NPP to lose election if...

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) will definitely lose the next election if it makes the deadly mistake of proscribing the activities of private lotto operators in Ghana.

A renowned Management Consultant, Mr Ato Conduah, says that it will be politically suicidal to pass the proposed bill, since it will deprive over five hundred thousand people of their livelihood and, if these individuals have, at least, one dependant each, the government will be depriving itself of about one million votes.

He warned that no party can win an election by losing a million votes.

He gave the timely warning in reference to the proposed National Lottery Bill currently before Parliament, saying it is a potential bad law which is inimical to the growth of the private sector business objectives in Ghana.

In an interview with The Heritage, he said that the bill, which seeks to restructure the operations of the Department of National Lotteries (DNL), by abolishing the activities of private lotto operators in the country infringes on human rights and it is at variances with the NPP’s trumpeted property-owning democracy values.

He said that private lotto business was legalized in 1989 by PNDC Law 223, with the aim of raising revenue from their operations through taxation.

However, the bill failed to implement this law rigidly and the Department of National Lotteries is using the failure of some of the private lotto associations to pay taxes as a justification for its (DNL) own abysmal performance.

He said that, until recently, the DNL was operating weekly draws, whereas the ingenious private operators were operating daily draws, and called on the DNL to be more innovative instead of blaming their marginalization on the private operators.

According to Mr Conduah, DNL makes an average of 8 billion cedis every week and tax component of about 1.5 billion cedis which accumulates over 60 billion to the state annually and, therefore, the 40 billion cedis paid by DNL as tax annually is inconsistent with its tax obligations.

Furthermore, private lotto operators contribute to taxes and all other statutory requirements by supporting the development of the District Assemblies, creation of jobs and employment in the rural areas; contributing to the National Trust Fund and supporting retired military and police personal through the Veterans Association of Ghana (VAG).

Stressing that he was not opposed to government’s desire to restructure the DNL to make it competitive, he proposed a review of the law to rather establish an independent National Lotto Authority, which would supervise the DNL as well as the private lotto operators and serve as an honest broker in the industry.

He said that he had spoken to some concerned parliamentarians about the issue and many confessed that they were looked after by lotto money and some still depend on it.

He cited the Suhum MP who disclosed that he cannot possibly ban lottery in Accra and go to Suhum which is a big banker-to-banker town.Mr Ato Conduah is a Consultant for the Private Lotto Operators in Ghana.

Meanwhile, Parliament did not pass the National Lotteries Bill since it will need s Supplementary Bill that will establish the National Lottery Authority before the operations of the National Lotteries can be defined to know their command structure and also to overhaul the operations of private lotto business.