The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called on the President to refrain from misleading Ghanaians on energy sector debt.
According to the Minority Caucus, the President has often made inaccurate claims in about the debt in he energy sector in a bid to conceal claims was his recent visit to Toronto, Canada where he said that, “his government inherited a $5.2billion debt in Ghana’s energy sector from the previous Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, half of which have been paid, while the remainder hanged on the neck of his administration like an albatross.”
The Minority does not only find these statements as inaccurate but also an attempt by the President to shirk responsibility for the incompetence he has displayed in the management of the country’s energy sector which remains a backbone to the Ghanaian economy.
The ranking member of the Committee on Energy, Hon. Adam Mutawakilo presenting facts and records at a press briefing said records show that the President peddled falsehood with respect to what had come to be called Legacy Debts, when he addressed a tow hall meeting of Ghanaian residents in Toronto, Canada.
“In February 2017 when President Akufo-Addo delivered the State of the Nation’s address to Parliament, he disclosed that “the power sector debt stood at $2.4 billion at end 2016”.
The Caucus is unable to accept President’ so claim of $5,2 billion energy sector debt credited to former President Mahatma during his tenure.
The Energy Committee ranking member stressed that, the Minority, would like to state the following facts for the purposes of setting the record straight: The Legacy Debt of approximately $2.4billion is a debt accumulated by successive governments between the year 1992 and 2015.
“$250 million out of the $2.4billion was paid to Banks by the Mahama-led government in 2016 to ease the liquidity crunch that, as at the end 2016, the energy sector debt was approximately $2.4billion;
Adding that, at the exit of President John Dramatic Mahama, the $2.4billion amount was certified and agreed to be settled within 3-5 years starting from 2016, with the passage of Energy Sector Levies Act 2015, act 899 (ESLA)”.
He said there was a Term-sheet of $600 million to pay-off suppliers, but this was delayed by President Akufo-Addo for more than a year; government rake-in approximately Ghost 3 billion ($590million) annually from the ESLA.
Story By: Delali Gavor
