far more money gambling than he had ever made operating a church in his entire life.
General News
The Energy Ministry has not been disconnected from the power grid – ECG

The Managing Director of Ghana’s Electricity Company, Samuel Dubik Mahama, has denied reports that the Ministry of Energy had been disconnected from the national grid due to unpaid bills for power supplied.
Mr Mahama hinted that reports of the Ministry’s disconnection are just a few of the innuendos thrown into the media sphere in an attempt to divert attention away from the power distribution company’s revenue mobilisation drive.
Mr Mahama revealed on Citi TV’s Point of View that government establishments owe 15% of the GH5.7 billion he hopes to recover within a month.
He emphatically disclosed that “The Ministry of Energy doesn’t owe us and the Ministry is exclusively on prepaid meters and that is the case with most of the MMDAs and state-owned enterprises.”
“We are not going to favour anybody and our main debtors are industry, they are not doing what they are supposed to do, and they are pretending not to know that they owe us,” Mr Mahama further lamented.
The power distribution company is currently on the ground, attempting to recover debts owed to it in order to improve its operations.
Mr Mahama also stated that the company is putting in place the necessary processes to digitalize power vending in order to increase revenue inflows and eliminate long lines at vending points.
“Hopefully, in the next month or two and with my digital process, queues will be a thing of the past because very soon consumers will be able to purchase ECG credit with their mobile devices with NFC connection.
“Very soon there will be no queues, and we are going to be customer-driven and even now postpaid customers are able to sit in the comfort of their homes to pay their electricity bill.”
Source: citinewsroom.com
-
Entertainment7 days ago
It was a social experiment – Edem finally reveals the content of his NDC/NPP campaign posters
-
Politics5 days ago
Mahama and three other NDC flagbearer candidates to be vetted next week
-
Celebrities6 days ago
Cody Ko Net Worth in 2023: Income, Salary, Career, and Biography
-
Sports2 hours ago
Footballer sentenced to 12 years in prison for defiling a 13-year-old girl
-
Celebrities6 days ago
Christina Milian’s Net Worth, Age, Height, and More
-
General News6 days ago
Pastor closes church after winning bet
-
Celebrities6 days ago
Charleston White Net Worth in 2023, Age, Height, and Many Others
-
General News6 days ago
The Energy Ministry has not been disconnected from the power grid – ECG