Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, former CEO of the Volta River Authority, VRA is of the view that the inactions of the government led to its decision to suspend the concession agreement with the Power Distribution Services, PDS.
Mr Wereko Brobbey believes the government did not put certain measures in place well to see this deal blossom.
"From where I sit I will blame governments inaction', the rush to enter into this concession agreement with PDS is the result of what has happened. We didn't have enough time to do due diligence," he was speaking on the Joy Super Morning Show.
He added that the government's decision was a hasty one and that it should have been based on the fact that we needed to fix the challenges we faced under the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
"The decision to enter into this concession agreement with PDS ought not have been dictated by someone's wilingness to dash us money. We have spent far more. We should have taken the decision because we know we need to fix ECG's challenges" he added.
Mr Brobbey also urged the government to resolve all issues with the Independent Power Producers (IPP) especially as they are owed huge sums of money.
"We need to resolve all the other issues such as payment to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs),"
"The Ministry of Energy instead of being a policy initiator has now turned itself into a contractor for ECG and VRA. That issue has to be resolved lest we're heading for doom".
"The energy sector is the most important for the development of every economy. If we want to develop, we must invest in the sector"
Government on July 30, 2019, announced the suspension of the deal with PDS with immediate effect.
The decision according to government was taken following the detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS’ obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) which was discovered upon “further due diligence.â€
“The Demand Guarantees were key prerequisites for the lease of assets on 1st March 2019 to secure the assets that were transferred to the concessionaire,†a statement signed by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated.
"Despite the action, the statement clarified that “The general public and customers are assured that this development will not interfere with the distribution of electricity services to customers.â€
“The government is conducting a full enquiry into the matter, and the outcome will inform the next course of action. Government has taken steps to ensure distribution, billing and payment services continue uninterrupted,†the statement added."
Background
PDS officially took over services from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in February 2019 after Meralco consortium, a major shareholder in PDS won the bid to run the power service.
PDS has taken over the management and operations of the ECG after Meralco consortium, a major shareholder in PDS won a bid to manage the national power distributor.
The company was expected to turnaround the operations of ECG to make it profitable.
It was also supposed to improve access to electricity while cutting down on wastage in the system as well as blocking all leakages that drained the financials of ECG.
PDS’ operations over the past few months have been fraught with many challenges including frequent power cuts and huge debt it owed some Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
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