Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Roads and Transport, on Tuesday said: "Currently OSA Transport Company Limited has a very poor corporate image". The Minister made the statement in Parliament in response to a question posed by Mr Joe Gidisu, NDC-North Tongu, about the status of OSA Transport Company Limited (OSA) in relation to the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMT).

Dr Anane said: "OSA is going to be restructured and thereafter the company will be transformed into a subsidiary of the MMT to operate the city-rural service."

Dr Anane said due to poor financial and administrative management, aging staff and over-aged fleet of vehicles at OSA among other factors, the company was indebted to the tune of 10.4 billion cedis, comprising loans, statutory deductions and major trade and sundry creditors.

"Additionally, 31 billion cedis has to be sourced to pay for salary arrears and severance awards to its employees should the company be liquidated." He said the total strength of its workforce is 720, adding that most of the workers were above age 40.

Dr Anane said out of the total number of staff at OSA, 16 of them are 60 years old, 89 are between age 56 to 60, 172 are between 51 to 55, 137 are between 46 to 50, 130 fall between ages 41 and 45 and the remaining 176 are 40 and below.

He said the internal challenges facing OSA coupled with the stiff competition it faced in the cities as a result of the influx of minibuses and taxis, its intra-city operations was rendered economically unattractive. "OSA was, therefore, forced to stop operating intra-city services and concentrated on urban-rural service to help them break even," the Minister said.

"OSA was put on divestiture in April 1995 but was removed from the divestiture list in 2002 to make way for the MMT." Dr Anane said currently the MMT in located on the premises of OSA and uses OSA facilities, for which it pays OSA. In answer to a question posed by Mr Ken Dzirasah, NDC-South Tongu, about measures to protect MMT from suffering the same fate as OSA, the Minister said legal measures were being taken to safeguard MMT's competitiveness in the city.

He said the Metro Assemblies have been asked to draw up legal instruments to ensure that specific bus lanes were designated exclusively for MMT buses to ensure that they had the exclusive right to pick passengers from certain points.

Dr Anane said unlike OSA, which was fully state-owned, MMT is a state-private sector partnership venture, adding that 45 per cent is state-owned and 55 per cent private and quasi-state investors.

"The private partners in MMT include SSNIT, National Investment Bank (NIB), State Insurance Company (SIC) and Prudential Bank (PB)," he said, adding: "All these companies will infuse their management expertise into MMT to ensure its success."

He said with a total fleet of 262 buses, comprising 187 used Fiat Iveco donated by the Italian government and 75 DAF/Neoplan buses, MMT started operations on pilot basis in Accra in October 2002, adding that services have since been extended to Kumasi, Sekondi/Takoradi and Tamale. Dr Anane told the House that the Government had ordered new buses, which would soon come into the country to ensure that the MMT services went nation-wide.