...Accuse Board Chair, Deputy MD of working to collapse the company

Senior and Junior Staff Unions of Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL) have accused the Board Chairman, Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, and the Deputy Managing Director, Ing. John Awuku Dzuazah, of taking certain steps which will lead to the collapse of the company.

The accusation was contained in a petition dated October 23, 2014 and signed by Delali Kumah, Chairman of the Senior Staff Union, and Joseph Ahenkorah, Chairman of the Junior Staff Union.

It was addressed to the Transport Minister and copied to the Office of The President and all board members.

To buttress their point, the unions alleged that prior to his appointment as Board Chairman of MMTL, Osabarima Ansah Sasraku registered Capricom Impex Limited as a supplier to MMTL. In 2011, Capricom Impex Limited won a contract to supply tyres worth GH?70,000.

“This, we believe, occasions a conflict of interest situation, and we are informed reliably that that is why people have been nominated this time round to front for him.

“We can reliably say that since he became Board Chairman, Osabarima Ansah Sasraku has halted procurement processes anytime the Entity Tender Committee, which he also chairs, purchases items that do not go in his favour.

“This has become a worry as the company now parks buses because of simple purchases like filter, brake pads,” the petition by the unions said.

According to the petition, the Managing Director, in this regard, is handicapped as he is also informed that approval for such purchases is above his threshold, and therefore would need the board’s approval.

The unions also cited the Board Chairman chairing the Entity Tender Committee as interference in the day-to-day activities of the company.

“What we expect of a credible Board Chairman is to sit back and give strategic directives and mediate whenever there is a deadlock.

“By the way, on simple matters that should have been resolved within a day, like buying brake pads, has this chairman not caused the committee to sit on it for more than four times at the expense of company funds? The minutes are there to prove this fact.

“There is a pointer to this fact, and is it not because for all this action his preferred supplier could not clinch the deal?” the unions alleged.

The unions also accused Osabarima Ansah Sasraku of bringing on board Trust Logistics to haul the company’s fuel from Goil to the fuel dumps for MMTL nationwide without following due process.

The unions also alleged that the Deputy Managing Director, when tasked by the Managing Director to prepare a report on fleet replacement, inflated the cost of repairs of some selected buses for reasons best known to him.

They threatened to come out with the full details if the transport minister fails to thoroughly investigate the matter for the Deputy Managing Director to purge himself.

“We have a simple question for the Board Chairman: Is it the Managing Director, in consultation with the Board of Directors, who engages in the restructuring of an organization, or the Board Chairman singlehandedly?

“If he really believes that he has consulted all other members of the board, we challenge him within 24hrs of communicating this message to him to make public the minutes of the meeting that approved this before proceeding on his agenda of appointing his cronies to sensitive positions in management under the pretext of a re-structuring.

“Although, Madam Minister, we have more to say, we will pause here for another occasion, but to assure you there is a lot of tension and apathy among the working force of MMTL due to this developments and many more that we intend to make public in due course if these attitudes and bad blood between the Board Chairman and the Managing Director is not resolved,” the unions said.

The return to post of the MD, who was suspended, was demanded by the unions, who served notice in their petition that if by Thursday, October 30, 2014 the Managing Director is not recalled to post, they shall advise themselves, which may include shutting down operations indefinitely.

In the petition, the unions called for investigations into the clandestine towing of some of MMTL buses from yards at various parts of the country, allegedly under the instruction of the Deputy Managing Director, which are against the company's laid down procedure

The unions backed the Managing Director’s five-year strategic plan which has given the entire staff a direction towards the achievement of the company’s goals, which has helped increase the revenue between 2013 and 2014 when he took over as MD.

They lauded the MD for commissioning a job evaluation process to recommend appropriate salary structure for the company.

The petition said “he has also implemented other innovations such as the bus and fuel tracking system to monitor the fuel consumption and operational fleet on daily basis, which, to the best of our knowledge, is affecting the pockets of the cartel that wants him to step aside, especially some managers in Kumasi.”