TUC urges gov’t not to hand over Tema Shipyard to Tullow Oil

TUC urges gov't not to hand over Tema Shipyard to Tullow Oil

Kofi Asamoah, General Secretary of the TUC

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said it is still counting on the good judgment of the government to reverse any decision to handover the Tema Shipyard to oil exploration company, Tullow Oil.

The facility has had a history of mismanagement with both local and foreign handlers.

The Transport Ministry now wants Tullow to revamp the facility and hand it over in three years but the TUC says any such move would lead to capital flight from Ghana.

General Secretary of the TUC, Kofi Asamoah believes the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority has the capacity to run the shipyard and must be given the first option to do so.

He told Joy News, “You get these foreign investors there and eventually it turn out to be a vessel for capital flight and other related things… We think if the place should be given to anybody at all it should be a ship building company which is connected to Tema Shipyard.”

Kofi Asamoah noted that “if Tallow wants to do its job there, it could still get a place from whoever is managing the place so that we can keep the revenue generated in our economy.”

The move by the government to handover the facility to Tallow Oil, he said, came to TUC as a surprise because what the union heard was that the oil company was “going to do some job there”.

The TUC General Secretary believed that the country stands a greater chance to fully benefit from the facility if it is handed over to the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority.