Eyebrows have been raised, over the disappearance of GH¢28,000 (Two Hundred and Eighty Million Old Cedis), from the Accra West Region Office of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), months after some GH¢360,000 (¢3.6 billion) also vanished from the same place.
Officials, have attributed the latest loss to thieves, who they claim broke into the office vault of the District Manager, Mr. Adomako, on Sunday, February 1, 2015, but sources within the setup told The Herald that they suspect something fishy.
The stolen cash, is the revenue collected from customers two days prior to the theft. But it is suspected that the stealing could not have happened, because the custodians of the company’s cash, are not allowed to keep collected revenue in their offices.
Arrangements are that on a daily basis, the company’s bankers, come for every revenue collected for safekeeping, so it is surprising that on those fateful days, when the bank staff did not show up, a break in occurred in the office of the manager and the money stolen from the ‘safe’.
The incident, was said to have occurred at dawn, with two of the company’s security men tied with mosquito nets. The issue has since been reported to the Dansoman Police.
Meanwhile, some of the workers, are worried that nothing much would be done to get the culprits, who they suspect are amongst them.
They argued that, though the issue has been reported to the Managing Director (MD), Mr. Lokko, by the Regional Director, Peter Deveer, they fear it will be swept under the carpet, just like other similar incidence.
“It is his duty to take action, but he won’t do anything. The MD knows the system so he must act. Heads need to roll, but they will tell you this is normal and so they won’t follow up on such cases, as I told you, Ghana Water will cover up. I know what I am talking about”, one source lamented.
This is because according to them, the Accra West Region, which is manned by a very weak manager, who has been acting for some time now, has recorded many of such cases.
In the past, a total of ¢3.6 billion was recorded missing from that same office at Dansoman. Indeed, although the case was reported to the Police and investigation conducted, the culprits, Engineer Frank Asiedu and Accountant, Ntiamoah, were only ordered to refund the money after their interdiction and when they failed to do so, they were only sacked from the company, no prosecution pursued.
This is believed to have emboldened other officials to run the state company like their private company. Since October, workers say money due them in a form of overtime claims, have not been paid, and they are boiling with anger.
“If care is not taken, one day, there will be “aluta”’. The signal according to this paper’s sources is not the best and it will be in the interest of the company to act or face the wrath of the workers.
They accused the regional manager of incompetence adding, “everything in that office is not in good shape even a printer to print out water bills is a problem. All they do is to award contracts. There is no proper control in that setup and so everyone does what they like”.
They bemoaned the way and manner the company is being run, calling on authorities, especially the MD and the Minster for Water Resources Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, to pay critical attention to their activities.
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