MAN ARRESTED FOR SALE OF GRC PROPERTY (PAGE 49)

THE police in Takoradi have arrested a man whose name was given only as Amoah, suspected to be a member of a group engaged in the illegal sale of property belonging to the Ghana Railway Company (GRC).
The group is said to have engaged in the falsification of the company’s letterheads to write letters to a scrap dealer in Accra, instructing him to transfer $200,000 into an account it described as that of the company.
The letters were signed by two signatories, R. Armah and K.B. Hackman, ostensibly on behalf of the interim chairman of the management committee of the railway workers union, but the union chairman has denied knowledge of the said letter.
Another letter which was signed on behalf of the chairman of the company’s scrap committee, was intercepted by the Ministry of Harbours and Railways, which has directed that any plan of harvesting scraps at the company’s installations should be suspended immediately.
Amoah was arrested while in possession of metals described as serviceable vans of the company, which had been cut into pieces for sale as scrap.
When contacted, the Managing Director of the company, Mr Rufus Quaye, expressed shock and displeasure at the new turn of events in the company.
“No worker has the right to sell scrap or to determine that any disposable item of the company is scrap. We have a scrap committee that deals with that. You cannot buy scrap from the workers without approval from the scrap committee and not even I, the managing director, have the right to call scrap dealers to sell any component of the company’s property to them,” he said.
When the Daily Graphic contacted the local representative of the scrap buying company, Mr K. Amewu, he confirmed the receipt of the letter by his company and said the agreement was that the company would garner the lines that were not in use and replace them with new ones, as well as buy the old coaches and replace them with new ones.
“But as I talk to you, we have been informed that the authors of the letter requesting the transfer of the $200,000 to the railway account are not the right signatories,” he said.
Asked if he had transferred any amount into the account, he said not yet, following the timely intervention by the ministry informing it that the signatures were fake.