Ghana’s Judiciary Is Corrupt -US State Department

…US State Department report submitted to Congress reveals

By Peter Kojo Apisawu

The US Government has observed that corruption is pervasive in Ghana’s judiciary including its law enforcement community.

The report specifically noted with grave concern that despite the regular arrests of suspected narcotic traffickers, Ghana has a low rate of conviction, which many officials believe is likely due to corruption within the judiciary. In its 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the US Government also hinted on the perceived corruption in the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) as well as the Police Service.

“…corruption is pervasive in Ghana’s law enforcement community, including sections of the police and the NACOB. Despite the regular arrests of suspected narcotics traffickers, Ghana has a low rate of conviction, which many officials believe is likely due to corruption within the judiciary,” it says.

The report which assessed various countries’ performance in the fight against narcotics was analysed by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US State Department and submitted to Congress on March 1, 2010. The INCSR further noted that in spite of the progress being made, corruption and a lack of resources continued to impede interdiction efforts.

It praised the Mills Administration for its commitment to fighting the drug menace in the country. According to the latest statistics released by INCSR, the Mills Government has made a lot of progress as against the Kufuor government in the fight against drug trafficking in the country.

The US Administration attributed the increase in seizures to greater vigilance on the part of the Mills Government.

It observed that the Mills Administration made more seizures of cocaine last year as against the same period in 2008.

It further noted that in the first half of 2009, 62 kilogrammes of cocaine were seized by the law enforcement agencies as against 33 kilogrammes seized in 2008. According to the report, the 2009 half-year cocaine seizure represented 89% more than the seizure made by the Kufuor Administration in the whole of 2008.

The report acknowledged the resolve of President J. E. A. Mills to stop people from using Ghana as narcotics transit corridor.

Source: Ghanaweb.com

Ghana says oil production to start in December

* First output seen in December - VP
* Jubilee field reserves seen at 1.6 billion barrels


ACCRA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Ghana is on track to pump its first barrel of crude in December but must be wary of seeing oil as the answer to all its problems, Vice President John Dramani Mahama said on Tuesday.

The West African state is poised to become one of the world's fastest-growing economies next year after its offshore Jubilee field comes on line.

It has said it is eager to avoid the "oil curse" of unevenly distributed wealth that has triggered unrest in other developing oil exporters.

"In December this year, Ghana will join the league of petroleum producing nations as commercial production begins in the Jubilee field," he told an oil and gas conference in the capital Accra. "Ghana cannot see the oil industry as a miracle wand to solve all problems."

He said the government was seeking to ensure transparency in the use of oil revenues from Jubilee, which he said holds about 1.6 billion barrels of crude, and to guarantee locals are employed in the sector.

Tullow Oil, operator of the Jubilee field, said in February output was scheduled to start in November, though the company and Ghanaian government officials have since said ouput would start by the end of the year.
The field will take four-to-six months to reach planned output of 120,000 barrels per day -- a level it will maintain for three years, Ghana's energy minister told Reuters in an interview last month.

The government has projected oil production will boost GDP growth to 20 percent in 2011, up from around 6 percent in 2010, making it one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Mahama said on Tuesday that oil revenues based on current reserves could account for about 7 percent of Ghana's GDP.

Analysts have said a key challenge for the government will be to ensure petroleum revenues benefit ordinary Ghanaians, many of whom live on less than $2 per day.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Richard Valdmanis)

Source: Reuters

U.S slams Zambia on graft after Chiluba ruling

LUSAKA (Reuters) - The United States questioned Zambia's commitment to fighting corruption on Saturday after authorities said they would not appeal a court's refusal to allow recover funds from former President Frederick Chiluba.

In 2007, a British judge ordered Chiluba to repay $58 million to compensate for money he was accused of stealing during his 1991-2001 stint in office.

A Lusaka high court ruled last week that Zambian laws did not allow the enforcement of rulings made in London, causing an outcry from the main opposition Patriotic Front (PF) and anti-corruption groups.

Information Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha said the government had accepted the Lusaka court ruling and would not appeal.

A U.S. embassy official said Zambia had lost an opportunity to prove that it was serious in its fight against corruption.

"The whole world is watching to see how the Zambian government holds all people accountable to the same standard," said U.S embassy spokeswoman Priscilla Hernandez.

"Recovering the money would have sent a strong message about Zambia's commitment to good governance for the benefit of investors, U.S tax payers and other countries that provide assistance to Zambia."

The 2007 ruling, hailed as a turning point in Africa's fight against corruption, was made in London, where Zambian officials filed a civil case to try and recover assets owned by Chiluba and his friends in Britain and other European countries.

Western donors have expressed concern about corruption and have frozen aid three times in the last 18 months.

Nevertheless, foreign direct investment in Africa's top copper producer hit a record $2.4 billion in the first half of 2010, mainly in the manufacturing, mining and energy sectors.

Chiluba's acquittal in a separate criminal case last year sparked protests after the chief prosecutor said he would not lodge an appeal as it was unlikely to succeed.

The PF has accused President Rupiah Banda, a close Chiluba ally, of influencing the courts in that previous Chiluba acquittal. Banda has denied the accusation.

Chiluba, who is still a popular figure and has launched a campaign for Banda's re-election bid in 2011, says he is a victim of a political witch-hunt.

Benin hit by massive fraud

Tens of thousands of people in the Republic of Benin have been swindled out of their savings and the fall-out from the scandal is threatening to reach the top of government.

Some parliamentarians want to have President Boni Yayi impeached over the affair.

Widespread protests have already been seen by angry victims forcing the president to sack his interior minister, allegedly involved with the company running the scheme - ICC Services.

Officials of the company have been put under house arrest.

To find out how the scandal could affect the administration, BBC Focus on Africa's Peter Ndoro first asked David Zoumnmeou, a senior researcher at the Africa Conflict Prevention programme in Pretoria, South Africa how the scheme operated.

Source:BBC

Breaking down the walls – Sudan’s oil transparency push

It was a just another seminar on transparency in the oil sector. Seemingly banal.

But this was being held in Khartoum, involving live debates between northern and southern Sudanese officials, a minerals watchdog and the international media, who were allowed free access to publicly grill those who administer what has for years been an incredibly opaque oil industry.

What emerged was surprisingly positive and all walked away feeling that — at least until the Jan. 9, 2011 referendum on southern independence — this was the first step towards finally unpicking all the stitches that have sewn the sector tightly shut to outsiders.

We are “PR stupid” said the newly appointed Minister for Energy from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Lual Deng, who instigated the forum.

He said this to explain the discrepancies in oil production and oil prices uncovered by Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation, whose report “Fuelling Mistrust — the need for transparency in Sudan’s oil sector” provoked the discussion.

These discrepancies include oil prices published by the ministry of finance web site with little clarification of how they had been calculated, even citing barrels of Sudanese oil selling for as little as 15 cents a barrel.

Global Witness also found discrepancies between China’s CNPC, which dominates a Sudanese oil sector dogged by U.S. sanctions, and Sudan’s energy ministry output figures. Those figures were easily explained as the difference between gross production and net of water, gas and solids on Wednesday.

But the fact an international giant like CNPC is publishing undefined production figures in an annual report provoked concern even from Sudanese officials.

And why did it require such an elaborate showcase to provide such a simple response? ”PR stupid”, said Deng.

After months of chasing and waiting in vain for an explanation from the government or CNPC of the discrepancies in oil output, even having the phone hung up on them by the Chinese, Global Witness went ahead and published their work.

“Next time you should just call us to verify the figures,” was CNPC’s ironic response, with the presenter who had flown in from Beijing for the forum flashing on a PowerPoint screen the email and mobile number of CNPC’s country manager in Sudan.

Just five minutes earlier that same manager had declined my request for a meeting or to share his contact details “in the interests of transparency.” One of dozens of attempts I have made over the years to extract any information from the state-owned firm.

I wonder how long he will keep that phone number.

But if you sifted through the barbed comments by Sudanese officials directed at the Global Witness reps and the attempts by CNPC to ridicule the figures, important progress was made.

Sudan said it would commit to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, to which CNPC gave its support. It also agreed to a full audit back to 2005 and the ministry said it would publish daily production figures. French oil giant Total was also given a public guarantee that whether or not the south votes to secede in just five months, its oil concession contract on southern soil would be honoured.

If all this happens, it will be a massive step towards opening up Sudan’s taboo oil sector which could convince those elusive big European companies that left during Sudan during the civil war to come back and invest.

Source: Reuters

Kosmos cancels Exxon Mobil's Ghana Oil pact?

* Kosmos Energy says agreement has been terminated
* Ghana's state oil co wants to buy stake
* Kosmos says production targets for field on track

Oil exploration and production company Kosmos Energy said its agreement with ExxonMobil to sell its Ghana business has been terminated, frustrating Exxon's hopes of entering Ghana's offshore oil sector for now.

Kosmos' deal to sell its stake in the Jubilee oilfield has faced objections from many quarters recently, including from Ghana National Petroleum Corp, the state oil company that wanted to buy the stake itself.

Kosmos, backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Blackstone Group LP, agreed last year to sell its interests in the field to ExxonMobil for $4 billion, sources close to the deal had said.

Oil production from the Jubilee Field phase one development is on schedule to begin in the late fourth quarter and is expected to rise to 120,000 barrels of oil per day during the first half of 2011, Kosmos said in a statement.

Kosmos owns the field with UK-based oil explorer Tullow Oil (TLW.L) and Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum (APC.N). It put its interest in the field on the market last year. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Hans Peters)

Zambian bank customers hit by debit card scam

The banking sector in Zambia has all its defences up following a week-long scam which has affected bank customers, some of whom have had funds wiped out by fraudsters.

Debit card holders, in particular those who use automated teller machines (ATMs) to withdraw money, are being warned to pay attention to their accounts.

BBC Network Africa's Mutuna Chanda reports from Lusaka.

Preventing credit card fraud

Anyone with a credit card is a potential target for fraudsters. As wary and cautious as you might be, it’s easier than you think to be taken in by sophisticated scams.

Watchdog carried out an experiment demonstrating the effectiveness of an old-style scam. Mock fraudsters, Paul and Alexis from The Real Hustle, showed just how easily they were able to gain victims' credit card details over the phone.

Out of the ten calls made, the hustlers managed to gain the trust of five of the targets and convince them to hand over their card details, including the all-important three-digit security code.

Methods of credit card fraud

As well as this method of 'Card-not-present' fraud, credit card fraud can take many different forms:

# When cards are lost or stolen and used fraudulently

# When cards are counterfeited or cloned (known as 'skimming')

# 'Card-not-present' fraud – which can occur online, by fax or phone using stolen card details

# Fake emails designed to elicit your details (known as 'phishing')

# Fake online banking websites designed to mimic banks’ official sites ('pharming')