Finance Ministry directs $30m payment to Sunon Asogli

The Ministry of Finance has directed the Controller and Accountant General to disburse $30 million to Independent Power Producer, Sunon Asogli under a new agreement to address the debt that caused the power plant shutdown.

The plant, a critical 560-megawatt power facility, halted operations due to the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) outstanding $259 million debt.

The shutdown raises concerns about a potential return to ‘dumsor’ with serious economic impacts on the country.

Speaking to JoyNews, the spokesperson for Sunon Asogli, Elikplim Apertogbor said that negotiation has been slow.

“Since we shutdown, we’ve been having some verbal engagement and he [Finance Minister] maintained the position that until this thing is done, he’s not willing to talk to us. So he’s not willing to attend to us. That has been his posture,” he said.

When asked what it would take to resume operations, Mr Apertogbor noted, “We have mentioned our challenge. He has countless times to make a payment to Sunon Asogli but has not hourned those obligations or those promises. He’s saying that somebody is acting in bad faith. But his is worse than that.”

But the Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy, Ben Boakye, confirmed that the Controller and Accountant General has made the $30 million payment to Sunon Asogli.

“These kind of shutdowns, it will keep coming up because the situation is not good, it’s really terrible but we are also saved by certain kind of dynamics because the companies always will prefer you owing them than shutting down and not making money so that compells them to keep generating as long as there is fuel, there is gas to do that,” he said.

He stated that when Sunon Asogli shut down, the government had to quickly authorise a $30 million payment.

“I don’t know whether it actually hit their account but they had to instruct the accountant general to process payment of $30 million. That $30 million could have built schools, hospitals, save some dying members of our society for them to continue to produce an economic value and contribute to society but we are having to sacrifice this hard government money into these useless expenditures where power is supposed to be business, sell power, make money and pay everybody along the chain but politics doesn’t allow us to treat power sector as business and we keep accumulating this debt.”

Mr Boakye also attributed ECG’s revenue collection issues to a lack of competent leadership.

He asserted that credible leadership with the capacity and will to tackle these issues is essential for a long-term solution.

“That’s what we have been lacking. We always talk about investment, we need investment. But even when you put in the investment, the situation worsens. So it tells you that the problem is more of leadership and the commitment to deal with the problem than actually money,” he added.

 

Source: Joy News