The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has reiterated its stance against the privatisation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The Union has expressed fears about a possible astronomical increment in electricity tariff and the mass dismissal of workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Development Company (NEDCO) should the state-owned power distribution companies be sold to a private entity.
At a press briefing on the sidelines of the Public Utility Workers’ Union (PUWU’s) Annual National Executive Council’s meeting, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress, Joshua Ansah, emphasized that it is “disingenuous for anyone to suggest that the inefficiencies are only at the retail end of ECG”.
Rather, “dreadful financial impact of the existing take-or-pay contracts and the rushed procurement of excess generating capacity on the electricity, revenue collection bottlenecks largely attributed to metering challenges, including but not limited to uncaptured meters, “political meters” arising out of the SHEP, multiples of meters” among other reasons according to him, are contributing largely to the woes of the power distributor.
He said, “the Ministry of Energy through SHEP installs over 100,000 post-paid meters every year across ECG operational areas, sometimes on the blind side of ECG. This practice worsens ECG’s technical and commercial losses.”
Also, excessive government and political interference in the management of ECG such as frequent change of Managing Directors and procurement processes of the ECG, according to Mr Ansah, are also part of ECG’s inability to accrue expected revenue.
To this end, the TUC is demanding for government to boycott any attempt to introduce a private sector participation in the operations of the ECG and NEDCO, and view the companies as “critical national assets, essential for driving Ghana’s economic development, ensuring national sovereignty and energy security, and fostering social equity.”
Organized labor believes the avoidance of political interference such as the frequent substitution of MDs and constituting of management boards in the running of ECG will stabilize the company.
