Wereko-Brobby must go - VRA staff

The Board of Directors of the Volta River Authority (VRA) will meet tomorrow to address issues raised by staff of the company in a resolution to the Minister for Energy, Albert kan-Dapaah, in which they called for the removal of VRA boss, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby and Chairman, Dr. Jones Ofori-Atta.

The concern of the Senior Staff Association and the Union is that, Dr. Ofori-Atta, would preside and therefore be a judge in his own case contrary to natural justice and a clear case of conflict of interest, “The Heritage, a private newspaper reports.

The staff, in their resolution to the minister dated February 8, 2002 called on the government to “set up a commission of enquiry into the institutional fraud in the administration of the VRA Staff Provident Fund”, the Heritage said.

The workers’ agitation was provoked by a press statement issued in response to a story in the Ghanaian Chronicle, a private newspaper, which they claimed castigated them and tarnished the image of the authority.

It is learnt that the statement was authorized by the Chief Executive but signed by the Chairman who has now realized he was misled. It was further known that a number of board members were not in agreement with the statement.

According to the paper, the workers demanded that the Chief Executive go back to the press to retract what they described as the “lies” he told Ghanaians and render an unqualified apology to cool down their tempers. They also want the suspension of the Provident Fund to be revoked immediately.

“They re-emphasized the call for the removal of the chief executive and the board chairman threatening that if they are maintained, “they would not be able to contain the sudden explosion that might erupt.”

Reports also say the staff is putting together a document on other serious matters of concern to them, to be forwarded to the Board for consideration. Likely to be included in the document are the failure of the management to set up a committee to investigate two staff working on the provident fund and the deputy chief executive who were interdicted for alleged irregularities in the management of the fund and leaking information to enable them clear their names.

The VRA staff is also calling on the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Minister for Energy to investigate various instances of sole sourcing in the Authority and the Emergency Power Supply Project at Tema.

Among other concerns are the engagement of a consultant to look at the Management Information Systems, whether his term of appointment conforms with laid down procedures and the mandate given him to procure 300 computers while the Authority has a purchasing department, the sudden doubling of freight cost for the lifting of oil to the Aboadze Thermal Plant, the renovation of the Chief Executive’s Guest house at Akuse at a cost of ?214 million and the conversion of the 10th and 11th floors of the VRA head office building in the capital Accra.

The staff also called investigations into the monthly expenditure of ?16 million incurred on catering services fore the Chief Executive’s secretariat.