Honesty, they always tell us, is the best policy. And while that has never been the strong suit of most politicians the government of John Mahama just love taking dishonesty to absurd levels.
Forget the myriad of promises made about solving the power crisis that never materialise, the story of emergency power barges that has been in the news for months now is set to go on for just a little while longer.
For a long time we were told by government that the barges were on the high seas, and that they would arrive in Ghana by April. People started raising some concerns but government remained firm the emergency relief would be in Ghana by end of April.
Things started to unravel when April was almost over and there was no sign of any barges. A fact finding mission by some Members of Parliament discovered disturbing news, that the barges were still under construction and there was no way they would hit Ghana anytime within the next four months.
According to Karpower, the company contracted to deliver the barges, the earliest barge would get to Ghana in September. The second one would arrive in January 2016, “60 days earlier than contracted”
Their sales director spoke to Citi fm in Accra.
“The first contractual 225MW power ship is scheduled to be delivered in Ghana come September this year in Accra Ghana…and the second one will be subject to clarification but will be delivered at least 60 days earlier than contracted,”
Now if the second barge is being delivered ‘60 days earlier than contracted’, and that is January 2016, that means government knew when they signed the contract it would take a while for the barges to arrive. Yet the Power Minister confidently announced they would arrive in April- if that isn’t a case of wanton dishonesty I don’t know what is.
These are the kind of blunders that cost people their jobs in serious jurisdictions, but this is Ghana so everyone would just shrug it off- ‘that’s how things work’, we’ll resignedly sigh, and move on with our lives.
For now, we just continue to wallow in the dumsor, and hope at least no one screws up this September deadline. The rains might even come before then, making this whole thing moot, for now.