The Ghana Cement Company (GHACEM) and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have been hit by a scandal involving 5.2 billion cedis suspected to have been stolen by a clique of four.

Police sources in Takoradi said that the two officials of CEPS and an employee of GHACEM connived with a clear agent to steal the money which had accrued from duties on imported clinker.

The suspects were said to have succeeded in cashing various cheques issued in the name of CEPS with the help of an official of the Ghana Commercial Bank, Takoradi Main Branch for a fee of 100 million cedis after each deal. The identity of the said manager has not been disclosed.

The suspects, Anthony Angoe, 50, the Shipping Manager of GHACEM, Ben Adu Blankson, 33, a clearing clerk and employee of EMBA Links Co. Ltd, the clearing for GHACEM in Takoradi, Nicholas Atsu Yevoo, 40, and Arnold Djameh, 50, both CEPS officials in Takoradi.

The Western Regional Police Command has charged the four with the offences of conspiracy to steal and stealing.

Upon interrogation, Angoe admitted his involvement and said he received 1.7 billion cedis of the said amount, while Yevoo, Blankson and Djameh denied any involvement but said they would help pay the money.

Investigations revealed that the import and customs duties on clinker imported by GHACEM from Norway were normally prepared by Blankson and then handed over to Angoe who then caused cheques to be issued by his management to CEPS for the payment of the duties.

The crossed cheques which were issued were returned to Blankson, who put a declaration on them and subsequently submitted them to the bank for payment, after the cheques had been confirmed to either Atsu or Djameh on various occasions.

After the payments had been made in respect of the two cheques, the suspects repeated the whole process, using the same documents.

The second round of the cheques was then handed over to the two CEPS officials who received cash payments from private and individual importers up to the tune of the GHACEM cheques at their disposal which they in turn used to clear the goods of the individual importers.

The cash collected by the two CEPS officials was shared among those involved in the deal.

Yevoo, Djameh and Blankson who have denied their involvement in the deal, however agreed to refund 5.2 billion which had been discovered in the deal in the course of the investigation. They have refunded 1.450 billion cedis through their respective lawyers.

The Western Regional Police Commander, Deputy Police Commissioner of Police, Kofi Duku Arthur said the Works Manager of GHACEM, R.B Graham reported to the Regional Criminal Investigations Department on March 20, 2006 that the company’s Shipping Officer, Angoe had stolen the company’s cheques with a face value of 2,258,331 cedis and succeeded in withdrawing the said amount at the Takoradi Branch of the GCB.

Mr Graham said some officials of CEPS and GCB were suspected to be involved in the theft.

Mr Arthur said further internal audit carried out by GHACEM revealed that in February and November 2005, Angoe with the help of Blankson prepared fictious import duty claims of 961,114,025 cedis and 1,981,576,985 cedis respectively, and succeeded in cashing the cheques from the Takoradi Branch of the GCB with the assistance of some CEPS officials.

He said based upon the information provided by the complainant, the police proceeded to Angoe’s house but did not meet him. They were informed that he had traveled to London to seek medical treatment for his eyes.

He said a warrant for his arrest was quickly obtained from the Sekondi District Magistrate’s Court and a publication was placed in the Wednesday, July 26 2006 edition of the Daily Graphic for his arrest.

DCP Arthur said INTERPOL was also informed to help trace the suspect in London and cause his arrest and repatriation.

Source:
Daily Graphic

ECG needs $70m annually to improve services


Cape Coast, Feb. 23, GNA -

Mr Andrew Barfour, Director of Operations, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), on Thursday said the company required about 70 million dollars annually for an efficient and effective operation.
He said the company could only afford about 30 million dollars annually to embark on replacement and repairs of its equipment such as transformers and undertake minor upgrading.
Mr Barfour announced this at a seminar organised for Journalists by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in collaboration with KAB Governance Consult and BUSAC Fund at Cape Coast.

It was under the theme, "Providing adequate power supply for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME's) -The role of Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) and ECG."

Twenty-four participants from the media and Forum of Small Scale Business Association (FOSSBA) attended the seminar. Mr Barfour therefore, appealed to the Government for assistance to embark on restructuring of the company to improve upon the quality of its services.
He noted that for ECG to perform creditably customers should settle their bills promptly and regularly because revenue collection had been a bane on its performance.
"About 67 per cent of our debts are with residential consumers," he added.
The Director of Operations said pilfering of cables and other equipment was another drain on its revenue generation capacity and affected the company's ability to provide quality service to customers. He said out of an annual power loss of 24.3 per cent incurred by the company, 50 per cent was through illegal power supply mostly by commercial consumers.
However, Mr Barfour was optimistic that within the next five years ECG would improve the quality of its services to satisfy consumers and urged the public to support the company by fulfilling their obligations. Mr Daniel Afropong, Western and Central Regional Manager of Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), said tariffs charged by ECG were uneconomical because they were lower than the cost of power sold to it by Volta River Authority (VRA).

Mr Afropong urged the management of ECG to review its tariffs above the cost of power sold by VRA to improve on its services. He said the policy objective of PURC was to protect consumers and ensured that quality service were rendered by ECG and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).

Mr Afropong explained that the PURC took into consideration the interest of consumers and investors before the tariffs charged by the utility companies were fixed.

He stressed the need for private investments in the utilities to provide quality services.

Mr Afropong commended the organisers for the seminar, and called for such regular interactions to create mutual understanding between the utility companies and consumers.

Mr Kwasi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult, said the increase in the country's population had affected the supply of power from ECG to its consumers.

Mr Bright Blewu, General Secretary of GJA, said the seminar would offer participants the opportunity to first-hand information about the operations of ECG and GWCL.

Mr Ebow Sackey, Central Regional Chairman of GJA, urged the participants to take interest in the deliberations and commended the organisers for the seminar.

Mr Asante Bordoh, Central Regional President of FOSSBA appealed to the management of ECG and GWCL to institute measures for effective supervision of their meter reading departments and a task force to undertake disconnection exercises.

Source:
GNA

Phone users put service providers on the carpet


... We deserve better, they say
A substantial number of consumers of telecommunication services have taken service providers to task for rendering unsatisfactory services. At the Consumers’ Assembly held in Accra, customers of Scancom (Gh) Ltd, operators of Areeba, emerged as the most critical as they expressed their dissatisfaction with the company’s customer relations and the quality of service connection, among others.
Onetouch, Ghana Telecom, Kasapa and Tigo followed in that order with respect to the number of criticisms they received regarding the quality of service delivery, while customers of Westel were largely silent.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) organized the Consumer Assembly, which is in its third year to afford consumers an opportunity to openly evaluate the performance of service providers in the communication sector. This year’s event, which featured only telecom service providers coincides with the 50th Independence Anniversary of the nation, as well as, the 10th Anniversary celebration of the NCA, being observed under the theme “10 years of Service – The Challenges and Future Prospects.”

On the day, Areeba’s image was badly bruised when Mr. Francis Asenso Boakye, a customer, described the company’s customer relations as an experience of “harassment and rude behaviour.” His accusation emanated from a bad encounter he had with a staff at the Areeba Customer Care Centre recently when he called to make a complaint but the staff verbally abused him and hanged up on him.

Others complained about unstable network connection, while some customers sought further clarification for the company’s decision to switch from calculating call charges in units to cedis. Another consumer christened Areeba’s free night call service as a “Trojan horse” because in his view, it is largely impossible for many people to benefit from the service due to the period within which customers can access this service. He therefore, suggested that the free call service could be made available to consumers on weekends to enhance accessibility.

However, Ms. Mawuena Domor, Corporate Services Executive of Areeba assuaged the feelings of the customers by delivering carefully thought out responses. Addressing Mr. Okyere’s concerns, she admitted that his experience, perhaps, is not an isolated case and urged all customers not to hesitate in reporting all such unprofessional behaviours directly to management for prompt action.

Nevertheless, she indicated that Areeba has fashioned out a unique protocol procedure at all customer care centres and would continue to strive for the best customer service delivery possible.

Later in an interview with Public Agenda, she explained that the switch from units to cedis was informed by suggestions that came from consumers through the various customer care centres. She noted that calculating call charges in cedis would afford consumers an opportunity to better manage call cost.

But Ms. Dumor, indicated that it would be impossible to shift free call services to weekends because the numerous call activities that go on during the day would not permit that. She revealed that the company continues to carry out expansion works to boost network connection.

Touching on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the company, Ms. Dumor said Areeba is fully aware of the expectations of its consumers, and this has informed the innumerable initiatives it has taken to support education, health and many other social sectors. She emphasised that this has culminated in the government recognizing the company’s efforts for the fourth consecutive time as the leading organization in the fulfillment of its social responsibility.

For his humorous presentations, Mr. Robert N. Palitz, the Managing Director of Kasapa Telecom Limited drew constant applause from the gathering as he responded to concerns of some customers about voicemail services and call-bouncing. He explained that voicemail services are optional and anyone that wants it to be turned off could contact Kasapa’s service centres.

Addressing participants, Major J.R.K. Tandoh (Rtd), perhaps, the longest serving Acting Director General of a state institution indicated that the Consumer Assembly would be a permanent feature of the communications industry. He said “It would be one major channel for hearing and resolving consumer complaints which bothers on quality of service, wrongful billings etc.” He was hopeful that the event would augment NCA’s effort in monitoring Quality of Service Standards.

Maj. Tandoh (Rtd) reminded consumers of their rights under the National Telecommunications Policy, 2005, which include the right to be informed, right to safety, right to choice and the right to be heard.


Source:
Public Agenda