As the Trades Union Congress(TUC) expresses regret over the Millennium Development Authority’s (MiDA) announcement of a Bidders Conference on Monday, October 31, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC), Dana Hyde has insisted that processes used in the compact involved all important parties.
The Public Utility Workers’ Union (PUWU) of TUC has been against a private sector participation in the Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG)
The TUC pointed out that, MiDA’s announcement constitutes a betrayal of trust and a demonstration of bad faith because a Technical Committee set up to deal with the issues has not concluded its work.
Under the power compact, Ghana is expected to get over 498 million dollars to execute six projects. This includes a private sector participation in the management of ECG.
Speaking at an editors conference in Accra, the CEO of the MCC, Madam Hyde maintained that consultations with all parties has been fruitful.
“The process went on for about three years where there were a number of joint consultations with various stakeholders and the core principle of MCC is that our partnership will be very countrywide, involving all stakeholders,” she said.
MCC engaging ordinary Ghanaians
Madam Hyde disclosed that she has personally taken time to gather views from the Ghanaian public on how business owners think about the private sector participation in ECG, and how it will improve reliable power supply.
“We went out to the community and we visited a print shop, and caterer and sat down and I talked to them and I said tell me what it means for your business to run this printers or to run this oven and they spoke quite a bit about how important it is for them to have a reliable source of energy, what a charisma they need to have a generator,” she recounted.
According to Madam Hyde, most Ghanaians are optimistic the Power Compact will inject the needed capital into the ECG to make it productive and efficient for electricity supply.
“What we are seeking to do here in Ghana is to transform the power sector to make it more reliable, to make it more efficient and to increase the access .We had a little bit of an opportunity to see why that is so significant,” she said adding that “as I’m here I have been impressed with what I have seen as well as the comment of the government of Ghana”.
She stated that every step on the way has been carefully calculated from data gathered by the corporation in collaboration with relevant authorities to make the compact fair.
“It started with economic evidenced based data. MCC has only one mission and that is to alleviate poverty by creating economic growth and opportunity, so we approach that mission from a data based analysis. We started three years ago on that analysis and engaged all stakeholders,” she stressed.
More engagement with Ghanaians
Disclosing the level of consultation, some participants at the meeting said that the level of transparency in every step of the introduction of the private sector in the ECG was strictly followed to get the support of all stakeholders.
“The level of investment will improve power generation and will impact on growth and economic development. This is the main reason why I think in the partnership we relied on evidence and data which was shared with all participants,” a US official said.
“We have consulted economist and have invited many in putting this together. The goal is to strengthen ECG. As she has said, it is not to take over ECG. The object is to strengthen ECG and make it stronger. Change is always difficult so I think we have to continue the dialogue” another U.S official said.
Compact II enters into force
The Ghana Power Compact, also referred to as Compact II, entered into force despite a law suit against the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) over the concession of the ECG.
A press statement released recently by MiDA and copied to Citi Business News explained that by the action, the treaty which was signed on August 5, 2014 between the Republic of Ghana and the United States of America, represented by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has become effective and Ghana now has access to the Program’s funds.
The Compact II
Under the Power Compact, six projects will be implemented to address the the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana
The project include ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.
The rest are Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency, and Demand Side Management Project,.
The Government of Ghana signed the Ghana Power Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington on August 5, 2014.
Ghana to get over 498m dollars
Ghana signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC on August 5, 2014.
The Ghana Power Compact would provide Ghana with a grant sum of four hundred and ninety eight million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars (US$498,200,000) to improve the performance of Ghana’s power sector, unlock the country’s economic potential, create jobs, and reduce poverty.
About US$350 million of the grant is being invested in ECG to make the country’s power distributor operationally and financially more efficient.
The Compact is being implemented by the Government of Ghana through the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
