The former chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), Ebo Hawkson has declared that the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) Oversight Committee, of which he was a member, rendered account on it stewardship during the COSGA Congress in Kumasi at the end of year 2000.
Ebo Hawkson, in a rejoinder, denied an allegation that he was sacked for lack of accountability during his tenure of office.
He noted that the accounts of COSGA were duly presented to the congress by external auditors, and handing-over notes given to the new board at a meeting in the board room of the National Commission on Culture on January 18, 2001.
On his part, the chief executive officer of Bibini Music Production, Faisal Helwani described the allegation that they failed to account for their stewardship as a mere campaign to discredit them, adding “they fear probe which I have called for and making all effort to divert attention of the government and stakeholders from probing the industry.”
On the issue of a ¢400million loan from the SG-SSB Bank, Faisal said the loan was contracted on behalf of COSGA to purchase and run the banderole adhesive stickers which was introduced to creative works on the market.
He explained that the idea behind the introduction of the banderole system was to fight piracy, which was embraced by the stakeholders in the copyright sector.
“We contracted the loan on behalf of COSGA and not for our private business, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which was in charge of the sales of the banderole stickers was paying the bank directly.”
According to him when the present board took over the administration of COSGA, instead of continuing the system, it rather rejected and abandoned a large quantity of banderole imported into the country.
The board, however, introduced the gamugram stickers to replace the banderole.
He said much as the board intended to introduce the gamugram stickers what it should have done was to have sold off the large quantity of banderoles in stock to pay off the loan, before going ahead with the introduction of the gamugram.
Mr Helwani repeated his earlier call on Hon. Joe Ghartey to set up a committee to probe all office holders in the industry including him and other musicians who have once held office in the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) or COSGA.
He reiterated he had been in the music industry for 42 years now and that when he talks he knows what he is taking about.
Faisal who owned the first music production company in Ghana said he would not work again until a committee is put in place to probe the industry to eliminate those who have contributed to its collapse.
