JANUARY 25

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25/01/2019
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Missing 136 bags of
GNFS cement found
• READ FROM PAGE 3
carry all 200 bags at a go.
She therefore got a cement
shop which was no longer in use
and took the decision on her own
to use the said place for the
storage.
She said she initially declined
showing CW investigator the
location because the shop had
been locked up as the caretaker
was out of town.
Commercial cement store
The CW investigator was led to
a commercial cement shop by
name Charteh Enterprise, at Tema
Manhean, a two-minute walk from
the Fire Station, at exactly 11:25
a.m. and the shop was fully
operational with the owner of the
shop actively doing business
contrary to the initial claim by the
DFO that the shop was not in use
for business purposes.
Upon further interactions, it was revealed
that the 200 bags of cement which never made
it to the premises of the GNFS were actually
offloaded to Charteh Enterprise from where
64 bags were taken and the remaining 136 bags
having been sold at the time of CW visit.
According to her, the 200 bags were
offloaded into Charteh Enterprise on May 31,
2017 after which 24 out of the 64 bags were
diverted for use within her station and 40 bags
sent to the Regional Headquarters upon a
request by the Regional Fire Officer, Frances
Rockson, for purposes different from what the
cement was meant for.
Reason for sale
The reason given for the sale of the
cement, however, was that it was to prevent
the cement from caking in storage. The owner
of the cement store told CW she would give
the service cement from her stock when they
needed it.
• The cement store
GNFS official statement
When the PRO of the GNFS, Mr Okoe,
was contacted on the service procedure for
storage of donations, he disclosed that per the
policy of the institution, donations received at
the district office must be
transferred to the Regional and
then to the National if both the
district and regional offices lack
the facility to store the donations
received.
He said the institution’s laws
did not permit officers to store
anything received in the name of
the service in private facilities as
they have enough storage space in
the service.
He explained that if the district
has no storage facility, the
donating company can decide to
store it for them till the district is
ready to use the items.
He indicated that the GNFS
follows the Public Procurement law for storage
and procurement like every other state
institution; hence a breach of the procedure
has punishable implications.
Other beneficiaries
The GNFS was not the only state
institution that benefited from the donations
by the GHACEM Foundation in 2017. Among
the beneficiaries were the Eastern Naval
Command and the Tema General Hospital.
However, the story was different when CW did
a comparative investigation to find out how the
two other institutions utilized the donations
they received.
Tema General Hospital
The Tema General Hospital received a
donation of 1,000 bags of GHACEM cement
in September 2017 to assist the institution to
rehabilitate an abandoned surgical unit.
When CW visited the hospital to ascertain
the stage of construction, it discovered that
the rehabilitation had not been done.
Reason
When CW contacted officials of the
hospital, it was revealed that despite presenting
a ceremonial cement to the hospital in 2017,
the facility had not been rehabilitated because
the hospital had been following the
• Eastern Naval Command Administration block under construction
procurement laws and had gone through the
necessary stages to get approval to commence
the project.
The processes required included an
assessment by engineers to determine whether
the abandoned building was strong enough for
rehabilitation or required demolition for a
completely new structure to be reconstructed.
Storage
When asked of the whereabouts of the
1,000 bags of donated cement, it was
discovered that the hospital, lacking the needed
storage facility for 1,000 bags, decided to keep
the entire 1,000 bags of cement under the
custody of GHACEM to ensure safety and to
prevent the cement from caking before the
hospital could put it to use.
Eastern Naval Command of
Ghana Armed Forces
The Eastern Naval Command, also located
at Tema Newtown, received 400 bags of
cement in August 2017 for the reconstruction
of their administration block after the collapse
of their existing administration block.
When CW investigator visited the Eastern
Naval Command, the foundation of the
administration block was near completion and
work was ongoing.
It was gathered that authorities were in talks
with the construction workers to work longer
hours for the construction to move at a faster
pace.
At the time of the visit this month, cement
blocks were being manufactured on their
premises.
Storage
Information gathered at the Eastern Naval
Command indicated that
authorities were concerned
about storage of the 400
bags, hence they went into
an agreement with
GHACEM to store all the
400 bags of cement at
GHACEM. They, thus, go
in for the number needed at
any point in time.
Reason
This move, they said,
was to prevent the stored
cement from caking for
being stored for too long as
the construction moves in
stages.
I’m fit and alive
• Says Wassa Fiase Omanhene, appeals
to Akufo-Addo for his reinstatement
• READ FROM PAGE 5
“Until 2005, a section of the royal
family stood against my
enstoolment, but since then I have
won all cases against my
enstoolment at the Western Region
House of Chiefs, the Appeal Court
of Justice and the Supreme Court of
Ghana respectively.
“It was upon this background
that the Western Region House of
Chiefs thought it prudent and legally
right to send my name and other
valuable documents to the National
House of Chiefs to re-insert my
name in the National Chieftaincy
Register.
“But ever since my documents
were sent till now, no effective effort
has been made and it is upon this
that I am calling on the President of
this land and the authorities involved
to come in and help solve this issue
amicably.
“l know he is a listening
president; to as early as possible
reinstate me to the National House
of Chiefs. My rights have been
abused for long, it's high time the
Chieftaincy Ministry took a critical
look at what is happening in Wassa
“I personally believe Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo would not sit
for things to go bad before
addressing this issue that has
lingered for years,” he added.
Revive Bonsa Tyre Factory
Odeneho Akrofa Krukoko
mentioned that the happenings had
retarded and robbed the area of
development and therefore called on
the government to revive the Bonsa
Tyre Factory, Aboso Glass Factory
to provide job opportunities for the
youth, as well as construct health
facilities and a police station in the
area.
The Wassa Fiasemanhene, who
rubbished his death rumour, was
installed in June 1994 and "My name
was gazetted as Paramount Chief of
Wassa in 1996. I demand my name
to be reinstated to the National
House of Chiefs as soon as
practicable."
Youth warn
The Secretary for the Wassa
Fiase area, Prince Brukuroh, gave a
strong indication for a looming
danger amid non-stop violence in
the town if the status quo should
remain the same.
“The government, under the
ruling NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo,
should not wait for violence before
they dispatch troops to come and
plunge us into curfew. The things
that Odeneho has said so far are the
things that make peace fragile and
should be addressed as a matter of
urgency,” the youth secretary stated.