The Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), has rejected accusations from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) that they acted in bad faith when they announced a 15% increase in transport fares on Sunday.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Moses Asaga, earlier accused the transport unions of acting in bad faith by side-stepping their negotiation plan to hurriedly announce new fares.
Mr. Asaga told Citi News he was shocked by the GRTCC announcement because there was a planned meeting on Monday to finalise their negotiations.
[contextly_sidebar id=”khTfcMKDQ6xxX0XyF7ILQz0IeQCUxseq”]However, the General Secretary of the GRTCC, Andrews Kwesi Kwakye, revealed to Citi News that Government officials were very much aware of the intended increase in transport fares as their negotiations had ended prior to the announcement.
He thus expressed disappointment with the claims made by Mr. Asaga.
“It is unfortunate that the chief executive of NPA will say that we have betrayed them. I don’t see where the betrayal lies because we were told by Flagstaff House that we were going to receive information Sunday evening. There was no scheduled meeting today [Monday].”
According to General Secretary of the GRTCC, they were of the view an increment had been agreed on which is why they made the announcement.
“The impression we got was that, we have all arrived at a decision that we are going up by 15% as of Friday; so I don’t see where the betrayal is coming from he argued.
Mr. Andrews further wondered why the NPA had made such claims especially when government did not propose any particular percentage increase.
“As of today [Monday], we have no clue about how much they are going to reduce[contextly_sidebar id=”l9CShFA8SjFh7YhcorPBojqoLLoHmeis”] so how can he come back to tell us that we have betrayed him.”
Meanwhile government through the Deputy Transport Minister, Joyce Bawa Mogtari has indicated that it will meet with the unions to review the fares downwards especially when fuel prices have been reduced by 2%.
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana