WHEN DARKNESS COMES: THE LIGHTS DON’T BLIND ANYMORE

The current energy crisis is not about to be resolved anytime soon. Fellow Ghanaians, I’ll urge you all to expect this current state of affairs, the light offs to continue unabated through the Christmas season. The officials of the Electricity of Ghana (ECG) have run out of options, formulas and solutions to end this absurdity this year. According to one of their officials, 2015 looks a better year to end it all.

This is not the first time ECG and its cousins in the energy sub-sector- Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) and Volta River Authority (VRA) are treating the good people of this Republic with contempt. What is baffling is that, this current situation is getting worse by the day. The assurances from these agencies and government, especially the President (don’t forget the energy situation was a top political campaign issue). The President in his bid to win the NDC a second term promised on his campaign tours to ‘ensure that this energy crisis is a thing of the past’.

Reality Check: This energy crisis is a thing of the present; permeating through the future.

In addition to this, has been the numerous timelines given to ending this ‘dumsor’ by again, His Excellency, the President via State of the Nation Address, Energy Confabs, Festival Grounds etc. He is not alone though. The Energy Minister, Kofi Armah Buah has been setting dates to ending this whole national crisis. We also have Dr. Sipa Yankey, boss of the Ghana Gas Company who, time without number has kept fixing dates for the flow of Ghana’s first gas (the Dream Gas) through the pipelines at Atuabo.

We are all aware of factors that have accounted for our present circumstances. The ‘challenges’- to borrow the language of government functionaries- is not new to us. Mismanagement, Corruption, lack of investment, overstaffing are some of the reasons. The devil occupying ECG and its cohorts has many fins.

But that is not my major concern, although one cringes when told that about 30% of power produced is unaccounted for. The real bone for me is Why Are We Here? Didn’t the managers of the energy sector reckon this danger? What necessary action did they employ to mitigate or ameliorate this impending crisis so that Ghanaians would not feel the pinch?

Managers are supposed to among other things diagnose challenges that affect their organisations and device appropriate solutions to troubleshoot them. Is it the case that, the managers of ECG did not see this danger looming?

Like any organization, ECG has a Management Team and a Board of Directors who report to the Energy Ministry. The Energy Ministry also report to the Presidency. The Energy Minister is a Cabinet Minister so it will be out of place to think that all these people did not know about this impending crisis. Or is it a case of ‘No Money’?

Now, the Budget

That brings into mind Seth Tekper, the Finance Minister and his Budget, which he read on Wednesday, 19^th November, 2014.  I admire Mr. Tekper very much. One could see he is trying very hard to ‘balance’ things for the Better Ghana Agenda to be fulfilled. His only problem is that he talks and acts like a technocrat and not a politician. His transmogrification has taken a while.

So, the annual ritual of budget reading was done. They labeled it ‘Bright Future’. Perhaps, this dumsor will allow us all to see the promised brightness more clearly.  

What I find puzzling about the budget Ghana prepares annually is that most of the targets are not achieved. Don’t also forget that close to 50% of this budget is donor funded. Nkrumah did not envisage this kind of dependence when he fought for independence.

Each year, Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), under a Ministry of Finance (MoF) directive draws up budget to be submitted to MoF. Unfortunately, the amount requested for are not released in full to the MDAs. It is a miracle to see a MDA get half of the amount it requested for. Hear the Ranking Member of the Education Committee:

‘In November and December, we are preparing a new budget, whereas in the previous budget (2013), only 13 per cent was given to this agency (GETFund) to support the Ministry’s and agencies’ activities. So what budget are we presenting? Are we presenting budget for budget sake?’

The MoF people themselves know most of the targets won’t be achieved. Year in year out, the economic growth of the country is projected but achieving it becomes a mirage. The global economic prices of our exports are not all that fantastic. Cocoa prices, gold prices and oil prices keep fluctuating on the world market. These fluctuations do hamper the country’s effort to achieve its target growth rate.

Despite some glimmer of hope in the budget with regards to pharmaceutical, communication, agriculture sector, the new Value Added tax (VAT) of 17.5% is biting. Such development s makes it very hard for the citizenry to smile in this Mahama economy. It is unbearably tough to also live in this Tekper-o-sphere.

To survive this biting economy facing us-energy crisis and more taxes to be paid- will require more than believe and hope. We all must tighten our belt and hope 2015 will be a better year.