Ghana Telecom’s Social responsibilities to nation gone with the wind as Norwegian expenses bite deep into dwindling resource


Telenor Management Partners, the Norwegian managers of Ghana Telecom have put a freeze on all sponsorship pay out by the company.

This is in the wake of the telecommunications company’s precarious financial position occasioned by the huge demand on it to meet the $1.8m per annum pay out to service the Norwegian company’s Management Service Contract and nearly $1.2m doled out to seven Norwegian expatriate employees.

Following the new directive all sponsorship applications are being turned down. The Black Queens, the national women’s soccer team, preparing for the World Cup in United States in September are seriously hampered by the new directive. The Queens normally receive a lot of assistance from Ghana Telecom, which has women football teams – Ghatel Ladies- in almost all regional capitals. Most of the leading players of the Black Queens play for Ghatel Ladies.

An appeal by the University of Ghana Alumni Association towards its Jubilee Hall project was thrown overboard. The Sports Writers Association of Ghana which is hosting its awards ceremony at the State Banquet Hall on August 2, at which the President John Agyekum Kufuor is scheduled to re-launch Ghana sports were also disappointed to learn on Wednesday, that the association’s appeal for sponsorship from Ghana Telecom, had been shot down for the same reason.

“Thanks to Telenor, our social responsibility, as a corporate body to the Republic of Ghana lay in tatters. We have now reached a point in time when servicing the fat wages of foreigners override our social responsibility to the nation that nurtures us,” an official of the company said. Added the official: “The huge demands for servicing the contract as well as wages of the expatriate staff are stretching the resources of the company to its elastic end. It is a shame nobody is talking.”

Mr. Kwaku Awuah Boateng, the Chief Financial Officer of several years standing who was sent home on forced leave to make room for Oskar Seim, the new Norwegian director of Finance, is still on leave. He is expected to be at home till the end of the year.

In march this year, the Norwegian Managing Director Oysein Bjorge said the company would find a position commensurate with his qualification and experience for Boateng to occupy. But as of the time of going to press Wednesday, no such position had been found for the Ghanaian former Financial Director.

Meanwhile the delegation dispatched by the Ghana Government to dialogue with Telekom Malaysia, which had filed a suit at The Hague claiming $350 million dollars have returned home.

The delegation included two ministers. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice Papa Owusu Ankomah headed a crack legal team to The Hague while Communications and Technology Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah headed for Kualar Lumpur to meet Telekom Malaysia.

Pieces of evidence gathered from the two venues indicate that a Preparatory Conference will be held from July 5-19 next year to appoint a three-member panel to sit as the panel members for the case filed under the United Nations Commission Investment and Trade law (UNCITL) before the International Arbitration Tribunal at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Under the agreement Ghana and Telekom Malaysia will jointly nominate the panel chairman. Ghana will appoint one of the two other members while Telekom Malaysia appoint the other.