Ghana is having a toxic love affair with plastics

Ghana has a troubled relationship with single-use non-biodegradable plastics; the ones we barely use but toss as waste into wherever. As if we’ve sold our conscience and soul to plastics, we’ve allowed it to gain a grip over our lives and we can’t seem to shake it off. We’re on a path of destruction with the continuous use of these things that do not melt to become one with nature. It appears that we would rather prefer to hold on to this dysfunctional toxic love affair with plastics until they destroy us. We’re so much in love with the convenience and money-making opportunities of plastics to the point that our leaders are eager to delay filing for divorce from the little monsters.

Enters ‘From plastic waste to cash’ campaign:

Last Friday May 18, the Vice President John Dramani Mahama sweet-talked Ghana about plastics, contrary to his previous position of a possible ban. He was at one of those speech-making events. This time, it was to launch a programme with the theme, “From plastic waste to cash.” In his speech, he



cautioned us all, according to a GNA statement, “......that government would introduce stringent measures against the production of plastic materials if no substantial improvement in attitude was recorded after six months of nationwide public education on its menace.” Fair enough. We’ve been cautioned! Or maybe it’s just a sad joke?

In effect, the VP told us, Oh, let’s wait small before we take a bold decision to ban plastics. After all, people can make money from plastics! We should give our many unemployed youth the chance to collect plastic waste from gutter-to-gutter and exchange it for cash to realise their own Better Ghana Agenda! What VP Mahama should have said in plain words is: You see, folks – this is an Election Year so we must necessarily delay taking a bold decision until later later later, if ever! Ghana can survive choking on plastics – a little longer. Votes are too precious to sacrifice for mere plastics.

We all know the dangers of our actions:

You don’t have to be a scientist to know that if we continue on this path of mindless use of non-biodegradable plastics, the future of the 238,540 square kilometres finite size of our and will be nothing but bleak. The President of Ghana knows this. VP Mahama knows this. Former presidents Kufuor and Rawlings know this. The farmer knows this. The market woman knows this. The professor knows this. Engineers know this. AMA, KMA and all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies know this. The Environmental Protection Agency knows this. The Ministry of Environment Science and Technology and its intelligent bold Minister Ms Hanny Sherry Ayittey know this.

Teachers know this. School children know this. Parents know this. Fishermen know this. Plastic bag sellers know this. Sachet water and plastic bag manufacturers and sellers know this. The unemployed unemployable quarter-baked literate youth know this. I know this. You, dear reader know this! The rich people who live in castle-like homes know this. Kayayee know this. The homeless and poor know this. The alcoholic soaked on ‘apketeshie’ kill-me-quick knows this. Ok, you get the point. We all know this!

We know that we’re doing wrong for Ghana. We know that it’s a wrong-headed act of national foolishness and that this act of commission with the continuous and indiscriminate use of non-bio-degradable plastics will result in ‘unprecedented’ destruction of our land; yet……yet….!

Last Sunday, I was in church and it was announced that three grown-up children of an elderly couple have all delivered babies. The congregation clapped; I sat confused, lost in thought and mused to my naughty myself, No wonder Ghana’s population continues to increase! The three new innocent entrants to Ghana must be busy now adding their own plastics and diapers that may not decompose long after those babies have become adults and departed this earth.

In World Bank-speak, our toxic love relationship with plastics is not sustainable. We cannot forever continue on this same path. Sooner or later, Ghana must go the bold sensible way of Rwanda that banned single-use plastics six years ago. Sustainability means that if you continue on the same path, at some point in time, sooner or later, something will have to give. I don’t know what will give. But I know and you know and we all know that something tangible will give way. The earth can take so much more of our non-biodegradable plastics.

We may have an insatiable appetite for single-use plastics that we toss into the earth mindlessly. But without being a scientist, it’s more than obvious that when we continue to dump something into the earth that the earth cannot chew, there’s no way the earth and sea and rivers will suddenly change their grand minds and decide to learn to chew or swallow plastics. Animals are choking on plastics. Fishes are choking on plastics. Plastics swim in the sea as if they’re fishes! Then, periodically, the sea vomits our plastic trash on shore and seems to say to humans, “Take your filthy indestructible monsters away!”

Without a doubt, this plastic campaign is short-sighted for standing on one leg. For something that is this much destructive, collecting them for cash is not enough. Multiple strategies must be employed in tandem. They should include reducing the use of non-biodegradable plastics, adopting alternatives when necessary; banning those that must be banned; promoting waste separation at the home front that is cued into the waste collection stream; and introducing a stiff enforcement regime even in a country that boldly displays indiscipline in all fronts.

Plastic ban must be an election issue:

But then this is an Election Year. Nothing bold and sensible will happen. But plastic ban must be made an issue for politicking. Every single vote will count on December 7. Dear reader, since I’ve no doubt that privately, you’re also alarmed and worried at the rate at which we’re dumping non-biodegradable plastics into mother-earth, look out for candidates and parties that come up with clear and decisive plans about what they’ll do with plastics.

Make this a condition for placing your precious thumb against their photographs/names on Election Day. Don’t vote for candidates who do not care a hoot about the frightening state of plastic garbage in Ghana. Use your thumb to say no to the creation of plastic cities, plastic towns, plastic villages, plastic farms, plastic rivers, plastic markets, plastic schools, and a plastic life style.

Meanwhile, we’ll wait and watch for November 18, the 6^th month anniversary of the launch of this intense public education campaign to turn plastic-waste-to-cash to measure its impact. Our eyes will not deceive us. We will know if our undisciplined bad selves have changed and we have less plastic waste in our gutters, by the roadsides, a reduction in the flying-saucer plastics; and if people are making money from collecting plastic waste, the little monsters.

The major problem with November 18, the evaluation point of the campaign, is that we will be 19 short over-heated nerve-racking heart-thumping days to the D-Day of December 7 General and Presidential Elections when the little matter of plastic waste and its potential to choke Ghana would be too inconsequential. It’s the earth and rivers and sea and gutters and roadsides that will suffer. Ouch!

Taking a walk through Konadu’s garden

 Taking a walk through Konadu’s garden

Imagining life as Mrs Rawlings

It’s easy to condemn people for what they do if you’ve not been in their shoes. But it’s not easy to be in another person’s shoes because shoes are tricky things. Ladies’ shoes are the worst; uncomfortable, wicked-heeled and not very sensible. But I feel competent to imagine life as Mrs Rawlings. Why? I love flamboyant headgears. They cover up my usually unkempt nappy hair. Without a doubt, fine headgears turn the African woman’s head into a gorgeous crown of glory; a visible halo.

History versus her-story:

The word history originated from the history of men (his-story) because it’s a man’s world. Men control the resources of society. Women give nurturing and support. When in the right environment and given the right opportunities, women can fully enjoy the fruits of their labour. The story of women should be called her-story. Women have stories too – lots of stories. Mrs Nana Ko-na-du Agye-man Rawlings has one of the most fascinating stories of womanhood in Ghana. Some of us love to hate her, but that is neither here nor there.

At the birth of Ghana, a young Egyptian woman, Fathia, was shipped off to get married to our first President, the self-styled and charismatic Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in his super-sized visionary ambition to unite Africa. After getting over the initial pain of being side-lined by the handsome Nkrumah for an almost white-woman from the River Nile region of Africa, Ghanaian women, especially the market women, fell in love with Fathia. They sang and danced to her glory, composed songs to confirm her as good for Nkrumah and spread out their cover cloth on the streets for her car to drive over. Today, she lays in her husband’s plush grave in Accra.

The parallel ends there. Fathia was for Nkrumah. But Konadu is not just for Rawlings. From the definition of her name by her beloved hubby earlier this week, Ko-na-du is for Ghana! Her name is supposed to mean that she must push on and fight to redeem her destiny – her NDC and by that, her country. That may be the problem.

Power lives on:

Let’s face it, Nana Konadu has poo-pood and pee-peed on sexism and machismo in Ghana like no other. She has given expression to the word bold in ways that tempts one to re-check the meaning of bold. In our culture, bold is not feminine; it’s masculine. The story of Yaa Asantewa is one of the most important folklores because her-story is predicated on bold. The synonyms of bold include brave, daring, courageous, audacious, gallant, valiant, unflinching, confident, brash, forward, self-assured, impudent and cheeky. A key antonym of bold is timid. We raise our girls to be timid! I’m timid!

From my knowledge of Ghana’s history (and her-story), no other woman – living or dead, has ever had half the clout (no, fraction!) Konadu has enjoyed. For 19½ years until 2001 – the chunk of the lifespan of Ghana as an independent country, Ko-na-du was a co-president of some sort with her Flight Lieutenant Rawlings hubby. She had unhindered access to power. She lived in the house of power, slept in the bedroom (no, bed!) of power. Yea, she was power.

So for much of two decades of Ghana’s 43-year existence, Konadu was an entrenched part of the country’s political system – yea, she became the system. She formed (or was crowned the founder!) of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM) that marked its 30 years of existence this week. Madam was not just the 1^st Lady. Her DWM was like a government unto itself.

Stories abound about her regarding not just being bold, courageous, audacious, gallant, valiant, unflinching, confident, but for displaying acts of impudence and cheekiness. But then, that’s the name of the game – of power, that is. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. She operated in a world of autocracy and had a unique chance to evolve from the timidity of your typical Ghanaian female into a woman of power who was not simply admired, but feared and hated. She used her unrestrained power privilege to organize and embolden women, whip up their confidence while bringing to the surface the not–then-talked-about thorny issues of machismo, child rights and women’s rights.

How do you push a cork back into a wine bottle? Tough. And that’s the problem. After she had been adored and feared for decades, somehow, we expect Konadu to vanish into the background of history? She can’t. And that’s the problem. Konadu has an unfulfilled urge to self-actualize – to become something beyond her present self. But instead of an opportunity for self-actualization, she now carries a deep hurt of pride in her heart and soul.

The NDC did not manage her-story well throughout the FONKAR games that crested at the Sunyani Congress. There, she was publicly ridiculed beyond description. At that Congress, the former law Professor who should have known better, brandished his wife about as Dr Mrs Naadu Mills, a title she had not appropriately earned. (She gave a speech at a low-cost small college in Connecticut, USA.) If I were in Konadu’s shoes, my estrogen would have erupted.

Prez Mills should have handled the Konadu mystique better. He should have learned lessons from USA’s Prez Barack Obama who appointed his nemesis, former First Lady Hilary Clinton, as US Secretary of State (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and the voice and face of America to th world. Methinks Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings would have made an excellent Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Mills administration. Hilary is an outstanding US Secretary of State. She is shining so much on the international scene. She enjoys herself and is representing America superbly.

I can vividly see in my mind’s eye an image of Konadu playing a similar role for Ghana, carrying the position on a high horse. Konadu has the finesse for such a position. She would have enjoyed it so much and represented Ghana superbly. Madam oh, Madam! Even if you dislike Konadu, you can’t deny that she’s got game! Many of us women don’t have a clue on how to be ambitious and chase after what we want. Konadu definitely does! She was thrust into the limelight with a ‘Daavi’ hair-cut and metamorphosed into a fashion icon who became the limelight and power-base.

Why didn’t President Mills give the former First Lady such a high-ranking appointment to strategically kill two mighty birds with one stone? First, this would have increased the number of women in his administration (as he promised to do, but has failed woefully!). Secondly, Madam would have been too busy to eye his presidential seat. Well, President Mills, you missed the opportunity. Ouch!

Now, she has too much time on her hands to play mischief with the umbrella, the emblem of the NDC! This is a sticky problem.

If I were in Konadu’s shoes and nurturing a deep hurt, would I have gone to this extent to scheme to disrupt the NDC? Theoretically speaking, I don’t think so. My conscience would have been pierced and I would have timidly evaporated from the scene to nurture my hurt until death. But then, I’ve never laid in the bed of power so I’m probably not that qualified to step into Konadu’s shoes. This plot will continue to thicken. And, we’ll watch with fascination as the band plays on.

dorisdartey@gmail.com

The WatchWoman Column

Published in the Spectator newspaper on 19^th May, 2012

Doris Yaa Dartey, Ph.D.

Doing voodoo maths on bank payments

Let’s just cut to the chase here. Voodoo has set in. Where? Into calculations of money disbursed from the Consolidated Fund, the account that belongs to us all – into which cocoa money, gold money, oil money, tax money, loan money, gift/grant money and everything-that-comes-in money is deposited. And…..from which expenditure for road money, salary money, hospital money, education money, public toilet money, poverty alleviation (sorry, poverty reduction!) money, thievery money and everything-that-goes-out money is withdrawn.

Specifically, why is it that there is no agreement on the amount of money paid out to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome? Three different figures have been bandied around. In fairness to the children of Ghana, we the adults of Ghana must get the maths right because our irresponsible debts have repercussions for future generations. If they can’t get the Woyome figures right, how then can we trust other figures from the Auditor-General, Accountant-General, Ministry of Finance and other stewards of our national purse?

The Maths Discrepancies:
Here are the different figures that have been tossed around – in a chronological order of information release. At the story’s breaking in the 2010 Auditor-General’s report, the amount was pegged at a dizzying GH¢58,905,974.13. Then, the opposition NPP joined the high-drama dance of calculations and miscalculations in the midst of denials, and came up with a mind-boggling grand total of GHc92 million. According to them, the 58 million was paid out in 2010. Then, as recently as 2011, another 34 million was paid as judgement debt top-up, bringing the total to 92 million. Fair enough!

Oh, not so fast! The NPP figure was too obscene so on Thursday, 12^th January, 2012, Auditor-General Richard Q Quartey carelessly stepped into the delicate calculus fray to do a classic flip-flop voodoo-like maths and released new figures. To accomplish this feat, he literally entered his magic calculator toolbox and exclaimed, “Oops!” – not to Parliament as the 1992 Constitution instructs, but to the mass media! In a press statement, the Office of the Auditor-General maintained that only one payment of GH¢17,094,493.54 was paid to Mr Woyome in 2010 and not GH¢58,905,974.13. That was an awkward press statement. Was that meant to confuse or to clarify? It did the former.

In the midst of the confusion, the President Mills’ EOCO probe came up with what is the most recent figure of GHc51 million. That figure seems to be settling in now and with that, not much reference is being made to erstwhile 17 million, 58 million and 92 million. It’s so confusing.

Enduring Question: Was the total amount paid out to Mr Woyome 17, 58 or 51 – millions, that is! We The People of Ghana at this point must be told, without any more game-playing, exactly how much was paid. Why is the mathematics so difficult? For instance, does the Auditor-General disagree with the EOCO’s maths after he has clearly disagreed with himself and his own original calculations? Hmm!

The folks at the Ministry of Finance, especially Dr Kwabena Duffuor should by now come out to inform Ghanaians of the total money he released from the Consolidated Fund to Mr Woyome. His two able deputies – ahh, principally, the outspoken feisty Fiifi Kwettey should have released this simple information by now! That act will clear this ridiculous mathematics discrepancy at the marketplace.

Taflatse ten times, what is so difficult and complicated about doing a simple subtraction of hard cash from our Consolidate Fund? If this simple mathematics cannot be done, then it bears testimony to suspicions that the coffers of Ghana are being managed in a chaotic manner.

A Modest Proposal: Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock
I’ve a bank account with UniBank on which I’ve signed up for e-banking services. With that, the slightest activity in my account instantly triggers a statement on my mobile phone and email --simultaneously. Here is one such statement I received last week: “Debit Alert! GHC1.00 has been debited to your Account No:…on 31/1/2012. Detail: ATM Maintenance Fee. Balance: GHC…” We could adopt this model for the shareholders of the Consolidated Fund – the people of Ghana.

Another model to consider is the USA National Debt Clock. It is a clock-like devise that ticks as the debt increases or decreases. At any moment in time (to the second or minute or hour), a citizen can check on the debt status. As I write this article, on Wednesday January 8, 2012 at 05:00:05 PM GMT, the outstanding public debt stood at $15,345,007,978,608.32. For a bonus, accompanying the information on national debt is that of the estimated population and how much of the debt is the share of each citizen.

So with the estimated US population at the time I checked the debt clock, each citizen’s debt burden stood at $49,153.07. For planning purposes, this is as precise as can be. And citizens who are concerned at this ridiculous debt burden are encouraged to tell Congress or the White House.

The US Debt Clock presents a reality check for the citizenry. It is displayed in public, ‘fiili-fiilii’ for everyone to see. It doesn’t need privileged official guestimates (guess plus estimates) or voodoo maths to vomit it out through a probe instituted on a rush by President Obama in a crisis situation when all that can go wrong will go wrong (Murphy’s Law) and when one figure has no resemblance to figures presented by other government agencies. The US National Debt Clock is the practice of transparency at its best!

Since in our own sticky matter, we can’t do simple maths on what goes in and out, we could adopt a version of this clock and call it something like the Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock. It should be placed in all regional and district capitals and at places where we can all see (fiili-fiili), day and night, rain or shine. The clock must be powered by solar energy since we can’t rely on electricity or batteries! You know how we do! Ha!

But as back-up, whenever an amount of say one million gargantuan Ghana cedis (the new one; forget about the old because that is history!) is withdrawn or deposited, the information should instantly be texted to the cell phones of all of us (after all, mobile phone penetration continues to increase to super-high proportions with everybody and their mama and papa clutching on to a phone).

If we’re fools, we can decide to ignore the SMS alert. But since we’re a bunch of smart people, we could carry on conversations ‘in tro-tro’, chop-bars, ‘blue kiosks’, parties, churches, mosques, workplaces and wherever else we congregate to chit-chat. A typical conversation in a chop bar would go like this, “Eh, my brothers and sisters, last week alone, 20 million cedis was withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund oh!” “Charley, as for this one, it’s too much oh!” “We no go sit down! Walahi!”

With these two strategies combined (Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock and text messaging), We The People may be able to save our leaders (and trickster businessmen who want to do us harm) from themselves. Temptations are enhanced when you operate in the dark!

Postscript:
Apart from Mr Woyome, a mega-ton of money was paid to several others who might be jubillating over our obsession at the Woyome affair. See, Construction Pioneers must be salivating over their casino-like GHc70,071,704.99 judgement debt settlement, praying that Ghanaians will bury the stinky matter in the backyard of history. We’ll see!

Stories of technocrats amidst centralized rottenness

Stories of technocrats amidst centralized rottenness

Usually, people do things they know that they are not supposed to do because they can! Yes, the Obama 2008 “Yes you can” campaign message has a flip side. Yes, you can do things against the law, against the state, against the organization that employs you, and even against your own self just because you can!

This week, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament began sitting on a report that has gotten lost amidst the other report in which a certain Alfred Agbesi Woyome is mentioned. This is the ‘Report of the Auditor-General on the public accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31 December 2010 on the Ministries, Departments and other Agencies (MDAs) of the central government’. You can find it on the website of the Ghana Audit Service at http://www.ghaudit.org/reports/MDA_S_2010.pdf.

If you have Internet access, the website of the Audit Service is a must place for you to visit periodically to read published reports. The way things go, we must all shine our eyes. Ignorance kills. Bible-inclined folks know that people who lack knowledge perish. We should not allow ourselves to perish. It is especially unpardonable for those of us who have the privilege of literacy not to remain vigilant and informed of documents in the public domain. If the information is hidden, we could be pardoned. But this information is just an internet click away.

How are technocrats keeping Ghana?

The more I study such reports, the more I’m tempted to think that the balance of power lies in the bosom of technocrats, not politicians. The technocrats provide the cushion and platform on which the politicians function. The scars the technocrats inflict on the finances of Ghana might be deeper than we care to know. The technocrats are the pen and paper pushers and implementers of policies. They are the advisors of government (if government feels like listening to them!). They are the keepers of the purse. They are the keepers of our history, records and of institutional memories. In effect, technocrats are the keepers of Ghana. How are our technocrats keeping Ghana?

In his transmittal letter to the Speaker of Parliament for this report, the Auditor-General Richard Q. Quartey, profoundly states: “Despite my previous comments regarding MDAs’ failure to comply with the Financial Administration Act with respect to the preparation and submission of financial statements, the problem still persists.” Wow! Is there a systemic failure?

The MDAs do not comply with the law because they can afford not to, with impudence. By this statement, the A-G is admitting that he doesn’t like this solid status quo; and especially, that it’s not good for Ghana. So whose fault is it that “the problem still persists?” In a concluding statement, he said, “I am not satisfied with the litany of financial irregularities which are exhibited yearly by MDAs. I therefore strongly recommend that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning develops a code of ethic for the Public Service to ensure proper, effective and efficient use of the funds.”

Meet one of such technocrats in the A-G’s 2010 report:  “An audit disclosed that between October 2008 and June 2010, the Volta Regional Director of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, Mr Christian Sekyi, misappropriated GH¢542,919.00 being unclaimed salaries and pensions which should have been transferred into the Consolidated Fund. We recommended the prosecution of the interdicted officer for the recovery of the amount.” So he, one individual, a keeper of Ghana’s purse, could with audacity misappropriate half-a-million-plus Ghana cedis? When will he be prosecuted? Are such technocrats the centre of gravity of Ghana’s (under)development?

You would expect that such reports would become game changers and put the fear of God in people. But no! Ideally, these reports must be seen as gifts to Ghana, to throw the searchlight on our dark corners, name and shame, and to straighten the crooked. These reports, treated properly, would become the equivalence of national tongue-lashing.

The Ministry of Health’s financial rottenness:

Today, I will throw the searchlight on some disturbing stories in this aforementioned report to highlight the state of rottenness in the Ministry of Health. Without good health, we’re nothing. Yet, our lousy health care delivery system remains a death trap. Woe unto you if you get sick! Frightening! The Ministry of Health is being bled. The extent of wastage that is allowed to occur is heart-breaking and unconscionable against the backdrop of the reality of our low-cost health care delivery system.

So here are a few stories from health-land itself – the Ministry of Health. The total amount of money lost to Ghana in the following seven stories is GHc821,269. And there are many more of such stories.

“Due to inaction demonstrated by management and the Capital Investment and Management Unit, the Ministry stands the risk of losing GH¢46,200 being an amount paid to F.F. Construction Limited in March 2006, for the purchase and maintenance of a vehicle which was not delivered. We recommended that F.F. Construction Limited should refund the amount.” Oh, so due to lousy management, GH¢46,200 has been on the verge of being lost to a private company since 2006? If this money had belonged to an individual, would he/she allow it to be lost? Ah, the state of Ghana is no person’s uncle, mother, father, husband, wife or child!

“Failure of the management of six health institutions to take effective steps to stop payments led to the payment of unearned salaries totalling GH¢103,201. We recommended recovery of the illegal payments and the prompt deletion of the names of the staff involved from the payroll.” Who in their right business mind will pay salaries to people who have not worked? Answer: only those who do not care and/or out to destroy!

“Misappropriation of revenue totalled GH¢419,472. This condition was attributed to lack of supervision by the responsible authorities. We advised that the culprits should be made to refund the amounts and the Head of institutions involved should improve upon their supervision over the accounts department and also pursue the criminal aspects of the matter.” Who hired and keeps these lousy supervisors in their positions? If they’re non-performers, why are they allowed to stay to continue sabotaging our health care system?

“Unacquitted payments totalled GH¢46,135. The lapse was attributed to lack of supervision by management and could lead to misappropriation of funds.” There we go again with ‘lack of supervision’! Could it be that these people need supervisory skills training, or they’re just not trainable?

“Outstanding debtors which amounted to GH¢123,745 included unrecovered staff advances of GH¢42,254 and GH¢81,491 being non-payment of bills by patients. We advised the authorities to closely monitor the debts and recover the amounts involved.” Clearly, such a situation might not arise in a private hospital!

“Payments vouchers with a face value of GH¢82,516 were not presented for examination due to inadequate control over disbursements.” There we go again! GHc82,516 is allowed to get lost owing to ‘idontcarism’!

Any business that is mismanaged in the scenarios above will go bankrupt. No private hospital in Ghana can dare to be managed this way. Our health services will continue to deteriorate and our hospitals will remain death traps if this state of ‘idontcarism’ mismanagement is allowed to continue.

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Financial Engineering and Nana Israel’s wisdom

In the climb up life’s financial ladder, some people crawl, some walk and some jump.

When I was growing up, I had an uncle whose sole reason for living was to impress. He called it “show.” He had nothing much, yet had a high need to show off. The danger was that his showmanship was financed through unethical means. It was important for him to scream from any rooftop that he had arrived. Arrived where? Success-land, whatever he thought the onlooker perceived success to be. Periodically, he paid visits to the village cloaked in the appearance of success. And when he came, he really came – with flamboyant looks to announce his arrival in success-land.

Here is a description of the look of success. He wore “Bank Shoes” that I learned quickly are black polished shiny shoes, laced up for good effect. With the ground-level flamboyancy taken care of, he wore fine clothes – trousers and buttoned shirts and a coat – to complete the clothing ensemble. What really completed the loud statement of success were a large black suitcase and a bunch of keys that was not concealed in a pocket or the suitcase. Rather, the keys dangled noisily behind the back-pocket.

It was generally rumoured about that the individual in question did not have an office, or a real job. Yet, he self-described as a ‘Businessman’! My grandfather – the late Samuel Ansah Israel of Obosomase, Akwapim in the Eastern Region – described such people as thieves. From his deep sense of wisdom and well-informed vantage point, the keys, briefcase and businessman claim were buttressed on emptiness financed through unlawful means.

The more audit reports I study of the way Ghana is being managed (mismanaged?), the fresher the memories of my grandfather’s wisdom rushes down to the front of my memory. In this memory lane, I’m distrustful of bundle-key carrying folks. Although I love beautiful shoes, I shy away from wearing anything that looks like ‘bank shoes.’ But most of all, I flee when I hear of made-up professions like “Sanitation Engineer”, which is an upgraded ‘boola man’ or a Security Man who is your watchman of yesteryears with a uniform upgrade.

Enters Financial Engineering:

Is a Financial Engineer simply the modern-day equivalence of my grandfather’s perception of a Businessman as a common criminal, a mere thief? Not all that glitters is gold, right? Right!

This Financial Engineering nonsensical nonsense entered our national lexicon of professions at the close of last year. It was the professional address by which the senselessly humongous gargantuan financial bleeding of Ghana to the tune of GHc58,000,000 (or less/more?) occurred as reported in the Auditor-General Mr Richard Q. Quartey’s 2010 report. The carrier of the new profession is the now infamous but still filthily incredibly insanely wealthy Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

So my curiosity has peaked to understand what financial engineering is. Is this profession financial or is it engineering or it’s the engineering of finances? Or – is it the financial scheming of hard-core hustlers with pedigree?

One definition of Financial Engineering is: “The creation of new and improved financial products through innovative design or repackaging of existing financial instruments.” Investopedia explains that financial engineers “use various mathematical tools in order to create new investment strategies. The new products created by financial engineers can serve as solutions to problems or as ways to maximize returns from potential investment opportunities.”

Financial engineering is also known as computational or structural finance. I conducted an Internet search for academic programmes in financial engineering. The reputable Columbia University in the USA offers an MS degree in Financial Engineering. Here is the way Columbia describes its academic program.

It says, in part: “Financial Engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, the methods of engineering, the tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. .….training in the application of engineering methodologies and quantitative methods to finance. It is designed for students who wish to obtain positions in the securities, banking, and financial management and consulting industries, or as quantitative analysts in corporate treasury and finance departments of general manufacturing and service firms.”

In short, financial engineering entails going beyond basic financial instruments and designing complex products that are tailored to specific needs. It’s like the difference between a trader who buys and sells tomatoes and a sophisticated trader who pays the tomato farmer ahead of time before the harvest season. If he predicts rightly that as a result of good rainfall, the crop yield will be higher, he can pay low upfront to the farmer and at harvest time, stands the chance of making more money than the straightforward tomato seller.

Oh, you’re confused, right? Right! This is exactly my point. Now do you see the depth of my grandfather’s wisdom about briefcase-carriers who wear bank shoes, dress well, have no offices but self-describe as ‘businessmen’? So let me break it down here with this loud ‘gong-gong’ message: There is no profession known as financial engineering oooo tong! It’s a course of study and NOT a profession.

My understanding of financial engineering is that a practitioner must have a firm grasp of finance, and ideally, be able to use the power of computers to manipulate figures. The engineering part of it is the wheedling, swindling and dealing, the ability to make something out of nothing. It’s the creativity and ability to contrive and concoct and make money by any means necessary.

On the lowest totem pole of society, most women have functioned admirably as financial engineers without making claim to a title. From time immemorial, our mothers have conjured meals for families with token or zero ‘chop money’ that in any jurisdiction, must be declared criminal. But then, out mothers our magicians! Unfortunately, no one honours them with trophies!

But the high-level big-shot financial engineer under discussion here was engaged in gargantuan deals. And oh, some synonyms of the word gargantuan are: huge, large, gigantic, enormous, vast, massive, colossal and immense. Tiny and miniscule are the opposites.

Any Lessons Learned?

One day one day, the corrupt instant gratification-seeking elites will sell Ghana for cheap and keep the change, and Ghanaians might not demand the change. Education bestows enlightenment. But for some, when the darkness wears off and they see a little light, they use it ‘nyafu nyafu’ for themselves to brighten only their corners instead of the dark corners of society. Greed can swallow up conscience.

Let’s face it: there are tricksters in the system who would not stop at anything to do Ghana harm because they do not care a hoot about the common good regardless of claims of super-Christianity. Pure Fire, Holy Ghost, St Paul, Evangelistic, Charismatic claims may just be pretence.

As a society, we don’t seem to ask enough tough questions so people can come to town, make some lie-lie claims and take us for granted. And we smile back. We use titles so loosely. Such a posture spells vulnerability. I’ve always wondered when some of our elite go to the backyard somewhere and re-emerge as Doctor this or Professor that and we quickly fall in line and address them by the titles with reckless abandon. That’s how come we quickly acknowledge some people as Luminaries, Gurus and now, Financial Engineers – no questions asked. Then they take us! Case closed!

So what if Woyome crosses the Togo border and leaves this sticky stinky matter behind? INTERPOL, right? Right!

The police, CP and others took from the national soup pot

Although the Auditor General’s reports are in the public domain, most of us never read them. I started paying attention to these reports last October when the German development organization – GIZ (formerly GTZ) engaged me to moderate a panel discussion of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and key stakeholders of the Central and Western regions on the A-G’s Consolidated Account of District Assemblies for three financial years ended 31 December 2007.  I shared some aspects of the report with you in this column. Ours is a systemic problem.

The report of the 2010 Auditor General’s public account currently on heat in public discourse is the Consolidated Fund – the large pot into which our money is dropped and taken out. The Consolidated Fund can be likened to the family’s pot of soup. When the soup is dished out, some family members get more soup and meat/fish than others. But periodically, some family members (and common criminals) wake up at night to steal from the pot by dipping their hands into the soup. The remaining soup goes bad. So we must protect the pot and all its content, and push for equitable sharing.

To move beyond the Alfred Agbesi Woyome matter, let’s look at some other equally nation-wrecking matters of dipping hands into our pot of soup.

Construction Pioneers chopped 70 million Ghana!
As raw cash goes, Construction Pioneers (CP) also received some obscene amount of judgement debts in five (5) bunches to the tune of GHc70,071,704.99 in the year of Our Lord 2010, much more than the Woyome takings. Yes, CP is a corporate entity and not an individual like Woyome. Yes, CP is engaged in a lot of construction works in Ghana. But why does it deserve to dip its hands into our national pot of soup?

A kalabule sanitation company took some:

A certain CCW Ltd. took away from our pot, a total of GHc9,000,000 in three loads as settlement against the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA). On the surface, nine million Ghana cedis doesn’t sound like much. After all, what is the essence of a few drops of water when we’re discussing rivers and oceans!

But my research on CCW reveals stench. It’s a company that entered Ghana during the NDC1 administration as experts in sanitation. The hitch is that they really didn’t bring much that qualifies as money to invest. But in no time, contracts of local contractors were cancelled and Accra’s ‘boola’ management was handed over to CCW Ltd. Some equipment was purchased – with our loan. Long bizarre story…..the contract was cancelled during the Kufuor era. And, viola – Zoomlion was born!

My Internet search did not bring up this company. How can a major company that possesses hard solid balls and a good dose of impudence to sue Ghana and win nine million Ghana cedis and more (the 1^st judgment debt was paid to CCW in 2009) not be a company of any consequence and a player in the sanitation business on the Internet – the World Wide Web? Something doesn’t fly. This thing of taking loans to manage our waste for our children to inherit the debt doesn’t also fly well. Meanwhile, GHc9,000,000 later, the quagmire known as Accra waste management has not been resolved.

Police Brutalities cost us some:

Beyond the big money payments, citations of police and military brutalities, negligence and instances of power drunkenness of public officials cost Ghana a lot of money. There were instances of “Compensation for unlawful dismissal from Ghana Railway Authority”, “Official vehicle knocked down the plaintiff on the Nkoranza/Techiman highway leading to the amputation of the lower left limb”, and we paid good money “Mainly due to the negligent manner in which a demolition exercise was carried out by MOT.”

There were 13 cases in the report of police brutalities and show of power that resulted in settlements and financial loses against Ghana. Here are a few of such mentions: “Beating to death by four police officers at Tutuka-Oboase”, “Compensation to Kwadwo’s estate for his death through police brutality at Akim Ofoase”, “Compensation for the loss of life of S Danomah who was in a taxi cab when the police negligently fired into it,” “Subjecting suspects to severe beatings with belts and wires by the police at Gambaga police Station”, and “Compensation in respect of accident caused by a reckless police driver on the Nkawkaw-Kumasi road.”

The stories of police brutalities and recklessness is at once shocking and annoying, considering the fact that the institution is no longer known as the Police Force, but instead, the Police Service. Besides, the days of ‘buga buga’ policing must be over for after all, we’re in a democracy. But then, some of these police officers cannot spell democracy so resort to brutality! The cost of police brutality to the nation’s purse in 2010 amounted to GHc599,924.06. Imagine if this money had been put into the police single spine or the Titanic STX housing scheme!

In the 2010 Auditor General’s report is a story that has Asamoah Boateng (former minister of Information during the President Kufuor era) smeared all over it. You might recall the story of one Kojo Hodare-Okae. On 3^rd March 3, 2010, he was paid GHc237,558.85 as “Settlement of claims ….for wrongful transfer from GIS to GFZB.” Fascinating! If someone is transferred from one government agency to another (not fired), he could sue the same government of Ghana (his employee) and receive this much money?

Why is it that for the “Shooting by the police and military resulting in the death of an innocent person”, the family of Simon Narh was paid only GHc10,000? Is a transfer from one government organization to another more dislocating and painful than the brutal beating and subsequent death of an innocent person? I don’t understand the law but I can say for sure that something is just wrong with these two judgements. But then, life, they say, is not fair!

Ghana is at the excruciating receiving end of poor stewardship. She is not being taken good care of, as she should. She is our beloved, or must be because this is our country. Part of the content of a vessel cannot be in good shape while the vessel itself and its other contents are rotting away.

Apart from the raw cash that was given out to individuals and corporate entities, the report cites moneys that were not paid into the Consolidated Funds, the national pot. This implies that institutions prefer to tempt themselves by ignoring the large national family pot and instead, create their own small pots on the side. The total I added up is GHc16,523,367.84.

All in all, my position is that Ghana must stop going for loans. If we have enough in our national pot to be dishing out foolishly, then we must declare a time-out on loans and grants, clean up our acts and survive on what we have. Domestication at its best!

But in this public discourse on judgement debts, the one thing I’m itching to hear is a ‘boom’ speech from Flt Lt His Excellency former President JJ Rawlings. I believe he must be very disgusted. Please Sir, boom for us.