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Mahama worried about indebtedness of TOR and VRA
Kumasi, April 18, Ghanadot/GNA – The NDC
has expressed grave concern about the escalating
indebtedness of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Volta
River Authority (VRA).
Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Vice Presidential candidate of the
NDC, who raised the alarm, said if immediate steps were not
taken, the indebtedness of the two premier institutions in
the energy sector, would have serious repercussions
including the possible collapse of some banks in the
country.
Speaking at the energy seminar series organized by the
Energy Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on behalf of Professor Evans
Atta-Mills, the flagbearer of the NDC on Friday, Mr Mahama
said there was a lurking danger in the government’s
so-called micro-
economic stability, as a result of the huge debts of the two
institutions.
According to him, TOR was currently indebted to the Ghana
Commercial Bank alone in the excess of 500 million dollars
despite the TOR Debt Recovery Levy initiated by the
government in March 2003, which had grossed in excess of 500
million dollars.
Volta River Authority is also indebted to its suppliers and
banks in excess of 750 million dollars and even had problems
paying its staff.
Mr. Mahama said the indebtedness of the two institutions to
the tune of 1.25 billion dollars was unacceptable as
Ghanaians continue to pay more and more for electricity and
petroleum products.
He said the NDC government would unravel the mystery of the
rising TOR debt and immediately embark on streamlining the
cost incurred by TOR in the crude oil supply process,
including transportation and related charges in the process.
Mr. Mahama said the new NDC government would implement the
Power Sector Reform Strategy intended to increase private
sector investment and participation in the generation and
distribution of power to increase energy generating
capacities and access in the country.
He said much as the rising prices of crude oil on the
international market was a factor in the current high cost
in petroleum products, there were added costs to the
consumer, arising from the inefficiency and lack of
transparency in many aspects of the operations of entities
in the sector as well as outright corruption.
According to Mr. Mahama, the new NDC government’s vision for
the petroleum sub-sector would ensure the availability of
petroleum products to the nation in a cost effective and
environmentally sustainable manner.
He said fundamental to Ghana deriving maximum value from the
oil and gas resources was to ensuring a framework for
management of the sector that was free from corruption and
was transparent, adding that, transparency in the sector was
the best assurance of creating widespread public confidence
so as to avoid the dangers of dispute and conflict that oil
production had engendered in certain countries.
The Vice Presidential candidate said the NDC’ s priorities
for utilizing revenue from oil and gas would include the use
of significant portion of revenue to address the challenges
of poverty in Ghana through expenditures in the priority
areas of education, health, rural development,
infrastructure, water and sanitation.
It would also ensure investment in infrastructure, physical
and social in communities close to the oil and gas
production activities, invest in future generation fund that
could ensure sustained well-being into the long-term and
investment in technical training, scientific research and
development that would enable Ghanaians to be active
participants in all aspects of the oil and gas industry.
Mr. Mahama said the NDC government would leverage the
availability of cost effective cutting edge technology to
bear on the huge national potential in the renewable sources
in the areas of hydro-electric power, solar energy, wind
energy, biomass and biogas as well as tidal wave energy.
He said the development of the energy sector would be in the
manner that would provide a variety of job opportunities for
Ghanaians, adding that the NDC would avoid the trap of
refusing to utilize the Ghanaian expertise in the field
simply for reasons of political affiliation.
He said the party would use the skills that had been
developed in the citizens by institutions such as KNUST as
the basis for the energy future of the country.
GNA
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