In the news early this week was the five years electricity supply contract the Ministry of Energy has signed with the Karpowership Company’s top executives, probably to secure their normal 10% commission contractors dole from any energy contract confirmed by Government, via the Ministry of Finance.
That is no longer are hidden secretes at both ministries, and the more reason for the rush to sign another deal with the company to serve for more five years. This time around five years contract with the private energy firm, irrespective of its sustainability in developing the sector.
Energy is needed in rural and urban communities mostly of high demands, which Government through the Ministry of Energy under the political leadership of Kanja Sesay as Minister of Energy, has not been able to offer adequately in closed to three years now. He rather prefer making an installation of cheap thermal plants to places described as his political base because he is eyeing the regional chairmanship of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party.
The five deal has even exposed the sector’s lack of capacity to handle inefficiency problems militating against the progress and development of the energy sector which hardly provide regular power supply to the country not to mention Freetown and other major towns.
A project only worthy for the contractors and those who signed the deal, leaving continuing energy projects unfinished, while electricity consumers perish in perpetual darkness due to intermittent power supply.
The 10% commission received by both ministries’ leaders from the contractors by any given circumstance should not eclipse national interests especially one that has to do with effective service delivery.
The venture is therefore untimely in that state has always cry of inherited a broken economy only to be seeing buying energy from foreign energy firm. It lay bare Government’s refusal to complement gains made by previous administrations, particularly in complementing work on Bumbuna and others, instead of dedicating such a huge resources to the Karpowership energy suppliers for another five years. What a waste of tax payers’ moneys.
Since it is now pretty clear that Government workers at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy are less focus of the colossal financial expenditure, with premium attention to their 10% commission, they seem to be fine and good with that even if there is no electricity supply.
Much was expected from the sector to have continued with the consolidations of gains Minister Sesay inherited rather than reinventing the wheel with an ulterior motive of blame games to secure their kickbacks from the contractor, forgetting to note that the energy sector deserves more attention now than never.
And with the right political will, Government should have rather focus on completing energy projects it inherited from the last administration to avoid unnecessary waste of funds of an unsustainable Karpowership electricity for another five years. It does not solve the energy problem and should be discouraged in future programme development for the sector.
Funds and resources should have been therefore dedicated towards finishing Bumbuna, rural electrifications and so many mini-hydro dams, meant for power generation to other parts of the country.
The unsustainable Foreign Service provider even it serve for the next 100 years it is still not sustainable to fully capacitate the sector the more reasons past gain should have been consolidated by Government in pushing the energy industry as Bumbuna had already been done 50%, and it has always been up and running in the last ten years. Hence, no need for Government to have wasted money of the Karpowership for five years with a contractor who is only looking for means to maximize profits.
As a nation with so many hydro dam potentials our Governments in and out should be concentrating of providing a sustainable sources of energy to connect the country as a whole not by piece mills installations as Minister Kanja recently did in Bo and Kenema to secure political points.
The only permanent solution for sustainable electricity supplies to those communities is through hydro dams and not temporal thermal plant installations. So if you people really mean business to provide regular power supplies then make good use of all the hydro potentials and forget about the regular collections of 10% commissions from private power providers. For electricity is key to the sustenance of the livelihoods of all.
Government going forward should be mindful of the fact that President Bio made a promise to upgrade the energy sector which we are yet to realize the SLPP set in to work barely approaching three years now. All we see and hear in the news are blame games with excuses after the other, which are not what the people expect for the supply of power into their homes, businesses, places of work as promised by president during his elections campaigns in 20218.
Hard work is badly needed now as past glories if any can’t connect the homes and businesses of consumers. So don’t just think of your commission and forget about the suffering masses you were elected to serve with regular power supplies.
Failure on your part to meet these demands your administration will be held accountable for not fulfilling its obligations to the people as part of your own side of the social contract you signed with them on 4th April 2018. So Minister of Energy Alhaji Kanja Sesay move up to provide regular power supplies to save your name, the party and the government you are serving, as the people need light all over the country.
