The annual Audit Report that Auditor General Gemechu Dubiso disclosed to the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) last Thursday, revealed another shocking display of unaccounted, illegal and uncollected revenue by federal government agencies during the last Ethiopian fiscal year. The Auditor General also conducted a performance audit of federal institutions to see if they are living up to their mission. The Auditor then addressed a concern about the prevalence of Emboch, Water Hyacinth. According to Auditor General, Emboch covers over 50 thousand hectares of Ethiopia’s water bodies. Emboch has been put in to lakes, dams and rivers. It is in lakes: Tana, Zeway, Abaya, Chamo and the rivers; Abay, Awash and Baro in addition to Koka and Aba Samuel Dams which harms the nation’s water resources.
The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity and the Ethiopian Bio Diversity Institute did not do enough to stop the spread of Emboch. In fact, the Institute which is expected to preserve bio diversity did not have data on Emboch in Ethiopian water bodies, the auditor said. According to the information from the Auditor General, Emboch was observed in Ethiopia for the first time in 2011 in the Megech River which is one the tributaries of Lake Tana. At that time the plant covered 3 hectares. With the scant attention given by the concerned government offices, Emboch instantly cover 20 thousand hectares in 2013 the same area as 15 kebeles. By 2014 it had grown to 30 thousand hectares. Not studying Emboch has hindered efforts to prevent the spread based on scientifically proven methods “Any of the government offices could take action but they neglect the issues,” the auditor general adds. We have been unable to obtain the latest information on Emboch which is an irresponsible act, the auditor went on to say. Regional states are better mobilizing the resource and have the latest data. According to Rift Valley Lakes authorities, Emboch covers 40 hectares of Lake Zeway and 1780 hectares of Lake Abaya. Performance Audit on Le Hulu contractual agreement. In another performance Audit by the Auditor general, Le Hulu, a financial technology company that delivered a unified billing system in Addis Ababa has illegally conducted the task of collecting bills, and collected over 70 million birr. What was at the time the Ministry of Information and Technology awarded the contract to Le Hulu which won the bid and was then prohibited from transferring to other companies. However, the Ministry awarded the contract to Le Hulu violating the criteria of having five years of experience and making at least four government projects to deliver the service. The company was only four months old. Auditor General Gemechu Dubisu hopes the Attorney General will hold these groups accountable.
Auditor slams agencies
Fertilizer, wheat gets equal billing
Fertilizer not as cost effective, subject to corruption
The government is in a hurry, even though the transportation of fertilizer is experiencing difficulties getting from the port to center, so the government has decided to share the transportation of fertilizer and wheat cargo equally instead of the current prioritization of wheat.
Recently, government officials including Gedu Andargachew, Ethiopia’s top diplomat and Dagmawit Moges, Minister of Transport, who paid a visit this week to Djibouti and met top officials including President Ismail Omar Guelleh have talked about the transportation of fertilizer as it is badly needed for farming this rainy season.
Ethiopian transporters based in Djibouti told Capital that recently they have met about the transportation of fertilizer with officials from the Ministry of Transport.
However, the major challenge has been that the tariffs imposed on transporting the product and location has been a concern for some of transporters, according to sources.
“Security in some areas of the country and the tariff has created dissatisfaction in the transporter,” a source at Djibouti said.
A source at one of the transport association in Ethiopia told Capital that price of fleeting fertilizer cargo is significantly lower than the rate for other cargo including commercial cargo.
For instance, transporting a product from the port to Addis Ababa is about 140 birr per quintal but now the offer has reached up to 220 birr for commercial transportation to the same destination. This is the reason why transporters are not interested in transporting fertilizer. “For instance transporting fertilizer to Bahir Dar is at least 10,000 birr less than conventional cargo,” an operator at one of the transport associations told Capital.
“For instance the problem occurs every year but the government organizes the procurement and arrival of products at port in a different period. The current case is the national interest and the benefit of the country that needs priority over other cargos due to that the truck owners should cooperate for the sake of mutual benefit of the country,” the source commented.
The major disagreement is that the government forced other transport associations besides those, who won the bid to transport the fertilizer, at the same price that the bid winners offered, according to sources, while the majority of the transporters are moving the product even though they are not happy.
“I don’t know about other associations but our trucks are fully engaged in the transportation of the fertilizer,” one of the transport association representative based in Djibouti told Capital.
This similar source claimed that the main problem is occurring when the improper and non certified transporters win the bid to move the product. “If the company or associations who have ample capacity won the bid, the burden will be managed by themselves,” the source added.
Experts stated that another major challenge in the sector is corruption. They stated that if one transporter pays some amount for those who organize the fleet at Djibouti they get a special gate pass allowing them to transport other cargo. “The government has to work strongly to improve the sector which is basic for the country’s economic activity,” they told Capital.
One of the association leaders told Capital that in the past couple of weeks the top management of Ministry of Transport has met with representatives of the association to accelerate the fleet of the cargo from the port. “But in real terms and to get a solution the ministry should meet with owners instead of association leaders, who are not decision makers like owners.”
A source at Djibouti said that currently DAP fertilizer, which is needed during the early farming stage, is transported and the next cargo will be urea fertilizer which is very difficult to load and transport.
Sources at Dry Cargo Transporters Federation said that about five vessels carrying fertilizer mainly urea are expected to come to Djibouti and one of them arrived last Friday and the other today, while Capital was unable to get the exact volume transported to Ethiopia. The others will arrive in the coming week, according to sources.
For the mess all of the sector actors are putting their finger on the operation and advising the government to look itself. They also suspect that there is political and economic sabotage regarding this problem that can be solved. “There is significant corruption in the sector that the government has been unable to tackle,” experts said.
The fertilizer cargo initially projected to be fully transported by the first week of June, has now been pushed by two weeks.
Currently Federal Police in collaboration with the regional police administrations is working to enforce cross border trucks that are working locally to go to Djibouti to accelerate the shipment of fertilizer.
At a meeting held on Friday May 31 between the transporters and relevant government officials chaired by Abdissa Yadeta, Director General of the Federal Transport Authority, the stakeholders agreed to give equal priority to both fertilizer and wheat, but the exact date when wheat will be included in the new scheme was not disclosed.
There is a great deal of wheat cargo at the port and more vessels carrying wheat have arrived at Djibouti.
Sources who are close to the case said that the Director General stated that the wheat will get similar attention as fertilizer. “The government has decided wheat will get the same attention and this will be announced in the future,” Abdissa told participants during the meeting held on Friday afternoon.
On average 193 trucks travel to Ethiopia every day carrying fertilizer, but sources at Djibouti said that trucks who have a fertilizer gate pass may wait from five to 10 days to be loaded.
Capital has tried to talk Dagmawit Moges and Abdissa Yadeta, Director General of Federal Transport Authority, via phone but was unable to get a comment.
Last week Capital reported that the government’s order to prioritize fertilizer over wheat, when being transported from the Port of Djibouti to Ethiopia has meant increased demurrage costs for wheat cargo and delay in getting wheat to the local market.
Sources say a huge amount of wheat has been stored at the port in Djibouti called Doraleh Multipurpose Port (DMP). Currently the wheat transported to the centre is about 20 percent of what was expected.
Figures indicated that the country has 14,500 cross border trucks, while on the recent re-registration so far only 10,400 trucks are registered.
Ethiopia Trading Business Corporation (ETBC) claimed that the wheat that it ordered remained at Djibouti because trucks gave priority to fertilizer. The wheat is mainly distributed to stabilize the market and supplied to basic institutions like higher educational facilities.
New copyright law targets venues playing foreign music
A new copyright proposal in the hands of the Attorney General that will soon be sent to the Council of Ministers would create a new regulation that would charge royalty payments from TV and radio stations, night clubs, bars, buses and other venues using local and foreign music for commercial purposes.
However, the foreign music royalty payment would only be charged if the foreign collection agency has a representative of a local company to administer the music and enforce the copyright agreement with the original user. If the venue plays music without the approval the collection agency may revoke licenses and fine the organization.
For example if an FM station plays a Michael Jackson song and if the company who administers the song has a representative in Ethiopia, the radio station, or business (which includes bars and shops) or a company producing physical products (CD’s etc) wants to play or sell music, they must buy a license from the agent to play the music.
The draft which is expected to be implemented in the next five years will charge the user to pay the royalty payment based on the tariff and agreement made between the user and the administrators.
The draft which is also applicable for local music will also give a mandate for a copyright collecting agency to receive the royalty payment from the commercial user.
Axum T/Haimnaot copyright protection expert at the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office told Capital that the royalty payment will add something in enhancing creativity work.
“FM radio stations are covering 70 percent of their programs with music but they don’t pay anything to the singer, composer and song writers for the music they fill the air with. The draft regulation is all about that, at least to charge them to something to motivate musicians to do more jobs and to expand their income.’’
He added that the draft regulation will also encompass the right of groups to form any collection agency.
“The pervious draft allowed only one collection agency to deal with the singers but the improved one allows the establishment of multiple collection agencies. The musician will select an agency who works for them the best,” he said. “The agency will collect your money on your behalf if you have a contract or agreement with them.”
According to Axum the revised regulation which has yet to be ratified also prepared to pay a resell payment of art works from five up to seven percent to the original painter or writer of a book.
Article 11 of the Ethiopian copyright proclamation No.410/2004 allows the reproduction of a work by persons other than the owner for the purpose of teaching.
Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) is also waiting the approval the Council of Ministers which protects foreign works from translating, adaptation and arrangement without the proper permission.
RISING POPULAR RESISTANCE
The European sheeple (human mass) is rebelling. The old political parties that have been professing, ad infinitum, to uphold the core values/interests of their various human constituencies seem to have lost touch with their bases. The old parties have been captured, politically that is, by transnational capital. During the last forty years, the operating principles of these parties succumbed to the logic of capital (dead labor), abandoning the interests of humanity or life! They are now reaping the consequences. This past week, many of the old European parties lost significant number of seats in the European parliament. The newly formed Brexit party in the UK trashed both the traditionally dominant parties, (the conservatives and labor). Similarly, Le Pen took the top spot in France, beating Macron’s party and La Lega became the top dog in Italian party politics!
Given this newly developing scenario, obvious questions come to mind. Why are the new parties easily destroying the old established ones that have been around for centuries? What are some of the core values on which the newly emerging political parties are formulating their policies; political, economic, etc.? More relevantly, are there lessons to be learned? If so, how can they inform those of us in the peripheries/semi-periphery (Africans, Asians, South Americans, etc.? As we have been trying to point out repeatedly, the old classification of left and right doesn’t seem to work anymore. Putting it bluntly, this dichotomous notion is painfully outdated. It is time to be less gullible and more critical when examining political inclinations these days. It might make more sense just to look at the various programs of the different parties (on which they have been campaigning), rather than assigning old labels to them. It is also important to notice some of the obvious commonalities between the emerging political parties. Last week’s European parliamentary election pointed that out clearly. It is not only the right but also the greens that made significant headways, obliterating the traditionally dominant parties. Analyzing these commonalities will be very critical if one wants to foresee, to some extent, what would probably unfold in the years to come. See the article on page 58.
Some of the common values or convictions expressed by the emerging parties are; national sovereignty, away from the heavy handed centralized governance of Brussels. The concern for the wellbeing of the average European sheeple; by rejecting some of the excessive policies of the EU (ECB/EC) that primarily promotes the interests of oligarchs/transnational capital. The concern for the environment and the need to do something concrete about it, rather than just talk around these critical issues, as the status quo is now doing. To live peacefully and harmoniously, both within their own countries as well as amongst the larger European community, mostly by distancing themselves from the belligerent postures of the EU/NATO. The desire to retain cultural identity, away from the rampant commodification project of transnational capital! The old doctrinaires in the traditional parties acquiesced to the destruction of Libya, Syria, Iraq, etc. and consequences are now obvious. Unrestrained immigration heading towards West Europe and other not so visible disorders are clear signs of the failed policies of the pro-war old guards!
In days gone by, many center left parties were anti-war; today, they crave to start war all over. Also, they used to be pro-labor; today, they implement policies that are decidedly anti-labor and anti-poor. Because of the distorted picture of reality the status quo continuously paints, many have become disillusioned about the very objective and sincerity of the old parties. The emerging rightists of Europe, for example, are not as racist or as fascists or as anti-immigrants as the MSM (main stream media) make them out to be. In the words of Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy, considered to be a hardcore right-winger: ‘There are no extremists, racists, or fascists here. The difference is between those who look ahead, who talk about future and jobs and those who put the past on trial: They are afraid of the past because they don’t have an idea for the future. We’re building the future.’ Even Le Pen of France is coming around and has tempered many of her extremist ideological positions. Yet, globally entrenched interests, instead of elaborating and trying to analyze this new and ascending development, is content only in cheap smearing campaigns. Common sense is what is lost in the bureaucracy of the EU, which is allied with the extreme advocates of neoliberalism and wars. What we are witnessing is resistance to this entrenched lunacy!
Unlike the European situation, many of us in Africa do not have the democratic and financial means to set up viable opposition that can vie for state power. The resources required to create well-endowed political machineries that can canvas a whole country is out of reach, at least to many of the African opposition groups. For example the territory of the Congo, which is larger than the whole of West Europe and lacks modern infrastructure, is not conducive to conduct intensive political campaigns, to say the least. In addition, the incumbent power holders of Africa systemically stifle meaningful opposition from emerging. As a result, opposition to the status quo can only be formed in the ways of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, etc., In other words, along the lines of the formative years of the Arab Spring. The current situation in the Sudan is one such example. Fixated establishment thinking, particularly in regards to processes of political succession/government change, is hitting the wall, so to speak! In this regard, the AU and the African nation states are at pain on how to handle the current Sudanese situation. Believe it or not, political battles are being waged on all fronts and on a continuous basis throughout our continent. A number of these insurrections might not be willing to follow, to the letter, the existing protocol of the dominant institutions of governance, be them of the continent or otherwise. Herein lies one of Africa’s emerging problematic! “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.” African Proverb. Good Day!
