Awuni has been paid to do the bidding of First Rand - NDC Guru

Read Article

Comments (31)

This article is closed for comments.

Read Comments Comments (31)

Zoobie-Zoobie 10 years ago

STUPID POLITICAL MYOPIA WILL KILL GHANA... the deal is rotten period.

STUPID POLITICAL MYOPIA WILL KILL GHANA... the deal is rotten period.
SGT ANANI FIADZOE 10 years ago

Fellow country men and women, we all have to understand that the political wing of arm robbers in our country the NDC does not want to be criticized as
they go about their stealing spree against the majority people of this n ...
read full comment

Fellow country men and women, we all have to understand that the political wing of arm robbers in our country the NDC does not want to be criticized as
they go about their stealing spree against the majority people of this nation for their own selfish interest.

We were not in this country, when Atta Mills removed Hon. Martin Amidu from
office for telling he Atta Mills that
corruption, if we need to stop it should begin from NDC own administration, what did we see and hear, the next day Martin was removed from office and all NDC bunch of criminals were solidly behind Alfred Agbesi Woyome for robbing the majority of this country and the Tax Payers of $52 million dollars. Every NDC so-called politicians and their supporters should be sent to Teshie or Bondase Ranges and tied against sand bags and be sent to go and meet their creator. NDC are the most corrupt, thieves, liars, rapist, deceitful, dishonest and the highest level of
incompetent fools in Ghana's political history. Why are they like that and still some senseless Cows are supporting and encouraging them of their diabolical activities being done
to this nation and the people of this country.
Zoobie-Zoobie 10 years ago

STUPID POLITICAL MYOPIA WILL KILL GHANA... the deal is rotten period.

STUPID POLITICAL MYOPIA WILL KILL GHANA... the deal is rotten period.
Zoobie-Zoobie 10 years ago

corrupt and visionless

corrupt and visionless
william 10 years ago

SO YOU THINK TUC AND SSSNIT ARE LESS PATRIOTIC THAN AWUNI?

SO YOU THINK TUC AND SSSNIT ARE LESS PATRIOTIC THAN AWUNI?
NAKED 10 years ago

The truth about what is really going on in Mali and with AFRICOM and NATO countries, especially France is a little bit like a geopolitical “Victoria’s Secret”—what you think you see is definitely not what you will get ...
read full comment

The truth about what is really going on in Mali and with AFRICOM and NATO countries, especially France is a little bit like a geopolitical “Victoria’s Secret”—what you think you see is definitely not what you will get.

We are being told repeatedly in recent months that something supposedly calling itself Al Qaeda—the organization officially charged by the US Government as responsible for pulverizing three towers of the World Trade Center and blowing a gaping hole in the side of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001—has regrouped.

According to the popular media account and statements of various NATO member country government officials, the original group of the late Osama bin Laden, holed up we are supposed to believe somewhere in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, has apparently adopted a modern business model and is handing out Al Qaeda official franchises in a style something like a ‘McDonalds of Terrorism,’ from Al Qaeda in Iraq to Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Libya and now Al-Qaeda-in-the Islamic-Maghreb.

I’ve even heard reports that a new Al Qaeda “official” franchise has just been given, bizarre as it sounds, to something called DRCCAQ or Democratic Republic of Congo Christian (sic) Al Qaeda. [7] Now that’s a stretch which reminds one of an equally bizarre sect called Jews for Jesus created back in the hippie days of the Vietnam War era. Can it be that the architects of all these murky groups have so little imagination?

If we are to believe the official story, the group being blamed in Mali for most all the trouble is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM for short). The murky AQIM itself is actually a product of several behind-the-scenes workings. Originally it was based in Algeria across the border from Mali and called itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC according to its French name).

In 2006 Al Qaeda’s head guru in absence of Osama bin Laden, Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri, publicly announced the granting to the Algerian GSPC the Al Qaeda franchise. The name was changed to Al-Qaeda-in-the Islamic-Mahgreb and Algerian counter-terror operations pushed them in the past two years over the desert border into northern Mali. AQIM reportedly is little more than a well-armed criminal band that gets its money from running South American cocaine from Africa into Europe, or from arms dealing and human trafficking. [8]

A year later, in 2007, the enterprising al-Zawahiri added another building block to his Al Qaeda chain of thugs when he officially announced the merger between the Libyan LIFG and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM).

The LIFG or Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was formed by a Libyan-born jihadist named Abdelhakim Belhaj. Belhaj was trained by the CIA as part of the US-financed Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the 1980s alongside another CIA trainee then named Osama bin Laden. In essence, as the journalist Pepe Escobar notes, “for all practical purposes, since then, LIFG/AQIM have been one and the same – and Belhaj was/is its emir.” [9]

That becomes even more interesting when we find that Belhaj’s men – who, as Escobar writes, were at the forefront of a militia of Berbers from the mountains southwest of Tripoli, the so-called Tripoli Brigade—were trained in secret for two months by US Special Forces. [10]

LIFG played a key role in the US and French-backed toppling of Libya’s Qaddafi, turning Libya today into what one observer describes as the “world’s largest open air arms bazaar.” Those arms are reportedly flooding from Benghazi to Mali and other various hotspot targets of destabilization, including, according to what was suggested at the recent US Senate Foreign Relations testimony of outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by the boatload from Libya to Turkey where they were being channeled into the various foreign terrorist insurgents sent into Syria to fuel the destruction of Syria. [11]

Now what does this unusual conglomerate globalized terror organization, LIFG-GPSC-AQIM intend in Mali and beyond, and how does that suit AFRICOM and French aims?
LYDIA 10 years ago

WE INDEED HAVE CRIMINALS IN POWER AS THE NDC IS SERIOUSLY SPEAKING OUT FOR FORTIZ AS IF FORTIZ IS A NATIONAL ASSET AND AS IF FORTIZ IS FOR GHANA GOVT......SO IS THIS WHAT JJ RAWLING KILLED GHANAIANS FOR.....JUST TO COME AND C ...
read full comment

WE INDEED HAVE CRIMINALS IN POWER AS THE NDC IS SERIOUSLY SPEAKING OUT FOR FORTIZ AS IF FORTIZ IS A NATIONAL ASSET AND AS IF FORTIZ IS FOR GHANA GOVT......SO IS THIS WHAT JJ RAWLING KILLED GHANAIANS FOR.....JUST TO COME AND CREATE AND EVEN MORE CORRUPT GHANA...GOD WILL CERTAINLY PUNISH THE NDC AND ALL ITS FOLLOWERS FOR DESTROYING GHANA THRO THEIR GREED AND THIEVERY.
Aban 10 years ago

Mr. Awuni has been paid to do the bidding of First Rand as mr Gabby Asumeng has been bribed by Mahama and his Fortiz to do their bidding for them

Mr. Awuni has been paid to do the bidding of First Rand as mr Gabby Asumeng has been bribed by Mahama and his Fortiz to do their bidding for them
Yaw Poku, USA 10 years ago

From another stupid NDC fool, no wonder.

From another stupid NDC fool, no wonder.
Eagle eye 10 years ago

IF WE HAVE PEOPLE LIKE GABBY ASSUMENG AT THE HELM OF AFFAIRS IN THE COUNTRY, HOW CAN THE NATION DEVELOP?
IF YOU HERE SOME OF THEM SPEAK, O MY GOD, IT MAKES YOU CRY FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND THE PRESENT GENERATION
I ...
read full comment

IF WE HAVE PEOPLE LIKE GABBY ASSUMENG AT THE HELM OF AFFAIRS IN THE COUNTRY, HOW CAN THE NATION DEVELOP?
IF YOU HERE SOME OF THEM SPEAK, O MY GOD, IT MAKES YOU CRY FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND THE PRESENT GENERATION
I KNOW BELIEVE THERE ARE MORE IDIOTS IN NDC THAN NPP
BAD LEADERSHIP COS THE PRESIDENT IS HAPPY FOOLS LIKE ASSUMENG WLD BE THERE TO DEFEND HIM, AND THE CHIEF GREEDY BASTARD RAWLINGS WLD NOT SEE ANYTHING BAD ABT THIS DEAL COS HE IS THE BENEFITOR TO THIS BANK
SHAME ON YOU EVERYONE INVOLVE IN THIS DEAL,
Law 10 years ago

NDC interest you see they all coming out CONFIRMING THE DEAL IN FORTIZ

NDC interest you see they all coming out CONFIRMING THE DEAL IN FORTIZ
Cocoakraachi 10 years ago

This is very absurd utterance. We have to look at things objectively. We need to stand against corruption and graft at any rate and these politicians wont allow corruption to be tackled because they are all corrupt. Its a sha ...
read full comment

This is very absurd utterance. We have to look at things objectively. We need to stand against corruption and graft at any rate and these politicians wont allow corruption to be tackled because they are all corrupt. Its a shame. I am Ghanaian but if I feel the process is unfair to First Rand, we should all condemn it and demand the right and fair thing be done. Ghana cannot be a safe-haven for corrupt. These kinds of utterances stink very badly
Reality 10 years ago

Andrew Awuni is himself a SSNIT contributor and does not need any one to appoint him to fight the fraudulent intended sale of Merchant Bank to NDC corroborators.

Andrew Awuni is himself a SSNIT contributor and does not need any one to appoint him to fight the fraudulent intended sale of Merchant Bank to NDC corroborators.
concern ghanian 10 years ago

WHEN THE MAHAMAS IS GIONG TO PAY THEIR DEPT?

WHEN THE MAHAMAS IS GIONG TO PAY THEIR DEPT?
concern ghanian 10 years ago

SELL MAHAMA PLANE TO PAY THE DEPT

SELL MAHAMA PLANE TO PAY THE DEPT
Koo Nimo 10 years ago

Mr Gabby Assumeng you have made a very serioud allegation but you have not produce any evidence to support what you have said

Mr Gabby Assumeng you have made a very serioud allegation but you have not produce any evidence to support what you have said
fredsaid 10 years ago

You people have a bad habit of making wild allegations not based on any facts. Where is your evidence?

You should be sued for this propaganda allegations.

You people have a bad habit of making wild allegations not based on any facts. Where is your evidence?

You should be sued for this propaganda allegations.
Wisdom 10 years ago

Please please please, leave this kind of politics for NPP to do. NDC is not know for these kind of baseless accusations. If you have have reasons to suspect that, you should go ahead and outline those reasons. Such speculatio ...
read full comment

Please please please, leave this kind of politics for NPP to do. NDC is not know for these kind of baseless accusations. If you have have reasons to suspect that, you should go ahead and outline those reasons. Such speculations do not auger well for our system.
MAHMOOD 10 years ago

Send this post to your Pastor, church members, mosque, Chief IMANI, the Military CDS, The Navy Commander, the local assemblyman, legislator,(MP), local newspaper vendor, News editors, local and international, share on your wa ...
read full comment

Send this post to your Pastor, church members, mosque, Chief IMANI, the Military CDS, The Navy Commander, the local assemblyman, legislator,(MP), local newspaper vendor, News editors, local and international, share on your walls, inbox as many friends to share on facebook, google+,

IMANI ALERT TO PRESIDENT MAHAMA: HOW GhS 1.2bn ($500M) TIER 2 PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS MAY BE INVOLVED IN THE CONTROVERSIAL FORTIZ-MERCHANT BANK SALE SAGA

The Merchant Bank Allegations

There are serious allegations that the Bank of Ghana has made some of the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA), Tier 2 PENSION funds being held at BoG) to Fortiz to purchase Merchant Bank. The TPFA would have accrued Ghs 1.3bn in the past three years that it had not been remitted to contributors’ Corporate Trustees. There are common denominators in the Fortiz-Merchant Bank saga and the TPFA. Mr. Mawuli Hedo is a Director of Both Fortiz and First Bank, the Scheme Administrators of the Temporary Pension Fund Account being held at the Bank of Ghana. Obviously, another interesting common denominator in all this is the Bank of Ghana itself. They are once Custodial Bank holding the TPFA. Is it true that they have made the TPFA available to Fortiz in their quest to purchase Merchant Bank? Doesn’t the Ghanaian pension contributor have the right to know?

Alas, the state’s Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is another common denominator. SSNIT has been the collection vehicle of the Tier 2 since January 2010 when the implementation of the three-tiered pension system started. This they did till October 2012 – for some companies. All companies that have yet to select a licensed trustee to run their Tier 2 contributions still pay to SSNIT. Again, SSNIT is the majority shareholder of Merchant Bank. The more one knows, the clearer it looks what exactly is happening.

Though NPRA indicated that it was going to invest TPFA in Treasury Bills pending the registration of Pension Schemes, provisional statements released by NPRA in October 2012 indicated a return on investment of 2.75% per annum. This is disappointing given that the average Treasure Bill returns between January 2010 and October 2012 is around 15% per annum. Additionally the same provisional statement covered a period of 18months instead of the 34 months period (January 2010 to October 2012) over which contributions had been made into the TPFA.

The NPRA did indicate, in their Public Notice on their website in October 2012 that accrued benefits and contributions paid into the TPFA would be remitted to Trustees chosen by employers, starting January 2013. This has not happened up till now.

One of the serious implications of this situation is that people who were 54 years and younger when implementation started in January 2010 WILL NOT get the full value of their lump-sum benefits, upon retirement at 60. Thus all Ghanaian workers - both private sector or public sector workers - who were 54 years old or younger as at January 2010 will not get their full lump-sum benefits from Tier 2 Pension Schemes as NPRA is still holding on to 34 months of workers contributions and accrued benefits. There is no word from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority as to when these funds will be paid to the contributors or even how it will be paid.

Background

In September 2009, the Board of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) was set up to oversee the implementation of the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766). The Act seeks to create a unified pension system under a three tiered pension structure, with SSNIT as the manager of the First Tier, and Approved Trustees (Corporate & Individual Trustees) as operators of the mandatory Tier 2 and Voluntary Tier 3 schemes.

In January 2010, the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) was set up to provisionally administer Tier 2 contributions pending the licensing of Trustees and the registering of Pension Schemes. Employers, from January 2010, remitted 5% (Tier 2 contributions) of their employees’ salaries to the TPFA. This continued for most employers till October 2012. First Bank was appointed by to be the Administrators of the TPFA, with Bank of Ghana serving as the Custodial Bank. NPRA itself, acting ultra-vires of the Pensions Law, acted as the Fund Managers of the TPFA.

In October 2011, the NPRA issued the needed administrative guidelines to make way for the full implementation of the Act. Private companies - Corporate Trustees, Fund Managers and Pension Fund Custodians - purposely established to fully administer the Tiers 2 and 3 schemes were licensed by the NPRA on March 16, 2012.

The NPRA finally, after almost 3 year wait without much information to workers and service providers, registered Pensions Schemes at the end of October 2012. Full implementation under of the reforms - Act 766 - thus started in November 2012.

What the Law Says
Section 218(4) says that the Board of NPRA shall within 90 days of licensing Pension Fund Managers, Pension Fund Custodians and Trustees, compute and transfer the accrued contributions and returns in the TPFA to Occupational Pension Funds opened by Trustees of employers’ choice and registered by NPRA. Pension Fund Managers, Pension Fund Custodians and Trustees have been licensed since March 16th 2012, over 18 months now, and yet it took the NPRA till end if October 2012 to register Schemes. The NPRA has not complied with Section 218(4).

Conclusion and Recommendation
With everything going on, we recommend that:

1. All activities of the TPFA should be audited by an external auditor.
2. Accrued contributions in the TPFA should be transferred into registered Tier 2 Pension Schemes selected by the various employers.
3. Bank of Ghana should submit a report on its stewardship of the TPFA.

Send this post to your Pastor, church members, mosque, Chief IMANI, the Military CDS, The Navy Commander, the local assemblyman, legislator,(MP), local newspaper vendor, News editors, local and international, share on your walls, inbox as many friends to share on facebook, google+,
zomabi 10 years ago

ARE U DOING THE RIGHT THING SELLING THE BANK TO FORTIZ. WE DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR INSINUATIONS. WE KNOW GOVT COMMUNICATORS DONT KNOW HOW TO TALK.

ARE U DOING THE RIGHT THING SELLING THE BANK TO FORTIZ. WE DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR INSINUATIONS. WE KNOW GOVT COMMUNICATORS DONT KNOW HOW TO TALK.
Yaw Kusi 10 years ago

The myopic Andy Awuni should take his former boss, President Kuffour to court over the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone and Ghana Airways. Is Andy Awuni doing this because he suspects NDC businessmen are owners of Fortiz? Fi ...
read full comment

The myopic Andy Awuni should take his former boss, President Kuffour to court over the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone and Ghana Airways. Is Andy Awuni doing this because he suspects NDC businessmen are owners of Fortiz? First, it was being rumoured that the Ahwois are the owners of Fortiz. Later, when it emerged that Fortiz is owned by a hardworking real estate mogul from Aburi Akwapim and others unknown in NDC, Andy Awuni and his NPP skinpain people changed gear, and are still driving in wrong gear. They talk about corruption, because their party is not in power, and forgetting that corruption is the brain-child of the NPP. Definitely, he has an ulterior motive for doing what he is doing, including his palms, having been greased. Opposite men of society.
Nana O-A, Virginia, USA 10 years ago

It does not matter who buys the Bank, but the circumstances leading to the sale matters most. I don't understand why the was not given to the highest bidder. Does it make sense? Whether Awuni has been paid by First rand is no ...
read full comment

It does not matter who buys the Bank, but the circumstances leading to the sale matters most. I don't understand why the was not given to the highest bidder. Does it make sense? Whether Awuni has been paid by First rand is not important. Can Yaw Kusi explain why they offered the sal of the Bank to the lowest bidder? This is not politics. It is just common sense. Let common sense prevail in this matter. The right thing must be done, period!.
Pround pepeni. 10 years ago

When SPACEFON was sold for a reported $6 billion, Ghana telecom a much bigger company was sold for less than $1 billion. How many workers were involved? Yet the Merchant bank is paining some people so much because it is being ...
read full comment

When SPACEFON was sold for a reported $6 billion, Ghana telecom a much bigger company was sold for less than $1 billion. How many workers were involved? Yet the Merchant bank is paining some people so much because it is being done under the NDC. We have such a bunch of hypocrites in this country. The difference between the Fortiz and Rand deals in straight monetary terms is not much. Compare this to what happened with Ghana telecom. Fortiz is a Ghanaian company after all!
Hazor 10 years ago

Ma calling on Mr Andrews Awuni to sue Gabby Assumeng to prove that he Awuni receive bribe from First Rand to do the bidding for them potray Mr Awuni as corrupt and assissination of character not trust worthy for seeking his o ...
read full comment

Ma calling on Mr Andrews Awuni to sue Gabby Assumeng to prove that he Awuni receive bribe from First Rand to do the bidding for them potray Mr Awuni as corrupt and assissination of character not trust worthy for seeking his own interest.The Attack on Mr Awuni by Gabby Assumeng has destroy both Mr Awuni and First Rand reputation has to prove his allegation that Mr Awuni has been paid.Awuni your reputation has been destroy so sue this idiot and next time he learn how to talk.
Teyers 10 years ago

Gabby Asuming is one of the most imbecilic joker NDC has turned loose on poor Ghana, I let my fingers do the walking when I tune in to a radio station and he happens to be on a talk show. To think our hard earned taxes pays f ...
read full comment

Gabby Asuming is one of the most imbecilic joker NDC has turned loose on poor Ghana, I let my fingers do the walking when I tune in to a radio station and he happens to be on a talk show. To think our hard earned taxes pays for this guy's dribble.......God help our motherland Ghana, too many of his ilk running roughshod ....
Obibini Kwame, Santa Maria. 10 years ago

Essuming, are you not ashamed of what you have said. The NDC has lost its credibility to the extent that they do not even realize when they say things that disgrace them. I am disappointed.

Essuming, are you not ashamed of what you have said. The NDC has lost its credibility to the extent that they do not even realize when they say things that disgrace them. I am disappointed.
kankanyame 10 years ago

Mr Awuni has not been paid.he is trying to stop u thives to steal the bank from ghana people.why must u sell the bank?mahama is quiet saying nithing, right? your all in together tosteal bank including jj d fooklish man.

Mr Awuni has not been paid.he is trying to stop u thives to steal the bank from ghana people.why must u sell the bank?mahama is quiet saying nithing, right? your all in together tosteal bank including jj d fooklish man.

Awuni has been paid to do the bidding of First Rand - NDC Guru

Read Comments .st0{display:none;fill:#14BDD3;} .st1{display:none;} .st2{display:inline;fill:#FC0F0F;} .st3{display:inline;fill:#FFFFFF;} .st4{display:inline;fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:6;stroke-miterlimit:10;} Comments (31)

Read Comments Comments (31)