Tension Brews At BCM Ghana Ltd

…Over Payment of Employees Pension Funds

A simmering tension is brewing at BCM Ghana Limited, a global civil earthworks and surface mining contractor based in Ghana, over issues of alleged non-payment of workers Provident Fund.

According to The Anchor’s information, workers of the company, have been on tenterhooks for some time now, due to alleged uncertainty surrounding the financial status of the firm and failure to pay workers’ Provident Fund.

The issue, this paper gathered, has forced the workers to drag management of the company to Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) sometime last year for investigation, leading to the anti-graft body, freezing bank accounts of BCM Ghana Limited.

EOCO, in a letter sighted by The Anchor dated February 28, 2023, and signed by Nana Antwi, Deputy Executive Director/Operations on behalf of the Executive Director, confirmed the petition filed by the workers and its investigations.

“We would like to place on record that a petition was brought to this Office by some workers of the BCM who are also members of the Ghana Mines Workers Union (GMWU) of TUC alleging that there has been a misappropriation of their provident funds. Investigations were accordingly launched in line with the mandate of this Office,” excerpts from the letter reads.

Order to Freeze Accounts

This paper, also sighted another letter from EOCO, addressed to the banks, ordering them to freeze BCM’s accounts, until payment of employee pension funds are paid in full.

One of such letters, addressed to Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited said, “PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that pursuant to authority conferred on the Executive Director by Section 33 of the Economic and Organized Crime Act, 2010 (Act 804), the Executive Director of the Economic and Organized Crime Office has directed the freezing of account numbers 0100105006900 (CEDI) and 8700205006900 (USD) belonging to BCM Ghana Limited pending the determination of the case in Court. This order takes immediate effect”.

According to EOCO, until the order is revoked or lapses, the bank should not allow any transaction on the accounts, without the written authority of its Executive Director.

“Until this order is revoked or lapses your bank shall not allow any transaction on the account without the written authority of the   Executive Director, except the following;

• Deposits/credits into the accounts, including but not limited to cash, transfers from other sources,
• Interest (If any),
• Deposits/credits resulting from the encashment of financial instruments such as treasury bills, bonds, shares, bills of exchange, etc and
• Additions to financial assets from other sources” extracts from the order letter read.

Insiders told The Anchor that, not long ago, a contract the company had won from mining firm, Goldfields worth about USD $50million dollars, had allegedly been cancelled, a situation that further worsened the anxiety of the workers.

It is ,however, unclear, if management of the company led by Mr. Paul Edward List, an Australian national as CEO, has made full payment of the workers provident fund for the freezing order to be revoked.

But The Anchor, is keenly following developments in the coming days and will publish details.

Embezzlement Of Funds

It would be recalled, BCM in a statement issued in 2022 in Accra, announced plans to undertake audit into the operations of the firm worldwide to uncover issues of gross mismanagement, including possible diversion and embezzlement of funds.

It said when concluded, the audit would help improve on the service delivery of the company and those found culpable, would not be spared.

“Over the last several months, the Group has noted with grave concern the discovery of incidents of gross mismanagement, possible diversion and embezzlement of funds, by senior officers entrusted with financial responsibility within the organization.

“We are in the process of conducting a full-scale audit and review of operations, with a view to establishing the culprits, improving our service delivery and streamlining our activities.

“Where appropriate the Group will institute criminal complaints against the culprits,” the statement said.

More To Come…

Source: http://Anchorghana.com