Dr Steve Manteaw
The Coalition of Stakeholders on the ECG Concession (COSECA) has expressed disappointment at the confrontation between the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) and Government over the ECG Private Sector Participation (PSP) which forms part of the Millennium Challenge Compact II
“Indeed, we created a platform where all stakeholders, including the unions, on one side, were in dialogue with the government, MiDA, ECG management on the other side.
“The dialogue was useful and we made enough progress to prevent the unions from taking decisions to strike or picket,” COSECA mentioned in a press statement issued recently in Accra.
It continued: “Unfortunately, the dialogue broke down; COSECA continued to urge the parties to return to the dialogue but without success. In the absence of dialogue, feud will escalate and could lead to legal tussles and a disruption of the Private Sector Participation (PSP) process. Unfortunately, what we warned against seems to be happening, we hope we can prevent the ultimate problem (i.e. disruption of the PSP process).”
It therefore appealed to both parties to return to dialogue and ultimately ensure the ongoing power sector reforms, especially the ECG PSP, become successful.
“COSECA stands ready to facilitate a return to discussions between the parties, and urge them to take the opportunity to restart the negotiations.
“Our understanding is that the present impasse revolves around disagreements over declaration of redundancy and severance pay.
“We observe also that the Minister of Energy has declared government’s willingness to pay severance. All that is left relates to declaration of a formal redundancy. In our view, the issue can be negotiated. Resorting to court to settle such a matter has the attendant risk of frustrating the PSP process. It is our firm belief that if parties are minded to, they can discuss and resolve this matter and not disrupt the PSP process.”
COSECA revealed that “even though we support the reforming of ECG to ensure that the government control and interference is removed, things must be done well and in accordance with law. Above all, it must be managed to ensure the least pain, suffering and loss to all parties involved.”
“We further observe that with the President’s May Day 2017 speech where he declared that 51 percent of the concessionaire will be Ghanaian owned, the case for a Termed Joint Venture (TJV) is further strengthened. This allows the concessionaire to offer shares to workers and other local entities, instead of one key technical partner.
It said the TJV offers the best option and urged stakeholders to take another look at it.