A former employee of Anglogold Ashanti Ghana says the gradual collapse of Ghana’s\u00a0 oldest mine, Anglogold Ashanti is as a result of mismanagement by the managers.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/em><\/strong>, Yiadom Boakye Amponsah, a former General Manager of Human Resources at Anglogold said the inability of Anglogold to make profits is due to mismanagement of its operation.<\/p>\n ”It was simply mismanagement; before the meager, Obuasi was doing fine till 1999 when we had our problem due to the gold price and hedging challenges.”<\/p>\n He furthered explained that the new managers [Anglogold Ashanti] of the Obuasi mine have themselves to blame.<\/p>\n ”In a matter of the 10 years that they have been here, they have used about eight or nine \u00a0managers, which organisation can survive like that; every year or two you change management\/structure, how do you hope to have continuity, ” he lamented.<\/p>\n Mr. Boakye Amponsah charged Anglogold to ”block all the loopholes and chart a new path” and ”interrogate why there was no profitability”.<\/p>\n Anglogold Ashanti on Thursday announced that it will cutdown its workforce by August this year because of the rising cost of production, high under-performance of workers and unstable world market prices.<\/p>\n The company is likely to lay off about 5000 of its workers.<\/p>\n The company is also expected to spend about $220 million in settlement packages, which is being negotiated for among the management, the local union and representatives of the Ghana Mine Workers Union.<\/p>\n Mr. Boakye Amponsah said decision by the company to lay-off workers is unfortunate and misplaced.<\/p>\n ”I can only say that its unfortunate; I believe that there are a lot interventions we can consider apart from the path we are chart,” he said.<\/p>\n But Mr. Boakye Amponsah said\u00a0 the Obuasi mine has experienced such challenges before, saying ”I believe that there are a lot of interventions we can consider; I think we have a second look at the programme go through a serious re-think and possibly review what they are doing…”<\/p>\n He noted that the about 80 percent of the people who will be laid-off will mismanage the retrenchment packages that will be given them and come back to Obuasi.<\/p>\n He expressed the fear that Obuasi mine is likely to ‘die’ if things continue to go as it is.”The approach by \u00a0Anglogold is wrong; the timing is an issue; a lot more thought process should go into the strategy…,” he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile \u00a0some traditional leaders in Obuasi are unhappy about the retrenchment exercise.<\/p>\n In an interview with Citi News,Nana Anokye Kwaw Tutu the second Akrofuom Nifahene and Adokwaahene of the Obuasi traditional area said the Anglogold Ashanti\u2019s move is not human centered.<\/p>\n ”To me its not human centered; I have so many reservations about it…,” he said.<\/p>\n Anglogold\u00a0 said due to the increase in the world price of gold in 2008 which raked in a lot of profit, the company was encouraged to pump in about $600 million from its mother company in South Africa, only to notice that it was a wrong move.<\/p>\n A Senior Vice-President of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana, Mr Mark Morcombe\u00a0said on Thursday that the company had to face the challenges head-on and was taking the \u201cshort-term pain for a long-term success\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Evans Effah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A former employee of Anglogold Ashanti Ghana says the gradual collapse of Ghana’s\u00a0 oldest mine, Anglogold Ashanti is as a result of mismanagement by the managers. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Yiadom Boakye Amponsah, a former General Manager of Human Resources at Anglogold said the inability of Anglogold to make profits is due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":20413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[38],"yoast_head":"\n