NPA protesters
By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Government’s recent effort at unbundling products and services of the National Power Authority (NPA) has suffered a setback after workers took to the streets in protest and converged on Electricity House at Percival Street.
Yesterday’s aggrieved staff of the power generating and supplying Parastatal said the move to split into sections generating and distributing power under two deputy ministers could result in instability.
According to a security guard, that instability had already been building slowly since last Friday.
Some authorities at the power authority said the industrial action had to do with the unbundling of the power authority and the reinstatement of the managing director and his deputy.
The two directors, Zubairu Kalokoh and his deputy Dennis Garvey, had been suspended from duties by President Ernest Bai Koroma since February this year.
President of the institution’s senior staff association, Alimamy Bangura, said State House had suspended the two on grounds of “non-performance.”
NPA Public Relations Officer, Victor Wilson-Clerk, told Politico that the strike was related “to the dissolution of NPA into EGTC – Electricity Generation Transmission Company and EDSA – Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority”.
He said these new institutions, established by the government, would soon take over the place of NPA, in which EDSA would be buying electricity from EGTC to supply to the public.
He denied that the strike was all connected to the reinstatement of the managing director and his deputy, adding that the concerns of the strikers were that they simply wanted to know what their fate would be after the segmentation of the Authority.
He said that before the strike, precisely in the last six months, NPA had had a change in management, frequently, adding that “the frequency with which managers were changed was the problem because it did not augur well for staff confidence”.
But president of the staff association said they had problems with both the reinstatement and the dissolution.
“We have a problem with the reinstatement,” he said, adding that “Zubairu Kalokoh was untruthful and cheating on us because the dissolution process has been going on since 2011”.
He claimed that their boss had never said a word to them, adding “we are ready to work with the president that’s why we are appealing to the government to listen to us.”
Workers were restricted by their association from working until their questions were answered.
(C) Politico 22/07/14
