‘Implement Railway Labour Rationalisation Programme’
The Parliamentary Committee on Roads and Transport has advised the government to implement the Railway Labour Rationalisation Programme which involves, among other things, the retrenchment of 1,282 out of 2,300 staff of the Ghana Railway Company (GRC).
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Currently, the government continues to pay the salaries of staff of the GRC due to the current unproductive operations of the railway system.
An amount of GH¢15,219,714.49 is required to pay salaries of the GRC staff for 2014.
On the another hand, the government could make available GH¢85 million should it decide to implement the Railway Labour Rationalisation and retrench the 1,282 staff who were being paid for no work done.
Sentiments
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma Central, Mr Theophilus Tetteh Chaie, conveyed the sentiments of the Roads and Transport Committee when Parliament discussed and approved the 2014 budget estimates for the Ministry of Transport.
The sector minister, Ms Dzifa Attivor, moved the motion for the approval of GH¢89,949,128 for the services of the ministry for 2014.
Mr Chaie said even though an amount of GH¢3,557,760 was required to procure track and locomotive items, as well as spare parts to maintain the Nsuta-Takoradi rail track for haulage of manganese ore, no provision was made for the item due to budgetary constraints.
But the MP for Takoradi, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, contributing to the debate, stated that the GRC needed to be resourced in order to be able to invest in the railway sector.
He stated that even though a total of GH¢122 million was allocated from two Eurobonds for the rehabilitation of the railway sector, the money was not released for the intended purpose.
