Gov’t playing cheap politics with power - Nduom

Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has called on the Mahama-led administration to stop playing the “cheap and dangerous politics” with the power situation in the country. According to him, government must concentrate on paying its indebtedness to the ECG and quit blaming others for the power challenges. The comments by the Progressive People’s Party founder come after a new billing system by the ECG ruffled some consumers of electricity in the country. The PURC has subsequently directed the power distributor to suspend the new billing system while President John Mahama has waded into the development, assuring that the challenge will be fixed soon. "I have counseled the current administration not to be in a hurry to declare victory over dumsor. I have asked President Mahama and his people to be patient enough to understand the full scope of the power crisis – from generation to transmission to distribution to billing and collection of power supplied. Many of them doubted my sincerity in giving this advice," Nduom said in a statement. Below is the full statement from Dr. Nduom: Did the Majority Chief Whip Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak really accuse ECG of undermining President John Mahama’s fight against DUMSOR? So what do these people take Ghanaians for? Was it not President Mahama who stood in Parliament in front of the Majority Chief Whip and promised that he would fix the DUMSOR problem? And did the same President Mahama not go back to Parliament in the presence of this same Majority Chief Whip and declare victory against dumsor? Is DUMSOR not supposed to be “…a thing of the past”? I have counseled the current administration not to be in a hurry to declare victory over dumsor. I have asked President Mahama and his people to be patient enough to understand the full scope of the power crisis – from generation to transmission to distribution to billing and collection of power supplied. Many of them doubted my sincerity in giving this advice. Was this same Majority Chief Whip not one of the MPs who jubilated when the President declared that the power generation problem was over? He and others did not listen when some of us cautioned them and asked them not to consider generation to be 100% of the power problem. They wanted a political solution so they got one, an expensive generation solution and now they realize there is a billing and collection problem. Instead of sitting down to understand this problem, this MP is playing a dangerous blame game with the ECG. When the business people complained about the doubling and tripling of power bills, these politicians cried foul and were not sympathetic. So when did this MP realize that there are some ECG power distribution, billing and collection problems to solve? Is it because we are in an election year he now realizes that “… in several cases, the cost of consumption has more than doubled and this has imposed undue hardship on virtually all Ghanaians, especially on the ordinary masses”. What about the businesses that pay tax and employ the ordinary masses? This administration must stop playing politics with the power crisis. We should ask when government will pay what it owes to ECG to give it breathing room to apply good management methods and systems. And the Power Ministry must closely monitor and supervise this sector very well. No cheap, political blame games here. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom

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