Houseboy Drags Ambassador To CHRAJ

A house boy of the Ghana Mission in South Korea, Robert Kwadwo Boateng, has dragged the country`s Ambassador to Korea, Kwadwo Afoakwa Sarpong to CHRAJ.

The house boy is accusing the ambassador of fraud and maltreatment during his working period as a housekeeper for him in Korea.

In his petition, a copy of which is in the possession of the Ghanaian Observer (GO) newspaper, Boateng says when he was recruited for the job, Ambassador Kwadwo Sarpong requested for an amount of ¢30m (old Ghanaian cedis) from him to cover his visa fee and air ticket to Korea.

He disclosed that in July 2006, when he received his salary for a two week work period which was 600,000 won (Korea Currency), the Ambassador caused him to pay 400,000 won as his part for rent and electricity, even though the job schedule required that he lived in the out-house provided at the official residence of the Ambassador.

He later took the remaining 200,000 won from the petitioner for some other expenses which he did not mention, the petition further stated.

For the subsequent month, Sarpong collected from him, his full salary of 1,512,000 won, an amount of 4000 won and an additional amount of 100,000 won for his wife as her household expenses. This continued for eight months which he spent in Korea, he affirmed.

Boateng further stated that in September 2006, the ambassador caused him to pay a telephone bill of 1,540,000 won from a total bill of 1,731,250 won submitted to the residency. His inability to pay up the bill led to a seizure of his whole salary for October, November and December 2006, the petition said.

To add insult to injury, he said the Ambassador’s wife began to maltreat him for no reason, ostensibly to cause his removal from the residency with the intention of sending in her (the ambassador’s wife’s) brother down from Ghana to take his place as house boy.

He ended up being sacked when he later got into a misunderstanding with the ambassador’s wife. For his severance salary, he was given a paltry US$2,500.

According to the petitioner, out of the entitlement given to him by the Ambassador after his sack, officials at the embassy advised him to deposit with them an amount of US$1,500 for a return ticket to Korea with a promise to help him travel to the US. But when he got back to Korea, they couldn’t assist him and he lost an amount of US$2,500, placing him in a grave situation.