The Junior and Senior Staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have demanded the immediate sack of their Managing Director, Mr. Kwame Agyeman-Budu.
In a resolution passed over Mr. Budu last Friday, the Joint National Executive Committee dismissed him as incompetent giving the government a two-week ultimatum to dispatch him out of the office.
According to the workers, the MD’s continuous stay in office is only collapsing the company as he is incompetent, visionless and lacks resourcefulness.
“He is grossly deficient when it comes to matters relating to administrative and corporate governance,” the staff said.
The staff said they took the decision at a joint National Executive Committee held last Friday at the ECG Training School in Tema. They also alleged that several petitions to Mr. Agyeman-Budu to involve its rank and file in revenue mobilization since 2020 have been ignored.
The workers claim the MD’s continuous stay at post will collapse the electricity distribution company because to them. They have therefore warned that if their concerns are not addressed by Friday, April 23, 2021, they will advise themselves.
A six-point resolution from their meeting spelt out alleged highlights of the MD’s mismanagement and incompetence.
“The Managing Director has been in office for close to two (2) years and has shown lack of vision for the Company. This has been evidenced by misplaced priorities which has led to the unavailability of critical materials such as meters, service cables conductors, prepaid vending accessories, maintenance materials, which has caused delays in connecting and supplying customers who have paid for such services,” the angry staff said.
“Whiles the limited resources have been applied on frivolous and capital projects at a time when the company is cash strapped and unable to meet its financial obligations to stakeholders. For example, construction of a staff canteen at Asokwa District, Roman Ridge and construction of new District office at Cape Coast where there are enough unused office spaces,” the workers resolution said.
The Union decried what it described as the alarming rate at which the Company’s technical and commercial losses are galloping. “A conservative estimate puts the current system loss figure at over 34% as of February 2021, and there are no concrete strategies in place to bring them down in the short and medium-term. A figure which was between 23% and 24% as at the time of his assumption of office. There are numerous projects aimed at loss reductions and system reliability which are at various stages of implementation,” they said.
A recent disenchantment among some ECG contractors, they said, bears testimony to the fact that it is the Managing Director alone who determines which contractor or supplier to hire.