GAF angry over MMT’s protest – Board Chair

The Management of the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMT) received a “strong worded” letter from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) for breaching a standing agreement it has with it following Wednesday’s sit down strike by its staff, the Board Chairman of the company has disclosed.

“We send them [Military] to their training point. The military were not conveyed to their training grounds as per the agreement. They wrote a hard worded letter to us because of that.

“In the letter written to us by the military, they were unhappy we couldn’t provide them with transport services,” Ahmed Arthur told host of Morning Starr Francis Abban Thursday.

The workers of the state transport company left many passengers stranded across the country in protest of debilitating working conditions.

According to them, several efforts to get management to improve their working conditions and pay their provident fund which has not been paid in years proved futile.

Allegations against MD

They further claim that over 100 MMT buses had broken down and instead of fixing them, their management had rather spent over GH¢100, 000 to purchase a new 4×4 vehicle for the personal use of the company’s MD.

But Mr. Arthur expressed shock at the claims being made by the workers and the protest that followed. “I was really surprised and taken aback,” he told Abban.

On the allegations of the MD purchasing a new vehicle, he said, “I am surprised to hear from them that the Manager that we have pleaded with to hold on and use his own car will still flout the directive of the board. So we demanded for the evidence. They brought us the evidence and it turned out the evidence was nothing to write home about.”

“The MD has not bought any new vehicle and there is nothing to prove that he has bought any new vehicle. And I as the board chairman I have not approved anything for him to buy any new vehicle,” he added.

He continued, “They brought a contract document claiming that that contract document is what they have to prove that the MD has bought a vehicle. And so I took the document and examined it and this is a standard document from any of the car trading company to anybody who wants to buy a car and anybody at all can go for that document.

“There is no portion in that document especially where you are supposed to affirm that you are buying the car from the company; where the company will have to sign the agreement with the seller…there is no portion in that agreement that has been signed by the MMT. And so that document of course did not generate from MMT. It is either somebody misled them into this particular action or they misled themselves.”