Albert Brown Gaisie
SOME PERSONNEL of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to authorise an investigation into the purchase of new fire tenders in the Ashanti Region.
The probe, they requested, must also not leave out the regional stores of the Service for alleged corruption and diversion of foams and vehicle tyres.
They have accused the Chief Fire Officer, Mr Albert Brown Gaisie, of playing a key role in an alleged corruption cover-up at the GNFS, aside allegedly engaging in whimsical and capricious transfers of fire inspectors and other instrumental officers.
The whistleblowers are also requesting Mr Gaisie to be investigated in connection with the purchase of the Man Diesel fire tenders, which they claim, cannot climb hills and also have communication difficulties as the cabins are separated from the crew.
According to them, many of the newly procured tenders are not fire engines but tipper trucks that are being used as water carriers.
They said while they were complaining of the speed and inability of the fire engines to climb hills, the Chief Fire Officers had gone ahead to broker a new deal for the purchase of Tata-branded tenders as substitutes for the remaining consignments at a cost of US$350 million.
They alleged that the Chief Fire Officer, after taking office in 2014, had also done away with the issuance of fire certificates to commercial buildings and resorted to the issuance of ‘provisional certification’ which practice, they asserted, is not recognised by the Fire Precaution (Premises) Regulations, 2003 (L.I.1724).
The officers, who pleaded anonymity, said the development was a scheme designed by Mr Gaisie to divert revenues that would accrue to government into private pockets, intimating that he had surrounded himself with his apparatchiks to milk the service.
The whistleblowers said fire officers felt powerless and tied to their desks because of poor job satisfaction and high levels of depression.
Response
However, these allegations are still begging for answers as the GNFS Public Relations Officer, Prince Billy Anaglate, who offered to provide them, has not been forthcoming with the needed responses, despite the fact that he had been furnished with a questionnaire on the issues seven days ago.
He told DAILY GUIDE that it had not been easy for him to obtain responses for the paper’s queries and that it would take more time for him to assemble the facts for the appropriately responses.
“My brother, I’ve not been in the office since the day (Thursday) you sent the queries because the same issue was being run on radio. It is also because some of the issues are technical and require consultation,” Mr. Ananglate told the paper on Monday.
He promised to furnish the paper with the responses on Tuesday, but this never was as Mr. Ananglate offered another excuse for his inability to meet the deadline, pleading for more time.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi