TOR Grinds To A Halt

Disturbing signals reaching DAILY GUIDE from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) indicate that the nation’s only refinery could be heading for a total collapse if some urgent and pragmatic decisions are not taken.

DAILY GUIDE is reliably informed that following the imminent collapse, workers are poised to express their displeasure with government’s poor handling of the place over the years.

Speaking to the paper on the worsening state of affairs at TOR, especially in the past two years, sources close to both the Senior and Junior Staff Workers’ unions hinted of an impending demonstration on Saturday, May Day, to awaken government from its apparent deep slumber.

The sources, which represent the larger mouthpiece of the over 1,000 workers, say the company has since April 7, 2010 lost $300,000 a day, because the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) plant has been shut down, and government seems to show little interest in the TOR plight.

Describing the current Board of Directors, comprising mostly of chiefs, as a ‘Chieftaincy Board’ that is inefficient and must be scrapped, the aggrieved workers are not only kicking against arrangements to let the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) import crude oil for the refinery, but also insist they stand by their earlier calls on President John Evans Atta Mills to remove both the Energy Minister, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, and Dr. Kwame Ampofo, Managing Director of TOR.

They say packing the eight-member board with as many as three traditional rulers, who know little or nothing about the relevant oil business, is helping neither TOR nor government, stressing that the MD lacks managerial and leadership skills.

The current board of TOR consists of Eric Okai (Chairman), Kazanwura Dan Yahaya, Alhaji Awud Ariff Abubakar, NDC Deputy National Organiser, E. M. Commodore-Mensah, Alfred Kwame Agbesi, MP for Ashaiman, Nana Mprah Besemuna III, Krachiwura, Mrs. Elizabeth Adjei Mensah and Osabarima Kwesi Atta, Oguaa Omanhene.

“There are too many first things happening to TOR under this administration that suggests that the refinery’s balance sheet can never get better.

We may lose TOR if we are not careful, especially with this chieftaincy board in place. We are not doing politics, and it is sad that politicians misconstrue our stance on this matter.

Everything seems to be going down the drain, and we think it is our duty to save the only Nkrumah legacy”.

The sources lamented that since July 2009, management has failed to pay monies deducted from workers’ salaries to the appropriate quarters.

This, the sources say, includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Credit Union (CU) and Provident Fund.

“For the first time, company cars are being seized at workshops for indebtedness while imported machines at the Tema Port are being confiscated for non-clearance.

This is pitiable, and if we don’t rise up as a nation, TOR too will collapse like Ghana Railways Corporation and VALCO,” the source said.

On the impasse with government over GNPC importing oil for TOR, the workers’ mouthpiece said it is one woeful arrangement by government to milk the company and asked Ato Ahwoi, GNPC board chairman and Tsatsu Tsikata to come clean on the subject.

They said while TOR would make a minimum of $55 per tonne of crude it refined, GNPC is dictating that it would pay only $21 for the same job.

“We cannot do GNPC’s work, neither can they do ours; so they should stick to their main core business of searching for oil. The World Bank, in the late 90s, cautioned GNPC against meddling into oil importation, and now they are trying to stray back,” they said, arguing that the best way out is for TOR to get its own crude.

It would be recalled that about a fortnight ago, angry workers of the refinery went wild and demanded the immediate removal of the Energy Minister and his deputy, Kofi Buah.

They as well called for the heads of a number of President Mills’ henchmen including Ato Ahwoi and Tsatsu Tsikata, accusing them of being behind TOR’s problems.

The chanting workers, who wore red armbands to signify their seriousness, accused the minister and other energy advisors of the President, of working against the interest of the facility and Ghanaians as a whole.

According to them, crude oil obtained by GNPC through a government-to-government arrangement from neighbouring Nigeria, is being diverted.

A spokesperson for the workers remarked that by their actions, these henchmen are not helping TOR because supplies from GNPC have been inconsistent and highly erratic.

As at press time yesterday, rumours were flying around over the disappearance of two vessels of GNPC oil from Nigeria, between January and April this year.