Rural Electrification Project: Deputy Minister designate calls for freeze on new contracts
The Deputy Minister of Energy designate, Mr William Owuraku Aidoo, has called for a freeze on the award of new contracts under the rural electrification project.
That, he explained, would afford the government the opportunity to complete all the existing contracts under the project, with some of them going back as far as 2016.
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Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee, he said when approved, he would suggest that to the Minister of Energy for his consideration.
He was responding to a question from the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, on why many communities have had electricity poles installed since 2016 and had still not been connected to the national grid.
“I will suggest humbly to the minister for us to put a hold on contracting new projects under the rural electrification programme. We have spread ourselves too thinly on the ground and we bring in materials and they are woefully inadequate to cover all the areas.
“So going forward, I will suggest that we should hold on with the issuance of new contracts and concentrate on completing the existing ones,” he stated.
Responding to a question on what would be his next line of action should the minister not agree to his suggestion, he said his role was to assist the minister and that the minister was not bound to accept his suggestions.
He was, however, hopeful that the minister would heed to his advice, explaining that it was the best for the country.
Rural electrification
The deputy minister designate also noted that the government had been able to expand rural electrification access from 82 per cent in 2016 to 86 per cent.
On plans of the government to connect some rural areas in the northern area of the country, he said there was a $50 million project in the pipeline which was targeted at the northern part of the country.
“When this is completed, I am sure it will go a long way in addressing the gap between the northern part and the southern part,” he stated.
Power challenges
Mr Owuraku Aidoo also denied that the current power challenges were attributable to the cancellation of the PDS agreement.
He said the money which was promised by the American government for the country’s power which it threatened to withhold was meant for some supply points at Kasoa and Pokuase.
“The American government was not happy with the truncation of the whole agreement but it did not affect the Kasoa and Pokuase supply projects. The PDS deal has nothing to do with the transmission challenges that we are facing now,” he noted.
Mr Owuraku Aidoo also mentioned that the current financial position of GRIDCO and ECG were not anything good to write home about.