Ghana Cotton Company To Fold Up?

Frustrated workers of Ghana Cotton Company Limited Tamale have given government one week ultimatum to pay their three months accumulated salaries and other entitlements due them. They said government has not paid them since November 2009 despite Mr. Kwesi Ahoi, the Minister of Agric�s assurance to settle their arrears during his last working visit to the company in April 2009. The frustrated workers thereby threatened to go on an indefinite strike if their grievances were not resolved within the one week ultimatum given. Speaking to Citi News on grounds of anonymity, the frustrated workers numbering about five hundred complained that the situation had worsened their economic frustrations. They accused management of having misplaced priorities and alleged that at the peak of the company�s financial crisis, the decision making body wasted 147 million old cedis on renovation works carried on the Public Relation Officer�s residence. The aggrieved workers also slammed management over salary disparities and alleged that the company�s Public Relations Officer who was engaged on contract receives 18 million old cedis a month whereas the labourers and drivers are pegged between 100 and 150 new cedis. Citi News investigations uncovered that activities of the company were grounded because farmers have declined to supply it with seed cotton due to management�s inability to pay for earlier supplies running into millions of cedis. A source close to management informed Citi News that Volta River Authority disconnected the company�s power supply in demand of full payment of about 50,000 new cedis debt. Apart from this debt, the northern central division owes fuel suppliers a sum of 90,000 new cedis and this situation has rendered the few obsolete vehicles useless. According to our sources, the Erstwhile Kufuor led NPP administration before leaving office in 2008 supported the company with 26 billion old cedis stimulus package meant for the company�s rejuvenation. The Ghana Company Limited in Tamale is the only surviving company in the country which was established in the 1960�s and named Cotton Development Board. The company operates in the three regions of Ghana with offices each in Tamale, Bolga where the ginnery is located and Tumu in the Upper West Region. Over the past decade, the company has experienced considerable decline in production as well as gross mismanagement and these factors have contributed to its almost collapsed nature.