The Minority Spokesperson on Energy, K. T. Hammond has accused government of scapegoating the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) boss by dismissing him.<\/p>\n
He remarked that Rev. Ing. William Hutton-Mensah\u2019s dismissal will not bring an end to the deepening energy crisis the country is saddled with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s kind of scapegoating the guy. I am not so sure but if he has been sacked, I am not so sure it is the beginning of finding the solution to the myriad of problems that we have,\u201d said KT Hammond.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the President appointed Robert Dwamena<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>as acting Managing Director of the ECG.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”8j61QQOh3iXcTeLgrAD3Dj40Vv6RxAuz”]The President’s decision angered workers of the ECG who demanded the reinstatement of Rev. Hutton-Mensah because according to them, his dismissal was unfair and unwarranted.<\/p>\n Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, KT Hammond who once served as Deputy Energy Minister under the Kufuor administration explained that \u201cit\u2019s not so much about whether the VRA head should go; it\u2019s about whether the VRA is in a comfort zone to be able to generate electricity for Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n He acknowledged that there are a lot of bottlenecks in the system which is causing difficulties for the ECG to reliably supply citizens with power \u201cbut I am not so sure that a dismissal really is the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n The Adansi Fomena Member of Parliament (MP) pointed out that the President should have focused his attention on the challenges the VRA is battling with since it is the \u201cnerve center for our generation network.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hear that VRA is financially so crippled that they are struggling,\u201d he claimed, adding that, \u201cgovernment has made it so difficult for VRA to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the government is starving the Authority of cash thereby making it difficult for them to purchase crude oil for energy production.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plants are idling by and they don\u2019t have the money to buy crude and how do you expect them to produce?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n The former Deputy Energy Minister predicted that the nation \u201cis going to go pitch dark in the next so many weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n He cautioned Ghanaians not to believe the many promises the government has given about ending the energy crisis saying, \u201cit\u2019s lip service to quite a lot of the things the government is talking about\u2026so don\u2019t rely much on what the government is saying.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe government can boast as much as it wants; it\u2019s done this, it\u2019s done that, it\u2019s doing this, it\u2019s doing that but in the end if you don\u2019t give the money for the crude to be bought to run them, they do not function,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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