Workers of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), the power transmission company in the Republic of Ghana, have served notice to embark on an industrial action by December 4, 2019, if three key stakeholder institutions in the energy sector namely ECG, NEDCo and VALCO fail to settle their huge indebtedness which has crippled the operations of the company.
The workers say they would be hoisting red flags at all locations of the company in a bid to register their displeasure ahead of the industrial action in December.
They have also declared their intention to treat all emergency situations as normal from now on and as well, picket at ECG and Finance Ministry a week before the intended industrial action.
Giving statistics of the debt portfolio of the four companies, the workers noted that as at February this year, ECG owed the organisation a whopping GHc598 million with VALCO also owing US$28 million and NEDCO about GHc178 million.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, capital of Ghana, on Thursday, to throw more light on the predicaments of the company, National Chairman of GRIDCO Senior Staff Association, Raphael Konor said coupled with these debts, there are also loans to be serviced by the company.
He said these among others and the 2018 GRIDCo tariff review, which was reduced by 16 percent, have had a dire toll on their operations.
He added that this saw the revenue of the company dip to about GHc29 million.
“Because of these, the company’s operations and maintenance were heavily imparted. Material for maintenance works and spare works are also purchased in foreign currency but all the above companies pay in cedis except VALCO, which pays in forex,” he explained.
He stressed among other things all the companies owing GRIDCo, ECG is the biggest consumer with about 80 percent of all transmissions being domestic but had failed to pay in time to boost operations of the GRICO.
He claimed that this indebtedness has halted the traversing of the over 14,000 transmission tower across the thick forest reserve.
These towers need to be visited and maintained but the company cannot do so because of lack of funds among others, he added.
He did not mince saying that it is immoral for state institutions to owe the company such huge sum of money.
“As we speak, GRIDCO is undertaking a 330k V transmission project from Kumasi -Kintampo-Bolgatanga and 16 kV Volta-Achimota -Mallam line with a loan facility from AfDB to the tune of about USD 173 million, but the contractors have moved out of site because GRIDCo is not able to march the counterpart funding as per the terms of the facility to enable the financiers to continuously disburse the loan.
“Those of you who ply the Accra-Tema motorway would see some projects which have been stalled due to lack of funds.”
These and many other projects are geared towards stabilising our network and ensure supply reliability of electricity, he said.
With reference to the huge receivables owed by ECG-PDS and VALCO, successive governments have made several promises to settle the debt which is captured under the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA).
And from 2014 till date, the ESLA bond to re-fence the debt has not been availed, he said.
He said that the staff have reached their wit ends and cannot continue to sacrifice for others like ECG to be paying their staff emoluments so, they are embarking on the following actions.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
