Ex-Ghanair Staff Paid Final Claims

THE government has released 2.25 million dollars to enable the official liquidator of Ghana Airways to pay the final severance claims of ex-employees of the airline.

This brings to 7.8 million dollars the amount released to ensure that locally based Ghanaian employees receive their negotiated severance awards in full.

Mr. Felix Addo of Price Water House Coopers, facilitators of the liquidation process, who announced this at the seventh meeting of creditors held in Accra yesterday, said cheques for the final payment to the workers would be sent to them by tomorrow.

The meeting was to update creditors on the progress of work on the liquidation process which he said was expected to be completed in June next year.

Mr. Addo said about 6.5 million dollars will go to the regular staff and 1.3 million dollars to pilots and flight engineers.

In partial fulfillment of the severance obligations to the former workers, $4.25million was paid in two installments, since the liquidation process started three years ago following the out-of-court settlement with the official liquidator.

Ghana Airways went into official liquidation in June 2005, after the company was unable to keep up its debt repayments and the government refused to provide yet more money.

Mr Addo said that the government's support to the workers and unsecured creditors stood at about 20 million dollars.

He said 33 million dollars had so far been released from the sale of the company's assets to pay its creditors, adding that there were currently 277 claimants, who have submitted claims totalling 219 million dollars. Mr. Addo commended the government for coming to the aid of the ex-workers saying, release of the money "it is not the duty of the government to pay the ex-workers."