Norwegians At Ghana Telecom Fired

... as govt decides not to renew contract with TELENOR
... Interim Board Takes Over Management

CITI FM can confirm that the Government of Ghana has decided not to renew their agreement with Norwegian Company TELENOR, thus paving the way for a Management reshuffle at the offices of the Telecommunications giant.

The agreement with TELENOR, the management company responsible for the employment of 22 expatriate workers at Ghana Telecom, is scheduled to end on the 31st of December but in a quick move, government has decided not to renew the contract with the Norwegian company.

Government has subsequently announced an interim Management Board, which is set to replace the Norwegians, temporarily.

As a result, Deputy Chief Executive of the company, Mr. Oduro Nyane will now act as the Chief Executive in place of Mr. Fraude Haugen with Mr. Joe Owusu Ansah as the Financial Officer.

Deputy Chief Technical Officer, Mr. David Mettle is to act as the Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Philip Sowah as the Chief Officer in charge of ONE TOUCH whilst Miss Fitnat Adjetey is the Company Solicitor. Ekow Mills is the Company secretary.

The Interim Management team is expected to work with government to ensure that the much talked about privatization of the Telecommunications Company is effectively executed.

A trip to the offices of Ghana Telecom revealed that all the Management is currently in a crisis meeting due to the development. Staff members are however tight lipped on the issue.

Ghana Telecom became fully state-owned late January after government purchased 30% shares of Telecom Malaysia, bringing its total shares to 100%.

It will be recalled that there were reports in a section of the media that GT forks out over 2,547 billion cedis monthly to its long list of 22 Telenor-imported expats, led by its Norwegian Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Fraude Haugen, as salaries.

The report stated that the largely state-owned telecom coy sees to the leisure and comfort of the 22 expatriates with an additional 518.3 million cedis, raising the total emoluments doled out to the Norwegian men and women to 3.66 billion cedis monthly, which sources say is more than half of the total remuneration of the several hundreds of Ghanaian staff in the company