Two MDs & Two Boards Managing Ailing STC�Company To Die Like Ghana Airways

Limping State-owned transport company, Intercity STC Coaches Limited, is currently being managed by two Managing Directors (MDs) and two separate Boards of Directors, thereby, brewing serious tension in the company. The Herald�s investigation, has revealed that President John Mahama�s new appointees, tasked to rescue and revamp the dying company are still not at post, because the former board and management are notoriously refusing to vacate their post, drawing monthly salaries, board allowances and other perks associated with their appointment. Samuel Nuamah Donkor, an ex-Minister of Health in Rawlings regime and Patrick Vanderpuye, are MD and the Board Chairman respectively. They were appointed by President Mahama, but it is unclear whether they are also collecting monthly salaries, board allowances and other perks, especially when they have no office to work. Group Captain (Rtd) Emmanuel Krobia Asante, whose tenure expired as Board Chairman, has also refused to hand over to Patrick Vanderpuye. In the case of Mr. Nuamah Donkor, The Herald gathered has been to the STC Yard on many occasions to ask Charles Thompson out and assume office, but all to no avail. This was after he first went to introduce himself to the workers and interacts with them as their new MD. Interestingly, the new MD, was last seen at the yard in January this year, with visitors, hovering for an office to perch, when he led some Swedish investors to inspect the workshops and stores in connection with supply of some buses to rescue the comatose company. The Swedish are believed to have come into Ghana on the invitation of President Mahama. The Herald is reliably informed that productivity has gone down considerably and sooner than later STC will cease to exist. Meanwhile, workers are said to be divided and are at each other�s throat, over who controls the State company and it resources. Indeed, it is unclear who really has the power to control the company. The Herald gathered that SSNIT which has 80 per cent shares in the company has engaged in �dog fight� with government over ownership. For now, the once vibrant, reliable and widely patronized State asset with over one thousand buses, has been reduced to just nothing. It now has only eighteen (18) buses in operation, with workers who are complaining about hunger as a result of poor remuneration from a visionless management. The staff capacity in the company as at now is 400 nationwide, including those at foreign STC terminals, such as Cottonou in Bennin, Cote D� Ivore, Burkina Faso, as well as Togo. When The Herald contacted Mr. Nuamah Donkor on two occasions about the issue, he expressed willingness to grant this paper an interview and promised to get back to this reporter, but has since failed to do so. Many calls to his Vodafone line went unanswered On the part of Mr. Charles Thompson, he told this reporter in a very dramatic way �I don�t know what you are talking about, I think you are talking with the wrong person�. He had earlier admitted to this reporter during the interview, last Saturday via phone that he is no longer acting as General Manager of the transport company. Sounding very bitter, Mr. Thompson questioned this reporter, �Who do you think should be there as the Manager? The person you think should be there is the one there. Am not at post�. However, soon after the beleaguered MD�s statements, Mr. Thompson strangely warned this reporter that �I didn�t answer your questions. I don�t know who you are. May be you are speaking with the wrong person�, he retorted and hanged his phone. Interestingly, this paper gathered as of last Friday, Mr. Thompson was still at post. He is further reported to have collected his January salary. February salaries and other arrears are yet to be paid to the workers of the beleaguered state-owned company. Meanwhile, The Herald gathered that the embattled STC boss is a biological brother of the Managing Director of SSNIT, Ernest Thompson, whose outfit has 80 per cent shares in STC. It is believed that the refusal and blatant disrespect to President Mahama�s directive by the dismissed MD to vacate his post, could be traced to his relationship with the SSNIT boss, as a result of SSNIT�s stake in the State transport company.