PBC workers demonstrate over management's 'incompetence'

Workers of PBC Limited, formerly called Produce Buying Company, Tuesday morning picketed at the company’s head office at Dzorwulu in Accra to register their displeasure over what they termed “mismanagement and incompetence on the part of their management.”

The workers accused the management of not doing much to save the company from possible collapse.

The Chairman of the PBC staff union, Mr Prince Saviour Gankui, said the company’s market share was going down on  a daily basis with its debt portfolio also growing by the day.

“Our market share is going down. Over the past two years we moved from about 38 per cent to 35 per cent and now about 17 per cent,” he said.

Dwindling fortunes

According to him, the company’s new management, led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Kofi Owusu-Boateng, had compounded the company’s financial misfortunes.

“They (new leadership) came when our debt portfolio was around GH¢450 million. Currently, we are talking of about GH¢700 million,” Mr Gankui said, adding that the company was unable to pay suppliers and financial institutions they had taken money from and the salaries of staff.

According to Mr Gankui, the company did not have the financial muscle to operate and that the calibre of leadership needed to help resuscitate the company was lacking.

He blamed the current CEO and his deputies for not having the required experience to turn the fortunes of the company around.

He said because the company was largely state owned, the government ought to be interested in its affairs, particularly with the way it was  being managed.

Interventions

The Chairman of the PBC Staff Union said the government could help revive the company by giving them a letter of comfort, bailout, as well as axing the management, particularly the CEO and the Board Chairman.

The letter of comfort, Mr Gankui explained, would enable the company to access financial services from COCOBOD and other financial institutions both home and abroad.

ICU

The General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU), Mr Solomon Kotei, expressed his worry about the inability of the company’s  management to save the company from possible collapse.

He said about 10,000 workers risked losing their jobs if nothing was done about the company’s current situation.

Mr Kotei said the PBC Staff Union, together with ICU, had petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, seeking a bailout in view of the imminent collapse of the company.

He urged the workers, nonetheless, to remain calm and assured them of the ICU’s commitment to work closely with the leadership of the company and the union to ensure that the company was resuscitated.

CEO

Meanwhile, the CEO and management of PBC have denied any wrongdoing and incompetence levelled against them.

The CEO, Mr Owusu-Boateng, has denied all the allegations levelled against him and the leadership of the company. He said the company was not being mismanaged under his watch as the workers alleged.

He admitted though that the company was not performing well and that the management was working for a government bailout to turn the fortunes of the company around.

He gave an assurance that workers’ salaries would be paid soon even though he could not give specific timelines.