A member of the Committee on Employment, Social Welfare, and State-Owned Enterprises, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has labeled the appointment of three Managing Directors for the Intercity State Transport Company (STC) as regrettable.
The selection of any individual as the Deputy Managing Director in charge of Operations has been met with opposition from the STC unionized workforce.
The staff argues that the company’s top priority currently is acquiring more buses, not making new appointments.
“ISTC has operated without a Deputy Managing Director for a considerable period, suggesting that reducing the number of deputy managing directors will not adversely affect our operations,” a section of a petition sent to the Board Chairman of the company explained.
During an interview on ‘Morning Starr’ with Francis Abban, the lawmaker from Pru East raised concerns about why a struggling organization would require so many Managing Directors.
“The STC situation is most unfortunate. STC is not a blue-chip company; it is a struggling medium-sized state-owned company. Therefore, it beats my imagination why such a struggling medium-sized company should even have deputy MDs, let alone three.
“It is the appointment of the third one that triggered the agitation by the staff. They used not to have a deputy MD. When you have directors as heads of divisions or business units, for a medium-sized company, let’s not forget that this is a Limited Liability Company,” said Dr. Donkor.
He continued, “Why would you need a deputy MD, let alone have three? The two were an overkill, so to add a third one… What we often forget is that it’s not just about salaries. The non-salary cost of labor or human capital is very high, so when you add that, it is symptomatic of a failure to manage commercially. How can a medium-sized company like STC justify having three deputy managing directors?”