Labours wants Ghanaians to control oil industry

Accra, Nov. 11, GNA - Trade unionists have appealed to the government to ensure that the country's oil and gas industry comes under the full control for Ghanaians to enable the people to benefit from it. This is contained in a resolution by the National Executive Council of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) at an "Oil for Development" seminar organised by the Trades Unions Congress in collaboration with LO-Norway. The resolution appealed to the government to ensure good management of the oil and gas revenue and invest some percentage of the returns to support other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, tourism, health and education.

It urged the government to study all agreements with the extractive companies including production sharing agreement and local content policy to ensure that the country's oil and gas are well protected from negative occurrences.

It stressed the need for all stakeholders including the TUC to participate in discussions of policies and agreements regarding the oil and gas industry to ensure total participation, transparency and good governance to make it a blessing instead of a curse. The union called on the government to ensure a sustainable youth employment in the oil and gas production enclave to avoid conflicts and related issues.

The 15-point resolution also appealed to the government to ensure a local content policy with adequate provisions to protect procurement of local goods and services and materials for the industry as well as train human capital for the industry.

The National Executive Council of the GTPCWU urged the government to identify stakeholders in the industry and the relevant institutions to formulate an Action Plan, train and retrain workers to build their capacity to acquire knowledge in the technology.

It must also put in place adequate measures to address environmental degradation as a result of oil spillage, gas flaring and pollution. According to the resolution, the government must ensure that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Energy, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and a Regulatory Body for the upstream activities play their roles efficiently and effectively. It appealed to the government to ensure that the security agencies that would be protecting the country's oil were given adequate training and equipment to enable them to perform their duties efficiently. The resolution also called for the setting up of a body to formulate Action Plan on the development and management of the distribution of the oil revenue.

It further called on the government to ensure that oil revenue did not go to individuals. 11 Nov 09