[ 2016-11-08 ]

We’ve not amended our position on ECG PSP- ECG workers
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 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).

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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