Privatize all public institutions – Adumatta Nyantakyi

The General Secretary of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), Mr. Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi is calling for the privatization of all public institutions if inefficiency is used as the benchmark for which public institutions should be privatized.

He said it is very disheartening to hear some Ghanaians calling for the privatization of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) due to simple inefficiency.

Speaking exclusively to Kasapa FM’s Leticia Ohene-Asiedu, Mr. Adumatta Nyantakyi said “Often people will come, oh ECG is inefficient and so they should go. If we are using inefficiency as the benchmark for which companies should be privatized, I doubt which of our public institutions should be left.

“Is it education, is it health, is it what? There is inefficiency in almost every facet of our public sector. But we need to look at how we can make things work and for me I don’t think that the solution is packaging and giving it to the private sector.”

The PUWU argues that the main challenges facing ECG is the government’s continuous interference in operations of the company and not inefficiency.

On October 3, 2017 about 1,001 workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), led by PUWU, sued the government, the Attorney-General and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), over moves to hand over the operations of the company to a concessionaire without any redundancy package for them.

The workers are also urging the Labour Division of the High Court to declare that sending ECG workers including the plaintiffs, on permanent transfer constitutes a redundancy.