GWCL officials to be sanctioned

The Ministry of Works and Housing has directed the Board of Directors of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to sanction all officers of the company implicated in financial impropriety by the Justice Adade Committee.

The directive, which was issued on Friday 17 January 2003, suggested prosecution, outright dismissal and demotion among other sanctions deemed appropriate.

Yaw Barimah, the sector Minister gave the hint in an interview on Monday with the ?Times? when contacted on the outcome of the committee?s work.

He said that the Attorney General?s Department had already advised that 17 top officials of the company should be prosecuted because their offences were found to be criminal. The Minister explained that the board was also advised to institute preventive measures to plug the loopholes in management, especially in procurement from which most of the corrupt deals emanated.

Barimah, who did not reveal names of the affected officials, however, disclosed that most of them were found to have been involved in corrupt deals which cost the company millions of cedis.

He explained that the over one year delay in issuing the directive was due to the time needed to ensure that the right decisions were taken. The Minister was hopeful that the Board would soon start implementing the committee?s directives and the recommendations which, he said, were necessary to improve upon the management of the company.

It is recalled that the Justice Adade Committee which was set up to look into the alleged malfeasance in the purchase of materials and other corrupt activities at the GWCL, presented its report and recommendations to the sector Minister on Friday 21 December 2001 after several months of probe and deliberations.