Disaster Looms At SIC

... As Finger-soiled Lydia Bawa Submits Application For MD Post

By Dominic Jale & Kofi Safo-Antwi

Angry clouds of disasterous proportions are gathering over SIC Company which, much more painfully, has the propensity to erase that enviable string of insurance successes attributed to the Company all these years, once the Max Cobbina-led board of directors do not put their shoulders to the plough early enough.

At the destructive end of the puzzle remains one Lydia Lareba Bawa, whose questionable adminstrative expertise has ruined insurance businesses under the thumb of the SIC in Kumasi. Bawa who heads the ailing Kumasi Branch may literally walk away with the MD position, which she continues to hunt down with every sinew in her frame, even though two other more competent people have applied alongside her as at the tiem of going to press.

A major worry across the length and breadth of the SIC Company as far as clientelle doing business with the Company across the country, tells of a general fear of the position slipping into her embrace even though she carries so much excess baggage in incompetence, fraud and arrogance.

THE GHANAIAN SUN has gathered that despite the listing of her nefarious calamities against the Company, some powers-that-be are trying desperately to tie the hands of the board of directors of the Company into doling out the top managerial position to Ms. Bawa, who has so many questions to answer over fraudulent deals in her Kumasi office.

The Managing Directorship of SIC Company became vacant following the dismissal of Mr. Ben Acolatse, former Managing Director (MD) in June this year. His dismissal led to late President J.E.A Mills setting up one of his last Committees, which composed of dutiful elements from the National Insurance Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

Even before the release of the Committee’s report, only last month the board placed an internal advert and invited interested and qualified staff to apply for the position. This far, THE GHANAIAN SUN has learnt that only three staff members have submitted themselves for contention.

They are the acting MD Doris Awo Nkani (Mrs), who is the DMD (Technical), Mr. Quaye Mensah Ashidam, head of Re-insurance and the controversial Lareba Bawa, who heads Kumasi but is now deputizing for her bosom male pal, Ofori Kuraga who is on a 10-day leave.

Even though interviews for the top post is slated for October, 11,2012 credible sources within the-powers-that-be has hinted that, underground moves are underway to hand over the top post to Ms. Bawa on the strength of her Frafra northern leanings . THE GHANAIAN SUN has been reliably informed that the BAWA-FOR-MD-AGENDA is being spearheaded by a Member of the Council of State who has a powerful link to His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama.

“We cannot afford to put all our eggs in one basket because it cannot be that General Manager Ofori Kuragu, who remains more or less a husband to Ms. Bawa, should have his concubine as the overall boss of the SIC Company which means in effect that, the adminstrative part of the Company has been off-loaded to someone and his wife”, a shareholder told THE GHANAIAN SUN.

Indeed Ms. Bawa herself is said to have boasted ceaselessly that she is so connected to President Mahama from her student days at the University of Ghana that, the position is hers for the taking, irrespective of copious volumes of write-ups churned up by THE GHANAIAN SUN pointing towards her misdeeds. Bawa has told certain SIC people that, while the President was in active student politicking, she was a treasurer on campus.

The fear and concern of sharehodlers the paper spoke to was that if care is not taken, the proposed interview will just be an academic exercise and a waste of precious time. THE GHANAIAN SUN can report that it would be a-disaster-waiting-to-explode should Bawa be given the nod to head the SIC Company. Already, her activities as Area Manager in Kumasi has brought all-time hardships and a slip in fortunes to the Company.

Right under her watch, her friend lawyer Sule Sambia used fraudulent interlocutory judgment to enable her push for claim settlements. Again, he is reported to have turned herself into a consultant and extorted monies from a cocoa purchasing company, while filling claims for the firm over a missing pick-up.

“ With this and other baggages under her sleeve, it would be disastrous for the board to sit aloof to even entertain her application for the top-post”, one of the directors of a corporate shareholding company told THE GHANAIAN SUN when reached for his comments.

“Currently SIC is reeling seriously in claim payments thanks to people like Bawa, who has no interest in protecting the fortunes of the Company. Instead, she has resorted to settling to personal gains”, another aggrieved shareholder and insider lamented.

Another question that Bawa would have to answer is how she short-changed a medical doctor by name Dr. Kojo Eyeson of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, where she made a fortune from the sale of the doctor’s salvaged car, paying off just Ghana Cedis 5000 at the SIC counter while creating the impression that the car was sold to the distraught medical officer. THE SUN