VRA workers threaten to stop National Delegates Congress with lawsuit

There is confusion brewing at the Volta River Authority (VRA) as some workers are threatening to place an injunction on the upcoming Biennial National Delegates Congress which will be held at Akosombo this weekend.

According to the aggrieved workers who pleaded anonymity, the current leadership have violated the constitution of the association as they failed to organise such a programme within the last quarter of 2018.

This they said violates the constitution governing the Senior Staff Association. According to them, the injunction is to enable the court to provide members with clear advice and direction for the Association as it prepares to organise its Biennial National Congress to elect new leaders.

Among the several allegations levelled against the current leadership whose tenure of office had expired since December are that they failed to organise the Biennial Congress within the stipulated period and also failed to furnish members with the statement of accounts.

“According to the constitution, delegates congress was supposed to be organized in 2018 which the current leadership failed to do and also never gave any explanation to that effect, which is in violation of the constitution of the Senior Staff association”.

“Again the leadership failed to furnish members with the annual statement of accounts which gives room for suspicion for mismanagement of the association funds.”

To this end, the members who believe the leadership are hiding something have decided to go to court to seek clarity on the constitution and also appeal to the court to allow for an independent auditor to scrutinize the accounts of the association from 2016 and 2018.

“Per the constitution (Article Fifteen) of our 2012 constitution, we need to have the Annual Delegates National Congress to deal with the constitutional amendments and our financial statements under the year of review, 2017 & 2018 before the Biennial National Congress to elect new executives. There is no constitutional clause to combine both in a year without calling for Emergency one-day congress to deal with the postponement as the case may be. Failure to these processes, we have indicated our intention to go to court for breach of the SSA Constitution”.

The workers said there is the need to take a critical look at the constitution binding them as power generators before the planned election of officers takes off on Friday.

“One of the key constitutional mandates of the Senior Staff Association is to promote the greatest measure of co-operation between the Authority’s leadership and the members of the Association (good employer –employees’ relations), and also to seek and promote the general welfare of its members. So it is high time we go to court for an injunction, so we seek clarity into this matter once and for all”.

They further alleged that all twelve current leaders are going into the upcoming elections as unopposed which is surprising.

“This is the first time such a thing is happening here at VRA where all twelve leadership positions have gone into an election as unopposed. We believe these people are up to something and they must be thoroughly investigated.”

“Many of us have decided we are either going to boycott the programme or go there to demand answers to our nagging questions and possibly move for the cancellation of the programme and this could be chaotic if care is not taken. A few people can not hold the destiny of the majority of workers to ransom”.

They, however, urged the Human Resources Directors of VRA and NEDCo to as a matter of urgency act to prevent a disaster and public ridicule.

The Senior Staff Association Chairman, Cephas Duse, when contacted failed to give clear answers to the issues raised by the aggrieved members of the Association.