Lay off is a ploy to dent government's image – Minister

Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, said on Thursday that the lay-offs being embarked upon by some timber firms in the Sekondi-Takoradi area are a deliberate strategy to dent the image of the government.

He said the firms were among those, which were able to log in excess of annual allowable cut as a result of their business contacts with the previous government.

The Minister, who was speaking in Accra in reaction to the action by the companies said because the Ministry has put in place control measures to reverse the excesses, the firms had resorted to the ploy to make the government unpopular.

Dr Afriyie said the problem is not with the Timber Utilization Policy but "is because of measures to make the firms go by the annual allowable cut of one million cubic meters which the complaining companies want to exceed".

He said it is his obligation to control the depletion of the forest so that posterity will also benefit.

He said at the turn of the century, the forest cover was 8.5 million hectares but is now reduced to 1.6 million hectares.

The installed capacity of Sawmills is 5.2 million cubic meters in terms of volume, he said. "if I go beyond the annual allowable cut the country would be in danger".

Dr Afriyie said the Millers and Loggers were stealing from the forest at the rate of 900,000 cubic meters while chainsaw operators were also stealing over 1.6 million cubic meters bringing to a total of about 3.5 million cubic meters. He said one company stole over 100,000 logs without royalty, tax and stump fees.

However, three companies have paid over 100 million cedis fines in respect of illegal operations and that was the success story of the log auditing the ministry had put in place.

Dr Afriyie said the companies making noise -- John Bitter Company Limited, Metro Star Wood Limited and BMK Particle Board Limited-- have bad operational records.

These companies, he said are subsidiaries of one company and have large concessions and therefore if one company lacked resources it could rely on the other.

Dr Afriyie said Samartex Timber and Plywood Company Limited for example, has 36 concessions while Ghana Prime Wood and BMK Particle Board Limited have almost the same concessions.

The problem now for them is how to renew their license for allowable cut, which, he said he wants to control so that everyone would be treated fairly.

In the interim, Dr Afriyie said, stressed companies could apply for the Timber Utilization Permit (TUP) of six months duration but that would not be a wholesale issuance.