VALCO Needs $700m Investment, Not $60m Fix- Management Staff
The Professional and Management Staff Union of the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (PMSU) has insisted that the smelter requires about $700 million to be rebuilt and not the $60 million being suggested by those organising the protest.
This comes after some staff of the company staged a protest, claiming that some $60 million would be sufficient to restore VALCO to efficient operation.
In a statement, the Union stated unequivocally that VALCO needs a strategic investor.
As the engineers, maintenance professionals and operations personnel who work on the plant every day, PMSU said it rejects that figure because it does not reflect the condition of the equipment.
The Union explained that much of the plant is obsolete rather than merely worn, beyond the point where refurbishment is meaningful, and in many cases beyond the point where spares and technical support remain commercially available. It argued that restoring VALCO to efficient, competitive operation is not a repair exercise but a rebuild.
According to PMSU, the search for such an investor has been in progress for more than five years, and in that period the plant’s condition has not improved but has deteriorated.
It said the Company requires substantial capital to rebuild its facilities, restore competitive production capacity, and secure reliable power and raw material supply arrangements, and that this is capital that cannot be generated internally.
PMSU said it therefore aligns itself with the position communicated by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources on behalf of Government that securing a credible strategic investor is the pathway to reviving VALCO, and urged Government to press the process to conclusion without further delay.
Based on direct working knowledge of the asset base, PMSU said its assessment is that the requirement is of the order of $700 million or more.
It described this as not a marginal difference of opinion but a difference of more than a factor of ten, and one that goes to the heart of what is being asked of Government and of the Ghanaian taxpayer.
The Union warned that a $60 million intervention would not make VALCO efficient.
It would consume public funds, deliver a short reprieve, and return the Company to the same position, with the intervening years lost and the plant in worse condition still.
According to PMSU, the search for such an investor has been in progress for more than five years, and in that period the plant’s condition has not improved but has deteriorated.
It said the Company requires substantial capital to rebuild its facilities, restore competitive production capacity, and secure reliable power and raw material supply arrangements, and that this is capital that cannot be generated internally.
PMSU said it therefore aligns itself with the position communicated by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources on behalf of Government that securing a credible strategic investor is the pathway to reviving VALCO, and urged Government to press the process to conclusion without further delay.
It is demanded that the full technical and financial basis of the $60 million estimate be published, including equipment-by-equipment condition assessments, scope of works, and costings, for independent scrutiny.
It also called on Government and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to proceed decisively with the strategic investor process in the interest of the Company, its workforce and the national economy.
Further, it asked that all competing proposals be subjected to open, documented financial and engineering evaluation rather than settled by demonstration, and that the media and the general public note that the ongoing demonstration does not represent the views of VALCO’s professional and management staff.
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