Ex-Employee Cries Foul Over Sale of Black Star Line Property

While the mystery sur-rounding the sale of the national shipping company, Black Star Line (BSL) remains unclear, a controversy is simmering over how to share some assets.

An ex-employee of BSL, Albert Eric Kobina Ofori has accused the Registrar General Department, official liquidators of BSL of deliberately preventing him from buying a house owned by the defunct shipping corporation.

According to Ofori, it was agreed between the local Maritime and Dock Workers Union (MDU) and the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), that in the event of the sale of BSL houses, former employees should be given the first option to buy as sitting tenants.

Based on that understanding, a number of former workers living in the company's bungalows were to be given the first option to buy. Although, most of his colleagues have benefited, Ofori has been asked to quit the house he has lived in with his family over the years.

While Ofori maintains that he officially expressed interest in buying the bungalow, the liquidator told Public Agenda that Ofori failed to meet the terms of agreement for the sale of the property.

According to the official who wants to remain anonymous, Ofori failed to turn up at a meeting for all those who wanted to buy the property.

He said Ofori who turned up at a later date was considered for the sale and asked to pay for the house as all the other ex-workers, but could not meet the conditions.

According to the Registrar General official, all the affected workers pursued their issue with dispatch, but Ofori was rather lukewarm. It is too late now for Ofori, who had worked with the company for 20 years, to buy his house because that property has been sold to someone else, he said.

"We need to finish the liquidation within time, you know...this issue has dragged on since 1998," he said. The official however declined to name the new owner.

In a letter dated September 26,2000, made available to Public Agenda, the ex-employee protested that his inability to pay for his bungalow was because the liquidator had informed him that till a court case involving the BSL was settled he could not accept any money in respect of the property.

Ofori has asked the liquidator to reconsider the decision to sell the property to someone else.

The MDU supports Ofori's fight to retain his bungalow, union General Secretary, K. Owusu Afriyie told Public Agenda.

Owusu Afriyie who was then the Deputy General Secretary of the union at the time of the incident, has already written in support of Ofori's request. In a letter to the liquidator dated October 3, 2001, the Secretary General called for the "withdrawal of the notice to quit from the residence served on Albert Eric Ofori." He also expressed the union's preparedness to enter into negotiations with the liquidator on the terms for purchase of the property.

The faceless new owner has already managed, with the help of the solicitor for the defunct Black Star Line, to obtain a court order to evict Ofori from the house. A Tema High Court on July 11 this year asked the new owner and the solicitor of the BSL to recover possession of H/No 24 NIC2 Community 2, Tema. Ofori was also asked to pay a ?500,000 fine as costs.

Ofori, who still lives in the house, is not ready to give up. The union is prepared to assist him fight the matter in court.