By: Hassan Osman Kargbo
Sierra Leone’s Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, has exposed some Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that are in the habit of not paying their outstanding bills after using the Electricity Distribution Service Authority’s (EDSA’s) light.
The Chief Minister was speaking in a press conference organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education on the 30th April 2024, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Tower Hill Freetown.
According to him, there are lot of Ministries Departments and Agencies that are using EDSA’s light that are not paying their bills regularly in the country.
He added that the electricity thief is not only done in Churches and Mosques and some homes are also involves in electricity thief. He said some MDAs don’t have any receipt for EDSA’s bills which is not good for the country’s development and MDAs need to up their game to help EDSA to run their service smoothly.
He further noted that, it’s not a secret that the country especially the city is experiencing too much power cut and said that the Ministry of Energy and EDSA are working tirelessly to resolved the blackout in the country but some MDAs are not helping the situation by not paying their bills regularly.
He continued that it’s possible for the government to spend a huge sum of money yet the country is experiencing too much power cut, because he said the cost of power has gone up in the world. He added that energy accessibility is expensive and the government had put a lot mechanism to see that Electricity situation is a thing of the past.
He admitted that because of the current energy network they had in the country, even if we they decided to use all the MW at the same time, it’s not possible for everybody is get access to Electricity at the same time. Because the current infrastructure in the country cannot take beyond 80 MW in the country.
“In the capital City, if every household decided to get energy it will be 100 MW, but the current structure in the country Freetown for example, they can only send 80 MW for the people and not more,” he said.
