Why Mahama Sacked EGC Boss

By Cletus Abaare
President John Dramani Mahama last week set Ghanaians in an unending suspense when he flexed his executive muscle on the country's most criticised energy sector by showing the Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), William Hutton-Mensah, the exit.

The President fired the ECG Boss amidst the critical power crisis that has moved from bad to worst since the NDC led government was elected into power by the Ghanaian electorate in 2012.

The decision of the President has attracted divergent comments from the public; some in support and others against it.

What has not been made clear to Ghanaians and workers of the beleaguered power distributor, the ECG, is the reason for the removal of the former MD, but your authoritative, THE CRYSTAL CLEAR LENS has the answer and can confidently reveal the reason for the sacking of the ECG boss.

The paper can reveal that the axing out of the former MD is not centered on the black-outs now christened 'dumsor-dumsor' that has held hostage the country for the past three years as being speculated but it is mainly a move to pave way for the selling of the country's power distributor, the ECG.

According to deep-throat sources at the Presidency, Mr. Hutton-Mensah has been against the sale of the company to an American base company (name withheld for now) when the Mahama-led administration put before him volume of documents containing proposals to bring in the American company to take over the management of the ECG.

According to our sources, the sacked MD refused to reason with the government and kicked against the proposals stating that "we can manage the company better; we do not need any company to come and mange it for us".

The sources revealed further to this paper that the sacked Hutton-Mensah in his vehement protest against the government on the move, therefore, held several meetings with the senior staff of the company and influenced them to fiercely resist the government on going ahead with the sale.

Mr. Hutton-Mensah, according to our deep-throat sources, also refused to sign a document that was presented to him by the government to sign and clear the way for the sale of the ECG.

Our sources have also revealed that the said document which the former MD refused to sign has been signed by the new acting MD, Mr Robert Dwamena, who was appointed last week to take over the affairs of the company.

Workers of the ECG have since been demonstrating against the removal of their MD and staff, Hutton Mensah. The protesters, who were clad in red, sung war songs and carried placards with inscriptions displaying their anger.

According to the workers, their former MD was a very good man and knows his job, stating that "We think he is here to develop the country and not to destroy the country. We are only demanding that he is reinstated."

Successive months of erratic power supply has led to the collapse of a number of businesses, especially in the small and medium enterprises such as cold stores, barbering and hairdressers' shops, seamstress and tailoring shops, printing industries, and also adversely affected the operations of the hospitality industry and a host of others.

The unscheduled power outages have led to stocks of food items going bad and destroying home appliances, while some operators of small-scale businesses such as Internet cafes, drinking bars and restaurants who could not afford the additional cost of generators and fuel have closed down their businesses.

People now patronise eating and drinking places where they can sit for long periods and have the chance to charge their phones, while they pass the time sipping just a bottle or two of soft drink.

The new practice now is for one to carry one's phone chargers wherever one is going, with the hope of getting access to a power source.