Govt. Should Lay Off Inefficient Workers In The Energy Sector

The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has called on government to take disciplinary actions against the authorities in the energy sector in order to deter them from trifling with their duties. Contributing to a panel discussion on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ programme Wednesday morning, Kwesi Pratt charged State authorities to lay off the inefficient workers in the National Petroleum Authority and the Ministry of Energy. According to him, it is about time some drastic measures are adopted to counteract the possibility of fuel price hikes in the country since the consumers are always the victims of such price increments. He wondered why no disciplinary actions are rolled out to the Managing Directors of the various energy agencies who are paid huge sums of money, yet deliver little to ameliorate the petroleum situation in the country. Kwesi Pratt on Metro TV blurted that the sector workers who show lackadaisical attitudes in their service delivery to consumers shoud be “fired” to serve as a deterrent to others who want to follow suit. He urged the Ghanaian citizenry to advice themselves should the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) fail to avert the possible fuel price increases this year. According to him; “All of these politicians are our employees. We employ them, we elect them and we elect them on assumption that they will do what we want. If they don’t do what we want, let’s take them on. Let’s teach them. Let’s teach them to appreciate that we are the bosses; the masses of this country are the bosses, not the politicians.” “Why are we always passing on cost to the poor consumer? I don’t understand these things. We elect people into government to go and solve our problems, not to come and give us excuses. And the people of this country are getting fed up with one excuse after the other. Let them solve the problem; that is why we elected them…why, you have all these government agencies and so on. Who is disciplining the Managing Directors and so on, who sometimes even take more pay than the President? Let the axe fall if you are not working…And then sometimes, I hear some very strange things [you know] that these officials say, very very strange things that they say. I’m just wondering; what do they take us for?” he queried. He stated emphatically that government should “let the axe fall” on the authorities, hence start showing them the exit. This he believes will make them responsive to the plight of Ghanaians. “It is the people we have employed in the National Petroleum Authority, in the Ministry of Energy and so on who do the targeting. And if they themselves are coming out to tell us that look, they are not doing the targeting properly. My goodness, you should be firing them because they are employed to do the targeting properly…” he stated. “The issue for me is why do all these politicians make promises that they don’t keep? It is not that they don’t know the solution, they know the solution. When they are in opposition, they agree that look, this is not the solution; increases in fuel prices is not the solution. When they get into government, they do exactly the opposite of what they were promising in opposition. What is wrong with these politicians? And why do these politicians treat us this way?” he asked. He bemoaned the level of inefficiency in the fuel sector, revealing that the defunct Tema Oil Refinery run at a loss each day due to its inability to produce even a “teaspoonful of crude oil since July.” He elaborated: “TOR has not produced a teaspoonful of oil. It has not refined a teaspoonful of crude oil since July. As a result the Tema Oil Refinery is losing 300,000 dollars per day.” He further explained that he together with some pressure groups led by Ex-President Kufour staged a massive demonstration in protest against fuel price hikes in 1999 but since then, all successive governments have sought to repeat the same issues. He cited the increments that occurred under the Kufour and the late President Mills’ administrations, saying the two governments in opposition devised means to reduce fuel prices but did otherwise when voted into power. Kwesi Pratt also took a swipe at the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress for the recent revelations regarding petroleum price increases. “Sometimes, I simply just wonder. The National Democratic Congress is in power today. It is in power at a time when doctors are on strike and they are threatening to intensify that strike action, pharmacists are threatening to go on strike, teachers are threatening to go on strike…you have the New Patriotic Party in the Supreme Court [you understand] arguing that the government has no legitimacy and so on. In the face of all of this, some technocrats get together and decide to promote this reckless debate; this totally reckless debate, and even the arguments they are putting forward are so shallow. That is unbelievable,” he said. He therefore admonished Ghanaians to ensure that the National Petroleum Authority are made to account for their actions.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana