Workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have told Citi Business News they have not amended their position against the Private Sector Participation(PSP) of the ECG.
The workers under the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are scheduled to meet the management of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and the Chief of Staff later this week at the Flagstaff House to address grievances of the ECG workers.
This follows a warning from the TUC that called on government to halt a planned Bidders Conference announced by MiDA which was subsequently suspended by the authority.
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America, acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency to allow MiDA inject about 498 million dollars into the ECG with recommendations.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the National Divisional Chairman of the Junior Staff Union of ECG, Benedict Kanose insisted that the position of the workers has not changed and will be strongly pushed when the meeting with the Chief of Staff comes off.
According to him, the ECG workers have always explained their position to MiDA to reconsider and change some of the recommendations in the compact.
He pointed out for instance that the requirement ceding the company to MiDA for about 25 years is unacceptable.
“The Managing Director must be given a contract for at least five years so that in case they don’t perform they can be fired. But the MiDA contract gives about 25 years. We are against that,” he said.
Stressing the need for MiDA to change some of its recommendations in the compact, Mr. Kanose stated that the cardinal principle is to prevent ECG from going into a private hand.
“At the last TUC congress that we had all our positions were tabled and the TUC has always taken it up in the public. What is our position?. We think that this company[ECG] should not go into private hands, we can handle it,” he said.
“The other one is that we are talking about floating of shares and then based on that we can raise some money. We have made all our points known and we have tabled it before the Chief of Staff,” he added.
MiDA’s argument for ECG PSP
Even though workers of the ECG have expressed fear of losing their jobs, MiDA has insisted that the concession of the ECG under the Power Compact II will not lead to a retrenchment exercise.
According to MiDA, the agreement has a clause buy accutane online nz that bars the concessionaire from undertaking a retrenchment exercise in the next five years.
“Unlike Ghana Telecom it was determined right from the very beginning that ECG was not over staffed. They didn’t have more people than they needed and the bases of that decision was made that there shall be no retrenchment,” the Chief Executive of MiDA, Ingineer Owura Safo stated.
Mr. Safo explained that workers of ECG will be protected for five years as long as they observe the work ethics and reforms that will be introduced to make the company efficient.
Compact II enters into force
The Ghana Power Compact, also referred to as Compact II, entered into force despite a law suit against the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) over the concession of the ECG.
A press statement released recently by MiDA and copied to Citi Business News explained that by the action, the treaty which was signed on August 5, 2014 between the Republic of Ghana and the United States of America, represented by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has become effective and Ghana now has access to the Program’s funds.
The Compact II
Under the Power Compact, six projects will be implemented to address the the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana
The project include ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.
The rest are Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency, and Demand Side Management Project,.
The Government of Ghana signed the Ghana Power Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington on August 5, 2014.
Ghana to get over 498m dollars
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC on August 5, 2014.
The Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant sum of four hundred and ninety eight million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars (US$498,200,000) to improve the performance of Ghana’s power sector, unlock the country’s economic potential, create jobs, and reduce poverty.
About US$350 million of the grant is being invested in ECG to make the country’s power distributor operationally and financially more efficient.
The Compact is being implemented by the Government of Ghana through the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).
–
By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
