PRIVATIZATION OF ECG: Workers Appeal to President

Mr Bondzi Quaye

By Duke Tagoe

Mr Bondzi Quaye, General Secretary of the Public Utility Workers Union, has called on President John Dramani Mahama, to prove his loyalty to the Ghanaian people and workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana.

According to him, the President of Ghana has failed to display his allegiance to the workers of the ECG in their protest against the 25-year concessionary agreement the government seeks to sign with a private investor.

“It is unfortunate that in a matter of who must manage a strategic national asset like the ECG, the Mahama administration has elected to stand with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) of the United States of America against the citizens of Ghana,” he said.

Workers of the ECG embarked on a 3-hour strike for three days last week to press home their demand for the abrogation of the contract seeking to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana. The workers say the 25-year concessionary agreement will lead to massive job losses and astronomical increases in the price of electricity.

Rural electrification as a social intervention, the workers said, will suffer following the surrender of the company to foreign businessmen. They also revealed that the grant money from the United States of America to enable the privatization of the company is only targeted to improve ECG networks in Accra, Tema and Kasoa.

PUWU says that creating a private monopoly in the energy distribution sector has the potential of imposing hardship and chaos on citizens and the small scale industry since the regulatory institutions are incapacitated to properly regulate the foreign companies.

According to the Union, the ECG is a collective asset established by the sweat and toil of the Ghanaian people and cannot be treated as a private ownership by politicians whose loyalty to the constitution and the people of Ghana remain doubtful.

“We can assure the President that when he pays attention to the issues we are raising and does for us what his administration is seeking to do for the private businessmen he is hoping to court into this country, the ECG will grow and prove that public enterprises are capable of turning in dividends” the Secretary General said.

Mr Bondzie, has called on the workers of the ECG to remain resolute and defend the many years of labour and sacrifices that contributed immensely to the establishment of the ECG. He added that while political parties will come and go, the Unions will always remain.

Last week, Seth Tekper, Minister of Finance, assured the management of the ECG that the Government had put in place a 5-year plan to pay the millions of Ghana cedis it owed to the company.

Editorial

WORRIES

Professor Esi Awuah, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources has legitimate worries.

She has pointed to the dangers inherent in the lack of co-ordination amongst agencies involved in disaster management in the country.

The Insight fully agrees with her given the fact that disaster management has many facets including traffic control, health delivery, water supply, public education and emergency services.

It is our hope that some people with the right authority will listen to the sane voice of Professor Esi Awuah and ensure that the right thing is done.

Please don’t wait for disaster to strike before we start running helter skelter.