Irate Workers Want PBC Board Chair, MD, Others Sacked

Angry workers of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) are calling for the immediate removal of some principal officers they blame for the companies woes.

They want persons such as the Board Chairman, Managing Director and other executive members sacked if government is determined to see a revival of the company’s operations.

“What we are saying is that, [the executives] do not have what it takes to turn fortunes of the company around. If they have, we should be able to be coming out of the problems by now. But, I am telling the whole world that we are rather sinking. We expect them to turn things so that we move on. So we want government to dissolve the Board, sack the Managing Director and members of Executive Management who were appointed by government,” Prince Saviour Gankui, Chairman of the Professional and Managerial Staff Union at the PBC told Bernard Avle on the Point of View.

PBC has been bedevilled with a myriad of financial challenges, a situation the current management of the company has consistently blamed on the poor decisions of its predecessors.

PBC workers across the country besieged the premises of the company's headquarters in Accra last Tuesday to register their displeasure about what they described as the appalling state of the company.

While expressing worry over government’s posture in dealing with the matter due to what it says was lack of understanding, Mr. Gankui said a more competent team with the know-how is required to put the company back on track.

“We believe the government is not well informed so that is why we are coming out all loud to tell government what is happening. We need people who have the business acumen, modern skills and financial clutch and connections to turn the business around.”

Despite the agitations by the workers, management of the PBC is confident that the assurance of a bailout by the government will turn the fortunes of the company around.

Managing Director of the Company, Kofi Owusu Boateng, said he was optimistic that the president would come through with his assurance to see PBC back on its feet.

“If you don't have money, you can't work. This is the situation I came to meet. That is why finally, I had to take them to the President. The General Secretary and I went to see the President. We met the Agriculture Minister, Deputy Finance Minister and Labour Minister. So we have been working day and night and the assurance is that…if he gives us the money then we can turn our fortunes around. “

The workers have said the current management is “short of ideas, lacks vision and foresight.”

PBC, which is a private company with the government serving as majority shareholder, focuses on the trade of cocoa, shea nut and other cash crops in the West Africa sub-region.

PBC Limited originally exists as a Licensed Buying Company (LBC) which partakes in the Internal Marketing of Cocoa as its core business among other auxiliary businesses to support revenue stream.

---citinewsroom