The Ministry of Energy has set up a three-member committee to investigate matters arising at the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) involving the CEO, Frances Essiam and the board.

This comes on the back of the suspension of Ms Essiam by the board but the embattled CEO insists she is still at post.

The Energy Ministry in a statement said: “It has also come to the notice of the ministry that the board of the GCMC has, in a meeting held on 8 May 2018, suspended the CEO of the company and subsequently recommended the establishment of a committee to ‘conduct investigations into an allegation of malpractices leveled against the CEO by a senior member of staff’

“It is the considered view of the Ministry that due to the nature of the impasse and the fact that the board is an interested party in the matter, an independent committee will produce a more objective result. Consequently, the ministry in consultation with SEC has set up a three-member chartered accountant and banker and a petroleum expert at the Ministry to investigate the matter.”

On Tuesday evening, six of the nine-member board voted in favour of Ms Essiam’s suspension at a meeting held outside the premises of GCMC due to a lock-out on the orders of the embattled CEO, a situation that barred staff of the company from gaining access to their offices when they turned up for work that day.

Among other things, the Board wrote to Ms Essiam asking her to explain why she unilaterally contracted a loan to pay workers’ February salary without the board’s knowledge and approval.

The board also demanded answers from the CEO about why she ordered the sale of a disused machine belonging to the company.

She was refrained by the board from touching a GHS5m stimulus package secured for the company by the government.