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Unionized workers of PSC Tema Shipyard Limited, have appealed to the President, John Dramani Mahama for the immediate merger or handover Management of PSC Tema Shipyard to Ghana Ports & Harbour Authority (GPHA).

They said, “We, also as stakeholders undertook some study and came to the conclusion that the only strategic partner that will be suitable for the upgrade and turnaround of the Shipyard is the sister Maritime Authority, Ghana Ports & Harbours Authority.”

Addressing a news conference in Tema yesterday, the worker indicated that “in order for the nation to achieve the vision of the founder of the Ports of Ghana as per the original master plan of the Tema Port, the President should not look elsewhere for strategic foreign investors with requisite capital and expertise to turn the fortunes of the Shipyard round, when GPHA is close by”.

According to them, “We workers of the struggling Tema Shipyard believe and have confidence of the expertise and capabilities of the management of GPHA and strongly favour them as the best strategic investor for the Tema Shipyard”.

The workers explained to the press, the following reasons why they are calling for GPHA to take up management of the PSC Shipyard Limited:

1. The Drydock and Slipway facility at Takoradi Port is operated by the Port. Marine crafts, fishing vessels, tug and patrol boats are repaired and maintained by the Marine Engineering Department of the Port. This facility was rehabilitated at a cost of US$14.3m and inaugurated in December, 2010. GPHA financed this project from its internally generated funds (IGF).

2. Interestingly, the handling of incoming and outgoing vessels at the Tema Shipyard is under the ambit of GPHA. Power distribution system at Dock II and its operational areas are still under the control of GPHA. The last but not the least, GPHA is the landlord of the Shipyard.

3. Following from the above, GPHA already has the manpower capacity and experience. All it takes is updating of skills in conjunction of the existing workforce of the shipyard to achieve results beyond expectation.

4. GPHA has the financial strength even to the extent to borrow more than US$100m on its Balance Sheet to finance the rehabilitation of the Shipyard and recover same within a reasonable investment period. The Shipyard per our estimation may need approximately US$100m within the next 2 to 5 years for the yard’s upgrade.

5. GPHA had made and continue to make some commitments and sacrifices toward the progress of the Shipyard. One of such sacrifice is the payback of the Malaysian 60% stake in the Shipyard.
GPHA paid about US$ 6.36 million for this.

6. For the first two years, the Shipyard needs close to US$25m to replace one of its Dewatering Pumps, two dockside Cranes, Mobile Cranes, Ships Repair Equipment and Capacity Building as a spring board to set sail the Shipyard. The remaining 75m USD spread over a period of 3 years. This will not be difficult for GPHA to do.

7. The Atuabo Free Port Enclave has a drydocking facility as part of making the proposed free port as ‘one stop’ port for the oil and gas facility. Same proposal can be made for GPHA and for that reason the Shipyard facilities should be integrated to be part of the Port of Tema.

8. In order to prevent capital flight as to any foreign company that will partner the Shipyard, this can be prevented if the Yard is given to GPHA. The Shipyard is more than a ‘gold mine’ but may not need same investment before producing results and also a foreign currency earning company.

MDU General Secretary & the District Executives

On the 15th of August, 2013, the Maritime & Dockworkers Union (MDU) District Executive held a press conference requesting that the Tullow Ghana Limited do not have overall good intension for the Shipyard so therefore the Shipyard should be handed over to GPHA (MDU Press Statements on August 15, 2014 & May 16, 2016 attached).

Same day, the MDU General Secretary, Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng was on TV3 Late News Platform strongly in favour of GPHA manning the Shipyard. In the Chris Akumey Committee’s Report page 46 No. 169, said that GPHA, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Social Security & National Investment Trust (SSNIT) all had the financial capability to raise the needed capital to revamp the Drydock.

The Committee further stated in No. 179 of the Report that the proposal by workers of the Shipyard that GPHA should take over the running and management of the shipyard is worth considering. The MDU and its General Secretary supported this recommendation.

Today what has changed? Why the sudden U-turn by the MDU now recommending a Consortium of GPHA, SSNIT & GNPC? What is SSNIT and GNPC bringing on board? MONEY OR EXPERTISE? Why did the Government not ask GNPC and SSNIT to also contribute in raising the US$6.36m but GPHA had to single-handedly cough out the amount?

The MDU General Secretary and the District Executive have soon forgotten that the Tullow Oil Ghana Limited (TOGL) project of investing US$25m to US$30m in 2013 to partly upgrade the Shipyard was a GNPC/Government of Ghana (GoG) Sponsored Project, which was totally and vehemently rejected by MDU. The objective of GNPC at the time is to use the Shipyard as a fabrication enclave for the some of the components for the recently inaugurated FPSO ‘Atta Mills’ for the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) Complex Project and other upcoming projects beyond the ‘TEN’ Project, such as the ENI Project that had already taken off. The total cost of rehabilitation and staff training for the project was to be recovered from GoG/TOGL Petroleum Account, as part of the total development cost of the TEN Project. One may ask; is it now that the MDU Executives’ faces are clearer for them to know that the GNPC can equally contribute to the developing of the Shipyard?

This clearly shows that MDU lacks knowledge about the Shipyard they claim they superintendent over and or the MDU do not have the interest of the Shipyard at heart. Assuming that SSNIT or GOD descended from Heaven and expressed interest at the time, the MDU will definitely say ‘NO’ in favour of GPHA. The Unions of GPHA and the Shipyard are under the same umbrella of MDU, we therefore expected MDU to favour GPHA than any other entity, as they did earlier in 2013. It is also on record that the MDU and its General Secretary kicked against the Atuabo Freeport Project for Oil & Gas, and rooted for GPHA and today same MDU is against GPHA taking over the Shipyard. We are at loss as regards the vision of the MDU for the Maritime Industry, as far as the Shipyard is concerned.