John Jinapor
Staff of the Volta River Authority (VRA) have debunked the statement by John Jinapor Deputy Minister of Power that they have called off their strike action.
According to them, they have deferred their negotiations with the Power Ministry to August 15, 2016 in order to take part in a Trade Union Congress (TUC) event in Kumasi.
The workers, who are vehemently opposing the planned hand over of the Takoradi Thermal Plant Three (T3) to AMERI by government, said they were still on strike, adding that the report by John Jinapor, Deputy Power Minister on Thursday to the media that they had indefinitely postponed their planned strike action was untrue.
Leadership of the VRA staff has therefore asked the staff to disregard Mr Jinapor’s statement.
In a letter distributed to staff, it noted: “We urge all VRA staff to disregard the conflicting messages as to the suspension of our legitimate actions aimed at bringing to the attention of the good people of Ghana the overt and covert action of the perpetrators.
“We further wish to reiterate our collective resolve to the salvage the assets of the Volta River Authority (VRA) that the perpetrators are bent on dissipating.”
The deputy minister informed journalists after a meeting with the VRA staff unions that the strike had been cancelled.
He also added that the meeting slated for August 15 would involve principal stakeholders to address the matter.
“Our objective is to strategically position VRA. Our objective is to invest in VRA and get the private sector to partner with them. We are not giving out the T3 plant. We took some decisions to bring in a strategic partner. Ultimately, we intend sending the T3 Plant to VRA but we haven’t made that decision yet.”
Solidarity
In a statement issued last week in Accra, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), criticized government’s decision to cede the T3 Plant to AMERI, adding that the move would negatively affect the operations of the VRA.
ACEP said releasing the T3 Plant to AMERI would create the “impression that the decision is targeted at clouding VRA out of the western enclave for eventual takeover by private business concerns with vested interest to use Ghana Gas as their main source of generation.”
By Samuel Boadi