Politics Killing STC

The dwindling fortunes of Intercity STC are due to unwarranted interference from politicians in the running of the transport company, a source close to the company has told The Finder newspaper. The source said the situation where political parties appointed their cronies who may not necessarily be competent for the job as managing directors of the company contributed greatly to the company�s struggling state. �These things you can�t talk about in the open, but that is the cold fact. The system is trying to choke the company out. The government itself by its commission or omission is killing the company.� Competitors of the STC who have political affiliations, the source added, were also contributing to the company�s downfall by �overstating� the company�s problems. �They go to a shareholder to make the STC look bad so that the shareholder is not even interested in his own shares.� The source further questioned why the Metro Mass Transit Company which was originally created to do intra-city transport had been allowed to do inter-city transport, thereby competing with STC by charging lower fares. �The northern regions are the STC�s stronghold. You put a bus at Bolga and everybody is running to Metro Mass. We can�t even buy consumables to keep the buses running. Our overhead is just too high,� the source said. The source also wondered why government with 20 percent shares in the company should be the one in charge while the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) with 80 percent looked on. �Every Ghanaian worker who contributes to SSNIT should be concerned.� In an interview with The Finder on Tuesday, Mr. David Seneya, head of Administration, STC, said he could not comment on the political issue, but admitted that the company faced a number of challenges. The STC is in a lot of debt. It can therefore not go to the stock market and raise money. He said the company paid GH�17,000 daily for the 20 new buses it acquired from J.A. Plantpool Ghana Limited recently. The company was also paying Ghana Oil Limited (GOIL) GH�22,000 on a daily basis toward a fuel debt it owed the oil company. With a current fleet of 47 buses and 484 workers, he said the company would either have to invest in more buses or cut down its staff. The bus to staff, he explained, was 1 to 10. �Industry standard is between 1 is to 3 or four,� Mr. Ani Asiedu, head of Traffic, added. Mr. Asiedu said they we still ply the Cotonou, Lome, Abidjan and Ouagadougou routes, but at a reduced rate. He said STC had acquired a licence to add Niger to their routes, but the company was yet to start due to the limited number of buses. Besides, he noted, they needed more robust buses to be able to do long routes. The troubled state of the STC has been a matter of concern to many. In November last year, Mr. Collins Dauda, minister for Transport, presenting the 20 new buses to the company said there was no reason why STC should be in its current state. But Mr. Seneya said the company was operating under trying circumstances. Management had instituted measures to correct the wrongs that had wrecked the company in the past. �We are trying to bring discipline. Now you are even scared not to come to work.� Since September 2011, a board member of the company, Mr. Charles Thompson, has been acting as managing director after a boardroom wrangling led to the dismissal of Brigadier-General Lord Attivor (rtd).