Director-General of GPHA relieved of post
The Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Richard Anamoo, was yesterday relieved of his post.
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A piece of communication from the Presidency signed by the Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, directed Mr Anamoo to hand over to the President’s nominee for the Transport Ministry, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, by 5 p.m. yesterday.
It did not assign any reasons for the dismissal.
Deals
Mr Anamoo’s dismissal comes barely four days after some disgruntled members of the Junior Staff Union (JSU) of the Takoradi Port and the Secretary of the JSU of the Tema Port had called for him to be investigated for alleged corrupt deals and alleged abuse of office, reports Della Russel Ocloo.
Mr Anamoo initiated the ongoing port expansion project which is to position Ghana’s ports and the container cargo and trade port as the biggest such facilities in West Africa.
The project, which has since commenced, is being financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) at a cost of $1.5 billion, with the first phase expected to be completed in 2019.
Mr Anamoo confirmed receiving the communication from the Presidency when contacted by the Daily Graphic.
“Yes, I received a letter asking me to hand over, although there are no assigned reasons. I have subsequently held meetings with my management and also communicated to the unions the decision to relieve me of my post,” he told the Daily Graphic in a telephone conversation.
Investigations
The members of the JSU, at a press conference on Thursday, January 19, 2017, accused Mr Anamoo of corrupt practice in relation to the Tema and the Takoradi ports expansion projects presently underway.
The group, led by the Secretary of the union in Tema, Mr Keku Armoquasi-Amuzuah, called on the government to also investigate the ownership and directorship of the companies executing the local content aspects of the projects, of which the Tema works had been described as the single biggest investment in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Armoquasi-Amuzuah alleged that the 35-year concessionary contract signed by Mr Anamoo with the Meridian Port Services (MPS) and its partners had no direct monetary benefits for the GPHA.
“The agreement was such that the GPHA would get next to nothing from container imports that will be passing through the port,” he alleged.
He claimed that the report from the GPHA submitted to the government’s Transition Team had several inconsistencies as against what pertained within the port, hence the call for investigations into Mr Anamoo’s tenure.
The press conference is, however, said to have nearly degenerated into confusion when a former Union Chairman of the Tema Port, Mr Francis Klu, and some executives visited the venue to challenge the legitimacy of the group to speak on behalf of the entire workforce when the Union Chairman and other executives had not sanctioned the press conference.
Takoradi Terminal
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Tema last Friday, Mr Armoquasi-Amuzuah alleged that the GPHA had also advanced plans to lease the devanning (unstuffing) container terminal at the Takoradi Port under a 45-year concessionary agreement to a private operator, IBISTEK, for which an agreement would be signed on February 2, 2017.
He claimed that the report had so many inconsistencies and “we would want to use this opportunity to call on President Nana Akufo-Addo to, as a matter of urgency, ask Mr Anamoo to step aside for investigations to be conducted into his reign,” he said.
“Devanning business is a major source of money for the Takoradi Port and all we are asking, as a union, is that if you have the intention to bring in someone, it must be for the purpose of competition, not let out a GPHA facility into the hands of a private person,” Mr Armoquasi-Amuzuah pointed out.
He suggested that the outsourcing of the handling of containerised cars (cars that arrive at the port in containers) to Safe Bond at the Takoradi Port was also a breach of the GPHA’s own internal policy on the handling of such cargo.
Such underhand dealings, which he claimed were exposed by a unionised member of staff, Mr Fortune Agbodza, a technical officer at the Takoradi Port, led to his being summarily dismissed without recourse to the union.
Similarly, he claimed that employment and promotions under Mr Anamoo’s tenure were politically motivated.
Contracts
Following what he described as the signing of dubious contracts by the GPHA, Mr Armoquasi-Amuzuah claimed the union had, on January 4, 2017, written to the director-general requesting for the details of the contracts signed by the GPHA with Viking Offshore, Belmet 7, General Electric, Takoradi Container Terminal Safebond Company Limited, Baj Freight, Conship, Prime Meridian Docks, FMC Technologies, Intertek Laboratories and Murray & Roberts for scrutiny.
The letter, a copy of which was made available to the Daily Graphic, described the GPHA management’s posture on entering into contracts without recourse to the union as a breach of trust.
Automation Investments
The Chairman of the JSU at the Takoradi Port, Mr Devine Tamaklo, also suggested that the authority had, since the year 2000, invested some $150 million in diverse information technology (IT) projects as part of the port automation process.
Out of the amount, he claimed, some $20 million was spent on the procurement of non-functioning software, the Microsoft AS Dunamis 2012, in 2014 to replace the old 2009 version which was still in use and yet to be exhausted.
According to him, the new version, which had seen about 100 members of staff of the GPHA being taken to Dubai, India and Egypt for training, had been of no use to the GPHA, since “it has remained malfunctional since its procurement”.
Mr Anamoo told the Daily Graphic that he would respond to the allegations in due course.
Union Chairman
The Chairman of the JSU, Mr Emmanuel Neequaye, responding to queries about the legitimacy of the group holding the press conference, accused Mr Armoquasi-Amuzuah of conniving with the Takoradi executives without recourse to the Tema chapter of the union.
According to him, all communications from the union ought to have been signed and ordered by the chairman.
He said the union could not independently confirm the allegations made by the group, although the allegations had come to its attention as rumours, adding that the union had approached Mr Anamoo, who had explained things to its understanding.
On Mr Anamoo’s dismissal, Mr Neequaye said although the union was aware a change in government often came along with a change in the directorship of the company, it had expected the new government to evaluate Mr Anamoo’s performance, especially in the wake of the two-year contract extension which was given to him by the previous government to oversee the first phase of the port expansion project.