CSRM�s Proxy Orchestrations Exposed

Corporate Social Responsibility Movement (CSRM), a Tema-based advocacy movement that is purportedly at the forefront of promoting corporate social and environmental responsibility locally and is currently at the forefront of an onslaught against the establishment of a Fish Meal Plant by Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) has exposed their real intent and agenda for the onslaught. It has now emerged that CSRM is not fighting against the establishment of the PFC Plant because of the perceived danger it might pose for the environment, but rather, is pursuing a proxy agenda as agent for two other companies, which currently purchase their raw materials from PFC for their fish meal plants; and feel threatened that a PFC Plant will ultimately deny them the required raw materials. The CSRM double standards in the campaign to derail PFC�s establishment of a Fish Meal Plant is contained in its letter dated 12th October, 2011 and addressed to the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The letter signed by the Executive Secretary of the CSRM, Mr. Richster Nii Amarh Amarfio, who is also aspiring to be elected the Member of Parliament for the Tema East Constituency, indicates inter alia reasons why the PFC should not be permitted to establish the Fish Meal Plant, including the conversion of an existing canteen to the Fish Meal Plant. Indeed, in all its campaign against the establishment of the Fish Meal, the CSRM never once visited the PFC premises to engage its management in the issues raised in their letter, contrary to its own objectives of advocating for companies to clean when they pollute; corporate compliance to existing laws; and transparency in companies operating and reporting: but rather sought to denigrate PFC through the media and mass distribution of letters listing various unsubstantiated allegations. The CSRM�s real intentions are exposed when it veered off from the reasons why the PFC Fish Meal Plant should not be permitted to openly state categorically on behalf of Ghana Protein and Magydom Enterprise, both obtaining their raw materials from PFC for their operations that the proposed PFC development of the Fish Meal Plant will deny them of their basic raw materials and thereby force them to fold out. The CSRM Executive Secretary, in promoting the cause of the two companies, added that the number of workers to be engaged by PFC were nowhere near that of the two companies, a situation which he believes will further aggravate the already employment challenges facing the country. The CSRM, which counts on its partners the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES of Germany) and the Revitalization Institute of the USA, went on to call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take immediate steps to halt all PFC activities in relation to the proposed PFC Fish Meal, even when the company had secured its EPA Permit. Mr. Amarfio�s proxy orchestrations compel him in his letter to call for an inter-sectoral meeting of PFC and the two companies to draw the Ministries of Food & Agriculture, Trade & Industries and the Government into a purely private business to exercise state control to protect the interests of the two companies; and offering to facilitate such a meeting, when provided with the requisite support, including funding. According to him, the CSRM is not against the diversification of operations and increase of investment by PFC in Ghana but that the intended project, in the nation�s free-market economy, would be detrimental to the drive at attracting investors, as the plant would deny other investors the required raw materials, irrespective of how they evolve their business plans? Meanwhile, a meeting held later under the auspices of the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, in charge of Fisheries, Hon. Nii Amassah Namoale and chaired by the Chairman of the Fisheries Commission, Mr. Mike Acheampong, similar to what the CSRM called for could not reach any understanding when the Ministry realised that the issues were purely private and rather advised the attending companies, namely Ghana Protein Company and the Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) to talk to themselves and arrive at a middle road for their operations. It was also revealed at the same meeting that Ghana Protein Company had earlier offered to sell its operations in Ghana to the Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) but negotiations broke down over the cost of the equipment, goodwill and value of Ghana Protein�s operations.