By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Mr. Herbert Krapah, the Minister-designate for Energy at the appointment Committee of Parliament has disclosed that plans are far advanced for the government to secure funding from the African Development Bank to provide solar energy for some selected public hospitals, and other government agencies.
At his vetting on July 9, 2024 Herbert Krapah announced plans by the government to address such concerns with the installation of solar power to make up for the gap.
He mentioned this regarding the recent statement by the Electricity Company of Ghana which sought to disconnect some 91 hospitals from the national grid due to outstanding debts owed to the power distributor.
Herbert Krapah also announced a stable power supply across the country with an assurance of a firm hold of erratic power supply also termed as dumsor.
The Minister of State Designate further assured that the government is committed to mitigating the impact of a planned spillage of excess water from the Akosombo dam.
In related development, he announced that the Volta River Authority (VRA) has intended to engage with relevant stakeholders ahead of potential spillage in coming days.
Meanwhile, the Minority in a statement issued in parliament just before, the public hearing of the appointments Committee to vet the nominee, the Minority Caucus accused the majority side of the house of indecent attempts to short-circuit and circumvent the due process required in the vetting of the President’s nominee for the position of Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy.
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP and Deputy Minority Leader in his submission said, “long-standing parliamentary practice requires that persons nominated for appointment by the President shall be published in a newspaper of national circulation to inform, request memoranda or representation from the public. This ordinarily means that the public ought to be given reasonable notice and adequate time to submit memoranda or make representations to the Appointments Committee”.
He said these requirements have totally been breached, “the Minority is at a loss as to the rationale for the indecent haste on the part of the Majority, particularly as there is a subsisting Minister of Energy and the nominee is already a Deputy Minister of Energy”.
Last week, it took a strong push back from the Minority to call off the vetting of the same nominee just a day after the referral by the Speaker to the Appointments Committee to ensure that the appointment was advertised.
Accordingly, “the Minority cannot support the President’s nomination for the Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy at a time when Ghana is going through very difficult periods, including crippling economic crisis, food insecurity, debt default, corruption, state capture and wasteful expenditures”, as they called on President Akufo-Addo to downsize his government to signal to the people of Ghana that, at the very least, he is in tune with feedback and appreciates the challenges resulting from the bad economic policies of his government.
