The Unionised staff have been keenly observing the discourse in the court of public opinion and wish to let Ghanaians, whose taxes sustain us, know the current happenings in the corporation.
The Director General Professor Amin Alhassan's Four (4) year tenure as the Director General of GBC, expired last year, 1st October 2023.
There has since been no official communication to either the workers or the public about his status, which is the reason for his Eleven-month continuous stay in office and the legal implications thereof.
The Unionised staff since last year 21st November 2023 through the mother union PSWU, formally wrote to the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Office of the President seeking clarity on the status of the DG, together with a plea from Unionised staff against any contract extension of the Director General.
The NMC on the 11th December 2023, responded that the Commission was in the process of determining the leadership of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the union should therefore, be aware of Article 168 of the 1992 constitution, which enjoins the NMC to appoint the board, the Chief Executives of the state-owned media in consultation with H. E. the President and that
the Commission will make a public announcement as soon as the process is completed.
The Unionised staff wants to know if the source from the grapevine that, indeed, the presidency is not interested in the contract extension of the Director General Professor Amin Alhassan is correct.?
The union further wants to know if it is true that the continuous stay of the DG in office long after the expiration of his contract is at the instance of NMC chairman, Mr. Yaw Ayeboafo who, for whatever reasons, wants a contract extension for the DG. ? The question is,What is Mr. Ayeboafo's special interest in the DG
When the Unionised workers resolved long ago, not to support any contact extension for Professor Amin Alhassan?
GBC today, is virtually on its knees and a pale shadow of itself. In terms of logistics, equipment, and personnel. GBC was once a standard measure for excellence in Broadcasting. Indeed, some Broadcasting Houses on the Content and elsewhere found it a suitable training Center.
Sadly, however, due to the actions and inactions of the Director General, things have rapidly deteriorated. A few examples may suffice here under the following heading.
A. Maladministration
B.Belligerent Governance style
C. Financial Malfeasance
D. Neglect of Core Business
E. Neglect of Staff Welfare.
F. Acute deterioration of assets of the corporation which includes;-
Collapsed studios, outdated equipment, worn-out studio chairs, and some leaking roofs, dwindling stocks, broken-down operational vehicles that are not being repaired or replaced.
Sometimes, crews return from locations to the office by hiring commercial vehicles such as Bolt, Uber, or Yango.
Out of the 37 faulty vehicles, only four have been repaired.
As a result of the economic challenges and inconveniences caused to the staff, they are forced to adjust and this has caused some unionized workers to leave the office early at odd hours, while others turn some offices and studios into sleeping places at night on workdays from Mondays to Fridays as that appears to be more convenient and cost-effective to them.
Furthermore, instead of replacing obsolete equipment and upgrading our facilities, management prefers renting the required equipment like Outside Broadcast Vans(OB Vans) to facilitate production and this has the propensity to increase our operational costs substantially.
Lack of consumables - stationery, photocopiers, and printing services.
These items are outsourced and are often fraught with constant payment defaults.
Reporters purchase their recorders, memory cards, and chips for reportage, and others at the various Divisional Departments use their personal computers.
Video cameras have broken down and left to rot and nonreplacements have led to a shortage of cameras for daily coverage.
GBC AND BAD PRESS.
1. The referral of the DG and his management to the AG for Prosecution for Multiple procurement breaches. (15th, August 2024 )
2..The 13th African Games and Matters Arising.
.3 Alleged Sales /Leases of GBC Lands Across the country.
4. Neglect of Staff Welfare.
5. Abuse of Office /Victimisation
6. The Divide And Rule;- Subtle attempts to Collapse the Union.
The Management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) led by the Director General Professor Amin Alhassan appeared before the Public Accounts Committee ( PAC), of Parliament on the 15th of August 2024 on the Report Of The Auditor-General.
The Report relates to the audited Financial Statements of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation ending 31st December 2022.
Financial Performance.
The Corporation's operations for the year ended with a whopping loss of over EIGHT MILLION Ghana CEDIS (GHC 8M) as against a loss of TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND GHANA CEDIS (GHC 270, OOO.) recorded in 2021 representing a deterioration of 30,20.5%. - Three Thousand, Twenty Point Five Percent in its financial performance.
According to the Auditor General report, the total expenditure increased in 2022 as against 2021 is mainly due to an increase in personal costs.
Procurements of an amount of goods and services of FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY - THREE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY CEDIS (GHC 533,920) breached section 43 of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (663) as amended. These procurements according to the Auditor General were single-sourced.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of
Parliament Consequently referred the DG for prosecution by the Attorney General.
Moreover, an amount of TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND GHANA CEDIS (200,000.) was spent on the renovation of the Director General Professor Amin Alhassan's bungalow.
2.13TH AFRICAN GAMES - ACCRA 2023 AND MATTERS ARISING.
BACKGROUND :
The Technical crew and the Production team of the 13TH AFRICAN GAMES began the production and the telecast of the games on 3rd March 2024 before the official opening ceremony on 8th March 2024.
We recall that Ghana had one of its worst heat waves during the tournament.
The union got information about the inhumane treatment meted out to our Technical crew and the Production team by management.
On the 15th of March 2024, Friday morning, the entire production and Technical crew converged at the union office with the announcement of a boycott of coverage of the games.
The union executives, then quickly reached out to our Director General Professor Amin Alhassan, and his management while they were having a meeting in the board room.
Upon reaching the corridors of the board room, the production team, waited while information was sent to the DG.
The DG came out seething with anger at the union executives for gate-crashing.
The executives remained calm.
The DG was asked whether there was a contract between GBC and the Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The DG flatly said No.
He was asked again, whether the corporation had been paid any money in connection with the coverage, and he responded in the negative.
According to the DG, the State Broadcaster was duty-bound to serve the country, and the corporation was involved because of the content.
The DG then began to negotiate and wanted to pay the production and the Technical team FIFTY CEDIS EACH (GHC 50) PER DAY.
This was rejected by the entire team.
The DG, then, constituted a Management team comprising of AG. Director of TV, AG. DTP and Acting Director of Marketing to continue with the negotiations
The team and the union executives began the negotiation with the Management team.
The management team came up with an adjustment from ¢ 50 to GHC 70 which was also rejected.
The union executives and the team made a counter-proposal of GHC 500, to the Management team, after which the management team sought permission to confer with the Director General revert.
The management team came back to the negotiation table and said that the DG had been briefed on the counter-proposal. However, he was going for prayers.
They never came back, only to receive a letter from management signed for by the Deputy Director of Human Resources stating that the corporation had agreed to pay HUNDRED cedis for each member for food only per day and that T&T forms were to be filled - out and submitted for payment after validation.
The union executives-led team rejected the offer.
The management then exerted excessive force on the staff team covering the games to accept the GHC 100.
This was because the union had then petitioned the Minister of Youth and Sports.
On the 4th of April, management held a postmortem meeting with the entire crew but nothing positive about the payment came out.
Therefore, the union Executives and the team that covered the games were completely surprised to hear the minister of Youth and Sports say at PAC that payment of over THREE MILLION DOLLARS WAS made TO GBC AS AGAINST the EARLIER firm denial by the DG before THE UNION EXECUTIVES AND TECHNICAL AND PRODUCTION TEAMS.
ON THE 15TH OF MARCH, 2024 IN A MEETING WITH THE DG HE ALSO SAID THAT THERE WAS NO CONTRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORTS.
.THE DG ostensibly in RESPONSE to queries raised by some members of PAC asserted in various interviews he granted to the media that the Technical and Production teams on Location have been paid.
After that response, the team again came to the union office to protest and alleged that they were not paid.
Out of the 77 Members comprising both Technical and Production, only EIGHT (8) said they received payment of GHC 100, some received a total of GHC 900, 800, and GHC 100 respectively.
The union, in this regard, wrote to management on 26th August 2024, asking for the list of names and amounts paid to the GBC CREW who covered the 13th African GAMES.
The union is still waiting for the response.
3 Allegation of Sales /Leases of GBC Lands.
1. Tamale lands: The GBC staff bungalows at Tamale were demolished, with the promise that the staff would be provided with modern flats or bungalows. Meanwhile, initially, management denied knowledge of the activities on the land and the worker's bungalows.
The bungalows after its demolition, have been built into a China Town Mall.
The promise of the so-called modern flats or bungalows has turned into four semi-detached houses for only three unionized staff and the Regional Director.
Currently, construction is underway for A Filling Station.
The remaining parcels of land have had their original use changed to Commercial purposes which were approved on 20th February 2024.
The Union wants to know if due processes were followed about the Land Use in conformity with the Spatial Planning ACT, 2016, ACT 925.
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