NDC Only Adds 2.5MW - KT Hammond

The minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) in parliament had exposed the lies of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the generation of power to support Ghana's economy.

According to the party, in the past six years that the NDC had been in power, it had generated just 2.5 megawatts of solar energy as compared to 885.5 megawatts generated by the erstwhile NPP government.

The minority spokesperson on energy, K.T. Hammond, at a press conference in parliament yesterday, said the first minister of finance under the current NDC government, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, in presenting his budget statement to parliament in 2009, admitted that the NPP government, by way of addressing the 2006/2007 power crisis, expanded the country's power generation. This included 126 MW emergency power plant, 126 MW Tema Thermal Plant,  49.5 MW Tema Thermal 2 Power Plant, construction of gas turbine generators for the 230 MW Thermal Project at Kpone which was expected to be completed in a very short time, in addition to the Bui Dam.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, it is really clear beyond any contest that by the NDC's admission, by the time they took over power from the NPP in 2009, the NPP had added 885.5 MW to installed generation capacity and that the 126 MW at Tema was completed in 2008 and commissioned in January 2009,” he underscored.

He said when the NPP was faced with the power crisis in 2006, it did not pass the buck to any past government, but rather went to work and took immediate and drastic measures to ensure that in a year the crisis was over.

“We fast-tracked the repair works on the generating plants at Aboadze, which enabled us restore the plants to full generating capacity while President J.A. Kufuor also negotiated with his counterpart in Cote d'Ivoire to import about 150 MW of power from that country,” he said, adding that Mines 80 MW came on stream while 126 emergency power plant was installed.

According to Mr Hammond, the NPP also signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Trans Tema Ltd for a 50 MW power plant and also initiated energy efficiency and conservative drive which resulted in the replacement of over one million incandescent bulbs with more efficient and less energy-consuming compact fluorescent lamps.

“The reduction in demand on the power generating system as a direct result of this initiative was about 125t MW of installed capacity,” he indicated.

T K Hammond underlined the fact that the NPP, under President Kufuor, was very much conscious of the critical role energy plays in the socio-economic development of any nation and therefore took immediate steps to resolve the 2006 power crisis which culminated in the unprecedented economic growth of the country.

Mr Hammond, who is also the MP for Adansi Asokwa, said for the past three years that the country had been plunged into this unprecedented power crisis, the NDC government had not only been lackadaisical in resolving the problem, but also unleashed its communicators to blame past governments for the crisis and also to throw dust into the people's eyes.

“We have heard ridiculous stories and excuses like pirates and accidents at sea, the resettlement of gods and goddesses at Aboadze leading to the failure of the thermal plant to function and the government not being able to buy 'expensive' crude oil at $45 per barrel to power our plants,” he indicated. He stressed that the officials of the NDC government must bow their heads in shame for the untold hardship the power crisis, which they had failed to resolve, had brought to Ghanaians.

Luxury Cars
The NPP spokesperson on energy set the records straight with regards to the government's claim that the NPP negotiated the rural electrification project which ended up in the purchase of 38 luxury cars at the cost of $1.7 million.

“As you may have read from the Auditor-General's report, the contract signed and approved by parliament in 2008 made no provision for the purchase of vehicles, but the first addendum signed on August 21, 2009 by the then Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng Adjei, incorporated into the contract provisions for the purchase of the vehicles,” he said, pointing out  that the then minister allocated to himself Chryslers and Lexus and he is still using the Lexus.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr