Ghana Telecom To Sue ex-Ministers For Unpaid Bills

Ghana Telecom (GT) says it will soon begin legal proceedings to recover billions of cedis owed it by former ministers and the ministries they headed for use of its facilities.

These ministries, according to GT include the Finance ministry, with a debt of 5,812,433,803 cedis; Trade and Industry 1,942,122,534 cedis; Education, 1,53,9251,438 cedis; Justice and Attorney General's Department, 702,302,890 cedis and Works and Housing 817,005,123 cedis.

John Mahama, former Minister for Communication topped the list with the largest phone bill, 39,822,215 cedis from his personal telephone at the ministry.

Other former ministers said to owe on personal phones at their respective ministries include former minister of Education Ekow Spio-Garbrah with a debt of 20,790,601 cedis, his two deputies Ibn Chambas, 9,903,995 cedis and Kwabena Kyere, 177,507.

ET Mensah, Youth and Sports ministry owed 2,911,719 cedis while his deputy, Patrick Addy, owed 1,240,293 cedis.

Mr. Victor Serlomey deputy minister at the ministry of Finance left 273,825 cedis. Mrs. Cecilia Johnson, former minister of Local Government, owed 958,854 cedis. Former minister of Tourism, Mr. Mike Gizo, 194,850 cedis and Mr. Edward Salia, former minister of Roads and Transport left 212,966 cedis.

Meanwhile, the former minister for Communications John Mahama has explained the reason why the Government ministries during their tenure in office have incurred huge phone bills. In an interview with Joy fm, Mr.Mahama, said the reason is due to the late delivery of budget allocation together with the fact that not all the amount demanded by a particular ministry is released.

He has therefore disputed the amount of 39 million cedis that he was alleged to have left when he was the minister for communications.