Arrest former ECG board members - AFAG

Pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG,) has given President John Dramani Mahama a five-day ultimatum to order the immediate arrest and prosecution of former board members of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) implicated in the report that investigated alleged financial malfeasance uncovered therein.

AFAG says the immediate arrest of former members of the board had become imperative in view of the revelation that they contravened the Public Procurement Act resulting in losses to the state.

In an inclusive interview with Today in Accra, the AFAG Director of Operations, Davis Opoku Ansah, said the ECG board, led by Dr. Kwabena Osafo, is expected to supervise the company’s management and check it against the perpetration of any financial malfeasance, but could itself not withstand the temptation of excessive spending to the extent that it was also dragged into it.

Mr. Ansah also recounted revelations of investigations conducted over a period by New Crusading Guide’s reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, that in all, a total of GH¢373,871.60, equivalent to $249,247.73, was paid to members of the ECG board between January and November 2011.

According to Mr. Ansah, the investigative report alleged that the afore-mentioned amount was shared amongst eight members of the utility company’s board. They include Kwabena Adjei Bambaata, GH¢77,237; Stephen Sumani Nayina, GH¢71,719; Bernard Allotey Jacobs, GH¢68,836, and; Dr Kwabena Osafo, GH¢57,785.

The rest of the amount was shared thus: Samuel Cudjoe, GH¢29,551; Barima Kwame Nkyi XII, GH¢28, 22; Nii Oakley Quaye Kumah, GH¢26,490.80, and; Anthony Gyampo, GH¢14,030.80.

According to the report, the three top earners among the lot – Kwabena Adjei Bambaata, Stephen Sumani Nayina, and Bernard Allotey Jacobs – bagged that much, because they live outside Accra, hence transport and accommodation allowances were factored into the lump payments.

Allotey Jacobs resides in Cape Coast in the Central Region, and is also the NDC Regional Chairman.

Mr. Gyampo’s figure (of GH¢14,030.80) comprises two-month earnings since he acted as Managing Director of ECG after his predecessor left.

Mr. Ansah said he was shocked to hear Allotey Jacobs recently confirm on Adom TV’s Badwam that, indeed, took GH¢68,836 in transportation, accommodation and other fees for his tenure as board member of the ECG.

According to Mr. Ansah, AFAG checks at the Accountant-General’s Department showed that the department was unaware that ECG board members had paid themselves such gargantuan amount in allowances for reasons they were yet to explain to ordinary Ghanaians.

He argued that if former members of the board blew these huge sums of money as sitting allowances at policy level, and President Mahama has been silent over it for the past months then it was within the rights of Ghanaians to demand explanations from the ECG board.

“How could the fixed monthly board fees as at January 2011 which was pegged at GH¢750 for board members and GH¢975 for the board chairman, which amounts were increased by GH¢225 from February until the re-constitution of the board was completed in November 2011,” the AFAG Director of Operations asked.

The Director of Customer Services at ECG, Dr. N. K. Smart Yeboah, recently told an Accra-based radio station, Joy FM, that he was ashamed and humiliated by the sheer scale of corruption and inefficiencies at ECG, Mr. Davis Opoku recalled.

He said AFAG is shocked at the unconscionable act of the capos of the NDC who are milking and openly ripping the State off of its scarce resources. He thus called on relevant state institutions to immediately arrest and prosecute them for willfully causing financial loss to the State.