The Minority Spokesperson on Energy, K.T Hammond, has accused the Mahama administration of incurring debts which would have to be paid by the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, should he win the election in December. According to him, the recent restructuring of the debts of the Volta River Authority (VRA) by the Ministry of Finance, was indicative of a government that was piling up debt for the next government to pay for. He expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Energy Sector Levy which government said would be used to defray the legacy debts, were not being used for that purpose.
“I get the sense that they are creating further legacy debts for the Akufo Addo government to settle rather than pay those debts. Government came to Parliament for the Energy Sector Levies which was supposed to yield so much, one would have thought that considerable or substantial amount of money would be used to settle this. We are now being told that the banks have been told to reschedule the payment which may have to be paid in about five years time when they are no longer in government,” he said on Eyewitness News. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa echoed the thoughts of other Minority MPs who felt that the Finance Minister, Seth Terpker – who doubles as the substantive Power Minister – in presenting the mid-year supplementary budget in Parliament on Monday, July 25, failed to touch on the government’s solutions to the current power crisis. “I don’t get the impression that Seth Terkper was talking about measures to settle the long-standing issues that we have. The President said he’s fixed it. He indicated in his State of Nation address, that he had promised to fix it and that he had. Seth rather talked about some settlements he’s entered into with the banks and other stakeholders with respect to the VRA debt or what they call the legacy debt,” he added.
New power deal may not be passed
Details have emerged of a new power deal before Parliament which the government hopes will augment the country’s generation capacity. The deal is currently before the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, and it is expected that it will be passed by the House in the next few days before the break. The two-decade long power deal with Early Power Limited, will see the construction, fueling and maintenance of a power plant at a total cost said to be exponentially higher than the average international cost of constructing such a plant in the industry. The 400 megawatt plant which analysts have said would normally cost 600 million dollars, will apparently cost taxpayers almost a billion dollars. K.T Hammond, who is a ranking member of the committee, refused to make a definitive statement on whether the deal will be approved by Parliament or not. However, he suggested that there might not be enough time to get a complete understanding of the deal so it might not be passed before they break on July 29.
Source: Citifmonline
