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Workers of Volta Hotel in Akosombo have called on the president, John Dramani Mahama to interdict the General Manager of the Volta Hotel over allegations of corruption and malfeasance level against him.

The workers have hinted  the  high level of  corruption detected at the Hotel   is compelling them to  stage a massive demonstration and  a sit down strike should the president ignore their  call  to investigate the issue and  sack  Fred Bart-Plange,  General Manager of the Hotel.

Speaking in an interview with The New Crusading GUIDE, the aggrieved workers said the General Manager of the Hotel Fred Bart-Plange took a sole decision of bringing in a Turkish Company, Onur Makina to construct a river boat, Dodi Princess Two at a cost of GH¢ 3.5 million (About US$1.5million dollars) without the involvement of the Marine Unit of the Volta River Authority.

Besides that, he brought two people, a father a son who were owners of Bemmarine, a Ghanaian company to inspect the poorly constructed boat for about five days and paid them a huge sum of US$ 55,000 without any authorization.

Aside that he has built a single storey apartment being used as an SPA at the premises of the hotel at a doubtful cost of GHC1.5million. (one million five, hundred thousand Ghana cedis)

 When Fred Bart-Plange was questioned, told them that the marine department had no expertise and the skills to construct the boat and that he was bringing in experts from Turkey to construct the boat. Three years after awarding the contract, the boat which was badly built cannot even take off yet the Turkish company claims it has finished with the construction of the boat and packed bag-and- baggage and left the shores of Ghana after receiving the total payment.

The newly built boat which has since been abandoned and rusting can only carry 175 passengers as compared to the Dodi Princess 1 which could carry over 500 people.

They indicated that having realized that he has messed up and caused a huge financial loss to the state, Fred Bart- Plange   is now is now planning to involve the Marine Unit of the Volta River Authority to put the boat into operation.

Meanwhile, the MSU has rejected the request for it to take over the reconstruction of the boat because that would amount to an extra cost and wants the GM of the Hotel who awarded the contract to be punished first for the whole world to see the mess he had caused before it would take over the reconstruction of the new boat.  This was when VRA paid them the entire contract sum before the completion of the project.

They indicated that the GM went to Turkey to bring in Onur Makina, a way-side Turkish welding company to construct the boat. After several years of failing to bring the new boat into operation, having wasted a whopping 3.5 million dollars, the GM has confided in the management of the hotel that he made a mistake by bringing in a way side Turkish boat construction company and that he plans to engage the VRA Marine department to redevelop the new boat at an extra cost.

The workers have thus called on the Attorney General’s department to investigate the issue and cite the GM for causing financial loss to the state.

The source disclosed further that, the contract which was expected to take up to seven months to complete had to be dragged on for three years since some people were benefiting illegally from it.

According to the workers  their disappointment stem from the fact that the internal marine department of the VRA which built the Dodi Princess  could have built the  Dodi Princess 11 at a lesser cost but because of  the quest for kickback and some selfish gains, Kirk and Fred decided to award the contract to the Turks .

“The insurance policies for every contract awarded by the Volta Hotel are being handled by the State Insurance Company Limited since time in memorial as it is owned by the Ghanaian tax payer but in this case, it was awarded to MET Insurance Company for reasons best known to only Kirk and Fred,” the source stated.

Moreover, The New Crusading GUIDE was informed that the agreement between the Turkish Company had been kept away from the workers of the company and hadbeen shrouded in secrecy. Buttressing his point, the source provided this paper with documents to prove that Fred Bart-Plange, the MD for the hotel, in one way or the other benefitted from signing the insurance contract with MET Insurance instead of SIC.

The New Crusading GUIDE learnt that, the Turkish are very angry with management of the facility for bringing a Ghanaian company, Bemmarine Services to check the boat and access whether it met international requirements, and paid the company an amount of Fifty Five Thousand  United states dollars  for five  three days.

“As a result of this arrangement by the two managers, the Turkish have refused to come to the country to commission the newly built boat,” our source stated adding that they believe the Dodi Princess 1 was deliberately burnt in order to allow some people at the hotel to have their way and spend millions of the taxpayers money on a new boat which was going to inure to their personal benefit.

The New Crusading GUIDE (NCG), after independently checking from our sources and contacts, reached the Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority, Kirk Koffie via telephone to hear his side of the story and this is what transpired:

NCG: “Hello sir I am calling from the New Crusading GUIDE to verify some facts about the newly built boat, the Dodi Princes two. I called the General Manager of the Hotel and he said you have it and that I should call you for a copy”.

Fred Bart Plange: “Hey Gentleman”, he angrily reacted “I don’t know you and you keep on calling me and disturbing me about this boat. You called me the last time and we spoke and you later went and wrote rubbish in that your newspaper”.

NCG:  “Please Sir, I just want a copy of the contract”.

Fred Bart: “Look Gentleman, don’t call my phone again”. He then cut the line.

 Later,  Fred  Bart Plange called the reporter and warned him to stop  calling his CEO saying: “ Hey Gentleman  Chief (Kirk Koffi)  says I should tell  you that you are stupid , and a fool  and that you should not call his line again “ .

Earlier, Kirk Koffi denied any knowledge of the contract with the excuse that he was not at post when it was signed and that Fred Bart-Plange, the Managing Director of the Volta Hotel had all the information to react to it.

A check on the website of the Turkish Company Onur  Makina, www. Onurmakina.com pulled blank as nothing showed they were boat builders. Attached to the story is the template depicting the amount of money spent on the boat so far.