According to him, some of these letters were given to employees as late as December 9, 2024.

However, speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen, Obour explained that the delay should not be misconstrued as a last-minute recruitment scheme.

He stated that the recruitment process began in August 2024, with the majority completed in November, but some appointment letters were delayed.

On Tuesday, Sam George announced that he had authorized the termination of about 100 appointments as part of efforts to rationalize and streamline operations within the ministry and its affiliated agencies.

Mr. George revealed that nearly 600 staff recruited into the ministry and its agencies after the 2024 elections were under review, with more dismissals expected.

However, Obour has refuted the figures, insisting that the total number of people recruited in 2024 was only 70, questioning the minister’s claims.

“The minister must be patient and thoroughly go through documents at his disposal because you cannot just dismiss people based on the appointment letters. Some were issued as late as December 9, but that does not mean we rushed to employ people after the election,” he stated.

Listen to Obour in the audio above:

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The loss was due to escalating operational cost which soared by 16 per cent, as well as general selling and administrative expenses that also increased by 20 per cent in 2020.

This came to light when the Managing Director of the company (MD), Bice Osei Kuffour, and other management staff appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra yesterday to respond to some infractions flagged by the Auditor-General in its 2021 report on the company.

Also in attendance were the Deputy MD, Kwaku Tabi Amponsah; General Manager, Finance and Accounting Control, Iddrisu Chinchanku; General Manager, Finance Management Accounting, Eric Awuah, and the General Manager of Audit and Compliance, Isaac Marmah.
 

COVID-19 effect

Mr Kuffour attributed the situation to the emergence of COVID-19 in the country in 2020.

“Our work as postal administrators involves movement of items outside and into the country.

“So when the country was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, borders were shut and items that you could have easily moved with vehicles had to be moved with airlines and this created a lot of operational cost and revenue losses,” he said.

Mr Kuffour, however, said that their operations had since improved significantly, especially with the stability of the Cedi.

“Now, the situation is much, much better because we do not have the challenges we faced in 2020.

“If we do come here again (PAC) for 2021/2022, I am sure your committee will commend management of Ghana Post,” he added.

Unused lands

On the question of unused lands of the company totalling 110 acres scattered across the country, the MD said that the company was taking the necessary steps to get title for  the lands.

“In fact, we have already secured title for 48 out of the 110 acres,” adding that the company had entered into an arrangement with a third party to register its lands at Lashibi, Airport and Bubuashie, all in Accra.

He, however, said that their land at Dichemso in Kumasi had been encroached upon, and that the company was in the process of registering and developing the property in partnership with a potential investor.

Scheme of service

The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Samuel Atta Mills, cited the Auditor-General’s report that flagged the absence of a scheme of service within the company.

He wondered why the board of the company had not helped to develop such a scheme to govern employees’ output.

“We further noted that the lack of scheme of service has resulted in a situation where some employees have been on a particular rank for more than 10 years, while others have been promoted more than three times within a period, what is going on? Mr Atta Mills enquired.

In response, the MD agreed that the company did not have such a scheme, but said that the board commissioned a firm in 2019 to help develop a scheme for the company.

“As we speak now the final draft has been submitted to us and before the end of quarter three this year, we should have the scheme of service,” he assured.

Other institutions that also appeared before the committee were the Accra Digital Centre and the Data Protection Commission.   

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The campaign is aimed at helping educate road users, especially drivers to tread cautiously.

The National Road Safety Ambassador, who was recently appointed Managing Director of the Ghana Post, intimated that his long-standing passion and desire to see Ghana’s roads safe has driven him to embark on this National Campaign.

This, Mr Kuffour noted, is to ensure that travellers during the Yuletide and beyond travel safely to their destinations.

He stressed, “it is very possible for us to experience accident-free Christmas and New Year if we will all stay committed to the tenets of road safety and watch out for each other.”

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“If we don’t over speed, do wrong overtaking, don’t drink alcohol and drive, if we will pay attention to road signs and most importantly ensure that human lives are protected at all times, we can achieve an accident-free Yuletide,” he added.

The ‘Okoaba’ hitmaker said his commitment to see Ghana’s roads safe will always be a critical part of him no matter how high he rises in society, because, the human resource base of every nation remains its most priced asset.

He thanked the National Road Safety Authority and the Ghana Police Service for their collaboration.

He also thanked corporate organisations like Goil, Ghana Gas, SIC Insurance, National Lotteries Authority and KGL Group, for their support in this endeavour.

Obour’s appointment is in an acting capacity as it is subject to regularisation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Companies Act and regulation.

This comes on the back of his defeat in the 2020 parliamentary election in the Asante Akyem South Constituency.

Obour lost to the sitting Member of Parliament, Kwaku Asante Boateng, in a close contest which saw him poll almost 300 votes out of the 700 delegates who were duly registered to cast their votes.

At his new job, he is expected to see the expansion of the company’s postal network to viable areas and improve service to non-viable areas.

Among other things, Mr Kuffour is also expected to improve mail security, the existing ancillary services such as financial services to augment the traditional ones.

Together with the management boards, they will also promote all postal products to create awareness of their existence.

As the nation’s designated operator, with a network of 360 post offices across the country, Ghana Post provides courier, financial services (remittances, post assurance and agency services) and traditional mail services.

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It has over the past four years been on a turnaround path leading to significant growth through innovation and the introduction of new services and expansion of its fleet.

Digitisation of the Post Offices has been at the centre of the turnaround strategy allowing the Company flexibility to easily add on new services, while the introduction of digital addresses by the government has come to enhance the delivery of mails and parcels.

An online Platform, Ghpostpay was launched in 2019 to allow customers to access services remotely.