TENSION MOUNTS IN VOLTA GBC

Mr. Ralph Avornyoh, the Acting Volta Regioqal Director of GBC has debunked claims that he has been directed by Mr. Yaw Owusu Add'o, the Acting, Director 'General of GBC, to do away -with the guests Artistes/ Journalists of the' GBC /Volta Star Radio in Ho.

He told the Sun that what his management team was doing was to' relocate the GuestArtistes/Journalists and re-assign them to other areas to get the best for the region yet, some people did not understand him.

The Volta Regional Acting Director also denied claims that, he was commercializing news coverage in the region.

However he told The Sun in an interview last Thursday that, what his management team was doing was in conformity with what pertained at GBC.

?It is not all the news coverage that are commercialized. We however charged for the coverage of the utility companies, Banks and Credit Union and profit ?oriented institutions that we also paid for their services, he told The Sun The Sun can report that tension is mounting within Volta Regional GBC followed a move by Avornyoh to dispense with the services of the Guest Artists \Journalists who have worked all these years with the station. The paper gathered that on March 17 last month Avornyoh told workers during a meeting that he had been directed by Mr. Owusu Addo to dispense with the service of the guest artists.

However he has since denied he was acting upon the instructions from Accra and was in the process of terminating any deal with the guest journalists to pave way for students from his broadcasting school operating at the premises of the GBC.

During an interview with The Sun he said even though he, together with some colleagues were running broadcasting courses for some people it was not a school. ?All that we are trying to do is to help upgrade people\s knowledge in broadcasting . There is nothing like schools fees. All that we take is participating fees it is not true that I want to terminate the services of the Guests Journalists and instead engage those from my end, he explained. The fate of Guests Artists and other temporal staff of the GBC \Volta Star Radio is said to be in shambles as the management backed by the Acting Regional Director Avornyoh, were determined to terminate their services to pave way for students of illegal self established broadcasting academy in the premises of the GBC station at Ho.

At an emergency general meeting organized and chaired by the Acting on March 17, he alleged that the action was in line with the GBC restructuring exercises which he said was formally due in September this year. According to him , the Ag Director General has ordered him to carry a quit order and immediately ensure that the names of the Guest Artists are removed from VSR payment voucher to avoid future legal action.

Mr. Avornyoh futher alleged that all regions have dispensed off with the services of their guests artistes and Volta region was the only region yet to comply, hence their action to avoid being penalized by the Director General.

At the meeting, Mr. Ralph Avomyo cautioned GBC staff to double up their efforts by ensuring that, they work four hours daily to- cover-up programmes that were handled by the Guests Artistes.

To buttress all these allegations, the source disclosed to The Sun that the Ag. Regional Director said he was also directed to pack all official vehicles and engage the services of a taxi to pick presenters and other staff, to and from their homes for work.. These administrator of the station Francis Manu Gyan, who, workers described as Mr. Avornyo's Aide de Camp, supported the assertion and explained that, it will help save more money on the cars in terms of tear and wear repairs, thereby sustaining the cars especially the "Sunny Package" new cars offered to the region.

At the meeting, many of the staff including the Guests-Artistes were flabbergasted and taken aback, after hearing several unbelievable directives from the D-G. They blamed him for not visiting them after he assumed power as the Ag. Boss of GBC.

Having heard all that many of them perceived to be untrue, they were tight-lipped and did not challenge the action.

The Broadcasting school Ag. Director together with some few staff established a private broadcasting school without relevant documents and approval to support its operation. However various Masters Degrees and certificates were bestowed on the teachers of the academy, which is operating in the premises of the Volta Star Radio as well as using studio equipment for practical training and other government facilities of the station.

The school which is alleged to be running a two-month course cost students ?1.5 million and ?2million as school fees, and ? 00,000 as registration fees. Another area The Sun will like to delve into will be the commercialization of news coverage.

Following such a move recently, Mr.Avomyo directed the Head of News, Mr. Kobla Ali Kukubor and instructed him to re-locate three other hard working journalists to an undefined schedule at the commercial department.

Having realized that such an action was insignificant, the Guests Artistes JournaJists were made to move to another office at the administration, to form what is now known as Volta Star News Desk bringing GBC/VSR News room to two, operating under the same administration leading to secret changing of locks. Another area of concern was how 'some money was withdrawn in the name of a Guest-Artistes without the person's knowledge.

In an attempt to ascertain facts regarding such a thing, led to a scuffle between the person and the I administrator, Mr. Francis Manu- Gyan who swore to chop off the head of this poor guests-artistes.