Transparency critical in ECG privatisation – Eric Asante

The Public Relations Officer for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Accra West, Eric Asante, has said the government will need to ensure openness in the privatisation of the state power distributor in order to deal with the agitations by the workers.

According to him, without transparency, unnecessary suspicion will characterise the privatisation move.

His comments come on the heels of members of the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) picketing to demand a blue print on the compensation package for them following the planned takeover of the company.

On Tuesday, September 26 PUWU members in Accra picketed the premises of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to register their concerns with the compensation package.

According to the workers, the government has not provided any compensation packages for the workers who will be affected by the takeover, a situation they believe will plummet the standard of living of the affected workers.

The General Secretary of PUWU, Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi, told journalists during the picketing at the premises of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Accra on Tuesday that, the Union will go to court on the matter if their concerns are not addressed by government.

He said: “This action is being done to draw government’s attention to our issue that we think that the payment of severance to staff of ECG should be considered under the on-going arrangement where they want to give out the company to a private operator. And from what we have read, what they are planning to do is that they will move the staff from ECG to go and work for the private operator, and we think that under the labour law, such arrangement should require the payment of what the law calls redundancy pay.”

The workers are also picketing nationwide today Wednesday, September 27 to further press for their demands.

But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Wednesday, September 27 Mr Asante said, among other things, that: “There should be transparency in the discussion about the concession arrangement so that everybody will be satisfied with the plan and accept.

“Without transparency, it will be difficult for people to accept the arrangement and we will also be experiencing some of these agitations.”