According to him, the Finance Minister should render an account to the citizenry regarding the state of VRA as the company piles up huge costs. This he noted is having adverse effects on the company.
The Volta River Authority has made demands for some adjustments in tariffs on electricity to enhance the company’s financial purse. The company indicated that to ensure sustainability of its operations, “it is imperative for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to stick to regular tariff adjustments to reflect cost of generation.”
VRA’s demands come in the wake of the current energy situation which has become the bane of the economy.
The Public Relations Director of the company, Sam Fletcher attributed the current situation of the company to inability of Ghanaians to pay the correct electricity tariffs, which has led to both VRA and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) not efficiently meeting the demands of the citizenry in the generation and supply of power to consumers.
Mr. Fletcher further revealed that the VRA lost one billion cedis last year as a result of high operational cost, resulting from the use of crude oil rather than gas for its production, and so, appealed for an upward adjustment in electricity tariffs to generate revenues for the company.
However, the CPP Communication Director in an interview with Peacefmonline.com expressed disgust over VRA’s demands, putting the blame at the doorsteps of the sector Minister who he described as “incompetent” and so, called for his response in resolving the challenges that the company is grappling with.
“At the moment, we understand that the VRA owed over a billion (GHC 1 bn), the government itself owed the VRA; 509 million. The Municipal and District Assemblies owed over 200 million. The ECG owed them over 200 million; VALCO owed them 77 million and various other organizations owed them,” he disclosed.
“We are blaming the sector Minister for allowing a situation where VRA is owed a huge debt like this and they have not sought to do anything about it. Is the sector Minister not having regular meetings with such important institution in the sector? Is he not having regular meeting? So, when did he know they are saddled with such a debt? And what’s his plan for making sure that the debt is paid to them, rather than seeking to increase tariffs for the Ghanaian population that is already in difficulty in the country.”
To him, the sector Minister has not taken an oversight responsibility over the activities of the workers, therefore asking “what the Sector Minister is doing about this huge level of debt…So, the Minister has failed to deal with the issue of the debt of VRA. VRA is struggling to fix their equipment. They are struggling to buy oil to do what they need to do to generate more power and they are coming back to tell us they want tariffs increased. I think Ghanaians will absolutely not accept, when you are owed a debt and you are not able to collect it. The sector Minister is not doing anything about it. We plunged into darkness and they want the tariffs increased. I think it’s not acceptable; we should not have to pay for the inefficiency of VRA. We should not have to pay for the incompetence and mismanagement of the sector Minister in failing to resolve the debt.”
He also bemoaned the power generation company for making such demands when the country is saddled with erratic electricity and water supply amidst fuel price hikes.
“Of course, we are also blaming VRA itself for also not pursuing the debt sufficiently and also for their own inefficiency. They need transparency before they can come to Ghanaians and tell us; they want us to pay more. They need to tell us what they do with the money we currently pay to them.”
According to him, the inefficiency and mismanagement of the company is a major contributor to the indebtedness of VRA, stating emphatically that “It is not acceptable. The CPP does not accept that we should pay for the inefficiency of government and inefficiency of VRA.”
He therefore called on the Finance Minister to adopt pragmatic measures to remedy the situation.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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