General News of Tuesday, 30 October 2018

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

GHC10K high cost dinner allegations plain ‘mischief’ – GMA Director General

Kwame Owusu, Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority play videoKwame Owusu, Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority

The Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Kwame Owusu has described as mischievous, claims that an amount of GHC10, 652 was spent on food for 8 people at the Luxe Suites Hotel for one night.

According to Kwame Owusu the GHC10, 652 was the total amount used to cater for several meetings including the management and stakeholder meetings on maritime security fees and charges at the head office.

He said the memo which states such amount was for 8 participant was doctored and was an attempt to bring down his name.

Last week, Musician A plus shared a memo from the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) on facebook that stated that an amount of GHC 10,652 was spent on 8 people at a management meeting at the Luxe Suites Hotel.

He also noted that Kwame Owusu’s position as Group Chairman of the said hotel raises issues of conflict of interest.

A Plus wrote: “Charley, me I still don’t understand how eight people spent GH¢10,652 on food during a meeting. Ah how? It means each person’s food (just one meal) cost 1,335.00 Ghana cedis. Really? If you own Ghana as your private company, will you spend this amount on a meal for just one meeting?



“Apart from conflict of interest which is a serious offence, let me ask this: how many people can eat 135,125.00 Ghana cedis worth of food? Herrrh they can eat ooo, hahahahaha. But addressing the issue at a press conference the Director General for GMA, Kwame Owusu said the document was tweaked to misrepresent the actualities.

“…the amount of money on meetings that took place that is backed by our record in the file which has all the things to support it. The original is here and there is nothing like 8 participants, so the person who stole the document was only doing it as a mischief” he said Kwame Owusu also accused A plus of being an extortionist who after several failed attempts to extort money from him is trying to frame him in a bad light.

“I have asked my staff to send you copies of extortion messages coming from the very person who released the information attempting to extort"



“We have come to you to let you know the truth, in the series of documents we have given to you (journalists) is the person attempting to negotiate with me that if I don’t he will actually publish information about a house, passport, food and hotels by the Director General. We are here to respond and I will not yield to people who want to extort” he added

He also added that he is ready to take legal action against A plus.