Missing $55,000: Minister confirms Chronicle story

THE MINISTER for Lands and Forestry, Professor Dominic Fobih, has confirmed that the actual amount involved in the payment of the Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number GW 501 T for his deputy minister was $55,000 as reported in front page story of Monday’s issue of the Chronicle.

Although he did not go into details on the matter, he maintained that Mr. Broni moved the newly acquired vehicle to his ministry after he had consulted him and some chief directors on the issue, adding that it was a normal thing to do and sees nothing wrong with it.

The Professor made this known when he was asked to clarify the controversies surrounding the acquisition of the vehicle when he took his turn at ‘Meet the Press’ series in Accra.

He said government has put in place a policy on land reforms to instill order and discipline in the land market to curb the incidence of land encroachment, unapproved development schemes, multiple or illegal land sales and other forms of land racketeering the country.

He also mentioned that the policy would help minimize, as well as help eliminate, protracted land boundary disputes, conflicts and litigation in order to bring their associated economic costs and socio-political upheavals under control.

Touching on how the policy was going to be implemented in order to achieve results, Prof. Fobih noted that it will be implemented through the Land Administration Programme to indicate government’s long term commitment in enhancing economic and social growth by improving the security of tenure and simplifying the process of land acquisition by the public.

He said the first phase of the programme would harmonize the policy and the legislative framework for sustainable land administration by fostering a link to land use planning; encouraging the active participation and engagement of customary land owners and defining clear and complementary roles for land sector agencies, district assemblies, customary authorities and the private sector.

On the issue of providing raw material to the textiles industry, the minister intimated that the hue and cry by the timber industry operatives about the lack of concession to source raw material for processing has minimized since the Forestry Commission as at December, last year, had issued 575 Timber Utilization Permits to timber companies.

He said the permits were issued in addition to the existing 238 concessions already in the system, which have not yet expired, adding that the apparent shortage of timber in the domestic market may be due to reasons other than lack of concessions.

Prof. Fobih pointed out that his ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, has implemented a policy framework that encourage the private sector to invest in developing and managing tourism reception facilities in wildlife protected areas.

OPINION: If Chronicle hadn’t investigated, what then?

I couldn’t help letting out a chuckle when I read that Mr. Sampson Adjei, the Acting Chief Director at the Ministry of Lands and Forestry, went into a tantrum when he got to know ‘The Chronicle’ was sniffing around for information about a $55,000 that had been used to purchase a Toyota Landcruiser for Mr. Thomas Broni, the then Deputy Minister of Lands & Forestry.

Mr. Sampson Adjei is reported to have started screaming at the top of his voice when contacted by the Chronicle reporter on the issue, saying “why do you want to put me into trouble, I would not comment on the issue.” It looks like the presence of a Chronicle reporter is enough to put the fear of God into some people. Now, now Chronicle, do be careful you don’t give people heart attack.

But why should the mere presence of a Chronicle reporter spell trouble for Mr. Sampson Adjei unless we interpret his outburst as an admission that things are not what they seem. After reading through the Chronicle article entitled “Mr. Minister & ‘Missing’ $55K”, there was the feeling that the explanations given by the various people involved in this case didn’t quite add up.

First of all, it looks like Mr. Thomas Broni was being economical with the truth when he claimed to have left the Toyota Landcruiser at the Forestry ministry as soon as he was reassigned to the Interior ministry. The Chronicle reporter had to remind him that he was spotted in the controversial car just a week ago after which Mr. Broni admitted that he had indeed only given up the car “late last week”, thus contradicting his earlier statement.

Mr. Broni is also reported to have said that there is nothing wrong for the Ministry of Lands & Forestry to take a loan from the Forestry Commission to purchase a car for him since the amount would be repaid.

The question is, who is going to repay the loan. Obviously since Mr. Broni was the Deputy Minister at Lands and Forestry, then it is his ministry that should repay the money. But why doesn’t his ministry use its own money to buy the car for him in the first place? My suspicion is that, because his ministry had already allocated to him an official vehicle, going through that route to acquire the Landcruiser for his personal comfort might raise questions.
But of all the answers given to the Chronicle queries, the most bizarre by far has to be that given by the Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission (FC), Mr. Boachi Dapaah.

In an interview with the Chronicle, he is reported to have said that what compelled him to release the funds for the purchase of the Landcruiser was that Mr. Broni was in charge of the FC’s plantation projects and he was supposed to go around the country to distribute some items to farmers or those who were undertaking the afforestation project.

Come again Mr. Dapaah, what exactly was Mr. Broni, a Deputy Minister of State supposed to be distributing to farmers? Was it fertilizers, seedlings or cutlasses? Since when did our deputy ministers of state become errand boys to undertake menial jobs like driving around the country distributing things to farmers?

When Mr. Dapaah was asked why he did not inform the Board of the Forestry Commission but went ahead to release the $55,000, he is reported to have said that the Board of Directors (BOD) were not responsible for the day-to-day administration of the commission, adding that there is nothing wrong to release the funds and later inform the Board.
Although it is true that BOD are not responsible for the daily administration of organizations, one would suppose that certain transactions, by virtue of the amounts involved or by their legal nature, must require Board approval before they are put into effect.
Is the Forestry Commission trying to say that it is normal practice to allow its Chief Executive to enter into a loan transaction involving an amount of $55,000 (?480 million) without a Board approval?
The issues involved here go to the heart of the problems that are destroying this country — people in responsible positions not living up to their responsibilities. In the first place did Mr. Thomas Broni have to wait for the Chronicle reporter to come sniffing around before reluctantly giving up the Toyota Landcruiser, and if it was not for the Chronicle, where will this Landcruiser be parked today? Let me make an educated guess — Mr. Broni’s house.
Secondly people who are supposed to be responsible fail to follow laid down procedures. I am very sure that the correct procedure for Mr. Dapaah to have followed at the FC before releasing the $55,000 as a loan to the Ministry of Lands and Forestry was to have first sought Board approval, which he did not do.
Another recent case of such disregard for laid down procedures reported in the news media was when some of our ministers of state, in granting a tax exemption to Interberton Bv, a Dutch company, failed to seek parliamentary approval as required by law. If our own ministers and other leaders cannot abide by simple rules and regulations, how can this country expect to be taken as a serious partner when it comes to direct foreign investments?
It is hardly surprising that Ghana was ranked as one of the least attractive economic destinations in Africa as shown in a survey report released by the World Economic Forum. The criteria used in determining the suitability of a country as an investment destination were (i) the level of corruption in the country and (ii) the effectiveness and respect for Laws and Contracts.
A country, whose leaders have little regard for their own national laws, cannot be considered a safe place to do business. This is because disregard for laws and corruption are two sides of the same coin.
It might be helpful if President Kufuor, before travelling around the world to tell investors that Ghana is an attractive investment destination, makes a more serious effort to ensure that officials in his government respect the laws of Ghana and that his much touted zero tolerance for corruption is more than the empty rhetoric it is turning out to be.
Any thing less than that will only result in a waste of his time and of our money. No less a personality than Professor Gyimah-Boadi, Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Development, has expressed serious reservations about the NPP government’s half-hearted approach to dealing with corruption.
It was a bit disappointing to read the statements made by Mr. Abraham Osei-Aidoo, Deputy Majority Leader, when he admitted that the government cannot continue to ignore concerns that have been raised about its commitment to check corruption.
For example he said corruption is dynamic and the perpetrators continue to outwit law enforcement agencies. He also said people should recognize that it takes a great deal of time to investigate corruption.
He went on to say that the rule of law requires painstaking investigations into acts of corruption and the slow pace of law enforcement tended to create the appearance of low speed.
These reasons didn’t prevent the government from jailing Mallam Isa, Victor Selormey, Kwame Peprah, Ibrahim Adam etc., all of them non-NPP politicians, neither have these reasons prevented the ongoing trials of former government officials.
It is my belief that rather than do anything to allay the publics’ concern, the reasons given by the Deputy Majority Leader, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament for Tema West, will only go to confirm the perception that the government lacks the will to act when it comes to tackling corruption within its own ranks.
What are we to make of the case where the contract for extension works at the Tema Harbour worth $60 million was put to international tender and won by China Habour Engineering, but for some reason the contract was awarded to Interbeton BV, a company that had been disqualified by the German Consulting Engineers, Rhien Rhuhr Engineering?
This was after Dr. Richard Anane, the then Minister for Roads and Transport, and Mr. Ben Owusu-Mensah, Director-General of Ghana Ports & Habours Authority had reportedly flown to Liverpool on the invitation of Interbeton to meet with their representatives.
The contract was not only awarded to a company that had been disqualified but also our government officials went further than that. They granted Interbeton tax exemption without parliamentary approval as required by law.
I am not trying to impute corruption in the Interbeton case but I wish to point out something to Mr. Abraham Osei-Aidoo. People were not outwitting law enforcement agents, they are simply not following the Law when the procedure for the award of contracts was disregarded, and Parliament was by-passed in the granting of the tax exemption.
That is how corruption starts. No matter how well Mr. Osei-Aidoo thinks our security agencies need to be modernized and resourced, it will go a long way in checking corruption if leaders in this country set a good example and conduct their affairs within the ambit of the Law.
It might need pointing out that Ghanaians did not kick out the NDC government from office and vote for the NPP just to be told why it is difficult to tackle corruption. Or are we going to hear the President make another of his now famous admissions — this time, that he is sorry to have talked about zero tolerance for corruption because he didn’t know tackling corruption was that difficult?
I think the Chronicle must be commended for doing a good job in bringing out issues like what has been discussed in this article into the public domain.
It helps to ensure that politicians and public leaders are kept on their toes by the fear of exposure in cases of wrongdoing. But may I appeal to the Chronicle to go softly, softly sometimes. We don’t want to hear of the embarrassing situation where the mere presence of one of your reporters will cause some ‘big man’ in his office to wet his pants, do we?