Richard A-Y Anamoo
Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Richard A-Y Anamoo, has been relieved of his post by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The termination of his appointment was communicated to him through the Minister-designate for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah yesterday.
The communication asked him to cease to act as Director General of the GPHA not later than 5 pm on January 23, 2017.
Contract Extension
The Director General attained 60 years in October 2016 but his contract was extended by two years by former President John Mahama.
A source at the GPHA head office in Tema confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that Mr. Anamoo had been asked to step aside and hand over to the Minister of Transport-designate; and he reportedly left the office yesterday before noon.
Junior Staff Agitation
Mr. Anamoo has come under intense pressure from the GPHA Junior Staff Union, led by its Tema secretary, Keku Armoquasi Amuzuah, who alleged that there were too many shady deals and massive corruption at both Tema and the Takoradi ports.
The union had appealed passionately to President Akufo-Addo to take swift action to restore sanity.
Fiery Encounter
Last week, a press conference organized by some of the agitated junior staff executives in Tema to throw more light on the purported corruption at the ports was nearly marred by some workers believed to be in the good books of the outgone Director General.
Kweku Armoquasi Amuzuah flanked by staff of GPHA addressing the media
The workers, led by Isaac Klu, a former chairman of GPHA Junior Staff Union and Felix Nartey alias Ashaiman, also former executive of the union, forcibly entered the premises to disrupt the press confab, claiming that their colleagues were damaging the reputation of the Director General.
John Aseph, who is the chairman of GPHA Senior Staff Union with support from Emmanuel Neequaye, chairman of the junior staff union, openly condemned the organisers of the press conference and said that the management was going to ‘deal’ with all those involved.
DAILY GUIDE learnt subsequently that the aggrieved leaders started receiving queries for going to the media with GHPA issues.
Massive Corruption
At the press briefing jointly addressed by Mr. Amuzuah and Maxwell K. Cudjoe, who are the secretaries for Tema and Takoradi unions respectively, the junior unions recounted how their boss allowed himself to be “entrenched in unprecedented levels of corruption, nepotism and cronyism.”
They highlighted issues, including award of contracts, recruitments, discrimination in the promotion of workers, harassment of workers perceived to be against the outgone NDC, renovation of GPHA facilities, GPHA money allegedly used for NDC campaign, port expansion projects, as well as sudden renewal of contracts against the rules of the authority.
Feasibility Studies
Mr. Amuzuah claimed GPHA committed a whopping GH¢100 million into feasibility studies towards the ports expansion projects prior to securing the $1.5 billion for the Tema Port, and added that the management allegedly spent GH¢81 million to renovate the old headquarters blocks; but just under a year, the renovated blocks are in bad shape.
The union said that GPHA bought IT software for $20 million but it (software) could not fit into the system and was eventually discarded, although the management sent 116 staff to India to train them on how to use the software.
According to Mr. Amuzuah, “The Director General supervised sole-sourcing for the procurement of most equipment – both heavy and light duty – including marine crafts, some of these equipment and crafts purchased arrived mal-functional.”
He said that during the December 7 general election about 325 staff of the GPHA were transported to the Brong-Ahafo and the three Northern Regions to cast their ballots and all expenses were borne by the authority.
Mass Promotion
According to the union secretary, just after the elections, the GPHA management promoted 1,500 out of 2,913 staff to various levels and those mostly promoted to senior positions were NDC sympathizers, and employed about 458 people for the Tema port alone.
He claimed 63 of the new recruits were given top jobs while at the Takoradi Port, 250 people had been employed as security guards with another 80 for other departments.
“And these decisions had been taken in spite of caution from the various unions that the action was a breach of the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” he disclosed.
Mr. Amuzuah said that the management had renewed cleaning services contracts for all pro-NDC companies, some of which were against the rules of the GPHA and also said contract sums had been inflated.
Music Studio
He also alleged that since 2012, the GPHA’s official residence of the Director General had been converted into a movie and music studio by his son, adding, “He uses our craft in shooting movies for a number of musicians without paying for the services GPHA renders him.”
By William Yaw Owusu & Vincent Kubi, Tema