GRC reels under $148,000 debt
THE Management of the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL) is weighing under a $149,337.36 owed three Ghanaian companies, namely ERIMAVE, WISVIC and SALAMCO, in an agreement to supply these companies with scrap materials.
As a result, the management of the GRC has entered into fresh negotiations with the three companies, to supply them with rail scraps to defray the debt. Investigations conducted by this reporter, revealed that two years ago the three companies paid an amount of $100,000 each to the management of the GRCL for the supply of rail scraps. By that the agreement, the three companies were to identify the scraps, apprise GRC management, and collect it themselves.
Further investigations revealed that currently GRC still owes some $149,337.36 worth of scrap to be supplied to the companies.
In a breakdown, GRC owes ERIMAVE, WISVIC and SALAMCO, $63,206.70, $56,283.11 and $29,847.55 respectively.
A tonne of scrap is pegged at $155, and a total of 961 tonnes is to be supplied to the three companies to defray the debt.
Currently, one of the companies has identified a rail scraps at the Butuah rail line, and is collecting them, but that has attracted fierce opposition from the GRC Task Force, which is arguing that the rail scraps could be used to patch up other rail lines, which have developed cracks.
Though the government put a ban on the supply of rail scraps in the country, in 2007 the three companies were given a special dispensation to deal in rail scrap materials, following an agreement which the GRC had entered into with the company before the ban came into effect.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) led Mills' government, upon assumption of office in 2009, also put a ban on the supply of rail scraps, but the management of the GRC wrote to the Ministry of Transportation about the agreement it had entered into with the three companies.
Consequently, another special dispensation has been granted to the three companies to deal in the supply of rail scraps.
When this paper, in its 22nd June 2009 edition broke the story, the management of GRC quickly wrote a two page rejoinder in reaction, but failed to specify how much the three companies paid for the supply of the scraps.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Mike Hammah, at a meeting with workers of the GRC last week, urged the management to run an open and transparent administration.
The Minister's advice came after some of the workers had expressed worry over the opaque administration being run by the GRC management.
Meanwhile, a rejoinder, signed by the Public Relations Officer of the GRC, Mr. Abakah Amoah, to this paper, said it was true that the GRCL had authorised the removal or harvesting of rail scraps from some rail lines, by the three contractors.
However, the true picture was that the rails were obsolete, and were wasting away, while the rail lines from where they were removed, were old or unused, thus itemising them as scraps.
“In the particular case referred to in the publication, the Contractor is one of the three, which have an outstanding balance with GRCL for the supply of scrap materials.
GRCL therefore sought approval from the Ministry of Transportation to dispose of the obsolete rails from the unused siding line, and which in any case were being stolen by thieves to offset its indebtedness.
Indeed, the Ministry had placed a ban on the sale of scraps, except to those three companies namely; WISVIC, ERIMAVE and SALAMCO, which have already paid some monies to GRCL in 2007, monies which GRCL had spent but had not been able to supply them the scraps.” Mr. Abakah Amoah explained.
He added that the Ministry's intervention therefore was to prevent these three companies from their threat to engage GRCL in legal battles and other unorthodox means of collecting their money.
Again, the Ministry did not and could not have pinpointed a particular line of place for the companies to remove the scraps from. It is pertinent to note that before scraps are removed, it must be inspected by a Board of Survey with membership from the Technical Departments and the Workers Union of GRCL.
He further explained that the Board of Survey determines the usefulness or otherwise of the items, their weight and value before recommending for their disposal.
“It can therefore not be true that those worn out and obsolete rails which have been identified as scrap can be used to 'patch up' other rails which have developed cracks. We count on your early publication of this rejoinder to clear any unfortunate impression created in the minds of the public about indiscriminate disposal of Railway asset and especially the mention of the Honourable Minister in this affair,” he said.