TUC kicks against privatisation of ECG

Any attempt to privatise the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will be inimical to the state, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has warned government.

According to organised labour, ECG must remain 100% state-owned and the government must not take advantage of the worsening energy crisis to privatise the power distributor.

The government is currently looking for a transaction advisor as it considers two options – partial privatisation or concession – in transforming ECG.

Starrfmonline.com broke the news early February that ECG will be privatised. According to a classified document intercepted by your authoritative website, the government of Ghana “is more likely to opt for partial privatisation since a concession contract can take two years or more to complete and with election next year the government would not want to drag this beyond that.”

However, the TUC has kicked against moves to privatise ECG. According to the secretary general of the TUC Kofi Asamoah, privatisation of ECG “should not be part of the solution to the power crisis.”

Asamoah pointed out that if all public institutions are made to pay their utility bills on time, there will be no need to introduce private participation in the operations of ECG.

“Public assets must remain public!” he said. “Privatization only serves the interest of profit hungry foreign investors and it will not address our energy crisis.”

He also touched on ongoing crisis at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). Widespread reports have it that the bank will be sold.

Addressing workers at the 2015 May Day parade in Accra, Asamoah said the TUC is “reliably informed that preparations are far advanced to privatise the bank…We want to appeal to you not to approve that arrangement.”

He said the craze to share public assets among private businesses “should be discouraged. Our eyes are watching.”