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Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has dissolved the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Songor Salt Project following workers� accusation of incompetence against members of the committee. When the acting Chairman of the IMC sought the Minister�s permission to stay in office for week to enable him to wrap up his work and hand over to the incoming caretaker management team, the minister told him, �You are dissolved-today and now!� Alhaji Dauda then appointed a three-member caretaker management team to oversee the operations of the company till the end of the year. Members of the team are Col (rtd) Samuel Doste, Mr. Amos Buertey and Madam Thelma Ohene Asiamah. The minister, who was on a familiarization tour of the factory said the government will use the short tenure of the caretaker team to reflect on how best to run the company to benefit the people and the state. He said the government intended to reposition the company to take advantage of the emerging petro-chemical industry to crest jobs for the indigenes and more wealth for the country. Alhaji Dauda commended the workers for their sacrifices by enduring many months without salaries. Briefing the Minister earlier, the Secretary of the Local Union, Emmanuel Teye, said the IMC �remained in office for the past eight years by creating the impression that the Chiefs and people of Ada were ready to cooperate with the investor,� and that �Adas were satisfied with the interim management committee.� He said the company, which has the potential of producing 120,000 tonnes of salt annually, produced only 66,000 tonnes in 2002 and the figure dropped to 15,000 tonnes last year. Mr Teye said in the midst of a crisis in 2008, the IMC decided to close down the factory with a debt of GH�500,000 which constituted customers� deposits, �workers went on fast and did whatever they could to defray the debt to keep the company going.� He said �they did this at the cost of the salaries, entitlements and other benefits and we can boldly say today that by the grace of God over 90 per cent of this huge debt has been settled.� Mr. Teye asked the minister to get a permanent management team or an investor to manage the company to realize its full potential. He said the company also needed to be given a legal status �because since the company was taken over from the Vacuum Salt Products Limited by government in 1992, it has not been registered as a business entity and therefore cannot deal with third parties such as banks for financial assistance.� Mr. Teye asked the government to also investigate an incident in which records on salt worth GH�150,000 could not be traced from the company�s shipment books. He called on the minister to make public, the recommendations of a committee headed by Justice Azu Crabbe into the Songor Salt Project IMC which had been submitted to the ministry since last year. Mr. Ayite Boafo, giving account of their stewardship over the last eight years said the company had faced difficulties and therefore could not acquire the necessary plant and machinery for smooth operations. Another factor which weighted against their other operations, he said, was the continued interference by the indigenes �which has led to their forcible takeover of the Agbakpe reservoir and other areas of our concession thus limiting our operational capacity.� Mr. Boafo said the absence of a board affected decision of the company since any major decisions had to be referred to the sector ministry for approval which ultimately delayed policy implementation. He said production of salt was normal until a contamination of the production pans were detected in the later part of 2007. �The contamination is generally in the form of a slimy green jelly substance (algae) that covers the surface of the water in the pans and reservoir, thereby making it impossible for crystallization of the salt,� he said. Mr. Boafo said with the help of the Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the situation has been normalized and production was just lifting up. The IMC was put in place in 2001 by the previous government the mandate of preparing the grounds for an investor to take over the company �within a matter of six months.�