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05.10.2004 General News

Minister Fires Nana Konadu Rawlings

05.10.2004 LISTEN
By Daily Guide

Mrs. Gladys Asmah, the Women and Children's Affairs Minister, has revealed that Mr. Kwame Peprah, the former Finance Minister, signed blank cheques for the 31st December Women's Movement before the NDC left office.

This was to enable Mrs. Rawlings and her movement to draw down on the US $ 2.9 million that the African Development Fund (ADF) was giving them, as well as to enable the 31st DWM to cash the US $ 299,000 that was giving them as Government of Ghana (GoG) counterpart funding. She, therefore, threw a challenge to the former first lady to tell her (Mrs. Asmah), which non-governmental organization (NGO), in Ghana, had been enjoying that kind of facility.

She, once again, dared the president of the 31st DWM to tell the whole Ghanaian public how she managed to secure a loan over $ 3 million from the African Development Fund (ADF), and the Ghanaian Government for her 31st DWM. Mrs. Asmah denied that she was blocking funds meant for the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the 31st DWM, because she was allegedly envious of the achievements of the former first lady and her 31st DWM.

In an interview with Daily Guide over the weekend, Mrs. Asmah stated that she has nothing in common with the former first lady, because in 1968, whiles she had set up her private company and was paying 50 workers in a single month, Nana Konadu Rawlings owned no business of her own while she was working as a window dresser at UTC. Asked what she meant, she emphasized that Mrs. Rawlings was cleaning up the window, and dressing up toys and mannequins.

She vouched that records of the 31st DWM's dealings with the Finance Ministry of Ghana and the ADF are captured in the books of Deloitte and Touche, the international chartered accountants and auditing firm of Ghana. Mrs. Asmah took opportunity to announce that although, she had promised to come out with all the documents on the 31st DWM's loan agreement with the ADF today, Tuesday, October 5, she is currently outside Accra, and would do so on Thursday, October 7, 2004.

According to the Mrs. Asmah, she had wished that the former first lady would have kept quiet instead of disturbing the Homet's nest, in view of the numerous shaddy deals which her so-called NGO got embedded and enmeshed in. By 1970, I had risen to become the vice president of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), she related. According to the MOWAC Minister, Nana Konadu cannot compare herself to her, by any stretch of imagination.

Mrs. Asmah added that she did not have to come to power before beginning to champion a cause of the Ghanaian woman. Nana Konadu claims that I have advised the Finance Ministry to block funds meant for the 31st DWM, just because I was jealous of her achievements, and that I wanted to ensure the collapse of the 31st DWM. “This is not true”, said Mrs. Asmah. She however, insists that there was no such thing. This is because before the former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, left office, he signed blank cheques for the 31st DWM to enable the movement to withdraw the ADF money. According to Mrs. Asmah, the former first lady is lying about the circumstances leading to the granting of the ADF loan to the 31st DWM, with guarantees by the NDC Administration.

Consequently, she challenged the former first lady to mention the status of the 31st DWM whether it's a women's wing of the NDC as Dr. Obed Asamoah, the former Attorney-General had said, or whether it is an NGO. The interview is a follow-up to a press conference held by the MOWAC in Accra last week to throw light on a press release the Women's Ministry issued to react to claims made on Adom FM, a Tema-based radio station, by Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, recently, at which she accused Mrs. Gladys Asmah of urging the Ministry of Finance to block funds meant for the activities of her 31st DWM.

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