The Staff Union of the Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance workers (UNICOF) denies ever passing a resolution of bribery and corruption allegations against the UNICOF General Secretary, Mr. John Esiape.
The Staff makes the denial in a rejoinder signed by the Local Chairman, Samuel K. D. Boafo and the Secretary, Ida Ofeibea Afari.
In that direction, the Staff of the union is challenging peacefmonline.com and other media houses that published the story to give proof of the resolution claimed to have come from the union.
In an interview, the Mr. Boafo emphasises that the union has never discussed any issue of bribery and corruption matters at either individual or group level regarding Mr. Esiape at any of their several meetings held neither in this year nor in previous years.
He states that the 23 staff strength at the headquarters secretariat in Accra is very much displeased to see media houses publish untruths about the staff and the General Secretary.
In view of that, the Staff is therefore dissociating itself from the publication as it has nothing to do with them.
Peacefmonline.com, which is one of the media houses that published the story, posted on its website the news item headed “UNICOF Staff gang up against Esiape – over alleged bribery and corruption.”
The UNICOF Staff meets in the first week of each month and subsequently held its latest meeting in the first week of June.
A source from the administrative wing of the union is categorical that at their last meeting this month, the subject of bribery and corruption was not discussed at all, either against Mr. Esiape or any other person.
The source says Mr. Esiape’s salary has not been increased since he came to post in 2013 and that it is the same as that of the previous general secretary. Moreover, it is only the National Executive Council (NEC) that deals with salaries of national officers.
The administrative source stresses that the staff is fully in support of the actions by the Mr. Esiape and UNICOF against the retrogressions at adb.
The source says it is the freedom of a worker to work anywhere he wants and people move on so people leaving UNICOF employment to work elsewhere is their own prerogative.
The Staff, the source declares, is therefore amazed that such a totally false story could have been published without the media houses verifying its authenticity. END