Cephas Duse addressing the media
Newly-elected Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of the Volta River Authority, (VRA), Cephas Duse, has revealed that the power producer is owed to the tune of GH¢5 billion.
This, he said, was hampering the company’s efforts to be financially viable.
He mentioned the players in the mining sector and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as the major debtors of the company.
“As at September 2016, the independent power producers owed the VRA to the tune of GH¢5 billion.”
Mr. Duse made this known in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a biennial conference at Akuse in the Eastern Region.
The conference, among other things, was to discuss issues affecting the company and the way forward.
Newly-elected executives were sworn into office to steer the affairs of the association in the company.
According to him, “What is happening with the VRA is that we basically procure LCO gas and these are very expensive inputs; and they are dominated in foreign currency and when you buy these inputs it’s expected that when you sell to the public you get your money back. And when we don’t get the money back, we turn to the bank to get loans to buy again and the cycle continues. We sell to them and they don’t pay,” he said.
Mr. Duse said the legacy debt has come about as a result of the unpaid debts of the VRA.
“Government is largely to be blamed for the problems of the VRA since it is not allowing VRA to operate as a commercial entity. VRA is a power generating company and if we sell power and we are not paid, how can we survive?” he queried.
– Citifmonline