Stevanovic, third Serbian to become Ghana coach

The Serbian, Stevanovic Goran has been confirmed by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as the new head coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars, the FA’s website says.

According to the report Goran and officials of the GFA agreed to the details of the contract and was finalized Monday January 10 2011.

Stevanovic will be outdoored at a news conference at 10:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Stevanovic is the third Serbian in a row to become head coach of the Black Stars after Ratomir Djukovic and Milovan Rajevac.

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana cautioned against corruption of oil

Ghana has been cautioned to take measures to manage the country’s new found oil revenue and use it for development.

A Reuters report titled “Risk to Watch in Africa 2011”, says the rise of corruption would be a source of worry for firms that are coming into the country to take advantage of the natural resources since Ghana has began oil production.

“Until now, the West African country has won itself a good reputation for transparency but politicians are still divided over how to use revenue from its Jubilee Field”, the report said in reference to Ghana.

“Any perceptions of deepening corruption would take the shine off what had been seen as one of Africa’s leading success stories,” it added.

It said even though access to economic activity continued to increase in Africa according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation survey in October 2010, good governance for the first time declined driving some investors away. China however has increased its investment and aid to the continent.

Ghana started its first commercial oil production in December 15, 2010.

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com

I don’t think military intervention will bring peace to Ivory Coast – Mills

President John Atta Mills says he does not believe that military intervention in the Ivorian crisis will bring peace to that country.

President Mills said this in a meeting with the Ghanaian media in Accra Friday January 7, 2011 to mark his second year in office.

According to President Mills a military intervention would not only create problems for Ivory Coast but also for Ghana.

He said he is concerned about the safety of the one million Ghanaians in Ivory Coast. He also made reference to the four Ghanaians that are being detained for suspicion of being mercenaries in that country.

In the president’s view, Ghana “must mind its own business.” Adding that Ghana has its own internal problems.

A political stand-off in Ivory Coast as a result of an election run-off dispute has left the country with two presidents. Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leader Allasane Oauttara all claim victory, declaring themselves presidents.

The West Africa grouping ECOWAS had threatened the use of military force to remove Gbagbo from office, if he refuses to step down through peaceful means, and install Ouattara who the international community believe is the legitimate winner of the election run-off of November 28, 2010.

The tension has resulted in the killing of about 200 people and about 20,000 Ivorians have been forced into exile in Liberia.

Ouattara however, has been calling for military intervention to remove his opponent from the Presidential Palace.

The Gbagbo administration is facing international sanctions. The World Bank has suspended all aid to Ivory Coast, and economic sanctions have also been imposed on the government of Gbagbo. Members of his government also have travel bans imposed on them.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
ghanabusinessnews.com

Tullow Oil hits gas at Tweneboa-3 well

Tullow Oil says Monday that it has hit gas in Ghana, barely one month after it began commercial production of oil in the country.

In a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the leading oil producer in Ghana, Tullow Oil says its Tweneboa-3 appraisal well in the Deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana has successfully encountered gas condensate in excellent quality sandstone reservoirs.

According to Tullow, results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids, together with the well’s down-dip position confirms the Greater Tweneboa Area resource base potential.

The well which is located over six kilometres south-east of the Tweneboa-2 well and 12 kilometres south-east from the Tweneboa-1 discovery well, was planned with two deviated boreholes to test separate areas of the Tweneboa field.

The first leg was drilled to calibrate the potential of an area with a very weak seismic response. Within prognosis, this leg encountered thin reservoir sands and approximately 9 metres of gas condensate pay, it says.

The well was then sidetracked 550 metres west, targeting the significant Ntomme anomaly, an area of strong seismic response. This leg successfully encountered a gross vertical reservoir interval of approximately 65 metres containing 34 metres of net gas condensate pay in two zones of high quality stacked reservoir sandstones.

Tullow indicates that work is underway to integrate seismic, pressure and hydrocarbon phase data in order to progress development options for the Tweneboa and Enyenra (Owo) fields in the Greater Tweneboa Area.

Tweneboa-3 was drilled by the Deepwater Millennium drillship to a total depth of 3,906 metres in a water depth of 1,601 metres. On completion of operations, the well will be suspended for future use in the field development.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
ghanabusinessnews.com

Ghana eligible for another Millennium Challenge compact

Ghana has been selected by the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors as eligible to develop proposals for compacts. This is the second time Ghana would be getting the compact.

The country would however, have to write a proposal to secure the funds.

The Board selected Ghana and Georgia Wednesday January 5, 2010, Georgia at its first meeting since President Barack Obama became president of the United States.

These second compacts are contingent on successful completion of first compacts, continued good policy performance, development of proposals that have significant potential to promote economic growth and reduce poverty, and availability of funding, the MCC said on its website.

Ghana received the first compact in February 2007. The country received a total of $547 million. Projects under the MCC compact are managed by the Ghana Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and should be completed in February 2012.

MiDA projects operate in 30 districts. There are five in the Northern zone, 16 in the Southern zone and nine in the Afram Basin zone.

MiDA has made investments into road construction, agricultural transformation, transportation, rural development, water provision, electricity expansion and construction and rehabilitations of irrigations dams.

Some of the roads being constructed under MiDA include the Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam road and the Tetteh Quarshie-Apenkwa Dual Carriageway.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
ghanabusinessnews.com

Dealing with corruption in Ghana football – An urgent need

The President of FIFA Sepp Blatter says he wants to set up an anti-corruption committee to police the world football governing body.

Mr. Blatter would have us believe that he wants to lead us into “a new age of transparency” at FIFA following the recent furore over the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments respectively.

The FIFA boss was speaking to a Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung as he continues his campaign to defend the football governing body after a strong public backlash.

The pessimists will still consider the move as another attempt to throw dust into the eyes of the world, and would wait for further clarifications on the powers and objectives of the new anti-corruption body.

The fact remains though that FIFA is looking at having an internal mechanism to investigate corruption within its own corridors after a major storm.

Given the perceptions of corruption that hound the Ghana Football Association, will they take a leaf from what the FIFA boss is proposing in order to eradicate such concerns?

The Ghana situation

Ghana football seems to be recovering slowly from the shock of the raid on its offices by the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) late last year.

For neutrals, news about the visit of the President of the Ghana Football Association Kwesi Nyantakyi and his General Secretary Kofi Nsiah to the EOCO office last week came as a welcome relief.

The meeting confirmed earlier reports from the corridors of power that the two bodies had started engaging in healthy discussions after the infamous raid on the GFA’s headquarters on December 8, 2010. And this might just signify a thawing of relations between the two bodies, at least hopefully.

The people of Ghana and the world at large can only wait with baited breath to see what the final outcome of the investigation will be into alleged breaches of the nation’s tax and financial laws.

But wait a minute, let’s not count our chicks before they hatch, because it will be better to look at the bigger issue of corruption in Ghana football and see whether the FA’s internal mechanism for checking the canker is actually working.

Ketu Stars petition GFA

The owner of Ketu Stars, Abdul Kadiri Aleru on November 25, 2010 petitioned the Ghana Football Association to investigate the alleged “rot in the running of the game in our great Volta Region by the Regional Football Association (VRFA).”

The petitioner is asking for the accounts of the Regional Football Association to be audited since according to him the RFA has never presented audited accounts for the past nine years, in breach of the GFA’s statutes.

According to Abdul Kadiri, an attempt by the RFA to pass a “bogus” account at the Association’s last Congress on November 4, 2010 was rejected by members of congress.

The petitioner, it seems, is alarmed at the lack of sports development in the region especially football.

When contacted, the chairman of the Volta Regional Football Association Francis Dogbatse admitted that his outfit has not been able to present audited accounts since 2001 due to the high cost of auditing.

Mr. Dogbatse, who got re-elected as RFA boss in 2005, claims that the last Congress accepted the accounts of the Association on condition that subsequent accounts will be audited.

“The past has been wronged but congress decided to let this one go and subsequently try to rectify it,” he said.

It is noteworthy that under the GFA statutes, Article 49.5 says an RFA “shall hold Annual Congress of representatives of its constituent members to receive and consider among other matters, reports of the Regional Executive Committee including audited financial statements.

The Volta Regional Football Association situation might not be an isolated case at all because there have been other reported cases like that in the recent past, for instance in the Eastern Region.

The petitioner Abdul Kadiri Aleru has copied his petition to the Economic and Organised Crimes Office as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

GFA’S anti-corruption agencies

So are the FA’s internal anti corruption processes full-proof?

There is no direct answer to the question posed above.

Firstly, under Article 38 of the FA statutes the FA’s judicial organs comprise the Disciplinary Committee and the Appeals Committee.

Article 42 gives the Dispute Resolution Committee the power to resolve internal disputes while the International Court of Arbitration for Sports is recognised as an independent judicial authority whose decision the FA respects.

Members of the football family however have the right to call for an emergency congress where necessary to discuss issues such as corruption when the need arises.

The FA’s accounts are similarly audited at the end of each accounting year to allow for proper scrutiny of how monies are spent at the local football governing body.

It would seem that the FA judicial machinery is well positioned to deal with most of the issues at hand.

Weaknesses

But, all is not well at the GFA despite the existence of the above structures.

The management letter on the accounts of the FA between the period 2007-2009 did recognise that there are weak financial controls at the FA.

For instance, it had to take the direct intervention of the auditor for unaccounted imprest to be returned to chest despite earlier memos to that effect by the accounts department of the FA.

It is possible that an anti-corruption unit can notice these flaws and apply the right measures to rectify them before the accounting period ends.

Division league clubs nearly boycotted the league over the slow pace of the disciplinary committee in coming out with a verdict on the bribery case involving center referee Musa Yahaya who was caught in the act with GH¢2,000 in his socks during a game last season.

The clubs smelt a rat as to the reason why the case is yet to have been heard.

Again there could be a special role for an anti-corruption unit to check bribery in the domestic league.

Several allegations about alleged corruption in the local premier league by club administrators in the past have not been investigated because of the difficulty involved in getting hard evidence to substantiate the claims.

There is no telling when such allegations will seize but they go a long way in informing the perception about corruption in Ghana football.

To sum up, having an anti-corruption unit itself might not necessarily solve all the problems bedeviling Ghana football, but the role of such a body is very crucial.

Is Kwesi Nyantakyi going to call for the formation of an anti-corruption unit? I’m not so sure about that, but it surely would send a great message to the football fraternity if he did.

By  Erasmus Kwaw

Questions on agric, employment creation, energy missing at Mills’s media encounter

President John Atta Mills met with journalists and editors at the Castle in Accra to review his government’s performance as he marks his second year as president of Ghana.

Over 20 questions were fielded and the President answered them as much as he could, but questions on agriculture, employment creation were missing from the list.

Come to think of it, Ghana’s economy is largely agrarian. About 70% of all people employed in Ghana work in the agric sector, and it contributes over 40% to the country’s GDP, and yet not a single question on the sector was asked.

The interaction shown and broadcast live on television and radio stations across the country, was the second since 2009. The event lasted for an hour, thirty-five minutes and 40 seconds.

On Ghana’s new found economic resource, the oil sector only one question was asked in relation to the sector. It was asked by a foreign correspondent – the Bloomberg reporter, Jason McLure. He wanted to know what exactly went into resolving the issue between Ghana and Kosmos Energy.

The president answered saying the issue has been resolved and both parties were satisfied. But he declined any details.

No question was fielded on how the president intends to deal with the electricity situation in the country.

There was no specific question asked about unemployment.

Since most of the questions dealt with politics, which has always been the order of the day, the president was not compelled to make policy statements but rather answered the questions with ease.

Many would wonder whether the interaction was meant to settle personal affairs between the media and president or to address serious and important national issues.

Some relevant questions were however asked. A question about the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) was asked by Haruna Atta of the Accra Mail newspaper. A question on the Ivorian crisis was asked by a TV Africa reporter, and David Amanor of the BBC Africa Service asked a question about road accidents in the country. A TV3 reporter asked a question about the recent petroleum price hikes.

Kweku Baako asked about the government’s top 50 achievements.

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com