Saturday, May 16, 2026
Home Blog Page 4088

Women power

Staff Reporter
-
0

First female president of the Supreme Court

The House of People’s Representative (HPR) approved the appointment of President and Vice President of the Federal Supreme Court nominated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) on November 1.
Accordingly, the House unanimously approved the appointment of Meaza Ashenafi as President (the first female president) and Solomon Areda as Vice President.
Meaza served as a Judge of the High Court of Ethiopia between 1989 and 1992. In 1993 she was appointed by the Ethiopian Constitution Commission as a legal adviser. She founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), and became its executive director. She helped lead the development of the first women’s bank in Ethiopia, Enat Bank, which was established in 2011 and as of 2016 chairs its board of directors.
Solomon Areda, a former judge, is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), an intergovernmental organization located at The Hague in the Netherlands.
Meaza after her appointment said that she will work to restore respect for the legal system in the eyes of Ethiopians who sometimes view the courts as biased or slow to respond.
“The people of Ethiopia love the law, and they respect the law. However, because justice is hard to come by for the people, they have lost trust in the law,” she said.
Meaza wants Ethiopians to view the court as able to hold all to account, including those in power.
“It is not enough for the law to remain on paper,” she said. “What makes the law purposeful is the court in the end. If one person is killed by a government body or is killed by another person, where he can find the solution is from the court. Therefore, if the court cannot afford the person speedy justice that is free of political pressure and corruption, the law loses meaning.”

 

Grade one contractors in hot water for audit gaps

Staff Reporter
-
0

Prominent local and international construction companies are being investigated under suspicion of tax evasion and tax fraud by the Ministry of Revenue (MoR).
Among the 33 large tax payer firms, multiple local and international construction companies were forced to pay more than two billion birr. Many of these firms have settled or are expected to pay their huge accrued tax bills to the Ministry.
Last week Capital reported that the Federal Police were undertaking an operation investigating the companies based on the Ministry’s audit report. Federal Police started investigating audit reports made last fiscal year but also reports from previous years as well.
The China ACMC Engineering Corporation P.L.C. was asked to pay 736.2 million birr which it later appealed and paid. Teklebrehan Ambaye was asked to pay the gap of 222.3 million birr discovered by the investigation audit while, China Railway Group LRT project was asked to pay 255.4 million birr.
Although some of these companies have already paid their back taxes, police continued investigating the audit in suspicion of existence of criminal activity.
The Ministry had previously sent the files to the Bureau of Investigation and the concerned department after examination had closed the case and reported its findings through a letter to the Ministry stating that there were no crimes found.
Employees of the Ministry however opposed the decision of the investigation bureau stating that the decision has to be made after a proper investigation has been conducted.
Following the reform of the executive police by the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) some closed files were re-opened.
“We were discouraged by the actions of the police and we were even feeling that the audits we make are useless,” an employee at the Ministry told Capital.
Orbit Construction’s two year audit had presented a 26 million birr gap from what they allegedly declared, but following their appeal to the Ministry, the amount was lowered to seven million birr according to Bekalu Menda, General Manager of the company.
“The investigation must be for a one million birr transaction made with a man who delivers sand for our site,” said Bekalu. “We understand he has printed receipts without the approval of the Ministry; and he is still working! If the Ministry wants to find him they can. But we paid that difference also to claim it back from him.”
The same thing happened with General Mercantile PLC which was expected to pay 17.75 million birr.
“We paid the claims through bank loan which has a 10% lower interest than the Ministry,” said Girma Kebede, owner of the company. “We purchased some spare parts, iron and cement but the receipts were not accepted by the Ministry. We made a claim to the Ministry but they say that it’s not their duty to check the legality of receipts issued with their machine.”
The Ministry announced this month that it does not know the whereabouts of over 400 cash register machines that are functioning in the country but are not connected with their server. These machines, they claim are printing receipts without transactions. The former Deputy Director Netsanet Abera confirmed to Capital that the receipts are not only being used for evading taxes but in addition the taxpayers have asked for tax refunds from the Ministry using these fake receipts.
“The problem has hit the innocent tax payers as well but many used it to reduce their cost,” said Netsanet at the press conference. “The ministry is also having dialogues to change or update the existing system and to paralyze the machines.”
“Whenever we found illegal receipts or similar transactions we sent the findings to the police to investigate if there were criminal elements including the intention of the companies,” said sources at MoR. “The legal enforcement, prosecution and the judiciary have to collaborate to bring all transactions to the legal scheme.”
Melcon Construction Plc faced a 78.4 million birr penalty and Bokera Construction was asked to pay 61.5 million birr. Orchid Business Group PLC was also asked to pay 55.5 million birr while Gemshu Beyene Construction PLC was asked to pay 74.2 million birr of an audit gap.
CREC was required to pay 64.41 million birr, and Get-As International received the 26.31 million birr audit gap.
Zong Mil Engineering Group, Satcon Construction PLC, Hunan Hunda Road, Fincha Fuafuate, HAWK International Finance & Construction Co. Ltd, are also on the list of those being investigated and expected to settle the amounts of 37.3 million, 35.6 million, 13 million, 4.1 million, 2.4 million birr respectively.
The large tax payers office affirms the actual tax remaining to be paid until the end of last week is 340,689,348.73 birr. The same statement revealed that the authority lifted a penalty of 83,567,867.01 birr and the amount paid by some has reached 349,156,679.67. “About 340, 689,348.73 birr is pending as the companies have appealed to the head office,” declared the statement.
The government has claimed that forged receipts and illegal vat reimbursement have become a threat to tax collection. It has also cautioned the business community that it will not tolerate illegal acts and will take measures on those involved.

NBE likely to lift NBE bills, allow banks alternative to credit allocation

Muluken Yewondwossen
-
0

After a meeting between bank presidents and the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), which regulates the financial sector, banks are hopeful that NBE bills will be lifted and they will be permitted to create an alternative proposal to the letter of credit (LC) allocation.
The new leaders of NBE and bank heads met on Thursday November 1, at the central bank to discuss issues in the financial sector.
On that occasion, hope was secured that the controversial NBE bill directive imposed since 2011 would be lifted, according to sources who attended the meeting.
The directive mandated that all banks except the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Development Bank of Ethiopia, both which are state owned, buy 27 percent of NBE bills for every loan disbursement at a three percent interest rate with a five year maturity period.
Banks have claimed that the NBE bills shrink their liquidity and smash their capacity to provide loans for clients. They have also argued that the 3 percent interest rate goes against the minimum market rate that NBE itself imposed. When the directive, ‘MFA/ NBEBILLS/001/2011’, became effective the minimum interest rate was 5 percent and then increased to 7 percent a year ago when the birr devalued by 15 percent along with other major hard currencies.
During several discussions including public private dialogue forums the issue was one of the top topics brought up by the private sector but the government strongly defended and rejected the claim. International partners like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also expressed their concern about the directive. They stated that the directive could affect the private sector’s access to finance.
In 2015 during talks with financial institution leaders including banks, insurance companies and micro finance organizations, the former central bank leaders said that insurance firms may share the burden and be included in similar schemes. However this has not yet been applied in the insurance industry.
On Thursday bankers expressed their concern about the directive.
Yinager Dessie (PhD), Governor, who chaired the meeting, disclosed that the central bank has created an exit strategy to lift the directive, according to sources.
He said that NBE is working to develop an exit plan. “It is good news for the banking sector,” one of the bank presidents, who requested anonymity, told Capital. “In general I think the discussion was fruitful. They are trying to solve challenges faced by the sector but it may be a bit difficult for them to do this in a short period since there are a lot of challenges and they have been imposed for several years,” he added.
The central bank has also given an opportunity for banks to come up with an alternative proposal to implement a LC operation. In relation to the hard currency shortage and fraud the central banks have applied several rules and procedures on the IBD at the banks.
In February 2016 NBE applied a directive known as ‘Transparency in Foreign Currency Allocation and Foreign Exchange Management,” Directives No.FXD/45/2016’ that made banks provide service to their customers on a first come first serve scheme to tackle misdemeanors at IBD.
However, banks and foreign currency buyers have expressed their complaints about the law, which was amended last year.
In the past banks wanted the regulatory body to ease the new directive that controlled the way banks handle hard currency. They asked the central bank to give them the responsibility of managing the LC process.
They say the directive is not relevant to their day to day activity.
The directive has also imposed priority sectors in terms of access the hard currency at banks.
Besides the priority sectors sub article 6.2 of the directive indicated that a bank shall sell foreign currency to its customers on a first come first serve basis.
During Thursday’s meeting bankers expressed their concern about the directive which they claim does not benefit banks or customers.
They said illegal actors are still accessing the hard currency and distributing it unfairly. The central bank leaders argued that they applied to directive to create fairness. “They told us to come up with a proposal to replace the directive,” sources said.
The Ethiopian Bankers Association is expected to handle the proposal work.
In a related development, NBE has amended the ‘Bank Corporate Governance Directive No. SBB/62/2015’.
This is the first directive that Yinager has signed as governor. It replaces the 2015 directive sub article 6.7 into the following: ‘resolution of shareholders meeting shall not come into force before completing registration of the minutes of the meeting at a relevant government agency. However, a dividend payment shall be affected on the date and methods of payment as decided by the ordinary general meeting.’
The replaced sub article was not allowed to settle dividend payments before the completing registration of the minutes of the meeting with appropriate government organ, which is the Documents Authentication and Registration Agency.

United Insurance wins right to cover domestic workers abroad

Tesfaye Getnet
-
0

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which floated a tender two weeks ago to award domestic worker life insurance coverage for Ethiopians working in Arab countries, awarded the contract to United Insurance Company (UNIC).
Ethiopian Insurance Corporation, Awash, Nyala, Ethio Life, Oromia, and Nib were among those contending for the bid.
MoLSA’s endeavor is for domestic workers to be covered for accidental death and disability.
The insurance will cover domestic workers who fly to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar under a bilateral domestic worker agreement with the Ethiopian government.
Domestic workers who travel to these countries must have proper training from vocational schools.
The vocational school trainings last from one to three months and focus on housekeeping, caregiving, domestic work and driving cars.
So far 140 agencies have registered to send domestic workers to the destination countries.
On October 2013, the government banned domestic workers from traveling abroad due to the rampant torturing, sexual harassment and other civil rights violations endured by many Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.
After the ban was placed, the number of illegal brokers and undocumented migrants increased, causing a surge in the loss of life en route and at sea.
According to proclamation 923/2016 direct domestic worker employment is only for staff where the employers is an Ethiopian mission or an international organization and where the job seekers acquires a job opportunity by their own accord in job positions other than house maid service.
Receiving countries are expected to protect the life and the disability insurance coverage rights of domestic workers.
The proclamation requires domestic workers to have certificates proving that they have at least three months of training in their respective fields. Agencies that send workers abroad must have one million birr in capital in order to obtain a license.
Currently the International Labor Organization and the European Union are working with the Ethiopian government to reduce illegal migration protect the rights of domestic workers.

1...4,0874,0884,089...4,450Page 4,088 of 4,450

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

 

Capital is the longest-established private English newspaper in Ethiopia

Contact us: info@capitalethiopia.com

+251911637862 | +251944732300 | +251116183253
 

FOLLOW US

© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv