Confusion At GNA?

PRESS RELEASE: REACTION OF GNA MANAGEMENT TO RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AT THE AGENCY
The Management of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) has noted with serious concern the serial publications in some media circles of falsehoods and half-truths generated by a flood of anonymous letters written by some members of staff. Such anonymous letters have not only impeded the day-to-day administration of the Agency but have also diverted Management's attention from addressing the multi-faceted problems facing the GNA.

On the occasion of inauguration of the current Board Members of the Agency, Mr Nutifafa Kuenyehia, the then Chairman of the National Media Commission, had cause to worry about this negative development. He said what GNA needed was not anonymous letters but "peace and tranquillity, devoid of sectional, parochial and selfish interest".

We could not agree more with Mr Kuenyehia that GNA had suffered from inadequate finance and non-release of approved funds and that "it was a miracle to see it make a modest gain and progress as evident in the last two years". Management is not impervious to advice and genuine grievances but it shall not compromise on ensuring total discipline and hard work from its workers. As Mr Kuenyehia said, "those who profess to be workers' leaders must always be humble and place the interest of the workers above their own".

Deputy Minister of Information Andrews Awuni equally decried the emerging phenomenon of anonymous letters and urged the Board to assist the Agency to try and nip it in the bud.

Management is rather surprised that despite its open-door policy, some workers have taken delight in writing anonymous letters to discredit the Agency through misinformation instead of channelling their grievances through accepted laid down procedures for redress.

It is for this reason that we want to come out to state the facts as they are and set the records straight for all to ascertain the situation on the ground.

The GNA Management notes with regret the publication of Thursday, November 20, 2003, with the headline "Police Question GNA Staff" in the Statesman, which is the latest of a series it has published about the GNA, and which exposes it as having a set agenda to champion the cause of some hidden faces.

As usual, the November 20 publication at best contained nothing but lies, half-truths, twisted facts and distortions that are calculated to discredit the GNA.

Management was not at all surprised that the Statesman did not even bother to find out its version of the issues raised before going to press, thus confirming our belief that it is only out to satisfy a small group of people who are bent on sowing seeds of confusion in the GNA.

For the avoidance of doubt, the GNA hereby states that the Rapid Response Unit of the CID Headquarters, in a letter to the GNA dated 10th November, 2003, invited three members of staff of GNA, who are not rpt not executive members of the local branch of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU), to assist in investigations into a series of anonymous letters written by some workers of the Agency which have been churning out a litany of lies against the present Management, particularly the General Manager, who has become a target of malicious and disparaging allegations and anonymous letters and strangely a favourite subject of publication by the Statesman.

In fact, several people and the Agency have suffered incalculable damage and harm from these anonymous letters, which have shamefully sought to conceal the real facts but chosen to confuse purely labour and disciplinary issues with politics and ethnicity.

It may interest the Statesman to learn that the three employees it mentioned are not only ones the police are investigating. The Rapid Response Unit of the CID has also investigated the General Manger following the latest anonymous letter, which imputed criminal action to him.

He accordingly requested the Police to unmask the faces behind these anonymous letters.

From our records, Mr Agyepong Darko and Mr Benjamin Mintah are not rpt not officers of the GNA local union of the PSWU. We are aware that there was a bye-election supervised by the Industrial Relations Officer of the PSWU to fill vacancies in the executive. The results were rejected and the election annulled because the number of votes cast was greater than the number of persons who voted. Our information from the union executives whom we have met regularly is that the result was declared null and void and for that matter the claim by the Statesman's reporter that Mr Agyepong Darko and Mr Mintah are Secretary and Assistant Secretary, respectively, is as hollow and baseless as the misinformation about the GNA that he has been spewing for some time now.

Again, we wish to state that it is a blatant lie for the Statesman to state that there is an "uneasy calm" and "tension" in GNA and that there is "agitation for improved conditions of service and complete overhaul of Management".

As is the case everywhere, there is likely to be a division in any union, particularly in a period preceding an election, and therefore the fact that there are two factions in the GNA local union of the PSWU is nothing strange. But this is no reason to fabricate stories that tend to portray a misrepresentation of the actual situation in GNA. This rather sounds incredible because Management is pursuing an open door policy and interacting with all sections of the staff in interface sessions to discuss issues affecting them with a view to ensuring industrial harmony. In no such discussions have staff expressed any shred of doubt in Management's capability to resolve internal problems at the Agency.

If the Statesman had cared to conduct a thorough and balanced investigation, it would have perhaps obtained all the facts it required about the Agency's working conditions and what efforts Management had done so far to improve its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Conditions of service at GNA, as in several public sector institutions, could be better.

But it may interest the Statesman to learn that on November 4, 2003, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning approved a new CBA for the unionised workers of GNA.

It is appropriate this time to state that only one member of the present Management team was in office when the problems enumerated by the Statesman in its publications started. The problems of overpayment and underpayment of staff salaries as well as the non-payment of SSNIT deductions started in 1999 and beyond. The present Management initiated efforts, as far back as December 2000 to resolve the issues through 2001 until the Auditor General's investigation started in March 2002.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has also conducted investigations into these same problems and has found no wrongdoing on the part of the present Management.

It may also interest the Statesman to know that the problems listed above occurred when Mr Agyepong Darko was directly in charge of the Accounts Department. He is therefore in a better position to tell the whole world how the so-called "slashing" of salaries, overpayment and underpayment of staff salaries as well as the non-payment of SSNIT deductions occurred in 1999.

There is, in fact, nowhere in the Auditor General's Report where malfeasance or criminal intent is imputed to any member of the present Management team. Nobody has slashed anyone's salary.

The Management has, however, begun carrying out some of the recommendations made by the Auditor General in relation to the issues raised in the Report. These include SSNIT deductions, overpayment and underpayment and the employment of six temporary staff. Management, as far back as December 2000, began an initiative to help correct these salary anomalies it came to inherit. It also paid all SSNIT arrears for 1998, 2000 and 2001. Mr A.S. Adjei, in his end-of-year message in December 2000 as then Union Chairman, commended Management for its initiative to correct these salary anomalies.

Management is also making frantic efforts to correct defects in the Agency's organisational structure, which has given rise to distortions in the salaries of some staff of the Agency.

The issue of termination of the appointment of Mr Adjei is an overplayed case where truths are twisted and blatant lies told to deceive the world. Unfortunately, Mr Adjei and his small group of supporters have sought to politicise the termination of his appointment, which was a purely labour issue.

We want to repeat here that the appointment of Mr Adjei was NOT rpt NOT terminated because he blew a whistle. The truth is that his appointment was terminated because of indiscipline and the records are there for all to see.

The behaviour of Mr Ageypong Darko and Mr Mintah over Mr Adjei's case is not surprising. During a staff durbar with the GNA Board of Directors in October, this year, the two workers set their own condition that there would be no peace in GNA unless Mr Adjei was reinstated. However, it is noteworthy that speaker after speaker told them that staff who unnecessarily incite workers or commit intolerable offences should be prepared to face disciplinary action.

The present Management is doing everything in its power to make the GNA more viable and efficient and it will in no way tolerate acts of gross indiscipline and sabotage by any member of staff.

The GNA is on the verge of undergoing restructuring under the Public Sector Reform Programme to make it operate more efficiently and viably. That is the focus of Management now and it should not be distracted from this goal by lies being peddled by some staff who fear that they could be affected by any resultant redundancy exercise under the restructuring programme.

In fact, it is the wish of the new Board of Directors that industrial harmony prevails in the GNA to allow for smooth and efficient operations and increased productivity.

The Board has consequently had interactions with Supervisors of the Agency and met with the entire staff at a durbar during which a number of issues was raised and addressed.

The Board Chairman, Mr Rex Owusu Ansah, told the staff that the doors to further discussions were not completely closed. He, however, stated categorically that the Board was not in a position to entertain any false publications or anonymous letters.

"He who wants equity must come with clean hands," he told the staff.

We believe that, given the peace that it so much deserves, the GNA would be in a position to live by its accolade as one of the best and most professional news agencies on the African continent.