[ 2013-12-18 ]

Crippled Merchant Robbed in Broad Daylight
The Season of Festivities and Goodwill to all men
(and especially women) is upon us and I should
normally be handing out the hampers to all who
have made my enterprise thrive this year and
greeting cards to all else who I really love
dearly and want to assure that I have survived
another year and preparing my resolutions for the
incoming 2014.

Alas, the economic depression that descended on
Ghana all of this year was made gloomier by an
obfuscating verdict that failed to provide further
and better particulars in the unprecedented
petition to overturn the outcome of the people’s
vote by the stroke of a pen and uncertainty about
the thumb that held it in place.

Contrary to Yuletide 2001 when I received 287
hampers on account of my accession to the most
prized public sector job in Ghana, I have yet to
receive a single greetings card let alone dream of
one bottle of the ridiculously expensive XO
Brandy, of which I got 25 bottles in my inaugural
booty. Any prospect of breaking my duck almost
certainly vanished with “Scrooge” John
Mahama’s insensitive edict that no public funds
should be spent on hampers this yuletide.

The President’s directive on hampers is unfair,
unreasonable and mercifully unenforceable. It is
unfair because he will get thousands of hampers
from many Ghanaians who have reason to thank him
for one good favour or another; including many who
petitioned him to assist in solving their personal
problems before we the masses got to know that we
could short-cut all the well crafted rules and
procedures, and simply allow the “Old Man” to
rule by discretionary powers which are not written
down as required by the supreme law of the land.

It will be unreasonable because he will be taking
away the few amenities left to every Ghanaian
living everywhere to supplement their festive
season shopping with publicly procured hampers.
And of course, as the author of a book titled
“My first coup d’état”, the President of
Ghana, ought to be very aware of the core reason
for the 2nd coup d’état in Ghana’s history,
perpetrated by General Kutu Acheampong in January
1972

Last and mercifully not the least, the
President’s edict will be unenforceable because
we the people of Ghana do not know what
constitutes the Public Purse of Ghana, never mind
what the Constitution says. On a recent episode
of Tarzan’s Take, I learnt to my shock horror
that what Seth Terkper and all those before him
have been presenting to us annually as the Budget
Estimates does not cover ten pesewas in a cedi
worth of the real money that our government spends
in a year.

Despite the explicit use of SHALL CONSIST OF in
the definition of the Public Purse of Ghana, I
learnt that all of the money that we beg from our
“Development Partners”, with the singular
exception of the direct budget support is not
included in the Annual Budget. Monies from
Peacekeeping; monies from various Arab & other
Funds for Agricultural Development; Monies for
LEAP that are diverted to expensive foreign
travels; monies for the multitude of workshops and
conferences; monies for V8 project SUVs; and so on
and so forth; are not to be found in the Budget,
even though they do form part of the Public purse
of Ghana.

Then there is all the monies collected in the
euphemistic and endearing title of
Internally-Generated Funds (IGF). These monies,
for which Parliament has just passed legislation
to increase charges by 200% for numerous public
agencies are also not included in the national
budget. We only ever get to know the gargantuan
size of these monies after its abuse has-been
exposed by the “shutting of the gate after the
horse bolt” Auditor-General report. The injury
is compounded by the absurdity that these agencies
still get subventions from the woefully inadequate
annual Budget.

The hidden portions of Ghana’s public purse may
open the flood gate for our agencies to subvert
and ignore the President’s mean directive.
Indeed, it is quite possible that he himself was
aware that his statement, as with many he has
decreed recently in the name of judicious
protection of our money, was only a gimmick. No
self respecting agency would still be ordering let
alone paying for its hampers now. The deed would
have been done and dusted at the beginning of
November and most would have been delivered before
the Presidential decree.

The hopeful and expectant wait of many Ghanaians
is in sharp contrast to the BIG and Sumptuous
hampers that have been given away or more probably
snatched by those who have assumed ownership and
stewardship of the |Merchant Bank of Ghana. For me
and I believe for many Ghanaians, the sale of this
ailing and bleeding repository of the monies that
we have salted away for twilight years may
constitute the biggest abuse and misuse of public
funds for hampers.

Please let me contextualize my position before I
deliver my punch line. Long before a condom
manufacturer was deemed to be fit to become the
first Strategic Investor under the Divestiture
Programme I made it clear that all national assets
should be sold to Ghanaians, either privately or
preferably on the nascent Ghana Stock Exchange. If
and when needed, we could and should buy the best
management expertise from the world to manage the
assets so we could bet the maximum returns for our
investments and create many Ghanaian millionaires
in any currency of choice.

That was my position on Ghana Telecom and that is
my position on the Merchant Bank sale and all
other divestitures; I have no difficulty with the
sale of the bank to Ghanaians. Indeed, I do
applaud it. However, my beef is and shall forever
remain the lack of clarity and emerging evidence
of private greed being put ahead of the
overwhelming public interests of all Ghanaians.

Merchant Bank Ghana is being sold because it has
been crippled by bad debts, principal amongst
which is that of the President’s brother. A
local consortium of seemingly Good Samaritans come
to the rescue of the disabled bank and offer to
buy it for a song and save the jobs of those who
make their livelihood from it. ; never mind the
fact that many of the same people are walking away
before they get pushed.

It turns out that the folks who are buying the
bank have very intricate and close knit
relationships amongst each other. The principal
lawyer acts for the person whose borrowings put
the Bank on clutches in the first place. He also
acts for the ‘knights in shining armour’ who
are coming to the rescue of the bank. One of the
folks who are coming with the ‘dough’ is said
to have been closely associated professionally
with the lawyer and now works as a close confidant
of a Minister in President Mahama’s government.
To compound the whole despicable saga, the same
lwayer acted for Presient Mahama in the Election
Petition case.

Now we hear that the company who was unable to pay
the debts that led to Merchant Bank having the
crutches removed that resulted in its terminal and
fatal fall, has suddenly found money to pay back
the debt it owed. The glaring and daring bravado
of this whole saga is a breathtakingly audacious
act by people who could not even pretend nor hide
their true identities and close association as.
Theirs is the biggest hamper for Christmas 2013

The Crippled Merchant Bank has had its clutches
kicked away and robbed in broad daylight. This act
of High Noon bravado has been carried out without
even the pretence of the raiders masking their
identities ala Zorro. When this cruel act was made
public, The Deputy Ventriloquist to the “Old
Man”, screamed that this was sowing the seeds
for “regime change” (the new lingo for “coup
d’état).

Nothing could be further from our minds. There are
enough false messiahs promising hampers from
heaven as they empty our pockets in this festive
season. We prefer hamper-free festive
celebrations than to start 2014 with a dawn rehash
of “even the few amenities…”

As we ponder how we will enjoy this festive
season, I trust I have managed to bring a small
smile as you ponder and wonder if you will get a
hamper or not. I do hope you do. Boys

A Merry Christmas to you all. God and Allah and my
great grandpa Okomfo Anokye willing, I shall
return in 2014. Cheers.

Source - Dr Charles Wereko Brobby

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