Red Bands Fly At State Housing

A section of workers of the beleaguered State Housing Company (SHC) were in red bands yesterday. A visit to the SHC head office by Chronicle confirmed, as the red bands w

ere conspicuously present at the entire place - at the main gate, on pillars as well as in front of some offices.

Chronicle investigations showed that those workers took such a decision in protest against the paper's publication a few weeks ago about allegations of managerial malfeasance, following which the board of directors set up a committee to investigate those allegations.

Again, they were doing so apparently to intimidate those who have been asked to appear before the committee that starts its work at 10:00 a.m. today.

But deputy managing director Ben Mensah said, as far as management was concerned, those in red bands did so because wages and salaries had not been paid. "We paid it today so they have no cause to be in red bands."

Chronicle visited the place around 2:30 p.m. on the very day that wages and salaries were said to have been paid, yet they were still in red bands.

"This delay is unprecedented in the history of the company and it confirms your story that the company is collapsing," said one worker who was not in a red band and felt that those in red were only using it as a decoy.

"It is bad that we have not got our salaries yet but those in red have their own agenda. The real issue is that they want to show that they are in solidarity with management and that things are well with us but that is false, and also to intimidate few others."

On one of the notice boards of the company was a note, signed by two anonymous persons, saying that wages and salaries had not been paid because Mrs. Dinah Amoako Koranteng and Mr. M.O. Asare Bediako had released information to the press about the company, making it difficult for management to source funds to pay.

Pasting something on the notice boards of the company should be done only with the prior approval of management, Chronicle learnt, suggesting that management knew something about that note.

But Mr. Ben Mensah, in reacting to this, said, "that notice board belongs to the union."

The paper can confirm that some workers wanted to hold a demonstration against those whose names were mentioned in the story for a suspicion that they released the information to the paper, a fact Mr. Mensah confirmed when contacted.

He said, "management invited the union secretary, Tagoe, who confessed, but we told him that management does not endorse such a decision."

Chronicle sources hinted that those who were planning to demonstrate against the so-called informants were being instigated by some gurus in the company. Mr. Mensah denied this. "I have already told you that management is against that."

This reporter had to run into a waiting vehicle to speed off after taking a photograph of some of the red bands at the premises of the company as some of the workers started to move towards him shouting immediately he took the picture.

The March issue of Chronicle reported, among others, that the company had within 17 months acquired two expensive vehicles for the managing director. The administrative director had, for more than one year, deserted his allocated bungalow and his family at Dansoman, Accra, and lives in the SHC guest house at North Kaneshie, Accra, for free, at a time when the company owed contractors to the tune of ?1.8 billion.

The paper also talked about some intimidations that were going on and mentioned some of such victims.

SHC reacted to the story in a rejoinder and significantly accepted some of the allegations made in the first story.