Vice Presidential candidate of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has outlined the despondency in
Ghana's energy sector under the Mahama regime.Delivering a public
lecture at the National Theatre on the state of the economy, Dr. Bawumia says
since President John Dramani Mahama took the reins of leadership, Ghana's
industrialization agenda has been threatened.
He continued that the NDC-
Mahama government has further threatened the progress and operations of the
Volta River Authority (VRA) and run the country's energy sector into huge
debts.
“The energy sector has been badly managed since the Mills/Mahama
government took over the reins of government in 2009. The poor management of the
sector has been characterized by generating shortfalls and corrupt procurement,
frequent power cuts, inefficiencies and unsustainable debts. While the
government is engaged in questionable power procurement, our dedicated
State-owned power infrastructure from which revenue is generated by our
utilities is collapsing," he noted.
He added that "Akosombo has
constantly been over-drafted. Thermal plants are frequently breaking down and
all our plants operate below capacity. The poor maintenance of our generation
plants has weakened the sector, further undermining long-term expansion, energy
security whilst the demand for electricity grows by 12%
annually.”
According to Dr. Bawumia, the Mahama government keeps denying
the truth and so, the energy sector also keeps crippling.
" . . the
government has kept denying it and it’s taken them too long to face up to the
fact and in the meantime, they’ve visited ‘dumsor’ upon us for 5 years. Today,
the energy sector faces an unprecedented financial crisis in Ghana’s
history.” |
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