The American “Queen of Soul” Aretha Louise Franklin died at the age of 76 last Thursday after suffering for months with a grave illness.
The Multiple Grammy winner was known for soul hits and crossover chart toppers such as “Respect,” “Freeway of Love” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. Born in Memphis, Tennessee the gifted singer and pianist was born on March, 1942, the fourth out of five children.
In 1987 when she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The undisputed talent was able to sell more than 75 million records and win 18 Grammy Awards.
As a daughter of a Minister she started her career performing gospel music. Her father was a friend of Martin Luther King.
Her dad also served as her manager when she released her first album. She last performed at the Elton John’s AIDS Foundation party in New York City last November. She was forced to cancel a series of performances due to her critical illness. Aretha suffered from several health problems like alcoholism and heavy smoking and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2010.
The feminist, voice of civil rights and soul music giant was a mother of two.
Soul icon, Aretha Franklin, passes away at 76
Ethio-telecom lifts performance security bond for four multinational companies
The sourcing committee which is comprised of high telecom officials unconditionally lifted the security bond for four companies including ZTE, Ericsson, and Huawei, effective for any transaction they have with Ethio-telecom.
The committee is made up of the Chief Operation Officer, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Sourcing Officer and Chief Facility Officer, Chief Finance Officer and the CEO. It has the jurisdiction to pass a decision on a transaction up to 270 million birr although the board can approve more than that.
Every legal framework of government procurements are made mandatory by the performance bond provision within 15 days.
“The reason that the law requires a performance bond is if the company who wins the procurement can’t meet the terms of the contract they will be given a chance to compensate their loss,” said Assefa Solomon, public relations deputy director at the Federal Public Procurement & Disposal Service (PPDS).
“The procurement agency said that the issues of the public enterprises fall out of its jurisdiction,” he said.
The Ministry of Public Enterprises (MoPE) has forwarded the matter back to the procurement agency. The companies, who have a different history with the on-time delivery of projects, have a long history with the telecoms’ multi-million USD projects.
It was back in 2016 Huawei Technologies Co. took over the expansion project portion which was given to Ericsson in 2014. The portion of the project was initially given to ZTE; prior to terminating and giving it to Ericsson, in 2013 as part of the USD 800 million contract, it won.
Also, back in 2011, the Federal court found the Ex- CEO of Ethiopian Telecommunication and other managers, Tesfaye Biru (Ph.D.) et-al, guilty of corruption crimes in a project awarded to Ericsson which cost USD 47.4 million.
The telecom stated that the four companies are strategic partners of the telecom which works in a vendor financing. “As the bond was there for security, the performance of the company we have established relationships,” Abdurahim Ahmed, Corporate Communication Officer at the telecom said. “The procurement policy of the telecom didn’t forbid doing so.”
The performance bond usually is between 5% up to 10% of the total transaction and the amount of the performance bond will not exceeds 270 million birr.
The sole telecom service provider announced last February that it was able to collect 18.4 billion birr in revenue from sales in six months
Ministry studying 50 mega projects for private partnerships
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC) announced 50 potential projects for (MoFEC) Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). They are currently undergoing detailed study with support from the World Bank Group (WBG).
Haji Ibsa, Communication Director for MoFEC told Capital that finishing structural and legal frameworks for PPP were one of the things the Ministry was most successful in this past fiscal year.
“Among the 50 projects, 26 are in the final stages and international bids will be announced soon,” Haji said.
“Contract performances in Ethiopia are among major problems we face,” Haji expressed during the press briefing at the Ministry. “Lack of enough research prior to starting a project and less bargaining power costs the government.”
The director exemplified the low performance of the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC) with a fertilizer factory it took on 2012 with USD 540 million. China National Complete Plant Import & Export Corporation (COMPLANT) offered USD 730 million to complete the project within 5 years. METEC proposed to finalize the project within three years. Haji pointed out that this is a huge difference that should have been more thoroughly researched.
COMPLANT oversaw the design, manufacture, supply, transportation to site, site preparation, installation, supervision, commissioning, training of personnel and other responsibilities at the YAYU Industrial Complex.
“The complex was supposed to be finished long ago but the performance is below 50 percent,” he said. “The contract also has defects including making clear who is responsible for the deficient work,” said Haji.
The past 12 months witnessed continuous inflation which challenged the economy, according to the report.
In the last fiscal year, export earnings showed a USD 78.9 million decline (2.8%).
Imports increased by USD 24.6 billion compared to the same period last year. In the 2016/17 fiscal year the total paid amount for imports was USD 30.1 billion which increased to USD 55.5 billion.
The federal government’s income in 2017/18 was at 76.1% in comparison with the plan. In the last fiscal year, the government was able to generate 108.6 billion birr from tax and non-tax revenues, while the plan was to generate 237 billion birr.
Due to the high budget deficit, the Ministry postponed some mega project payments until the next fiscal year, according to Haji. The 2017/18 fiscal year saw a 53.8 billion birr budget gap which is going to be transferred to the current fiscal year.
Tax revenue has not grown at the pace of economic development which has pushed the government to look for loans to fill the budget gap. The report shows such actions affect the private sector especially when it comes to obtaining loans.
The ministry hopes to increase revenue by improving tax policy.
“There are going to be tax reforms in the coming fiscal year,” according to the report.
Audit gaps, loans, and excessive expenditures were listed reasons for the poor fiscal performance and marked as critical problems to be addressed.
Another issue was funding for youth programs. In the past fiscal year, 7.8 billion birr was transferred to youth but not every region used all their funding, according to the report.
Federal ministries slashed to sixteen
At the request of Prime Minster Abiy Amhed (PhD) the number of ministries will be cut to 16 when parliament returns from recess at the beginning of October, Capital has learned.
Relevant sources stated that several ministry offices are engaged in restructuring and mergers after a recommendation from the Prime Minister. Under this new arrangement the number of state ministers will increase and work under some ministry offices.
Excluding the Deputy PM and Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives currently there are 28 cabinet members including the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority, Attorney General, Commissioner of National Planning and Chief Government Whip.
A source told Capital that the PM wants to have just 16 ministries and during his recent US tour he asked if any other country in the world had the number of ministries Ethiopia has. He pointed out that this costs the government a lot of money and creates redundancy in job responsibilities. The PM also said that in some cases the tasks an agency undertakes are not enough to justify a ministry and instead can be handled under several larger ministries.
One expert agreed with the PM saying that enormous resources are allocated for a single minister including allocating three vehicles with drivers and other position benefits.
“However, if the position is at the state minister level the cost is reduced and becomes much more reasonable,” a source said. Cabinet level positions are challenging to manage since it takes unnecessary time for the head of government. Reducing the Council of Ministers should make governing more efficient, the source added.
According to sources, some of the ministries up for dissolution include the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Pastoral Area Development, which would be divided under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Ethiopian National Security Agency. Some others like the Ministry of Industry and the Mining sector are also expected to supervised by other departments.
When he was first appointed the PM moved the Ministry of Livestock and Fishery, which was recently separated from Ministry of Agriculture, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Capital’s effort to talk Ahmed Shide, Minister of Government Communication Affairs Office, Fitsum Arega, Chief of Staff at the PM Office, was unfruitful.
