Staff of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) have partially withdrawn their services at all their operational areas effective Wednesday, February 8.
The industrial action is due to the failure of the Board of Directors to meet the demand of the staff calling for the removal of the Managing Director, Osman Aludiba Ayuba after several engagements.
Currently, all field services have been suspended except for emergency situations and power vending.
Speaking to Citi News on the withdrawal, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of the NEDCo branch, William Kwame Asare, said they will not budge until the CEO is removed.
As part of their partial withdrawal of services, the staff of NEDCo said they will not go out to attend to any fault/issue except in emergency cases.
The emergency cases include broken conductors, broken poles, transformers on fire, pole burning etc.
The staff added that in all emergency cases, they will just isolate the fault and return to the office.
This comes after the staff in a petition presented to the Board of Directors of the company, cited among other things the “worse financial performance of NEDCo, lack of a clear strategy for the company, exorbitant sole source procurement of point-of-sale devices and worsening distribution losses,” to back their demand.
They added that the company has retrogressed since Mr Ayuba took over as the managing director some three years ago.
“The net financial loss of NEDCo instead of improving has deteriorated from GH¢315.398 million in 2018 to GH¢392.406 million as of September 2022. The estimated net loss for 2022 is over GH¢400 million. This means NEDCo’s performance deteriorated by at least 24% over the period,” the staff said in the petition sighted by Citi News.
They added that the “cash flow situation of NEDCo is worsening every day. As a result, NEDCo is unable to pay most of its suppliers and contractors. As of September 2022, NEDCo was indebted to its major suppliers to the tune of GH¢1.8 billion. NEDCo is struggling to raise Letters of Credit to procure critical materials and equipment required for its operation under the watch of Mr Ayuba.”