Staff of GCMCL protest Frances Essiams’ suspension

Some staff of the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited (GCMCL ) are demonstrating against the suspension of their embattled Chief Executive Officer (CEO) by the board of the company.

“We are protesting because of the information we are picking that our CEO, Frances Essiam has been suspended. We received a letter from state enterprising commission saying contrary. According to the letter, the chairman of state enterprising commission is investigating what the board chairman has said.”

“We don’t know the state of the company now, we need explanations because we have seen a lot of improvement and development since Madam Essiam was appointed, so why are they suspending her after all the good she has done for the company,” one of the angry staff told Accra-based Starr FM.

On Tuesday, May 8, 2019, Mrs Essiam ordered for the staff of the GCMCL to go home and for the premises to be locked up. This was to prevent the board of the company from holding a meeting which was to discuss Mrs Essiam’s fate.

The board has been unhappy with some decisions taken by Mrs Essiam since she assumed office last year.

However, the board still held the meeting at the Robin Hood Hotel on the Spintex road. The board ordered the company’s Chief Executive Frances Essiam to step aside with immediate effect.

The board decided that all contracts entered into by Madam Essiam have also been put on hold pending investigations.

Meanwhile, the board has appointed the Technical Director of the company, Ezekiel Mensah to act as the interim CEO.

Mr. Mensah, however, does not have the power to take “major administrative decisions such as promotion, termination of appointment, dismissal or engagement of new employees without the consent of the Board.”

The Board has also reversed the “purported termination of appointment of the Finance and Accounts Manager until the committee of Inquiry recommends otherwise.”