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Nene Ofoe Teye, a senior security officer at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) is praising the management of the GPHA for a regime of accountability that has been instituted at the place.

He said management’s style of constantly being a scrutineer had cleansed the GPHA of corruption was rampant at the place.

“This is why the GPHA is no longer in the media over negative stories of corruption like it used to be the case in the past; the current Management has literally given salvation to GPHA,” Nene Ofoe Teye said in a statement copied to the Ghana news agency in Accra.

According to him, the Director-General of GPHA, Michael Luguje and the Director of Tema Port, Sandra Opoku, came up with an automation system that was at the heart of the riddance of corruption at the GPHA.

The system, he said, worked such that every employee of the GPHA, from top Management level to the least staff, is in a chain of complex checks and balance.

“Also, information flow has improved much and nobody stays in the dark, immediately something happens, Management calls staff meetings and explain.

“For example, when the Meridian Port Services (MPS) take-over of the Tema Port happened, nobody was kept in the dark, we were all called and informed of what had happened and the implications for all of us. This is what informed the agitation of some staff against the MPS deal even though Management tried to calm everybody down.”

He added that, “this same transparency, accountability and information flow is the reason why you do not hear that GPHA workers are at loggerheads with Management like it used to be in the past. Departmental transfers are occasionally carried out when it is observed that the competence of certain staff of the company are more fitting for certain responsibilities, it is only a staff with a questionable character that will complain of his or her transfer to the media as propaganda in order to create false impressions about management.”

The statement is coming at a time that the GPHA has had its revenue on an upward trajectory even after the controversial MPS deal which gave the whole of the Terminal 3 port management to MPS.

According to Nene the statement, who is also the constituency chairman of Tema East NPP, “the upward increase in revenue started in 2017, when we made over Ghc140 million profit and it has continued till now.”

He said that the Management’s decision to equip the Port security with modern operation accoutrements had helped in curbing illegal port activities as well.

“The hardworking Colonel. William Kwabiah, the Port Security Manager and his men, including myself, are having all the equipment that are necessary for our work and Colonel.
Kwabiah has not failed, after he took over from where his predecessor, Colonel JM Punamane had left off.

“Just this month, the GPHA commissioned three state of the art ASD tug-boats, which are the first of their kind in Central and West Africa and are of 80 tonnes bollard pull capacity and capable of performing fire-fighting and rescue functions.”

The statement urged President Akufo-Addo to be “rest assured that your men and women are working hard to ensure that your vision is realized. We pledge to work hard until the dream of a Ghana Beyond Aid is realized.”