Minority rubbishes new Power Ministry

The Minority has rubbished President John Mahama's decision to create a separate Ministry for Power and has vowed to discontinue it if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wins power in 2016.

According to Minority creating a new ministry when the ministry of energy and petroleum could perform the same function, will not help solve the current challenges facing the sector.

Ranking member on Parliament's Mines and Energy Committee, K. T. Hammond said the NPP government under Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo will bring the two back together.

“I do not think that the problem within the sector really has to do with the composition of the ministry itself, It is really neither here nor there”, K. T. Hammond said.   

Government over the weekend created a Ministry for Power, carving it out of the Energy Ministry to focus exclusively on issues of petroleum.

The new ministry forms part of the restructuring of the power sector to ensure more stability and security in the provision of electricity, according to government.

When approved by Parliament, the minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, is expected to mobilise all human and material resources available to resolve the current challenges facing the sector.

But K.T. Hammond said the newly appointed minister will be unable to function effectively because he does not have a ministry supported by government with material and logistics.

He said the current power crisis was due to government's refusal to purchase crude oil to power plants, adding this has made it impossible for the Volta River Authority (VRA) to generate power for distribution by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).