Mystery Behind Kumasi-Kejetia Terminal Fire Outbreaks Uncovered

For sometime now the Kumasi Kejetia Terminal has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Starting from the era of Former Kumasi Mayor Samuel Sarpong, the management of the Kejetia Terminal has known no peace in carrying out their contractual obligations as they have always been under attack from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).

Managing Director of Freko FD company limited Freda Darko speaking to this paper on why she thinks things have gone that way says 'they are doing all these because of their selfish and parochial interests'.

The terminal, she recounted is one of four terminals in the country funded by the World Bank in 2002. The others are Achimota, Takoradi and Ashiaman. All these according to her have been and are still being managed by private companies, as the World Bank ordered.

She noted that all these companies have had very little or no problems at all with the supervisory bodies but 'they all enjoy bullying me because I am a woman. Hon. Samuel Sarpong tried but failed and Hon. Kojo Bonsu will also fail'.

According to her people of Asante and Ghana have been told several lies regarding the relationship between Freko FD, and the KMA, one of which is whether there is or is not a contract between the two.

Even though Mayor Kojo Bonsu has said on several platforms that the assembly has no contract with Freko, Madam Freda insists that Mr. Bonsu signed a letter which was dated November 8, 2013 and delivered to her on same day informing her of the abrogation of the contract between the assembly and Freko.

He therefore stood by his word and invaded the terminal with a combined team of police-military personnel and locked all offices of the company.

She enquired exactly what contract the mayor was referring to in the said letter which was headlined. “RE: NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT AND IMMEDIATE RECOVERY OF POSSESSION OF KEJETIA TERMINAL FROM FREKO FD ENTERPRISE LIMITED”.

She noted that the KMA since taking over the terminal announced how much they are able to get each day and dared them to put every such information on paper.

“Hon. Kojo Bonsu said on Angel Fm that since taking over they are able to collect GH 12,000 daily, now they should itemize, justify it and give me an official copy, and then also forward everything to the Accountant General for proper auditing and give me a copy of that too.

…He should remember that since 2010, they collected revenues from a half of the terminal which is hugely dominated by hawkers, and now that they are taking full custody of the terminal the revenue is expected to go up.

…Mr. Kojo Bonsu should also know that my company paid a commitment fee and Treasury bill of about 375,444,900 old cedis (three hundred and seventy-five million, four hundred and forty four thousand, nine hundred) as at that time, which was a World Bank requirement”, she emphasized.

She continued that as part of the contract she also provided her own logistics for the about 300 staff she was bringing to work with her, adding the revenue, trucks, vehicles, sanitation and security logistics was worth millions of cedis at the time.

“During the construction of the terminal Freko had about five 12- wheeler trucks which was used to fill the terminal for six months without collecting any money. He should note that I won the contract on merit and came there with a rich resource and not empty handed as the mayor was saying on radio”, she said.

Referring to an agreement signed between the Assembly and her company, Madam Freda noted that Hon. Kojo Bonsu and his predecessor Hon. Samuel Sarpong have violated several parts of the contract.

As regards the content of the said letter from the KMA, she insisted that the KMA Boss was supposed to know or intentionally being untruthful with the situation on the terminal.

The two points raised by the Mayor in his letter to abrogate the agreement between Freko and the assembly were highly contestable as Freko could prove, with evidence of how many times the company had tried to get the assembly to perform their role as a supervisory body.

Showing one correspondence after the other, Madam Freda explained that she had notified the Assembly on so many occasions about the bad state of the public toilet on the terminal and called on them to come and supervise the renovation of same, but the KMA ignored them.

“So I do not know which toilet they claim I was unable to keep well, maybe Mr. Kojo Bonsu can help us all by showing which of them he is talking about.

…I have also notified them severally that the public toilet on the Kejetia Hill top which the assembly had permitted a certain contractor to build and operate ignoring several complaints from drivers, and other users of the terminal. Another Micro Finance company and some BOT operators had all directed their human excreta into the gutters of the terminal and by their bye laws, they should even have arrested the operator of the public toilet but what action have they taken about this”, she stated.

“KMA should tell us what maintenance they have carried out on the terminal since 2002 to date. We have done all minor and major maintenance apart from the one Central Government did there. Whenever we notify them and they ignore us, we take a bank loan and do it ourselves”, she noted.

She continued that the three percent of the gross which she had to pay to the assembly per the previous agreement was scraped when the assembly raised the ratio to 70-30 which she began paying. But there was later an exaggerated amount of how much exactly could be made on the terminal on a daily basis and Hon. Sarpong based on this unilaterally increased the ratio to 62-38, which Freko paid amid protest.

“I insist that the ratio for the contract now is 62-38 and not the 62-28 as the Mayor's special assistant said on Joy fm on their Sunday evening news. All these are parts of their grand agenda to malign and present me as a cheat in the eyes of the Ghanaian public so that they can have the opportunity to do whatever they have planned.

…Hon. Kojo Bonsu stated on Angel fm last week that they collect GH 12,000 daily from the terminal since taking over from me and now his special assistant also says they get GH 10000, so whose amount should we take now”, she enquired

As to what they describe as Freko's deliberate refusal to be transparent with regard to the management of the terminal, she said the KMA auditors and their monitoring team visited their offices at least twice annually and they had even been there once already this year. Reports of which are available.

There is nowhere in their reports, she stressed, that showed that we have even been cagy in providing information, adding that 'we make available all our General Counter fort Receipt (GCR) and Value books for their auditors whenever they come'.

“It is a deliberate and calculated attempt by the KMA to tarnish the image of the company so that their diabolic intensions against Freko FD would be enhanced.

According to Madam Freda, she worked hard on the terminal since 2002 and brought it to its current status. “I have done very well to maintain the terminal till now so why would Hon. Kojo Bonsu defame and malign me if he will not praise me”, she noted passionately.

“As regards the assertions of filth on the terminal, the least said about it the better, I dare whoever says I do not keep the facility clean to come and have a look at the CCTV and show which part they say is always dirty”, she asserted.