Accra (Greater Accra) 06 May 2003 - It is becoming increasingly clear from The Independent newspaper’s study of the forensic audit and review of the operations on the ailing national carrier, that, mismanagement, rather than anything else is the major cause of the airline’s woes today.
A London-based cargo handling company, Ogden Cargo/Menzies Cargo Group refused to pay Ghanair an amount of $434,865.33, it had collected on behalf of the airline for a period of over two years.
This happened at a time when Ghana Airways was always sourcing loans at outrageous interest rates to carry on business. Messrs. Ogden was engaged by Ghanair to handle cargo that is sent to London on what is known in the airline industry as “Charges Collect” basis, a system under which payment for such cargo is made in London or the destination of the cargo rather than Accra.
Ogden Cargo took advantage of the lax internal control system of Ghana Airways to make such under payment in certain instances as a result of wrong exchange rates in the conversion of payments from pounds sterling to dollars. The shocker on the whole deal is that when the London Office of Ghanair was requested by the forensic auditors to provide a copy of the agreement regulating the relationship between the airline and the company, it could not.
Until recently, January 2002 that the Ghanair Officer in charge of ‘Charge Collect’ attempted to reconcile payment with Ogden Cargo for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. The question the auditors pose is “how can Ghana Airways allow a cargo handling company to collect all the freight on goods sent by air to London for three years without accounting for all the money to Ghana Airways”?
The auditors recommend that the Manager in
charge of Accra-London Charges Collect should be surcharged with the interest
lost to the company on the said amount for failing to ensure that freight
amount covering goods he dispatched to London were collected and paid to the
company. – The Independent
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 May 2003 - The Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Ghana Airways, Roland Wobil Mosore has warned that the company would collapse in the next two months if steps were not taken by the government to salvage it. He said currently only one DC 10 out of the company’s five aeroplanes operates. This is in sharp contrast to a statement made, two months ago, by the then Minister for Roads and Transport, Richard Winfred Anane, that Ghana Airways was gradually recovering from the problems that had bedevilled the national carrier for so many years.
According to Mosore, two DC 10s were packed in Rome, Italy because of lack of funds to run them and one DC 9 was also packed at the Kotoka International Airport awaiting sea clearance. Mosore explained that currently, Ghana Airways depended solely on the sales of tickets to fuel the DC 10 due to lack of funds.
Again the management of the aircraft rush for bank overdraft at the end of every month before workers’ salaries are paid. Mosore was addressing a press conference organized by the Senior Staff Association and the Union to brief the media on the current state of affairs of the company.
He therefore called on government to inject some capital into the company to salvage it from collapse. The workers also called on government to immediately dissolve the board and reconstitute a new one to save the airline from its worsening troubles. According to them, there have been no restructuring programmes to redeem the airline from its current problems since the Board was constituted. Yet another document obtained by the Independent newspaper has revealed that Ghana Airways operates as many as 94 bank accounts within and outside Ghana.
For an airline that flies to the United States, London, Germany, Italy and the West Coast (about 11 airports in all), financial experts the paper spoke to were in agreement that it is ridiculous and betrays either a breakdown in the airline’s management information systems or represents a conscious attempt on the part of officials of the airline to corrupt themselves.
What the paper could not obtain as at press
time are the names of the officials who authorized those accounts to be opened
for the airline and the specific reasons why the airline could behave in such
financially irresponsible manner. – Independent
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 May 2003 - Even as the NDC flexes muscles to go ahead with Tuesday’s demonstration albeit perfunctorily, the headquarters of this former all-powerful political movement is now an image of its former self.
The unpaid salaries of several months has left the workers in a desperate situation with some threatening to stay away from work if no end to their plight is found. Whenever the issue of the non-paid salaries crops up at meetings, one of the aggrieved workers said, they are referred to the flag bearer who in turn directs them to the chairman of the party in a buck-passing fashion.
Although the Accra Daily Mail newspaper could not establish the exact amount in salary arrears it is said to be in the hundreds of millions of cedis. It would be recalled that when Dr Kwesi Botchwey arrived to contest his ill-fated Election 2004 flag bearer of the party, he parted with several millions of cedis to pay for piled up salaries at both the headquarters and some constituencies.
According to a source, the movers in the party have all taken a portion of the headquarters to other locations leaving the former headquarters without any respectable function to perform. While Prof. Atta Mills has hoisted the party flag at his Osu Kuku Hill base from where he is running his portion of the party, Rawlings too is managing his segment of the show at his Ridge official residence.
The source added that Dr Obed Asamoah who previously operated from the party headquarters is also on the verge of relocating to an undisclosed location. The source said that Obed’s move might have been prompted by his quest for a place devoid of the trappings of the Rawlings loyalists so he can run the party as he deems fit. - Accra Daily Mail
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