Organised Labour appeals against privatization of ECG

Organised Labour has appealed against the intended privatisation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) by the Government.

Mr Kofi Asamoah, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), made the appeal during the 2016 May Day Celebration in Wa.

He mentioned the high cost of electricity as one of the leading causes of the rising cost of living in Ghana currently, adding that one could imagine what the situation would be when ECG was handed to the profit-motivated private sector.

“Even under state control with some element of social pricing, electricity cost was now above the pockets of many households,” he said.

Mr Asamoah said they were aware of the many challenges that confronted ECG, and that some of those challenges were historical such as the perennial low investment in the sector.

He said some were managerial issues which required political will to resolve including hiring the best human resources for ECG, adding that the solution, therefore, did not lie in privatisation.

The TUC General Secretary said the experience of the private operator in Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) should be a lesson for the Government and the country as a whole.

“After five years of AVRL management of GWCL there was no significant change in the company’s operation apart from the huge expenses incurred on the few expatriate staff of AVRL,” he said.

“In fact the water situation in the country actually deteriorated during the period of AVRL,” he said.

President John Dramani Mahama, however, said government had no intension of privatising ECG and gave the assurance that the company would remain a solely owned state enterprise.

He said government’s agreement under the Millennium Challenge Compact was to leverage private sector participation at the client level to assist in resolving complaints and revenue collection.

President Mahama assured the TUC that there would be no worker retrenchment as a result of the reform.

Source: GNA