As Ghanaians are made to endure 24 hours power outages every other day in recent times, suggestions by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for an upward adjustment in tariffs is nothing short of ridiculous.
This lazy way out taken every year by the Public Utility Regulation Commission (PURC) and utility providers is naked robbery and will no longer be tolerated.
It has been confirmed by ECG, VRA and TOR that the government owes them $500m and $400m and $300m respectively. According to the Director of Customer Service at ECG, Dr Nicholas Smart Yeboah, ��the debt was accumulated over the years, adding that 54% of the money was due to allocation fees in arrears for two years, and the rest is money owed by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs),�� as reported by myjoyonline.
The people of the Republic of Ghana cannot continue to subsidize the incompetence, inefficiencies, and the lack of moral uprightness of our government. Bloated government Ministries, District assemblies and state agencies providing jobs for the boys who fleece the State of our scarce resources is very insensitive to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.
The current energy crisis is self inflicted onto Ghanaians by our government which is continuously increasing domestic debt through the deliberate running down of such critical agencies. This attitude by the government is becoming a national security risk.
The estimated $1b owed by government to energy sector agencies, according to analyst is sufficient to bring in some additional 400-500 megawatts of electricity to the National grid. These agencies have no business whatsoever to seek an upward adjustment in tariffs but go chasing the government for their monies. Ghanaians don�t owe them a dime.
DEMANDS
1. Young Patriots wish to impress upon the ECG, VRA and PURC to with immediate effect ensure all government agencies, ministries and MDA�s have prepaid meters installed before any negotiations on tariffs begins. Failure to do so, we will seriously consider bringing a class action suit against the PURC and ECG among others on behalf of all Ghanaians.
2. Secondly we are appealing to President Mahama as a matter of urgency, to pay all government debts to ECG, VRA and TOR to ensure these institutions are enabled to perform.
3. Last but not least, the President should ensure that Ministers and all government functionaries who draw free fuel should stop with immediate effect as they have had more than double increment in their salaries. This will help cut the profligate expenditure and life style of the government.
Failure to do so, we will use all legitimate means available to us to address our concerns.
SIGNED
Richard Nyamah
Fred Amankwah Sarfo
Hopeson Adorye
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