Volta River Authority Board Supports Chief Executive

The Board of Directors of the Volta River Authority (VRA) says it supports the decision of its Chief Executive, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby to suspend the operation of the Authority's Provident Fund pending the outcome of an enquiry into its administration.

Dr Jones Ofori-Atta, Chairman of the Board, said the enquiry is the source of a report in the Friday, January 25 edition of the Ghanaian Chronicle headlined "Tarzan's Reign of Terror-Worker explosion looms at VRA."

The decision was contained in a resolution passed after an emergency meeting of the Board to consider allegations levelled against Dr Wereko-Brobby over "reckless use of power and bullying tactics of administration" among other things.

The four-point resolution said the Board has an absolute confidence in the Chief Executive and recommended that he interdict two recipients of a memorandum on the Provident Fund.

They are the Deputy Chief Executive, Resources and Services and the Director of Human Resources.

The two are believed to be the likely sources of leaks to the newspaper on the enquiry into alleged embezzlement of half a billion cedis by a former Administrator of the Fund.

Their interdiction would be done with the assistance of the national security agencies.

The Board read the resolution to journalists at a press conference yesterday that was delayed for almost two hours.

Dr Ofori-Atta said the VRA had come under media attack in the recent past. Such attacks had succeeded in sowing panic on impending shortage of power while some sought to attack the integrity of the VRA and to generate confusion within the workforce.

He said the Board mandated Dr Wereko-Brobby to restructure the organisation to ensure efficiency and above all eliminate corruption.

The mandate given to the Chief Executive included the suspension of the Provident Fund as part of measures to ensure that staff contributions were safe while investigations into its administration continued.

"The Board requested the Chief Executive to interdict with immediate effect whoever is found to have leaked official information to the press," Dr Ofori-Atta said.

Dr Wereko-Brobby answered questions on other allegations raised in the Ghanaian Chronicle.