Some aggrieved workers of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), are calling on President Nana Akufo-Addo to immediately sack the Managing Director of the firm and dissolve the board.
According to the workers, the MD, Kwadwo Opare Hammond, has among other things been circumventing the procurement processes of the company.
The workers numbering over 50 did not hide their determination to have the MD sacked.
According to them, the company will collapse if the MD and the board are allowed to continue their work. Branch secretary of the PMMC workers union, Agnes Ayitey, speaking to Citi News said: “Staff here are agitating because Opare Hamond has made up his mind that he will not go in peace so we will also not give him peace.”
“We all know that there is a law backing procurement that if you are buying something above GHc100, 000 you should form a tender committee that will oversee the things and then choose. But in this case, he will single-handedly buys an x-ray machine for the airport branch which cost over GHc600, 000 without it going through the procurement processes. These are some of the things that are bringing the company down.”
“We don’t have money, the company is gone into bankruptcy, but he has money to increase the board allowances to 729% while the staff take 12%. And all these are injustices to the staff. He is altering the conditions of staff, and he is going to cut medical bills, he is doing the Machiavellian tactics. He is doing divide and rule, and putting people in positions that they don’t deserve,” she added.
Management of PMMC represented by the Chief Finance Officer, Wilson Adu Twum, rejected the allegations against the MD and the board, and urged the aggrieved workers to use the right channels to have their issues addressed.
“It’s not the MD who handles the procurement. Procurement is handled by the procurement officer and the tender committee. If they have any issue they should meet with the management and discuss the modalities of the procurement but not just going on air and attacking the MD. I’m in charge of finance but nobody has come to me to say that the board allowance has been increased. We are paying them the old rate. Only the staff salary has been increased. That of the MD and the Deputy did not have their salaries increased; they are taking the old salary. We have not also increased the allowances for the board.
The workers as part of their demonstration presented a petition to their mother union, the Ghana Mine Workers Union.
Receiving the petition, the national chairman of the Mine Workers Union, Mensa Kwaku Gyakari assured that their grievances will be worked on with urgency.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Bobbie Osei/citinewsroom.com/Ghana