Hiding Financial Wounds Of The Power Sector Is The Reason Dumsor Is Festering —Mutawakilu

As long as government continues to insist that the problem in the power sector is technical and not financial, intermittent power outages experienced in the country will remain with us until the NDC comes back to deal with it just as they did before this administration took over.

This is according to the Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy and Member of Parliament for Damongo, Adams Mutawakilu who is of the view that the poor financial situation is what is not allowing GRIDCo to perform efficiently.

The Member of Parliament was reacting to the recent threat by the workers of the Ghana Grid Company Ltd (GRIDCo) to plunge the country back to the era of Dumsor if government fails to settle outstanding debts owed the company within their two weeks ultimatum.

The President of the Senior Staff Association of GRIDCo, Raphael Kanor gave President Akuf- Addo’s government up to 15th May, 2019 to settle the GHC 900 million debt it owes the company or face their wrath.

Mr. Mutawakilu who expressed concern about the plight of the workers said the government’s insistence on the problem as being technical and not financial, is what has put GRIDCo into reverse gear where its workers have become so desperate.

“The poor financial standing has affected GRIDCo to the extent of its own projects. If money is made available, there would not be anything like technical. They are currently not recruiting and their regular maintenance has been suspended. They now only attend to critical issues,” he indicated.

He also indicated that government’s continuous shifting of the reasons for the current power outages being experienced attests to the fact that the problem is beyond technical.

“Recently they said if they connect the ENI gas to do the reverse flow, that would be the solution but we are still experiencing it. Once this is not solved and President Nana Akufo Addo continues to deny the fact it is financial than technical, we will live in Dumsor for very long time until Mahama comes to solve it,” he said.

According to him, the NDC under former President Mahama laid a solid foundation for the power sector by ensuring that all the major problems such as installed capacity, legacy debt issue and fuel problems were properly dealt with.

“The installed capacity was increased over 1600 MegaWatts from 2013 to 2016; ESLA was set up to stop the legacy debt; the fuel problem was solved with the establishment of the Atuabo gas among others,” he indicated.

The Ranking Member said at the time of leaving office in 2016, the Mahama government had ensured that all the power sector agencies were profitable and could stand on their feet to be able to borrow on their own balance sheet.