The Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) is urging the Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment to urgently convene a National Tripartite Committee meeting.
According to the Association, the emergency meeting is necessary to address concerns over the continued transfer of Chief Directors and Chief Executive Officers within the Public Service without recourse to the laid down rules and regulations.
Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Isaac Bampoe Addo, made the call while addressing a news conference in Accra as part of this year’s May Day celebrations.
“The neutrality of the public officer is key in enforcing the principle of anonymity, neutrality, permanence in the public services.”
“It is incumbent on CLOGSAG to draw attention of government of schedule under section 14 of the Presidential Transition Act 2012, Act 845 which stipulates the category of persons whose appointment should cease upon the assumption of office of a new president,” he pointed out.
The Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG was of the view that President Mahama did not follow regulations in exercising his powers to dismiss heads of agencies and CEOs of State-Owned Enterprises.
“We have examined, we are yet to identify any provision authorizing the President to terminate, post, appoint, promote and transfer any Chief Executive Officer, chief directors, heads of department or any employee in public institutions. CLOGSAG is calling on the Minister of Employment as a matter of urgency to immediately convene a national tripartite committee to discuss this pressing national issue,” he urged.
Meanwhile, President John Mahama has assured Organised Labour that he does not intend to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
He says, under his presidency, the Electricity Company of Ghana will enter into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) to revive its operations.
Speaking at the May Day celebrations in Accra, the President explained that ECG will use PPP to revive and strengthen its operations.
” The ECG has been facing a culture of poor governance over the last eight years with a debt of 68 billion cedis and rising. If we don’t do anything drastic, our own power sector will collapse. We can only bring down power tariffs to improve efficiency in the distribution of power. Let me assure you it is not my intention to privatise ECG as an institution.”
“Our attention is more a public private collaboration to inject efficiency into our downstream electricity distribution system,” he noted.
But that assurance has not convinced leadership of Public Utilities Workers’ Union (PUWU) and the Public Services Workers’ Union (PSWU).
General Secretary of PUWU, Timothy Nyame, said they are not convinced by what the President said.
“PPP and privitization are one and the same. So once I have heard PPP, it means is just a name that they have changed bringing part of privitization in it. All that we are trying to tell His Excellency is that we have the competencies that it takes to work in ECG,” he said.
The General Secretary of the PSWU, Bernard Adjei, implored the President to include the unions in the PPP arrangement.
“Let’s engage to know what form of private participation they should bring. As stakeholders we will scrutinize it. We are in the industry, our workers are in the industry we will scrutinize it and make our input and the promise he has given we believe he will listen and the energy sector will be released from the leeches and the political cronies that have hijacked the sector and are making money for themselves at the expense of the ordinary Ghanaian,” he said.
The Public Utilities Workers Union and the Public Services Workers Union insist that the partnership is simply privatisation in disguise and they will resist any move that threatens the public ownership of ECG.
