WORKERS RUN RIOT…Lock up CNC offices

Workers of the Central regional branch of the Center for National Culture (CNC) last Tuesday organised a massive demonstration against their Regional Director, Mr Emmanuel Quao, the Regional Accountant, Mr Isaac Amartefio and Okai Mckenzie, the Cashier, for allegedly stealing their back pay allowances and other monies.

The workers, who wore red bands to express their displeasure at the actions of the three officers, in the heat of the demonstration locked up the offices of the three and blocked all roads leading to the center.

Center for National Culture workers demonstrating

They wielded placards which read “we can’t work with wicked accountant”, “ TUC 2007 to 2009 monies deducted and kept by director and accountant have been paid after confrontation” and “Where is IGF since 2002 to 2009” among others.

The workers have vowed to continue demonstrating and keep the place locked up until the three top executives are transferred and made to face the full rigours of the law.

Briefing the press, the local Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman at the center, Mr Paul Evans Munkoh, who led the demonstration, said the three have condoned to bloat the nominal payrolls of workers and have been collecting the money from the ministry of finance since 2004 to 2009 without using the actual figures.

The director, the accountant and the cashier, he hinted, have also misappropriated all the internally generated funds retrieved from the renting of chairs and canopies belonging to the center as well as the auditorium since 2002 to 2009. In this respect they are therefore calling for a forensic audit into the matter.

“Could you believe that they have printed their own receipts and issued it to people who rent the place and pocket the money while government receipts have been hidden to create the impression that people are not patronizing the place?, he noted.

He said TUC dues which was deducted from staff’s overtime back pay has also been kept in their pockets for over three years until the Dean of Directors of CNC, Mr William Addo, ordered them to refund the monies.

The TUC chairman further alleged that the three have inserted two names each as housemaid for the two deputy directors who have been paid by government from 2004 to 2009.

However, TODAY gathered that although one of the Deputy Directors, Mr Ishmael Otoo, was dead, his name was still on the payroll while the other, Mr Emmanuel Akortsu, has only one maid instead of two as indicated by the three and that he even pays his housemaid himself from his monthly salary.

Mr Munkoh also alleged that the director removed all the speakers at the center’s auditorium for repairs about seven years ago, but have since not returned them.

The only vehicle that conveys workers to and from work has also been left in an irreparable state while most of the damaged chairs and canopies have been abandoned at the roof top of the center to go waste.

Mr Akortsu, who received the petition from Mr Munkoh, said he was not aware his name had been used to extort monies from government until recently, adding that the act of the three was an indictment on his personality as he has been paying his housemaid himself all these years.

On his part, an emotionally charged Mr Quao who was spotted at the Goil Filling Station at Pedu in Cape Coast, seeking refuge after being locked out the whole day, rubbished the allegations, saying he had already petitioned authority on the matter and other problems bedeviling the center.

He added that the deputy national finance officer of the center will soon be in Cape Coast to address the salary issues of the workers and that there was nothing he could do until the national officer steps in.

It would be recalled that TODAY published sometime ago that Central regional CNC workers were planning to take to the streets in protestation against three top officers of their center for allegedly misusing their backlog of extra duty allowances.

STORY: FROM MAGDALENE SEY, CAPE COAST