537 operational Metro Mass Transit buses were parked due to lack of simple spare parts to fix them, costing the public transport company to drop at least Ghc30 million in revenue in just the first quarter of 2015.
According to reliable sources, the company recorded the lowest revenue in the first three months of this year, the worst performance since 2012 when the company went through some challenges.
The company lost an average of Ghc10 million revenue a month because 537 operational buses, out of the 1,012, have been grounded as at April 17, 2015.
In January, MMT made Ghc12.9m as against Ghc13.6m projected revenue.
In February, the company made revenue of Ghc11.31m, lower than the Ghc12.79m budgeted while it generated Ghc12.03m compared to the Ghc14.14m in March.
From all indications, workers fear the performance for April will be worse, endangering the future of the company.
The workers are convinced that MMT will be profitable if all operational buses are on the road.
Even though the acting MD has increased salaries by 20% across board, the company may not be able to pay salaries, let alone run the company.
The 537 operational buses were parked at various MMT depots nationwide due to lack of simple spare parts such as brake pads, filters, brake disc and hob.
According to the workers, even though the Transport Ministry released Ghc700,000, which is the budget MMT requested to purchase essential spare parts to fix 400 broken-down operational buses, only seven had been fixed as at last Friday - one clear month after the money was released.
Each bus makes an average daily account of Ghc800.
When the acting Managing Director (MD) of the company, Brigadier General (retired) Ishmael Ben Quartey, interacted with the technical department on April 7, 2015, they told the MD that the spare parts that the management went to buy from the open market without resorting to them were inferior and, therefore, the Ghc700,000 has gone down the drain.
Information gathered by The Finder indicates that the technical staff told the MD during the interaction that quality and durability were ignored during the purchase of the spare parts because the new technical manager and the MD sidelined the right people.
At the time Brigadier General (retired) Quartey was appointed acting MD in January 2015, 180 MMT buses were parked due to lack of spare parts.
However, two months into his administration, the buses parked increased to 531 as at March 12, 2015.
By the first week of April, the number of buses grounded rose to 544 but seven of them were fixed as at last Friday to move the number to 537.
