Information stumbled upon by Today indicates that the delay in the appointment of a new Director General at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) is stalling operations of the state institution.
It’s almost three weeks that the state institution has been without a director general, following the dismissal of the former Director General of the GPHA, Richard A-Y Anamoo.
This development, Today gathered, has created a power vacuum at GPHA where nothing appears to be going right at the country’s ports.
A plausible source close to GPHA told the paper that the situation has created a field day for some top officials of the state institution who were taking advantage of it to milk the country dry.
Investigations conducted by Today also indicated that the country was losing a colossal amount of its revenue derived from the ports.
The source disclosed to this paper that all major decisions including contracts to be signed by GPHA have all been stalled.
“All these are not happening, because GPHA as we speak now does not have a new Director General,” the source expressed.
The source continued that the development was depriving the country much needed revenue for development.
Probing further Today discovered that what was delaying the appointment of a new GPHA director general was because somebody close to the presidency was calling the shots.
And this, the source explained, was because this so-called powerful person at the Flagstaff House was fronting for a Ghanaian in Philadelphia, USA, to become the new director general of GPHA.
According to the source, the issue was not about the ongoing jostling and fronting for the person the president will settle on as the new GPHA boss, but more importantly the need to hasten the appointment of a new director general of GPHA.
“That, in my candid opinion, will restore sanity at the ports. For now, it is total chaos at our ports where everybody is doing his/her own thing at the expense of the state. While some are cutting corners to make money, others are involved in various underhand deals at the ports,” the source indicated.
The paper gathered that the absence of a new GPHA boss was also giving room for officials to engage in the practice of discharging oil into tankers, an allegation that the Public Relations Officer of GPHA, Mr. Paul Ansah, denied, saying that the Authority “does not deal in oil.”
Mr. Ansah further denied knowledge of any revenue leakages at the ports.
“Yes we do not have a new director general of GPHA, but I can tell you that we are not having any challenge of administrative management at GPHA,” he told Today.
However, Today was reliably informed that the practice of discharging oil into the tankers was wrong.
In the wake of the development at the ports, the source urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to quickly appoint a new director general for GPHA to save Ghana the huge revenues which were going into the pockets of individuals.
That, the source added, will bring back discipline and sanity at the ports, which will also facilitate the signing of contracts and taking of major decisions that will inure to the benefit of the country.
It would be recalled that the immediate past Director General of GPHA, Richard A-Y Anamoo, was relieved of his post by President Akufo-Addo. And the termination of his appointment was communicated through the Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah.
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