Help eliminate corruption - Metro Mass workers told
The Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor, has charged the management and staff of the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL), to work assiduously towards eliminating corruption that is militating against the growth of the company.
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She encouraged the staff to resist any attempt by their management to purchase buses that would not last and help generate more revenue for the company.
The minister made the call during a working visit to the MMTL, in the company of her deputy, Mrs Joyce Bawa Montari and some directors of the ministry in Accra yesterday.
They also visited the Government Technical Training Centre.
In June, this year, the Daily Graphic carried a report which said five employees of the MMTL, including the Western Regional Manager, Mr Lawrence Fianu, had allegedly embezzled more than GH¢2.5 million belonging to the company.
Reacting to some concerns expressed by some workers of the company, especially about low salaries, Ms Attivor said the siphoning of fuel, stealing of spare parts and collecting money from passengers without issuing tickets to them were some of the nefarious activities that impacted negatively on the finances of the MMTL.
Some of the workers showed copies of their payslips to the minister to back their demand for increased salaries.
Ms Attivor advised the workers to treat the company as if it were their property and ensure that they reduced waste, while they came up with innovative ways of increasing the revenue base of the company.
She indicated that the government would not relent in its efforts at assisting the company with subsidies and gave an assurance that very soon, new buses would be procured to augment the current fleet of buses of the company.
Touching on the purchase of buses, the minister expressed concern over the current situation where the company’s fleet of vehicles was made up of about seven different types of buses, a situation which had made the purchase of spare parts and maintenance difficult.
She said the staff had every right “to challenge” management whenever the latter decided to purchase buses that the staff believed would not last.
Ms Attivor expressed worry over the increasing number of accidents involving MMTL buses and urged the drivers to refrain from bad habits such as drink driving and non-adherence to road traffic regulations which were some of the causes of those accidents.
The Managing Director of the MMTL, Mr Noble Appiah, said when he assumed office two weeks ago, he noticed the large disparity in the salaries of workers of the company, the bad nature of workshops and the huge cost of fuel, which constituted about 50 per cent of the operational cost of the company.
By Donald Ato Dapatem & Daisy Doctor-Carroll
Writer’s email: [email protected]