Deals At Ghana Post � Staff Engage In Illegal Business

At a time when efforts are being made to revamp the postal service in order to make it profitable and attractive, some workers of the service are engaged in deals including the selling of postal boxes to the highest bidder. Investigations conducted by The Finder newspaper revealed that those engaged in the act were charging between GH�300 and GH�500 per postal box instead of the approved amount of GH�100 per pox for medium business entities. They were also charging GH�200 instead of the approved GH�50 for postal boxes meant for personal use. The investigations revealed that because there were people willing to acquire the post boxes, the wrongdoers intentionally created artificial shortages in order to cash in on the situation. This they did by creating the impression to applicants that it could take a long period to acquire a post box and because the number of applicants were more than the boxes available, people paid the amounts they asked for. After several investigations at a number of post offices in Accra, The Finder decided to go through the process of acquiring a postal box. The Finder contacted a worker of Ghana Post who promised to deliver a postal box within two or three days. �Prepare for business, you will have to pay GH�300 for the box since you said it was for business,� the worker told The Finder. Asked to reduce the amount being charged, the worker said: �No I cannot, if it is for personal use, then you can pay GH�250 or GH�200�. The Finder after paying the GH�300 as demanded by the worker was issued with a receipt for only GH�100. The Finder enquired if the worker could provide postal boxes to other persons and organizations interested in getting them and the answer was in the affirmative. �Of course, but the person who is to facilitate the process of getting the boxes will require GH�500 for postal boxes meant for business�, the worker told The Finder A man who acquired one of such postal boxes in sharing his experienced told The Finder that he was surprised at the illegal act of a section of the workers of the postal services. Another person said she had to pay GH�250 for a postal box. She said she was told that it would take her many months to get a postal box but she could get one for GH�250 that was no more being used by the owner. When contacted, the Deputy Managing Director, Operations and Development, at Ghana Post, Mr. Kojo Safo said the company was aware that such incidences occurred in high demand areas where the supply of postal boxes were limited. �The activity is very regrettable and anybody found culpable will be dealt with,� he told The Finder. Mr. Safo noted that Ghana Post had recently received about 40,000 postal boxes to address the shortfall in the system.