300 million dollars needed to forestall power outages - Kan-Dapaah
All activities on Bui Hydro Dam Suspended -
Minister
Parliament urges Finance Ministry to release
Common fund on time
MPs bemoan challenges of education in Northern Ghana
Five MPs to serve on Parliamentary Service Board
300 million dollars needed to forestall
power outages - Kan-Dapaah
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 October 2001 – The Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah said on Tuesday that about 300 million dollars investment was needed in the power distribution sector for the next five years to forestall the current power outages being experienced countrywide.
He said the investment would enable the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to rehabilitate and upgrade electrical networks to attain the required quality of power.
Mr Kan-Dapaah was responding to one of three major questions Mr Kofi Asante, MP- Amenfi West and the Minority spokesman on Energy, asked in Parliament about what steps the Ministry was taking to address the problem of frequent unannounced power outages in almost every part of the country.
The other two questions were what was the status with regard to the constructions of the 400 MW Bui Hydro Electric Project and when would the electrification project for Brodzekrom, Amoakokrom, Amoaman and Aboi-Nkwanta all in the Amenfi District in the Western Region, which were near the national electricity grid would begin.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said there was power rationing because of overloaded equipment such as transformers and cables and the breakdown of faulty equipment, which have outlived their lifespan.
He said, "the situation has been aggravated by the increasing annual growth in the demand for electricity without the corresponding investment to meet the growing demand".
The Minister said: "The electric utilities have not been able to make the required investments to improve quality of electricity supply due to low electricity tariffs, which have resulted in the poor financial standing of the utilities."
Mr Kan-Dapaah said the utilities have started installing pre-payment meters countrywide to improve quality while the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has also come up with a Transitional Plan to increase electricity tariffs to economic levels by the end of the year 2003.
The second Bulk Supply Power Station has recently been completed at Mallam in Accra in addition to the one at Dzowolu near Achimota, which would improve power supply in Accra,
"There are plans to construct a second Bulk Supply Station for Kumasi and Takoradi as well as a few other regional capitals in the near future”.
Although the Minister could not readily say how soon the regional capitals would benefit from the project, he said the Volta River Authority (VRA) was arranging for funding to complete the second phase of the Aboadze Thermal Power Project, which would generate additional 110 Megawatts thermal power.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said although he could not tell when the proposed West African Gas Pipeline Project would commence yet its completion would enable the country to use gas to generate electricity.
He said: "The initial plan for thermal generation with gas from Nigeria is to construct a new 3,000 Megawatts Power Plant."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 October 2001 - The Ministry of Energy on Tuesday announced that all activities on the Bui Hydroelectric Power Project have been suspended.
Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy told Parliament that the Ministry has "put the whole process up for fresh tender evaluation and appointment of a new consortium".
The Minister was answering questions posed to him by Kofi Asante MP Amenfi West and Minority Spokesman on Energy, who wanted to know the status of the 400 MW Bui Hydro Electric Project.
Kan Dapaah said: "The Volta River Authority (VRA) has consequently suspended all the activities being carried out under her obligations in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)."
The VRA was now "working on rational termination of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Study being carried out as part of her obligations under the MOU", he said.
The Minister's answer brought many members of the Minority to their feet and the Speaker, Peter Ala Adjetey allowed Mrs Hanna Tetteh Kpodar, Awutu-Senya, Dr Kwame Ampofo South-Dayi, Mr Doe Adjaho, Minority Chief Whip, Mr John Mahama, Bole and Mr Seidu Adamu, Bibiani to ask supplementary questions as to why the project should be suspended and whether a new tender and the preparation of a new memorandum of understanding would not be extra cost to the nation.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative it would be possible to establish new MOU and that a new EIA would not have any immediate impact on the project.
As to the cost and content of the old MOU the Minister said the document was not a classified one and that he could make it available to members if the Speaker so directed.
He said the obligation of preparing another EIA was at the instance of the VRA. Brodzekrom, Amoakokrom, Amoaman and Aboi-Nkwanta in the Amenfi West District would be considered for electrification under the SHEP-Four programme, Mr Kan-Dapaah said in an answer to another question posed by Mr Asante.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 October 2001 - Parliament on Tuesday urged the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to release the District Assemblies' Common Fund on time to enable the assemblies to assist poor communities to benefit from the on-going Self-Help
Electrification Programme (SHEP).
The SHEP is a complementary programme under the national electrification programme. It seeks to connect communities within 20 kilometres distance from a suitable source of supply and that have taken the initiative to provide low- tension poles.
The House took the decision upon the recommendation of its Mines and Energy Committee after investigating an allegation of non-execution and delays in the implementation of the programme.
Mr Anthony Boadi-Mensah, Chairman, said contracts for the on-going SHEP programme were awarded in August 2000 and it was expected to be completed by March 2002 with a total coverage of 621 communities.
"The major constraint is the inability of (the) government to make funds available for the procurement and conveyance of needed materials to project sites."
Mr Boadi-Mensah said most connections made were one phase system, which could not power cottage industrial plants. "The committee recommends that government should endeavour to make 3-phase system available to all communities that were economically viable."
He asked the Ministry of Energy (MOE) to forge alliances with District Assemblies to educate communities on the aims, duration and how to access the Self-Help Electrification Project.
"Village and communities along high tension lines should be involved in the project in order to prevent them from obstructing on-going projects."
Mr Boadi-Mensah said: " MOE must step up the task of ensuring that consultants and contractors complete projects on scheduled."
Mr Abraham Kofi Asante, the Minority Spokesman on Energy, called on Assembly members and opinion leaders to protect ignorant communities from undue exploitation by unscrupulous contractors.
He asked communities to help stop thieves that steal materials used for the programme.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 October 2001 - Members of Parliament on Tuesday expressed concern about the general disparity in development and the educational gap that exist between Northern and Southern Ghana and called for policies and support from educated northerners to address the situation.
Mr Mumuni Abudu Seidu, NDC - Wa Central set the tone when he made a statement on the current challenges of education in Northern Ghana. He said the illiteracy rate in the North was currently estimated to be about 70 per cent compared to 30 per cent in the South.
The purpose of the statement which was threefold, he said, was to create public awareness of the general disparity, that it was not in the national interest to continue to shy away from the discussions of the reality of the disparity for fear of fanning tribal sentiments and thirdly to correct erroneous perception that the North was inhabited by one tribe.
Mr Seidu said the North has vast agricultural and human resources but only contributed a mere 1.3 per cent of the total number of industrial establishments.
The area is reputed for its supply of unskilled labour to the cocoa farms, mines, house servants and porters in the shopping centres of the South and other menial jobs, he said.
Mr Seidu said the present standard of education in the north is nothing to write about adding that the Colonial Government intentionally suppressed education by regulation by limiting it to "standard four".
The aim of the policy was to produce very few semi-illiterates to man the low administrative positions. Mr Seidu mentioned a litany of disparities such as the number of educational institutions, low enrolment at all levels, state of existing structures, teaching and learning facilities and teacher-pupil ratio between the North and South.
He commended Dr Kwame Nkrumah for making education in the north his top priority and for establishing the special scholarship scheme to provide secondary education to adults.
Others included the Northern Scholarship Scheme to benefit people of northern extraction at all levels of education, opening of many educational trust secondary schools and the accelerated educational policy that enabled the government to open many basic schools that liberated northern children to attend secondary schools of their choice.
He said with the present global economic trend moving towards cost sharing in the provision of social services, "some of we the northerners and our friends are determined to put pressure on policy makers to recognise and appreciate our peculiar circumstances.
Mr Seidu said they have tasked themselves to sensitise their colleagues to accept the inevitable that the government could not continue to give the North preferential treatment no matter the level of their disadvantage.
"We are also determined to encourage the few better endowed among us to invest in education such as the establishment of private schools."
Mr Seidu appealed to the Minister of Education, Directors of Education and the Board Members of the Education Trust Fund to look favourably to the unique plight of the Northerner to make education in the North their top priority when it comes to the disbursement of available resources.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 October 2001 - Parliament on Tuesday endorsed the nomination of its five members to serve on the Parliamentary Service Board through a voice vote.
They are Papa Owusu-Ankoma, the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader, Mr Abraham Ossei Aidooh, the Majority Chief Whip, Mrs Ama Benyiwa Doe, NDC-Gomoa East, the Deputy Minority Whip and Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, the Deputy Majority Whip.
The five are to join the Clerk and Speaker, who are automatic members to form the board. In another development the house adopted the Auditor-General's report on the Judiciary for the period ended December, 31, 1997.
Startling revelations of corruption and misapplication of funds were unearthed in the Judiciary. Papa Owusu-Ankoma said henceforth, such reports would guide the House during the approval process of budgetary allocations.
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