Finance issues cause of current ‘dumsor’ – Kwabena Donkor

Former Power Minister Kwabena Donkor has blamed the current power outages facing the country on the lack of money to purchase gas to fuel power plants.

According to him, the problem could also blamed on politics as crucial decisions have been taken only to satisfy a political interest instead of the national interest.

The comment comes a day after the Energy minister Peter Amewu told Ghanaians that the power situation is being resolved even though intermittent power cuts should be expected.

He blamed the recent outages on series of events including the gas supply challenges to Karpower.

As a result, he noted, over 800mw of power was lost during peak periods causing the outages.

Speaking on the development, Dr. Donkor said the there is the need for the fundamental issues in the energy sector to be addressed regardless of the political party in power.

“Our major problem now is finance, hard cash to pay for fuel. As a nation irrespective of who occupies the seat, there are fundamental issues we must address and move away from short term issues and the near lazy approach.

“The last tariff reduction was very good for government but very debilitating for the energy sector...we are just delaying the inevitable to score easy political points,” the Pru East MP told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Public utilities Commission says it is working to ensure that the interest of consumers is protected despite the power challenges.

“The commission is working to ensure that their interest is protected and that power supply is provided. We are still performing our role. We are not reneging on our role of ensuring that they get the quality of service as required."

"I believe the situation is quiet temporary, from what we have been told, from what we believe and from what our investigations have found,” the Public relations officer of the commission said.