20110311
reuters

ACCRA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The state-run Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) announced here on Friday that it had begun a process to identify and dismiss 194 illegal members of staff.

Director of GBC Administration Hamidu Chodi told a staff meeting attended by Minister of Information John Akologo Tia that a committee had been set up to investigate the case and would come out with appropriate sanctions against all culprits.

The illegal staff members were allegedly employed through cronyism, nepotism and political influence.

After the meeting, Akologo Tia told Xinhua through telephone that he was surprised that almost 200 members of staff were illegally employed at such a sensitive state institution.

He explained that the staff members were not directly on government's pay roll but were paid from the GBC's internally generated fund such as adverts.

"The organization usually takes overdrafts from the banks to pay these people and this eventually makes the corporation run into losses. Government then raises money to offset these bills," he disclosed, fuming that such activities were draining state coffers.

The GBC, Ghana's only public broadcaster established in 1935 by the British colonial government, had in recent times been battling with financial losses and was sometimes unable to pay its bills as a result of alleged financial malfeasance.

GBC's current indebtedness to other corporate bodies and banks was estimated at 1.2 million cedis (827,600 U. S. dollars).

GBC Director General William Ampem-Darko was last year sent on leave by a directive from the National Media Commission (NMC) to make way for investigations into some alleged financial improprieties.