U.S. Company Rips Ghana of Billions of cedis

The Dispatch says the government should maintain the GNPC shares in Westel and rather stop Western Wireless International, (WWI) a US company from ripping Ghana of billions of cedis. WWI and GNPC jointly own Westel.

Dispatch says its investigations have revealed that it is the policy of WWI to pay its employees overseas net of tax. Westel has had to pay tax on behalf of WWI expatriate staff who have been seconded to Westel to the tune of over 2 billion cedis within two years. Several trips to Ghana by some WWI personnel were charged to Westel accounts.

Sources close to WWI have confirmed that negotiations with Lucent Technologies of Germany for GSM mobile cellular system worth over $25,000 was conducted by WWI without GNPC's participation. The Lucent team was in Ghana for over six months and Westel bore a lot of the expenses.

Against all sound advice, Westel's head office is in rented premises, costing nearly $180,000 (1.3 billion cedis) a year, instead of buying a house. Again, Westel, at the insistence of WWI, rented accommodation for its expatriate staff and paid $60,000 (420 million cedis) as two years' advance payment at a time when a similar house could be bought for $48,000 (336 million cedis).

The GNPC has its problems but WWI has been ripping Ghana off, the private paper concluded and asked the Kufuor government to look-out for WWI's tactics.