Re-assignment of ECG Boss: We must be disciplined - ECG Workers

It is becoming clear that agitations by some employees of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for the reinstatement of their Managing Director (MD), Reverend William Hutton-Mensah, who has currently been reassigned to the Ministry of Energy, does not have the support of the entire workforce.

Some workers of the company (ECG) who spoke to The Informer on condition of anonymity, said “whiles our colleagues have the right to air their grievances; they have gone too far to threaten government with shut-down of some sub-stations of the company, and by extension, visiting total darkness on Ghanaians.”

According to them, those agitating workers must be disciplined enough not to question the decision of the President to reassign their MD, as if he will be the first and last person to head the company.

One of the workroom workers told this paper; “if the President does not have the power to remove MDs of state institutions like ECG, would Reverend Hutton Mensah have come to that position?”

According to him, the various demonstrations staged in support of the former MD is unfortunate and totally uncalled for, in that, the ECG at every point in time has very competent persons to steer its affairs and not what those leading the agitations want Ghanaians to believe.

“Reverend Hutton was picked from among the crop of competent and highly qualified officers to head the company, and if today, he has been reassigned and replaced by one of those capable hands, what crime has the President committed?” This worker queries.

He continued; “Per the various agitations, does it mean that Reverend Hutton’s services are indispensable and the only person appointed to head the company since its establishment? MDs will come and go, but the company remains and so nobody should create the impression as though the company only exist and function for as long as they head it”.

According to him, the demonstration is a complete act of lawlessness and those who led it must not go unpunished to serve as a deterrent to others.

Equally not in support with the agitations, another workroom personnel who also spoke to this paper pleading anonymity said; “it is instructive that the misdirected demonstrations from workers started in two (2) regions-thus Ashanti and Eastern, which happen to be the strongholds of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), which on the average, contribute about 40 per cent of votes earned by the NPP in the last three (3) general elections, and wonders whether the agitations were not politically motivated to make the Mahama Government look unpopular”.

“I think as citizens, inasmuch as we have enjoyed some rights under the Constitution, those rights must be exercised responsibly in reference to that of Article 1 of the 1992 Constitution,” the source pointed out.

He stated further that, the power to appoint and disappoint heads of institutions, rests solely on the President as enshrined in Article 58 (1) of the Constitution.

According to him, the 1992 Constitution, has bestowed on the President the Executive power which is exercised in the supreme interest of Ghanaians, and the ECG as an institution of state and its officials are not immune from being affected by any good decision of the President with the case (re-assignment of Hutton) under reference.

President John Dramani Mahama, in a statement signed on his behalf by the Chief of Staff, Mr. Prosper Bani, last Friday replaced Mr. William Hutton-Mensah with one Mr. Robert Dwamena, to assume temporary responsibilities as MD in an acting capacity.

According to the statement, Reverend Hutton-Mensah, currently on leave, is to report to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum for re-assignment; and not dismissed.

This simple grammar of “re-assignment” is what has generated the entire furore, leading to the senseless and lawless demonstrations recorded in some regions, notably the Ashanti and the Eastern regions, which incidentally were the political strongholds of the NPP.