Before he was made the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority in 2017, the basic salary for the DG was GH¢8,000 a month. Then Professor Alexander Nii Oto Dodoo, the man with many years’ experience having served on numerous boards and committees, allegedly tweaked his to GH¢ 45,000 and then GH¢ 48,000 a month- an increment which staff suspect was done without approval from the Ministry of Finance.
Whilst enjoying the niceties that came with the office, staff of the Standards Authority say “All our laboratories lack basic equipment and this is affecting productivity. The finances of the Authority are so bad that statutory deductions like income tax, credit union and SSNIT payments are deducted but not paid as required.”
In the most unkind cut of all, Professor Alexander Nii Oto Dodoo has appointed Peter Agbeko, who only has a diploma certificate and made him the Head of Public Relations Department, whereas Under the Collective Bargain Agreement of GSA, one can only become a Head of Department if one possesses a Master’s degree.
Worst still, Peter Agbeko has been put on the second highest grade at the Authority, which is reflecting in his salary and causing a financial loss to GSA.
Try as the head of Human Resource Department, Miss Boatemaa, has, including sending reminders (published) Agbeko has not been able to furnish the authority with his supposed Masters Degree Certificate.
Management of the Authority, NewsDay gathered is centred only on one person that is the Director General such that not even his deputies are included in management decisions.
For instance, Professor Alex Dodoo allegedly, single-handedly contracted a woman from Legon who had gone on voluntary retirement, Angela Awere-Kyere, as Director of Procurement and same as Director of Administration. “In fact, Angela Awere-Kyere’s salary fixed by Prof. Dodoo is far higher than the deputies to Prof.” a senior staff member confided in this paper.
Another woman, Afua Akyiaa, has been employed in the same way by Prof. Dodoo, as Head of IT but has now been made a Director and all, we gathered, were done without regard to the organogram, conditions of service and rules and regulations.
These malfeasance, NewsDay learnt were investigated by the National Investigation Bureau (NIB), formerly known as Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), which recommended to the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo, a fortnight ago, that Professor Dodoo be relieved off his post.
Amidst all his troubles, Prof. Dodoo is allegedly using various social media platforms to shore up his image. Some of the GSA staff who are calling for his sack over his poor handling of the authority say any further delay in sacking the DG could set the place on fire “because members of staff are very angry but for the fact that some of us are preventing them from carrying out any disturbance.”
“Prof. Dodoo talks as if everything is good over here and there are times that he even boasts that no one can remove him, not even the president. Yet he goes round asking people to go and plead for him to stay on for sometime,” a senior staff member told NewsDay.
Meanwhile, as at the time of going to press yesterday, Prof Dodoo told this paper he was in a meeting at the Jubilee House and promised to call us back to respond to the story. NewsDay and Prof. Dodoo had earlier exchanged correspondences after he proposed NewsDay’s Editor met him face-to-face to respond to the allegations, which she obliged.
Keep reading NewsDay as we reach out to Prof Dodoo to respond to the allegation. Also, read the startling story of how Prof. Dodoo nearly ceded responsibilities meant for Standards Authority to the National Petroleum Authority.
