Today is definitely tough, for me, as I had to write against all odds. It’s tight, and I guess you are not going to get the same quality of art as Simpa Panyin has been known for.
Anyway, I admired the Royal Wedding, and how the couple celebrated their love. It was beautiful. They reminded me of a birthday outing I witnessed between two Angels. They held hands. They stared. They kissed, and finally they flew. Theirs was not of royal wings, but beautiful enough to call it their own.
It is this beautiful celebration of love between Harry and Meghan that should have filled this page, but for the scandals that suddenly emerged on our front pages, Nyantakyi here, KelniGVG there, instantly dislodging my thoughts, making me wonder if there could ever be a day in our lives, in this country, when we would not soil our feet.
I have been reflecting on life a lot, since morning, especially in the light of the unending scandals that plague our country. In many ways I feel we need a revolution. But which of them? Those who led revolutions, themselves, eventually lived in opulence while in office. The servants of those who vowed to protect the public purse are profusely leaking the purse.
I am told a certain company, KelniGVG, has been awarded $89million contract to monitor our telecom companies, to ascertain how much revenue government should receive out of each call, similar to the Subah deal we condemned a few years ago. How it happened that Subah suddenly transformed into KelniGVG can only be explained by our politicians who speak with both of their mouths.
I am growing weaker each day – I don’t know what I should attribute it to - despair, frustration, or just a disappointment. Nana Addo, I had a lot of confidence in you. But some of these KVIP things break me down. It does not, at all, make sense to me, to condemn Subah, then suddenly emerge with KelniGVG - they both appear reckless and irresponsible, honestly.
Sam George, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, and a former Presidential Staffer in the government of President John Mahama, has also waded into the scandal, annoyingly. He is reported to have said “the taxpayer has no business paying any private company any money for anything called monitoring because that is a calculated sham to defraud the taxpayer”.
Sam George is further quoted to have said “None of the companies, be it Subah or GVG, has the capacity to tell, irrespective of any probe they claim they have put into the telecom systems, that they can give us exact real data separate from what the telecom companies themselves generate”. He concluded by saying that “the deal signed during the Mahama government was useless, claiming all the time that Subah was contracted, it relied on the data of the telecom companies, and that the Akufo-Addo government signing a new contract is only a replication of an old contract which amounts to nothing”.
You see the problem Simpa Panyin has with you? Sam George, you were in President Mahama’s government for several years. You knew the Subah deal was useless. Yet you did not say anything. What is it that has changed, that, you are now telling us that the deal President Mahama entered into was bad?
Anyway, I agree with you. The Subah deal was as useless as I imagine this GVG one too is. When I was at Barclays, we had something we called “Start of Day”, and another we called “End of Day”. These are simple data generating actions that gave us a full picture of what the bank had gone through during the day.
The Bank’s FOS (Front Office Software) had been configured in such a way that, each day, every single transaction such as withdrawals, deposits, balance enquiries, ATM transactions, and virtually every single press of the computer key was registered on the FOS automatically.
At the end of the day when the bank had closed to customers, and every staff had entered all outstanding balances, the operations manager, or his representative, then printed the “End of Day”, which was simply giving a command to the computer, to print.
The computer automatically printed every single transaction that it was used for, including even if you only checked a customer’s account without any further action (like making a call without answer), the print out will show that you entered the account (you made a call) without any further action (without answer).
It will show the name of the staff, the staff ID, the date of the transaction, and the time of the action, including the branch/department name and ID, and whether the transaction was authorized or not authorized, whether it was deleted or not, whether it was reversed or not, as well as deposits/withdrawals and balances on customers’ accounts, including the actual text or data you entered.
I left the bank in 2007, at a time when technology was not as robust as it is today. We did not need Subah or whatever to monitor any of those. It was an automated generation of data that was verifiable. With advancement of technology, do we really need $89million to monitor call transactions, when it is so easy for the telecom companies themselves to generate every aspect of the data we are looking for? My brother, are we not finding ourselves in another create, loot and share?
Anyway, I don’t want some of these things to draw me away from President Kwesi Nyantakyi, and what the future holds for him. Kwesi Nyantakyi, Ghana’s longest serving FA president is currently under arrest. President Akufo-Addo is reported to have watched a video that implicates him in a number of ways that has implications for the presidency.
With President Akufo-Addo’s arrest warrant flying in the air, Countryman Songo, a dismissed worker of Multimedia Group, who was dismissed because of his constant corruption allegation against Kwesi Nyantakyi, has become an instant hero, as many people are now calling for his return to continue his “Fire for Fire” program on Adom TV.
I have seen Kwesi Nyantakyi rise, from the year 2005, and I am not sure if I am about to see his fall. I have no idea why Kwesi has done this to himself. The Ghana Football Association, is not for one person, so Kwesi, you should have left when the applaud was loudest.
I don’t know what President Akufo-Addo saw in the video. But for him to have instantly called for Nyantakyi’s arrest, is a good enough value, that something seriously wrong has been seen somewhere. The unfolding scandal gives me no comfort, creating the impression of money being stolen. I get the impression of women being used. I get the impression of defrauding by false pretense. I get all manner of impressions.
I am not sure if Nyantakyi has been given the opportunity to watch the video. Even if he has, he still has the chance to exonerate himself of any criminalities. We have had several examples of people who are actually caught in the act, yet they are able to give reasonable explanations as to what actually transpired. Eventually they get acquitted and discharged.
I am sure you know me to be a hardliner anticorruption writer. So I am not defending Nyantakyi in any way. If he indeed, stole some money, or used the president’s name in vain, the appropriate criminal prosecutions should apply.
But we must not kill him before his death. Anas is great. I love his work. And he epitomizes my ideal world of what good citizens must do to save our country from needless leakages. But, just like myself, and everyone else, Anas is not an Angel. Despite all his good intentions, he is capable of wrongfully implicating innocent people.
We must remember that none of the judges implicated in the previous Anas’ video went to jail. Many of them were dismissed. Some of them were suspended. Others were exonerated. What does it tell us? That not everyone implicated in the video might be a criminal. Nyantakyi might have been seen doing something wrong in the video, which is worth investigating, but that does not instantly transform him into a criminal.
Source: James Kofi Annan/[email protected]
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I hear everyone saying Anas is not an angel , Anas is not this or that. He never said anywhere that he was an Angel and he does not need to be one. He is doing his bid, his widow's mite to expose corruption. What about you? What are you doing to also help tackle an epidemic which is almost choking the very life out of our nation? Do you have an idea what Ghana's debt is as we speak today? What has the money been used for? What about the taxes we pay? What about the revenues collected ? Despite these cash in-flows there are still children learning in very dilapidated conditions and people living without even clean water to drink. Let me just go straight to the point to state that most of the money borrowed is lost to corrupt and over-inflated pricing of contracts! It is estimated the money lost to corruption in Africa is almost twice what African countries get to support their budgets! What this means is that if we can tackle corruption we don't need foreign aid or loans! That is why anyone who understands what corruption does to us should support what Anas is doing. Even if he is not perfect is he is the only practical means to tackling it: expose and shame them. It is unfortunate if innocent people get caught but again if we root out corruption they will be exonerated through due process of the law.
If we needed angels to fight crime and ensure piece and security in our nation, then we certainly must close down our police stations and ask all the policemen to go find something else to do, or discharge all the military personnel because clearly these agencies and personnel fighting crime, ensuring piece and security, gathering intelligence, all for the good of the country, are no more angels than you and I. Anas is certainly not an angel, and I'm tempted to say he's definitely not above reproach, but must he be an angel in order to qualify to expose corrupt practices and persons? Anas Aremeyaw Anas has his faults because he is human, he is flesh and blood, he has desires and emotions, just like every other person, but that doesn't in any way disqualify him from what he's doing. If the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and all those other agencies are up and performing, maybe Anas would have found something else to do in his journalism career.I pray God sends more journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas to our beloved Ghana so that corruption will be exposed more often. God bless Anas, God bless TigerEye Pi and God bless Mother Ghana!
You wrote articles in the past during NDC era (from 2009 - 2016) as if the whole country was not working. Now NPP is in power and have introduced a few policies which the implementation is in a woblling state you think Ghana is now paradise. Look here Mister, there are corrupt elements in every regime. Either the President identify them, recstrict them or kick them out of the governement completely. But if he is cozy with them, more dirt will get to him. You James Kofi Annan can not be used as a seasoned balanced voice to silence Anas and the work he has been doing to expose corruption because your friends are in the current government!
Anas is doing a great job , let's encourage him for the good work he and his team are doing.
dear james, Nice piece but please double check on what happened to some judges in Anas' video. According to Kweku baako, on Peace fm's Kokrokoo, some of the judges are in jail.
I just don't understand the messge this writer is seeking to put across. what is wrong is wrong. let's call a spade a spade. The idea that every one is not angel is not new to us, we know Aready. let's all work together to fight curruption.Anas is not an angel so he should stop fighting curruption? If you have gone for some money from your pay master to write this piece in support of the fFA boss,please go back for your cash. We have grown as a country. Of course the law is taking its course