Dr. Thompson: NDC & NPP "gang-raped" GT

A development economist, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, has noted that the very nature of the evolution of the sale of Ghana Telecom suggests that the company was “gang-raped” at various stages by managements under NDC and NPP regimes.

In his view, crass, inefficient managerial skills coupled with greed rendered GT economically fruitless; hence those who perpetuated these inimical acts should be held responsible.

He said the raping of GT under the botched Telenor management is the most incontestable case of causing financial loss to State that should be pursued anytime.

“The pale economic nature of GT is not a recent phenomenon but the cumulative effect of years of run down amounting to gang- rape. We as a country must do everything to stop the bleeding of GT,” he told an Accra civil society meeting earlier this week.

Dr. Thompson challenged those he called 'the silent partners” in Vodafone deal to come clean, since there are telltale signs that point at some powerful people around the presidency pushing the deal.

He alleged that during President Kufuor's recent visit to the UK, he was pictured on TV having audience with Vodafone officials and wondered what the president promised them.

In the view of Dr. Nii Moi, greed is what is driving the government's haste to sell off GT.

He said it defies imagination that the expanded GT with such valuable assets could be sold to a foreign company for a pittance $900 million).

“It must be driven home to the Ghanaian public that the expanded GT is very different from the old GT which only had fixed lines and a network of few mobile telephony.

According to Dr. Thompson, many of these multinationals who come to acquire state companies do so with the tacit support of their governments and this fits into their grand scheme of re-colonization of the African continent.

“The agenda now is re-colonizing Africa in a cost effective way and the focus now is buying into strategic assets such as communication, the extractive industry and financial institutions,” he revealed.

The development economist contends that the proposed sale of 70% shares of GT assets should be viewed just merely beyond the issue of profits. “It is our built assets and should be guided by our national interests,” he stressed.

Vodafone says contrary to claims by critics that it has no experience in fixed-line voice operations, it has wholly-owned fixed-line (voice and broadband) services in Germany, Italy, Spain, Egypt and New Zealand”.

Since news of the sale of 70 per cent stake in GT to Vodafone at US$900 million went public, it has raised many questions, with one of the claims being that Vodafone operates only mobile telephony services and has no experience in fixed-line voice operations.