Ghanaian Times

"SFO probes Judiciary ... over contract awards," is the lead headline on the front page of the Times. The accompanying story says a number of senior officials of the Judicial Service are expected to appear before the Serious Fraud Office for financial impropriety in the service. The Times Quoting sources, says the investigation was prompted by a petition to the SFO, last month, by some workers of a building contractor, Georvics Limited, said to be the sole electrical and construction contractor to the Judicial Service. The paper says the workers complained to the SFO that they had not been paid since July, although the contractor had been paid for the Judicial Service contract on which they had worked. According to the Times, the SFO investigations discovered that the Judicial Service authorities concerned have given all the service's electrical and construction jobs to Georvics Ltd, although the company is not qualified to be awarded government contracts. GRi

In another front page story, the Times reports that the Federation of African Women Education (FAWE) has urged the Police Service, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Ghana Standards Boards, the Pharmacy Council and the Food and Drugs Board, to investigate how a substance, the "Spanish Fly Liquid," found its way into Ghana. The substance is said to be used to stimulate women and girls sexually without their consent to make them demand sex. It is usually meant for pigs. The Times quotes Mrs Vida Yeboah of FAWE, Ghana Chapter as making the call at a forum on sexual harassment in Accra. Reports say the substance, when it is administered to a woman, draws her to a man for sex and up to five or more men could have sex with her. The paper reports Mrs. Yeboah as saying that FAWE is alarmed because of the rampant use of the substance on women, especially those in tertiary institutions. GRi