GCMC board suspends CEO Frances Essiam

The Board of Directors of the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company has suspended the Chief Executive Officer, Ms Frances Essiam.

The Board at an Emergency Meeting on Tuesday unanimously resolved to suspend Ms Essiam following some disagreements.

In a statement, the Board said all contracts entered into by Ms Essiam have been put on hold pending investigations.

In the interim, the Board has appointed the Technical Director of the company, Mr. Ezekiel Mensah to act in the absence of Ms Essiam.

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.”

• Related: GCMC 'shuts down' over board-management disagreements

The company was Tuesday 'shut down' as a result of the disagreement between the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer, Ms Essiam.

The company, Graphic Online gathered was closed on the orders of the CEO.

The move, according to sources was to prevent the Board of Directors from getting access to the premises of the company, located on the Spintex Road in Accra to hold an emergency meeting on some matters, some of which were to do with a query to the CEO, Ms Frances Essiam.

Ms Essiam discounted the reason for the closure and explained the company had run out of LPG and also had no domestic cylinders for sale, rather the bottles they had in stock were for distinct clients and not for sale to everybody.

The Board had planned an Emergency meeting for Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 2pm at the Boardroom of the company.

The Agenda for the meeting Graphic Online gathered, was to discuss the Board’s query to the CEO and her subsequent response, a petition from the dismissed finance and accounts manager to the board and the CEO's concerns on the use of GCMC letterhead by board chair and other matters.

On why the company was closed on Tuesday, some workers told Graphic Online they received information from "above" not to report for work on Tuesday.

Graphic Online’s reporter, Della Russel Ocloo who visited the company’s premises reported that it was only security personnel who were at post.

According to our reporter, some board members who arrived for the 2pm emergency meeting were left stranded at the entrance of the company since the gates were locked.

She said some clients who visited the company also left disappointed.

The board had to resort to the use of an alternative venue - the Robin Hood Hotel - for the meeting and resolved to the suspend the CEO.

Below is a copy of the initial query letter to Ms Essiam