AMBASSADOR AND CANADIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER DISCUSS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 000335

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2011
TAGS: EFIN ENRG EINV PGOV GH
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR AND CANADIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER DISCUSS
CORRUPTION, BUSINESS CLIMATE, TOGO

REF: A. ACCRA 256


B. ACCRA 255

Classified By: EconChief Chris Landberg for Reasons 1.5 (B and D)

Summary
--------------

1. (C) On January 30, 2006, Ambassador Bridgewater paid a
courtesy call on Canadian High Commissioner Donald Bobiash.
They agreed Ghana has been slow to seize the opportunities it
has to become a middle-income country, and also agreed the
U.S. and Canada appear to care more about corruption and
problems with the investment climate than other donors.
Bobiash was concerned that Ghana's elite was out of touch
with the reality of life for most Ghanaians, and also
highlighted aid dependency as a growing problem. Like the
U.S., Canada is focusing much of its aid program on the north
and Muslim areas. Canada has demarched Ghana related to the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) vote on reporting
Iran to the UNSC. Bobiash recently returned from Togo with
the impression that while calm has returned, the new
President is just a figurehead. End Summary.


2. (C) High Commissioner Bobiash compared Ghana to a garden.
When you first arrive, you focus on the flowers -- democracy
and stability, respect for human rights, freedom of the
press. The longer you are in Ghana the more weeds you see --
corruption and cronyism, incompetence, slow government
decision making, and difficult business environment.


3. (C) Bobiash acknowledged that Ghana is moving generally in
the right direct with regards to both economic and political
reforms. He said it was at the "proverbial crossroads,"
where government decisions now can accelerate progress
towards becoming a middle-income state. However, he said
that the President and his cabinet were not showing the
strong leadership necessary to achieve this goal. He noted
this is particularly true on corruption, where the government
is not making examples by prosecuting corrupt officials --
what Bobiash called the "litmus test" for a country's
willingness to tackle corruption.


4. (C) The Ambassador commented that Canada and the U.S. seem
to be the only donor countries seriously concerned about
corruption and lack of transparency, referring to her recent
calls on other Mission heads (reftels) who regard these as
minor issues. She added that she has raised her concerns
several times with President Kufuor, focusing not only
corruption but on poor treatment of foreign companies, lack
of sanctity of contracts, and questionable procurement
practices. The Ambassador and Bobiash compared notes on the
inordinate amount of effort and time they had each spent
weighing in at high-levels on business deals and breaking
logjams between government ministries. Bobiash said he
thought the fault was not solely with high-level officials,
arguing that powerful and entrenched bureaucrats created many
of the problems.


5. (C) Bobiash criticized the international community for
hobnobbing almost exclusively with the Ghanaian elite, based
primarily in Accra. He commented that this elite group,
comprised of well-off and highly educated people in
government, business, and civil society, is out of touch with
the other 95% of Ghanaians. The elite have little
understanding of or sympathy for the difficult conditions
under which most Ghanaians live, and Bobiash argued they lack
a sense of urgency to do much about it. The donor community
should care about this because this has been a historical
problem in Ghana, with out-of-touch, powerful, corrupt elite
mismanaging the country, leading to military takeovers.
Although Bobiash does not believe we are near such a point,
donors should keep the pressure on Ghana to maintain its
reform program, grow the economy and reduce poverty.


6. (C) Canada's assistance program is focused primarily on
the northern part of the country, which the government has
largely neglected. CIDA, the Canadian aid agency, has spent
almost half a billion dollars on water projects in the north,
and they also have programs supporting predominantly Muslim
areas. Bobiash praised Ghanaian Muslim communities as
relatively tolerant, although he also noted they are quite
divided.


7. (C) Bobiash said he is quite concerned about Ghana's
growing aid dependency. Assistance levels are at record
levels, with donors pledging over $1.2 billion for 2006, or
about 30% of the budget. Nevertheless, Bobiash argued,
results have been meager. He complained that an assistance
mentality has developed where government officials ask for
more assistance in every meeting, and whatever donors agree
to give is not enough (Note: an example is the GoG's campaign
to get up to $5 billion to pay for projects related to the
NEPAD Peer Review. End Note).


8. (C) The Ambassador briefed Bobiash on Post's extensive
lobbying effort to gain Ghanaian support for the IAEA to
report Iran to the UN Security Council, as well as to get
Ghana to clear its arrears with the IAEA. Bobiash said he
had also demarched Ghana on the IAEA, most recently in
December. He commented that the IAEA vote on Iran was
significant for Canada and they were pushing hard on the
nuclear issue. He noted that Canada had reduced bilateral
relations with Iran down to almost zero and had almost pulled
its Ambassador following the murder of a Canadian journalist
a few years back.

Canadian HC's Impressions on Togo
--------------

9. (C) Bobiash is also accredited as Ambassador to Togo, and
recently returned from presenting his credentials. He
commented that Togo had stabilized and it appeared most
Togolese were resigned to the current regime. He noted that
the U.S. and Canada were the only two countries to call the
election fixed, and was disappointed by what he termed the
"cynical" EU and French reaction to the election results.
During presentation of his credentials, Bobiash found the new
leader shy and uninformed, and in his opinion President Faure
Gnassingbe was just fronting for the key decision-makers in
Togo -- his father's ex-advisors. Bobiash concluded that he
did not come away from Togo overly optimistic about its
future.

Comment
--------------

10. (C) The U.S. and Canadian missions are reading from the
same script: Ghana is clearly a top performer among
developing economies and a rising star in Africa. However,
as Bobiash said in the meeting, a country with Ghana's
reputation should be more aggressive at countering corruption
and opening itself up to criticism and change. We need to
continue to hold Ghana to a high standard to ensure gains are
not lost in harder times. End Comment.
BRIDGEWATER