The Ministry of Energy has set up a three (3) member committee to investigate the impasse between the Board of the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited (GCMCL) and the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Frances Essiam who has been asked to step aside with immediate effect.

In a statement signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Lawrence Apaalse, the committee which is made up of a “Senior Lawyer and Governance Expert, a Chartered Accountant and banker, and a Petroleum Expert at the Ministry will conduct investigations into an allegation of malpractices levelled against the CEO by a senior member of staff.”

The statement noted that the Ministry of Energy is currently working with the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) to address the situation.

Background

The Board of GCMCL on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, issued a statement of suspending Frances Essiam after a meeting was held at Robin Hood Hotel on the Spintex road.

It added that all contracts signed by Madam Essiam have also been put on hold pending investigations.

The Board appointed Ezekiel Mensah, the Technical Director of the company to act in the absence of Frances Essiam but he was not given the power to take “major administrative decisions such as promotion, termination of appointment, dismissal or engagement of new employees without the consent of the Board.”

The Board in its statement reversed the “purported termination of appointment of the Finance and Accounts Manager until the committee of Inquiry recommends otherwise.”

Frances Essiam on Tuesday ordered the company to be locked up over reports that the board intended to hold a meeting at the premises. She, however, denies the allegations of financial malpractices.

“For all the things that he [board chairman] said, I will take the appropriate means administratively, legally to seek redress and repair my image. The law will take its course…and trust me the law will take its course because I am talking as a woman whose reputation is being wounded,” she told Starr News Monday.

Read the full statement from the Energy Ministry below