OSA Sends SOS To Govt

The management of OSA Transport Limited has appealed to Government to hasten the restructuring exercise to save the service from collapse since most of the buses are over-aged and in deplorable conditions.

As at the time of the interview in which he made the appeal, the marketing manager of OSA, Mr. David Gomez, disclosed that there were only 70 buses serviceable throughout the country, which he said, were inadequate.

Mr. Gomez, who was reacting to allegations by a section of the public that some new buses meant for OSA had been parked in the company’s yard to rot while workers were agitating for their accumulated salaries, explained that the new buses belong to the Metro Mass Transport operators, who use OSA’s yard for parking and repair works.

Mr. Gomez recalled that the fleet of the authority’s buses began dwindling when the company was put on the divestiture list in April 1995 by the erstwhile National Democratic Congress.

Conditions attached to the divestiture programme, he said, were so stringent that it became very difficult for the company to undertake repair work on most of them.

He said since the divestiture programme was not implemented by the NDC government the company was taken off the divestiture list in August, last year by the present government with the promise that the company would be considered for a role in the mass transport programme.

''They told us the whole system will be restructured but we have not heard anything from the government. We are waiting for them to implement the exercise but as an interim measure, we are appealing to the government to release some of the new buses given to the Metro Transport Operators to supplement the old ones in the system so that we can render our services to the nation effectively,'' he added.

Touching on the issue of pilfering of spare parts by workers from the buses which people allege might be a contributing factor to the imminent collapse of the company, Mr. Gomez noted that though there might be some pilfering, it was not on a large scale, adding that workers caught in the act have had their appointments terminated.