Federal Police in collaboration with Oromia and Addis Ababa police is investigating illegal water bottling places in most parts of the country, Capital has learnt.
Sources in the industry told Capital that the illegal bottlers of different brands of plastic water products have expanded. Sources said that in the past couple of weeks the Federal Police and other relevant bodies undertook intensive investigation on the activity.
Sources said that the unsafe waters are mainly bottled in the capital and the surroundings of Addis Ababa.
Most of the illegally bottled water that do not pass proper safety procedures are produced in veil network and mainly distributed for regional markets via the process of the market chain that illegal actors formed, according to sources.Capital tried to get information from Ethiopian Bottled Water and Soft Drinks Manufacturing Industries Association (EBWSDMIA), while it was unfruitful.
Sources added that the case is currently well understood by the association itself and relevant government bodies who follow the healthy market system.
“The illegal bottlers bottled the fake product on their facility. Even though we said facility it is just packing the bottle with tap water,” one of the sources who is close to the sector said. They bottled it in different corners of the town in residential compounds, according to sources. These forged bottlers have sources for their input like plastic bottle and labeling of different brands.
“Regarding the brand, they produce as per the order they got from customers, but as far as my information most of them almost produce all kind of brands as per the order,” the source added.
Even though Capital secured the information that police is investigating the case for the past few weeks it could not get the latest development in relation with the investigation. However sources said that the investigation also included Ministry of Trade and Industry, Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Authority, and Addis Ababa Trade and Industry Bureau and formed a committee to control the illegality but sources at the city Trade Bureau said the investigation has expanded in other similar illegal acts.
Most of the legal bottlers that Capital approached refused to give further information about the issue.
Currently 80 water bottlers are registered in the association and another 15 new comers are under preparation to commence their production.
Capital attempt to talk the City Police Commissioner and head of Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Authority failed.
Illegal water bottling plants on the rise
Proclamation allows compatible software use for cash register
The amended Commercial Registration and Business Licensing Proclamation allows the use of modern software other than the conventional software of cash register machines to further utilize latest technologies to maintain accuracy and in order to facilitate ease of doing businesses in the country. The amended proclamation also removed mandatory requirement to have a proof of lease or rental agreement for physical business address to acquire a registration and business licensing.
The amended proclamation also removed publication of company names through newspapers and a 15 days waiting period for approval as it is found to be a hindering factor for business registration.
In the new amendment any one can register and get a license without having the rental agreement and announcing through newspapers and even without physical presence to get the issuance.
The amended proclamation mandated the Ministry of Trade and Industry to authenticate and supervise the activities of those business entities by any means after registration. Regarding the announcement the ministry mandated to announce through online and other mechanisms to shortening the procedures to enable businesses to begin their operation.
The amendment also allows for the ministry to provide services by using modern technology for registration and announcement. It also permits to use other computerized software for VAT service which was only mandatory to use VAT machines only.
“The amendment is part of the ongoing reform in the country to ease doing business” said Getachew Mesele, Chairman of trade and industry standing committee.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stressed that cutting bureaucratic bottlenecks in these processes will enable focus investment areas of electricity, mining, housing, manufacturing and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to be effective in one of his tweet by his office some months back.
Ease of doing business reforms in Ethiopia are looking to ease by simplifying the requirements in the areas of trading, paying taxes, dealing with construction permits, registering properties, enforcing contracts, getting electricity and the likes. The World Bank stipulated in its annual rankings of countries for doing business and Ethiopia is ranked 159 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business.
According to the World Bank research, the process takes 32 days to get business license in Ethiopia. However the State Minister of Trade and Industry Eshete Asfaw said that the ministry significantly minimizes the days by providing online services of all types in collaboration with Ministry of revenue.
EDUCATING FOR CHANGE
The modern world teaches or orients or educates mostly to perpetuate the lopsided globalization. This lopsided globalization includes not only the totality of collective human affairs, but also the world of nature. The things the system considers important and practical are usually the ones that are destined to undermine the human animal in its comprehensive existence. Certainly the prevailing system is not in the business of enlightenment. We do not think there are serious critical thinkers who still believe that the main purpose of our global order is the wellbeing & enlightenment of individuals. The ideology of the system is unadulterated greed. Its aggressive implementation leverages all of the formal/informal institutions of orientation across the planet!
All the existing institutions wallow in irrationality when it comes to the interrogation of the global interstate system. We know of not even one university that systemically challenges the modus operandi of the existing order. The lunacy of the economic foundation (of the global order), mostly based on the stupid assumption of infinite growth and fractional reserve banking remain unchallenged. The idiotic infinite growth regime is easy to understand. The FRB (fractional reserve banking) is a globally entrenched system where fraud plays a prominent role. It is important to note that the current money system is based on fiat without anything backing all the currencies of the world. That is; it is money created out of thin air. By and large, this phony money is distributed to those loyal to the system. It robs the working poor and undermines nature, while creating parasitic oligarchs all over the world. Without questioning these two pillars of the system, no progress can be made in the fight for a more stable ecosystem and decent life. In the system, life and death matters are left out of the calculus. Let us simplify. First: the states are captured by the logic of the greed system. These states, almost without exception, are subservient to capital and are under the thumbs of the callous oligarch, whose only interest is to perpetuate this most destructive of all the world systems humanity ever devised. The sheeple (human mass) as usual, thinks these grabbers know better. Of course the bitter truth is they neither know nor do they care about what happens, not only to humanity but all life forms, including the life support system of the planet. The question is why can’t humanity stop this destruction? Herein lies the problem!
The existing institutions of orientation are there to make zombies out of people and not foster critical thinking within individuals. If these institutions try to enlighten, then obviously many questions will start to prop up. That will brew trouble. Private sector educational system can never teach criticality, as that will undermine their very reason d’etre. Non-profit organizations ultimately must secure their funding from somewhere. It is either from the state or the private sector. Again, this is a vicious circle or a catch-22 kind of affair. This poses a formidable challenge to change seekers. Who is going to awaken the sleeping giant, so to speak? After all, what is at stake is not a project of mere tweaking of an economic system gone berserk. One can think of the whole thing as resembling the proverbial precept of the golden goose. Killing the goose that was continuously delivering gold, is akin to what our stupid global system is doing.
Humanity is facing a challenge unseen before in its planetary tenure. It is unseen because the current system is comprehensively destroying life support systems, including non-renewable resources!
The choice is simple. Either humanity will challenge the stupid system or else it will go the way of the Dodo! It should be noted that enlightenment doesn’t necessarily mean the scary and fantastic concoctions of the system. The notion of humanity migrating to the outer world is one of the most preposterous narratives that is being pushed by the paid soldiers of the system, including the paid scientists. The exaggerated hoax of artificial intelligence is another. These are gimmicks to render the sheeple (human mass) docile. Just because the sheeple is ill educated doesn’t mean the scum of the earth should play on its fears. At this point, civil disobedience, which we have been tirelessly advocating might come in handy. But even that needs articulators, activist intellectuals, the likes of which are hard to come by, given the comprehensive indoctrination that prevails all around the world. New technics to fight entrenched interest that have a monopoly on all-important things imaginable, must come to the fore. Genuine reformers know the structural obstacles and the real power behind these obstacles. Even the process of democracy itself is used to stupefy the sheeple. Elections via representative democracy almost always have been farcical, especially when it comes to challenging establishment thinking!
Quietly, certain hopeful signs are emerging. The global youth is increasingly dropping out of it all! The new generation of youth has started to interrogate mindless consumption. Obviously, the world of its forefathers/parents is not going to be tenable anymore and the current crop of thinking youth knows it! Again the status quo is crying foul, because a segment of the youth is gradually abstaining from destructive consumption and stupidity worshipping. This challenges the system. Who is going to buy all the stupid gadgets that are being made in the make-believe world of non-stop growth (infinite growth)? “We have a political system that awards office to the most ruthless, cunning, and selfish of mortals, then act surprised when those willing to do anything to win power are equally willing to do anything with it.” Michael Rivero. Good Day!
DECONSTRUCTING THE PRIVATIZATION SCAM – A VERY BRITISH DISEASE
In Ethiopia, the next big item for sale is the Ethio Telecom. The Prime Minister is excited about it, his advisors are committed to it, and the World Bank is doing the advising. The justification for privatization, in this case, the transfer of public asset to international private investors, is that these private companies do better work, cheaper and more efficiently than the government. In theory, the idea of privatizing public goods and services to reduce costs makes sense. There is a deeply ingrained belief that privatization – selling off or otherwise abandoning a particular activity, and let the private sector handle it – leads to a smaller government that will reduce costs to the taxpayers. But do private companies really do a better job than the public sector? Does privatization really save the government money?
In a 2017 article the Australian analyst David James wrote “It is increasingly evident how pernicious the privatization myth is. Two recent examples have underlined it: the failings in Australia’s privatized energy grid and the usurious pricing in airport car parks. Both examples demonstrated that it is folly to expect a public benefit to inevitably emerge from private profit seeking.”
Over the last decades, there have been numerous examples that prove privatization has resulted in higher costs and consequences when the government turns over public services to a for-profit company. Take the case of Kenya Telecom – and here I will let you read a 2012 article by The East African
Telkom Kenya was privatised at a huge social and economic cost. When the privatisation process started in 2005, the company had a total of 17,480 employees. In 2006, it implemented the biggest retrenchment programme in Kenya when the company sent a total of 7,307 workers home at one go.
Several more have been sent home since. The upshot is that an organisation that used to employ thousands of citizens now has a workforce of a mere 1,649.
Billions were spent on the process of privatising Telkom Kenya. The process of restructuring the company and unbundling it from Safaricom cost Ksh84 billion.
The government had to pay Ksh8 billion ($96 million) towards offsetting the liabilities of the pension scheme. It also undertook to pay a Ksh5.8 billion ($69 million) loan advanced to Telkom by a consortium of local banks to meet retrenchment costs. In all, the government had to pay Ksh13.8 billion ($166 million) in retrenchment costs.
Furthermore, the government undertook to pay Ksh15 billion ($180 million) in tax arrears to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
All this was done in the name of cleaning up Telkom Kenya’s balance sheet to prepare it for privatisation. Clearly, the experiment has not worked.
The political support the company continues to enjoy despite the fact that the privatisation project has not met its objective will no doubt fuel suspicions about the ownership of the company and its links to the political elite
On paper, the Kenya government with a 49 per cent in the company, is technically a minority owner. Yet this is not the picture you find when you examine closely disclosures in the accounts of France Telecom.
For instance, in its own accounts for the year 2010, France Telecom discloses that it owns only 40.3 per cent of Telkom Kenya, implying that its stake is, in reality, smaller than the government’s shareholding in then company.
It is clearly a very convoluted if not complex shareholding structure. Technically, the majority 51 per cent stake is in the hands of one entity known as Orange East Africa, a special purpose vehicle created by France Telecom and a Dubai-based private equity firm, Alcazar Capital.
France Telecom declares in its accounts that it owns only 78.5 per cent of Orange East Africa. Alcazar Capital says it invested $59 million in the deal, putting its stake at 15 per cent.
Clearly, the mathematics just doesn’t add up.
Now let’s go back again to Kenya, and look at the first airline ever to be privatized in Africa: Kenya Airways (KQ). In 1995 KQ was Sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest airline when privatized (advised by IFC). Today it’s facing “imminent collapse”. We read that overseas banks have even carried out inspections of Kenya Airways’ planes in preparation for repossessing them, should new financing not come through for the airline.
Basically our neighbor’s experience in this area has nothing to envy.
Unable to find a fatal flaw (emphasis on FATAL) in our telephony service network or even our airline, the opponents of public service forces manufactured a fake flaw: the ‘debt’ flaw. By cooking the books with this false entry, the public telephony opponents have been able to wail that our Telecom is broke and continuing to bleed money, endangering taxpayers with a massive bailout. Who would believe that the Telecom monopoly in Ethiopia today is losing money, unless it was purposely set to do so (i.e. corruption, inefficient management, money laundering, fraud etc.)
There are several fallacies in the pro-private business argument. One is the claim that business is efficient whereas government is not. It is true that government is often not especially efficient, but that does not mean the converse applies. Business is often spectacularly wasteful to the extent that most companies go out of business within a decade if they are subject to genuine competitive forces. That, indeed, is why purchasing public assets is so attractive: competition is either weak or non-existent.
So why is this Prime Minister, his minister of finance, and supporters keep flinging this efficiency and ‘debt’ falsehood far and wide? Listen to yourself, you too have been caught up in their fairy-tale, you too have swallowed it whole and routinely repeat it unedited and in unison.
We all understand the Federal Government has an unprecedented national debt of almost USD 30 bl. All measures to improve the situation, including privatization, must be on the table if the country is to prosper. At the same time, those drivers of privatization should recognize that some services and assets cannot be outsourced or sold without drastic harm. I hope that the privatization myth, which has dominated over the last 5 years here in Ethiopia and perhaps some 35 years or so globally, will increasingly be exposed as the scam it is. Today there are push to re-nationalize Kenya Airways in Kenya, British Rail in the UK (read the latest about British Airways), and in many other countries. When these means of production are socialized the benefits grows to all, including all businesses. Now, there are certainly instances where choosing privatization makes sense. The privatization of government breweries was one good example; the privatization of government owned hotels was another one. There were also some lesser businesses that may have benefitted by privatization.
So let’s not get absorbed by the privatization mania, and the willingness of politicians to pander to privateers’ sentiment. There is no reason for Ethiopians to tolerate such a degree of nonchalance about ownership and control over vital infrastructure and public services. We should resist this plan, stop this so flagrant rip-off that’s being presented as our only option….before it’s too late!
