Gov't Cautioned Over Purchase Of VALCO

Government has been advised to recind its decision to buy VALCO from Kaiser, because the company is said to be over-aged and uses obsolete technology.

Senior economists and technocrats from the other political parties have described the intention of government to invest hard-earned foreign exchange in VALCO as an attempt to cause financial loss to the state. The paper also says the Kufuor administration has expressed interest in buying VALCO and has tasked itself to explore ways of acquiring the majority –foreign owned smelter company by March this year.

They contended that since it was not the business of government to engage in core business practices such as running a manufacturing company such as VALCO, it should not buy VALCO.

They named high operational cost as major problems the company faces, indicating the VALCO cannot operate competitively globally because of its obsolete technology.