Probe PSC Tema Shipyard Company — CJA

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a pressure group, has called on the government to institute a probe into the findings of the internal audit report of the PSC Tema Shipyard Company for the first quarter of 2009.
This is to reverse the alleged corrupt practices in the company, bring the perpetrators to book and also ensure that the government derives maximum dividend from its 30 per cent share in the company.
Mr Kwesi Adu, a leading member of the CJA, made the call at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday to disclose parts of the internal audit report, which he said were made up of cases of non-compliance with procurement rules, strange payments to board members and solicitors, misapplication of cash, non-payment of employees’ provident fund to banks, undated foreign transactions and conflicts of interest.
He said the fact that the Audit Department was being debarred from carrying out pre-audit of payment vouchers and also none of the seven quarterly reports submitted in 2007 and 2008 had been formally responded to, although they were replete with cases of flagrant violations of operation procedures by managers, called for further investigations.
He said between December 2008 and January 2009, four agreements with SBT Associates, Merchant Naval Ratings Associate Co Ltd, JIOE Engineering Complex and Keta Shipping Services were signed, leading to loss of revenue amounting to hundreds of thousands of Ghana cedis.
“An examination of those agreements showed that laid down procedures for the award of contracts or obtaining tenders were completely not followed. In each case, only one tender was considered, instead of three. At the same time, no tender evaluation was followed,” Mr Adu added.
He alleged that the PSC Tema Shipyard Company paid the then Tema Regional Police Commander GH¢2,000 as personal expenses, while his deputy was given GH¢1,000 on December 12, 2008, while on March 9, 2009 GH¢ 9,000 worth of hampers was given to 60 policemen.
He again alleged that the company paid funeral donations of GH¢10,000 to the families of two deceased persons who had died in an accident, although they were not employees of the company, adding that, surprisingly, family members of staff of the company who died were entitled to GH¢ 2,000.
He said an examination of the bill that was raised on MV Aldan, a ship repair project that was undertaken between August and October 2008, revealed a revenue loss of over $776,302.75 to the company which was occasioned by miscalculations, wrong application of tariffs and in some cases arbitrary reduction in the approved tariffs.
Mr Adu said the audit report attributed the loss to collusion among the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Operational Officer and the Yard Development Officer of the company.
He said in 2008, Salvation Merchant Fishing Company Limited brought a vessel, MV Theresa, to be scrapped and after paying a deposit of $15,000 in May 2008, a final invoice of $73,248.62, representing fees for the completed job, was raised on August 15, 2008. The outstanding balance of $58,248.62 remained unpaid as of March 31, 2009.
“Similarly, in April 2008 EdGRace Recycling Services was billed $99,481for scrapping the vessel MV Tahoma Reefer. While it still owed $30,000.35 on this invoice, the company was allowed to cart away all the metal scraps for sale
“Another vessel, MV Lagos Mariner, was accepted for scrapping without the payment of any deposit. An invoice, with the number 24964038, for $74,455.60 was raised on it in September 2008. Only $25,146.69 has since been paid, leaving an outstanding balance of $49,308.91,” he added.