Agitated staff of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) hit the streets of Accra on Tuesday morning to protest the huge debts owed the company by power transmitters.
The staff met up at thevBlack Star Square in Accra and began a march to the Ministry of Finance and then to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Over the last few weeks, the leadership of GRIDCO leadership has tried to push for the payment of the millions of cedis owed it by ECG, the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCo).
According to the angry GRIDCo staff who were clad in red, as of March 1, 2019, ECG’s outstanding debt to GRIDCo was about GH¢607 million and another GH¢94,204,903.17. VALCO on its part owed them about GH¢32,567,974.05 and NEDCo’s debt stood at GH¢177 million as at September 30, 2019.
Raphael Kornor, National Chairman of Staff Group of GRIDCo, recently said in an interview that, the unavailability of funds to the company had forced it into rationing fuels for their staff’s travel for maintenance works while hoteliers have refused to make their facilities available to staff who travel for work due to their indebtedness.
He went to state that government had also not paid some GH¢250 million requested by the management of GRIDCo while it took steps to raise bonds to settle the legacy debt in the energy sector although the president had directed the Ministry of Finance to release the money.
Speaking at the press conference Mr Kornor said, “The first Energy Sector Levy Act bond which was raised by this present government in 2017/2018, our sister company, the VRA had over $550 million to settle their indebtedness with the banks but not a dime was given to GRIDCo to offset the ECG and VALCO indebtedness to us.”
He, therefore, called on the government to as a matter of urgency settle the ECG and VALCO indebtedness to GRIDCo which he says has stalled some new projects being undertaken by the company.
Mr Kornor threatened GRIDCo would resort to an industrial strike if the money owed it by the various entities was not settled. He further said, the company will be forced to treat even emergencies as normal work and will choose to work on them only during regular work hours.
The association of GRIDCo workers has given the entities till the close of December 4, to clear their debts else they would embark on a sit down strike and impress upon their management to cut power supply to all customers which are indebted to it.
