Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper would have preferred the 2015 Budget Statement and Economic Policy focused on the energy sector instead of �so many sectors�.
The Finance Minister, Seth Terkper on Wednesday, 19th November, 2014 presented government�s economic policy direction for the year 2015 in Parliament.
The budget touched on education, oil sector, health, agriculture, fisheries, trade and industries, energy, water and other areas.
However, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, contributing to a panel discussion on PeaceFM �s �Kokrokoo � Morning Show, expressed the view that instead of the various sectors, the budget should have focused on how to solve the �dumsor dumsor problem�we are in an extraordinary situation and we need an extraordinary budget�.
�How can you raise revenue when you don�t have light? All the debate about the budget is useless because where is the light to raise the revenue? Without light you cannot work and moreover the real cause of the dumsor is not known� the stories are too many that you don�t even know which one to believe. We should have the courage to tell the truth about the energy sector�
Instead of reading a normal budget, he (Seth Terkper) should have said: we are in an emergency and the power sector is key and so for the next six months or one year, half of that revenue is going into improving the energy sector�. Energy should have been the key focus of this budget...but we are not focusing on it and so sometimes I ask myself the use of all these government appointees having the big degrees�is this their best�because they are not doing tinnnn,� he fumed.
Sack Energy Minister, GRIDCo & VRA Heads Or,... - ECG Staff Warn Gov't
Meanwhile, government, on Friday fired the Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Rev. Ing William Hutton-Mensah.
A statement signed by the Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani directed Mr Hutton-Mensah, who is on his annual leave, to report to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum for reassignment. Robert Dwamena will be acting in that capacity.
Mr. Dwamena, who until his appointment as the Director of Procurements at the ECG, started his career with the Engineering Directorate of the Company in 1982.
But the decision by government to sack the ECG MD has been met with open outcry by staff of the state agency.
Angry workers of the ECG Avenor office are said to be protesting the removal of the Managing Director of the company. They have hoisted red flags with banners demanding his reinstatement.
Reports also say staff of the Tema Regional office of the ECG are threatening mayhem. They want the presidency to explain why the former MD was removed whiles also asking that all heads of agencies on the energy distribution chain which includes the Volta River Authority (VRA) and Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) should be sacked.
�We want our MD back. the dumsor dumsor we don�t generate electricity, we only distribute power, so if there is any problem they have to blame GRIDCO or VRA and not ECG so we want the MD back�If we don�t have our MD back within the next three days they should expect total blackout�This is not sabotage�we are fighting for our rights�We don�t have any problem with whoever has been assigned but they should give us a reason. The Minister of Energy should be first sacked. It�s the minister who goes on air promising Ghanaians when the dumsor will be over not our MD,� they said.
Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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