"We Can't Keep Guard 24 Hours On Empty Stomach"

Security men and other skeleton staff providing 24-hour guard at the Abosso Glass Factory in the Western Region have appealed to the government to consider giving them something at the end of each month, since they cannot continue to guard the heavy installations at the factory on an empty stomach.

They have also appealed to the government to negotiate with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for them to restore power they have disconnected back to the company to enable them detect the movement of suspicious people during the night.

Speaking to Chronicle at Abosso, the security men said when the government announced the takeover of the company, Mr. Gilchrist Olympio, who was then managing it withdrew his security men, thus leaving the heavy machinery bought with the taxpayers money at the mercy of thieves.

According to them, as citizens and former workers of the company, they decided to provide 24-hour security at the factory to prevent the newly installed machinery from being stolen by some unpatriotic people.

They further told Chronicle that they took the decision to guard the company without any authorization from the government, because as former employees it was their belief that when a new investor comes in they would also have work to do.

They regretted that after having sacrificed for such a long time even though they have not been asked to do so, no government official has ever set foot at the factory to even congratulate them, let alone give them something in the form of money to boost their morale.

The worried-looking security men further told Chronicle that that their wives are now threatening to stop feeding them in addition to their children because they are finding it difficult to understand why they should keep on providing security at the factory when they are not paid.

When Olympio left the company no government official ever bothered to come and see the state of the machines including the new ones that were imported with a Japanese grant, they said and added that had it not been their decision to stay and protect the state property, the latter would have been stolen by now.

The workers further told Chronicle that for the past seven months that they have been guarding installations at the company, they always fall on their wives for money to buy batteries for their torchlights for night patrols, since the company at the moment has no electricity.

According to the workers, their counterparts at Bonsaso Tyre Factory, which has also been taken over by the government and is currently awaiting divestiture are being paid at the end of the month, but the sacrifices they are also making has not caught the attention of the government.

The Abosso Glass Factory, which once upon a time was producing bottles for the local breweries and also for export was handed over to Mr. Gilchrist Olympio, the Togolese opposition leader, in 1992.

Though Mr. Olympio was supposed to have revived the fortunes of the once viable company, things rather ran from bad to worst.

For instance, it accumulated electricity bills to the tune of ?1.4 billion, thus forcing ECG to cut power supply to the company.

Olympio's management was also alleged to have borrowed an amount of ?200,000 from the Commonwealth Development Company (CDC) based in London but failed to pay back as promised.

This among other things forced the NPP government to officially takeover the company, which was commissioned by the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1965.

Interestingly, ever since the government took over and promised to hand it over to a new investor they are looking for, no official has bothered to find out how the heavy machinery are being protected let alone give encouragement to those who are doing so.

A visit to the factory sometime ago by this reporter revealed that had it not been the security men who are working without pay, most of the machines would have been burgled long ago.