Of public probes and investigations
Poku Adaa
In Ghana, a number of State Corporations and enterprises are facing probes, Committees of investigations and radical 'shake-ups'. Our feature writer POKU ADAA reports on these and examines further, the problems and prospects of two typical ones, the Ghana Railways Corporation (RAILCORP) and the Posts & Telecommunications Corporations (P&T CORP).Over the past six months, many public enterprises have been facing probes, Committees of inquiry and investigations and mass dismissals. Somehow one begins to wonder whether the 31st December revolution has lived up to the promises of its proponents. The regular and recurring incidences of very large-scale robbery, fraud, embezzlements, bribery, mismanagement, misuse of state property, etc, appear to be on the increase and may be a barometer of the Revolution going with the wind.
There has been the Okoe Committee which probed the Bibiani Industrial Complex where the managing director, an ex-Army Officer, was alleged to have quietly banked over £35,000 of company assets in a Swiss Bank. The Aduhene Committee which probed the Loyalty Industries Limited, unearthed various shady deals ranging from €4,500 to C800,000 involving seven top management officials.
There is the bizarre story of the Social Security & National Insurance Trust in connection with a block of flats which the SSNIT purchased at a cost of C7 million from an Accra stationary dealer and for which the Estate Agent who negotiated the deal got a commission of €21/2 million
A number of officials of the Tema District Council have been sacked for "implementing improper accounting systems" including the Treasurer, the Internal Auditor and the Senior revenue Superintendent. The probe of the Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) is one of a different kind: one of factionalism, nepotism, gangsterism and conspiracies and a potful of disputes among senior members of staff and their wives, girlfriends and customers.
Of course, there are the admissions of tank loads of engine oil which disappear from time to time. In fact the sort of deals and undercover operations which are being uncovered at these probes are astounding. Take the one at the Ghana Railways Corporation, for example, where over £1.5 million has been embezzled by a syndicate of Station masters in the Accra area of the Corporation.
The recent "shake-ups" in the Post & Telecommunications Corporation resulted in mass dismissals of over 200 senior officers and enforced retirements of many more. Bribes of enormous magnitude have changed hands over unpaid international telephone and telex services for certain unnamed private businessmen.
Quite apart from the greed, graft and corruption which have permeated the body fabric of the RAILCORP and the P&T CORP, these two enterprises are notorious for poor performance, inefficiency, lack of organisation, planning and management and harbour most of the operating personnel of the indisciplined kind. However it is only fair to examine here their problems, operations and prospects for the future.
These two enterprises are notorious for poor performance, inefficiency, lack of organisation, planning and management and harbour most of the operating personnel of the indisciplined kind
The P&T Corporation was born in 1974 out of the then Department of Posts and Telecommunications. Then it had nearly 200 vehicles, considered inadequate at that time, for transporting mail. BY December last year, this had dwindled to 23 which were based in Accra supposedly to serve all 256 Post Offices and over 700 postal agencies scattered throughout the country. Telegrams have become an obliterated facility for many many years and until a few weeks ago, mail took months to move from one part of the country to another.
It was in the latter part of the 1970's when Air Mail letter sheets were openly sold in market places alongside fried fish and palm oil that the rot in the Corporation reached its apogee and the downhill slide has been absolutely total. Pilfering and misdirection of mail, losses in telephone cables and accessories are rampant and inter city phone services have been virtually extinct. Of course the shake-up has appeared to improve things especially time of delivery of mail and availability of stamps, airmail pads and resurrection of some telephone lines but how long this will continue or remain is of concern.
The P&T CORP has a crucial role to play in Ghana's development, economically, socially and politically and it is the hope of every Ghanaian that the recent shake-up will bring lasting and effective performance to the country. In a long discussion with an official of the Engineering Services Department at the Accra-North Post Office, much was revealed about the long term proposals and projects envisaged by the Corporation he had this to say: "There is a plan to construct a Central Mail Distribution Depot at Old Fadama in Accra to relieve the congested yard of the General Post Office built in 1916, a project estimated to cost $15 million.
On the development and expansion of the telecommunications systems, the official cited four giant projects of considerable technological innovation and sophistication:
(a) A massive project which involves installation of new automatic exchanges, extension of telex exchanges, rehabilitation of subscribers networks and introduction of cable systems to serve 11,000 subscribers.
(b) The Pan African Telecommunications Union (PANAFTEL) Project which is envisaged to connect African countries and of which Ghana has her contribution to make to link Ivory Coast countries and of which Ghana has her contribution to make to link Ivory Coast and Togo via a 960 channel microwave radio facility equipped to carry telephone, telex, television, telegraph along the Togo border-Accra, Accra-Takoradi and Takoradi-Ivory Coast border routes with exchanges located at Keta, Ada and Axim; (c) A loan from the Japanese government of about $26 million to be used to link all parts of the country by telephone and by radio and to improve television transmission throughout the country; (d) The Ecowas Project which is meant to link Bolgatanga in Ghana with Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso with another 960 channel microwave radio system estimated to cost about CFA5 million.
The P&T CORP has obviously more on its plate to chew but the fundamentals such as improvement of the chronic transportation problem and lack of inputs for telephone services need urgent attention. Above all, efficient management and a halt to favouritism, bribery, laziness and pilfering are virtues that can see the Corporation through its supposedly new phase.
The problems of the Ghana Railway Corporation are manifold. First, the confidence of passengers and the business community in the limited rail network is abysmally low. While freight or haulage accounted for 60% of her revenue in the early Sixties, this has dwindled to less than 30%, mostly due to the Ghana Cocoa Board and the Timber Marketing Board acquiring their own fleets of vehicles some years ago.
For example, rail haulage figures available at the Central Bureau of Statistics show a reduction of 300,000 tonnes in 1972 to less than 80,000 tonnes in 1979. The low patronage especially by passengers is due to sheer poor service, delays, accidents and lack of comfort. The Accra-Kumasi sleeper takes nearly 16 hours while the once a day run takes 7-8 hours. A neoplan bus from Accra gets to Kumasi in less than five hours.
All these arise from the lack of finance and the poor utilisation of the little that is available particularly for maintenance and repair and modernisation. Signalling and communication methods in many places and bridges are in a terrible state all over the country. Railway stations are shanty roofless edifices. No doubt the RAILCORP has been making losses since it was created and in 1981, it had to be bailed out by a government subsidy of nearly £36 million.
There have been some attempts by successive governments to tackle the problems of the railways. The PNP government of 1979-81 received a promise of a $29 million World Bank loan to 'restructure' the Corporation using Indian experts. It is very difficult to tell whether there has been a fol up of those efforts since December 1981. The UNDP started a study of sections of the rail network in 1979 especially the Tema-Akosombo line to complement the Volta Lake Transport system. In recent times, the "Western Rail Line" has seen a spate of rehabilitations and repairs including renewal of old sleepers to enable more bauxite to leave Awaso for Takor harbour.
The puzzling question on the mind of all who love to see an efficient rail system in Ghana is how a Corporation in such difficult straits decided to 'transfer only' officials who have been proved to have embezzled over million . . . or indeed the rationale behind the proposed C5 million Railway Hotel Complex in Acer which has been announced just when a Committee is sitting to probe the affairs of the Corporation.
The government would have to tackle the problem of the Railway network assiduously with an effective plan involving both foreign assistance and local expertise and finance, and of necessity, discipline within the staff of the Corporation.
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