Teledata -Foreign Company Allowed to Victimise Young Ghanaian Workers

TELEDATA – A Foreign Company Allowed to Victimise Young Ghanaian Workers in Our Own Country!!! Another Reason for Brain-Drain?

Kumasi-GH 8500

Tema-GH 9000

Takoradi as of November 2007- GH 90,000

Takoradi as of May, 2008- GH 25,500

These statistics have one thing in common-Teledata LTD/MILL TELL, a subsidiary of Eid Holdings, a company providing IT and ICT services/solutions in Ghana. The company also deals in the wholesale of recharge or top up cards of all the major mobile telephone companies on Ghana. The figures above are only a few examples of the amounts of money “allegedly” stolen by the cashiers working in the company. In fact, in some cases the company accused the cashiers of stealing this amount in one day! How ridiculous is that? How is it possible for someone to steal GH 25,000 in a day? This is a matter I will return to later but for now, let’s talk about the company’s staffing strategy.

At the company’s head office in kokomlemle, Accra is staffed by a branch manager, two cashiers and two bulk sales people. When there are two cashiers, one receives the money from those who buy in bulk and the other receives money from those who buy in bits. Bulk purchases are cards worth GH500 and above. The cashiers at Teledata are given a monthly allowance of GH15.00. I’m sure by now you are thinking ‘so what is the problem?’ Well, the problem is that most of the other branches of Teledata are not as well staffed as the Kokomlemle branch. In fact, most of the branches where cashiers have been accused of stealing such large sums of money are manned by only one cashier and supervised by one branch manager.

Do you think it is just by coincidence, that these alleged thefts are mainly reported in branches where there is just one cashier and the branch manager? I don’t think so. You see, the branch manager is also put in-charge of the cards. These branch managers are usually people who have worked with the Teledata for quite a few years and know the ins and outs of the company (i.e., preparing invoices, keeping track of stock of cards available, and how to update the information system).

Additionally, in the branches where cashiers have been accused of stealing, there is just the branch manager and the one cashier. Moreover, the manager has unrestricted access to the phone cards in stock at that branch. This allows him to sell the cards without going through the proper channels. That is, without raising invoices to record the sale in the computerized/information system. When cards are sold, then cash should come in, right? This does not always happen when the manger has unlimited access to the cards. Here, even when invoices are raised, the cashiers end up having a deficit in their cash box because even though there's been a sale, no cash was “received”. Better yet, cash was received, it just did not go where it was supposed to, rather, it went into the manager’s pockets.

Teledata knows that this is a recipe for disaster, which is why the branch manager at the head office at kokomlemle only supervises the sales team. He/she neither receives cash nor supplies cards to the customers. So why do they allow this to happen in these troubled areas? The answer is simple, to save money on payroll. And then when something goes wrong due to the company’s irresponsible behaviour, they just go after the poor cashier to pay.

I would think that Teledata would at least install a camera to see who does what in the branches where there is only one cashier and one branch manager (who can enter the office even on weekends by him/herself alone). Knowing all these problems, Teledata goes ahead and accuses the cashiers of THEFT. They're not only accused of theft, but they are also prosecuted. I mean they have to hire lawyers to defend them in court. That is, if you have someone to help you pay the legal fees you will incur. This is if the accused is brave enough to stand up to Teledata in court. I spoke with some of the young people and they said that they were so afraid that they usually just accept defeat and their family members put contribute to help them pay Teledata the lost money. So basically, Teledata does not have to clean its act, all they have to do is harass these poor cashiers and bribe the prosecutors and investigators.

I also asked one the accused cashiers why he didn’t quit his job when the first incident happened, and he said that those the company withheld his salaries (GH 150/month) and then told him that he cannot leave unless he pays the money in full. So he had to stay in the same position and due to the same poor practices he kept losing money. As is the company's policy, those who incur loses are supposed to pay up as and when they occur. The question is “how do they pay when your salaries are withheld”? And as they are unable to pay, they cannot resign from the company because the threat of legal actions. So for these young employees of Teledata, there is no winning when you accept a job with Teledata. Simply put, cashiering at Teledata LTD is a vicious cycle: loses-no pay-no resignation-more loses-still no pay- and on and on.

As I said earlier, Teledata goes all out to harass these cashiers. The cashier is often dismissed without prior notice, not paid and as the icing on the cake? Prosecuted when they maintain they are innocent. As if the criminal charges are not enough, the company telephones prospective employers to besmirch the reputation of these cashiers who are just starting life and thus need to make a living.

Faced with the threat of imprisonment, most of these young cashiers offer to pay whatever huge sums the company decides to come up with. If at some point the accused is unable to make payment, the company resorts to bribing the police to confiscate whatever possessions of the cashier they lay their hands on. In fact, it is rumoured that the company has on its ‘payroll’ some personnel of the Bereau of National Investigations (BNI). These persons are told to record the conversations of the accused persons and to tap their phone calls. It is rumoured that Teledata ltd offered the BNI GH 80,000 to make sure that the accused persons are convicted and imprisoned. Now, I desparately, hope that this is not true but Teledata’s skirmishes have gone on so long that I’m inclined to believe that some very influential people are being paid to act irresponsibly.

It is so sad that Ghana as a country allows such an unscrupulous foreign company to do this to our young, usually fresh out of school, hardworking citizens. Shouldn’t we do all we can to protect them from such bullies? To me, this is one more reason why brain-drain is such a huge problem these days. These fresh out of school students feel that they will be better protected if they were working in a country like the US or the UK. Now, isn’t that disappointing? Why are we oppressed in our own country by foreigners, Lebanese, to be precise? Teledata and other foreign companies need to be investigated because there are many Ghanaians who have been mistreated and abused by them. Such persons need to let the public know what is happening at the workplace. If they are not stopped, they will continue to exploit those who are desperate enough to work for them. And the BNI needs to be investigated because it is not for sale to the highest, most-corrupt bidder. We should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to go on for so long. How long are Ghanaians going to allow foreigners to victimise us in our own country?

This issue is not so trivial that the President’s office should think it too small to step in. After all, these are Ghana’s own young men and women being mistreated by a foreign firm. What are we waiting for? If you were one of these young, hardworking people, won’t you jump on the first plane out of the country and not come back until you retire? I would, in a heartbeat! Please investigate Teledata’s operations!

mimi_joseph@hotmail.com

Teledata responded to this opinion article on the 23rd by telephone. According to the spokesman Teledata was not a foreign company. The spokesman acknowledged that there have been cases of theft by staff. These cases were handled through the appropiate procedures, eg reporting to the police.