Do you know what is happening here? Well, it is State Enchantment at work. The Honourable Parliamentary Leader is refusing to be hypnotised. But as you can see it is a real strain. He is being forced to doubt what his own five senses are clearly telling him. 😂 You will also notice that the figures appear to be metamorphosising. Sometimes you see $1.7m. Then it becomes ~$96m. Then $147m. Also there is some $296m. And of course, $240m. All classic State Enchantment. If you mounted an official enquiry, this Houdini-like shape-shifting won't go away. Call it the "magical fog" of State Enchantment. I always tell readers that anytime you hear about a "scandal", you should perform one test: ask yourself if you understand it at first glance. If you do, then there is no scandal. You are barking up the wrong tree. 😊 Your best bet for spotting that something shady is going on in official matters in Ghana is for that something to have twisted layers upon twisted layers. For that something to require unpacking. For the glaze to fall off your eyes slowly until, finally, you can say, "oh, so that is the gig!" At least, where big money is concerned, this is the only way. Anytime you hear any report of something meant to be scandalous that you can understand on first reading or hearing, immediately dismiss it. Example: no one is just going to walk into some state vault and cart off public money, or gold for that matter. If the citizens really want to safeguard the nation's resources, then they are going to need to make the time to read up and very objectively follow every strand of the analysis served up. In this e-gates case, what is happening here is classic scope-fudging. The same service has been split into strips that can be priced and repriced depending on the tone and direction of negotiations. In the end it is still a software package for screening people entering and leaving Ghana. Whether you do so through Aflao's murky rope barrier, a booth at Kotoka with a smiling uniformed officer, or a shiny glass and aluminium barrier called a "e-gate". It is the same set of underlying risk management software tools and cheap Chinese machines. It shouldn't cost more than $2.5 million if we simply utilise the EXISTING e-immigration infrastructure in Ghana. The mode of extracting cash from Ghana through this e-gates phantasm is the exact same approach taken with the Ghana Card. The project is presented as costing a huge amount. ~$300m in the case of e-gates or ~$1.2bn to $1.6bn in the case of Ghana Card. The government guarantees a clear revenue stream. Public fees and charges are designated as how the investor - in this case, Margins - gets paid. To sweeten it all up, Margins commits to do the upfront investment. And be paid a guaranteed stream of future public fees. Sounds eminently reasonable. They are bearing all the risks. Government has limited liability. Such wonderful patriots. Order of the Volta, yes? Except, of course, the public fees won't materialise as promised. Government becomes responsible for the "arrears" and Margins ends up bearing no real risks since no one ever does any value for money audits on how much they really spent in the first place. If things continue along this path, Ghana will owe Margins more than $500 million by the end of next year. This e-gates thing will become another avenue for piling up debt. Let me be very clear. I think the folks behind Margins are among the sharpest entrepreneurs in Ghana today. They have cracked a model that is dazzling in its sheer profitability and sizzling elegance. They have built stupendous wealth through the public-private partnership pathway that few business people took seriously. My beef is that whilst all this is good for Margins, it is not great for Ghana's fiscal health. Having studied the Margins model across different projects, I have concluded that the risks are heavily tilted against Ghana. I will illustrate shortly with another example. There needs to be major reforms. We are talking of fiscal liabilities that could rack up into a significant share of Ghana's GDP in the next 10 years. Because the bulk of the situations sapping money from Ghana's coffers are of this form, any initiative to "recover loot" that assumes that there is some cash stashed around to be hauled in won't generate enough cash to meet expectations. There will be a lot of motions and some real embarrassments for the outgoing ruling party, but the recovered sums in four years would be meagre. For any such initiative to be really successful, it should focus a lot more on delicate surgery to the Republic's dealmaking. A prime example being how to reform the Margins' PPPs and similar contracts. That is where the bulk of fiscal savings can come from. The problem is that we don't have a serious elite consensus when it comes to these kinds of deals. I know FOR A FACT that there are many members of parliament in the incoming ruling party who support some of these schemes. Hence why I applaud the Honourable Chief Whip of the outgoing opposition side in the 8th Parliament for daring to take at least one Margins PPP on. It is not a fashionable fight.
Do you know what is happening here? Well, it is State Enchantment at work. The Honourable Parliamentary Leader is refusing to be hypnotised. But as you can see it is a real strain. He is being forced to doubt what his own five senses are clearly telling him. 😂 You will also notice that the figures appear to be metamorphosising. Sometimes you see $1.7m. Then it becomes ~$96m. Then $147m. Also there is some $296m. And of course, $240m. All classic State Enchantment. If you mounted an official enquiry, this Houdini-like shape-shifting won't go away. Call it the "magical fog" of State Enchantment. I always tell readers that anytime you hear about a "scandal", you should perform one test: ask yourself if you understand it at first glance. If you do, then there is no scandal. You are barking up the wrong tree. 😊 Your best bet for spotting that something shady is going on in official matters in Ghana is for that something to have twisted layers upon twisted layers. For that something to require unpacking. For the glaze to fall off your eyes slowly until, finally, you can say, "oh, so that is the gig!" At least, where big money is concerned, this is the only way. Anytime you hear any report of something meant to be scandalous that you can understand on first reading or hearing, immediately dismiss it. Example: no one is just going to walk into some state vault and cart off public money, or gold for that matter. If the citizens really want to safeguard the nation's resources, then they are going to need to make the time to read up and very objectively follow every strand of the analysis served up. In this e-gates case, what is happening here is classic scope-fudging. The same service has been split into strips that can be priced and repriced depending on the tone and direction of negotiations. In the end it is still a software package for screening people entering and leaving Ghana. Whether you do so through Aflao's murky rope barrier, a booth at Kotoka with a smiling uniformed officer, or a shiny glass and aluminium barrier called a "e-gate". It is the same set of underlying risk management software tools and cheap Chinese machines. It shouldn't cost more than $2.5 million if we simply utilise the EXISTING e-immigration infrastructure in Ghana. The mode of extracting cash from Ghana through this e-gates phantasm is the exact same approach taken with the Ghana Card. The project is presented as costing a huge amount. ~$300m in the case of e-gates or ~$1.2bn to $1.6bn in the case of Ghana Card. The government guarantees a clear revenue stream. Public fees and charges are designated as how the investor - in this case, Margins - gets paid. To sweeten it all up, Margins commits to do the upfront investment. And be paid a guaranteed stream of future public fees. Sounds eminently reasonable. They are bearing all the risks. Government has limited liability. Such wonderful patriots. Order of the Volta, yes? Except, of course, the public fees won't materialise as promised. Government becomes responsible for the "arrears" and Margins ends up bearing no real risks since no one ever does any value for money audits on how much they really spent in the first place. If things continue along this path, Ghana will owe Margins more than $500 million by the end of next year. This e-gates thing will become another avenue for piling up debt. Let me be very clear. I think the folks behind Margins are among the sharpest entrepreneurs in Ghana today. They have cracked a model that is dazzling in its sheer profitability and sizzling elegance. They have built stupendous wealth through the public-private partnership pathway that few business people took seriously. My beef is that whilst all this is good for Margins, it is not great for Ghana's fiscal health. Having studied the Margins model across different projects, I have concluded that the risks are heavily tilted against Ghana. I will illustrate shortly with another example. There needs to be major reforms. We are talking of fiscal liabilities that could rack up into a significant share of Ghana's GDP in the next 10 years. Because the bulk of the situations sapping money from Ghana's coffers are of this form, any initiative to "recover loot" that assumes that there is some cash stashed around to be hauled in won't generate enough cash to meet expectations. There will be a lot of motions and some real embarrassments for the outgoing ruling party, but the recovered sums in four years would be meagre. For any such initiative to be really successful, it should focus a lot more on delicate surgery to the Republic's dealmaking. A prime example being how to reform the Margins' PPPs and similar contracts. That is where the bulk of fiscal savings can come from. The problem is that we don't have a serious elite consensus when it comes to these kinds of deals. I know FOR A FACT that there are many members of parliament in the incoming ruling party who support some of these schemes. Hence why I applaud the Honourable Chief Whip of the outgoing opposition side in the 8th Parliament for daring to take at least one Margins PPP on. It is not a fashionable fight.
@BBSimons Bright Bright Bright Bright 🌞 What a SON of the land! Live long & prosper!
@BBSimons All of this points more towards the need for a reform in how these projects are managed. Oral is truly a must.
@BBSimons The schemes are so complex they orchestrate it by covering every angle, building strands of plausible 'facts' in order to negotiate with our sanity and reasoning capacity. "...building church and university, ...graduating thieves & murderers" - Bob Marley
@BBSimons Keep shedding light on these issues. Reforms must be the way to go around these loot.
@BBSimons In the end it is still a software package for screening people entering and leaving Ghana. Whether you do so through Aflao's murky rope barrier, a booth at Kotoka with a smiling uniformed officer, or a shiny glass and aluminium barrier called a "e-gate
@BBSimons If it's not a fashionable fight, either way there must be a fight be it rugged or something else
@BBSimons This is a lot to take in. It sounds like the perfect pension scheme these devious entrepreneurs and their political benefactors have cooked to starbe the public purse.
@BBSimons I copy from here, I paste it there. if it yields no results, or if no one is arrested for the numerous scandals, any future allegation will be mere talk and little attention will be paid to it.
@BBSimons @S_OkudzetoAblak @Kpebu_Martin please consider this 🙏🏾🙏🏾
@BBSimons Thank you, Mr Simons. Your in-depth analysis is top notch. We now wait for executive action by the ORAL TEAM on issues you have raised😎
@BBSimons Yu will still have dimwits like these guys justifying all this stupidity 🤦🏽♂️ @KrobeaKwabenaA || @_i_am_Curtis || @_Fiifi_Sage
@BBSimons You're an amazing "CREATIVE" writer. I effortlessly read your articles. Completely intelligible.
@BBSimons What advice do you have the new incoming leader?
@BBSimons an approach to this by the incoming govt will be to first conduct an independent value for money audit, and based on the results of it, prosecute all liable parties involved in these schemes. HEADS MUST ROLL
@BBSimons What’s the solution specific to this e-gate nonsense? Our priorities are gravely misplaced indeed. E-gate? Over payment to WAEC to avoid further distortion to the Academic Calendar which Covid-19 truncated, and universities haven’t been able to normalize yet We need Patriots!
@BBSimons The devil is in the details.
@BBSimons The way Politicians steal us in this country is to award highly inflated contracts to their cronies and receive the money back as campaign donations. Bawumia clearly facilitated this contracts for a reverse donation into his campaign. It works everytime cos the citizens are fools