Law lecturer, Clara Kasser-Tee, says much of the problems of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) stem from political interference in their operations.

According to her, political interference also forms a major part of the reasons why the Power Distribution Service (PDS) concession deal failed.

Speaking on Joy FM/MultiTV’s current affairs programme, Newsfile on Saturday, she said due to undue interference, ECG was not adequately represented throughout the privatisation negotiation process.

“Throughout the transaction, the ECG didn’t have a lot of say in all of this. This was really run by the political appointees and that is actually the source of our problem”, she said.

she added that, “The fundamental problem of the ECG is political interference and it is because, of course, that is what we treat as spoils of war that when we win an election; we see how we can make certain appointments and of course, then it’s based to a large extent on political affiliation than any other thing.”

Clara Kasser-Tee, who lecturers at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), stressed on the fact that the problem with ECG was not because the power distribution company's managers were incompetent, but rather, they were underestimated throughout the negotiation process.

“So the problem is not that the people who are working at ECG or the managers of ECG are incompetent, that’s not true. …we don’t give ourselves enough credit…” she said.

The law lecturer said if ECG is given the free hand to operate within the company’s laws, it would be able to handle the management of the company.

“I believe that if you let the ECG staff manage the company in accordance with principles and values that every company is managed with, they can handle this”.

”Throughout the transactions, you can see that ECG has displayed competence but they haven’t been shown the kind of respect that they deserve,” she said.