The Minority Spokesperson on Energy, K. T. Hammond has accused government of scapegoating the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) boss by dismissing him.
He remarked that Rev. Ing. William Hutton-Mensah�s dismissal will not bring an end to the deepening energy crisis the country is saddled with.
�I think it�s 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,� said KT Hammond.
On Friday, the President appointed Robert Dwamena as acting Managing Director of the ECG.
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.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, KT Hammond who once served as Deputy Energy Minister under the Kufuor administration explained that �it�s not so much about whether the VRA head should go; it�s about whether the VRA is in a comfort zone to be able to generate electricity for Ghana.�
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 �but I am not so sure that a dismissal really is the issue.�
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 �nerve center for our generation network.�
�I hear that VRA is financially so crippled that they are struggling,� he claimed, adding that, �government has made it so difficult for VRA to operate.�
According to him, the government is starving the Authority of cash thereby making it difficult for them to purchase crude oil for energy production.
�The plants are idling by and they don�t have the money to buy crude and how do you expect them to produce?� he asked.
The former Deputy Energy Minister predicted that the nation �is going to go pitch dark in the next so many weeks.�
He cautioned Ghanaians not to believe the many promises the government has given about ending the energy crisis saying, �it�s lip service to quite a lot of the things the government is talking about�so don�t rely much on what the government is saying.�
�The government can boast as much as it wants; it�s done this, it�s done that, it�s doing this, it�s doing that but in the end if you don�t give the money for the crude to be bought to run them, they do not function,� he added.
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