VRA owes TICO $15 million

The Volta river Authority, VRA, is said to owe the Takoradi International Company (TICO) about $15million.

The debt, according to The Chronicle, stems from a back load of non-pay¬ment of services rendered to VRA by TICO over the last six months.

The paper quotes management of TICO as saying that the debt has been a source of worry to the company but has, at the same time, been set aside by Volta River Authority (VRA) at a time the former company needed about $215 million for its expansion works.

“Sources close to TICO have hinted that though the company had plans to embark on vigorous expansion works to support the energy sector to meet the energy challenges facing the country now, attempts to retrieve the monies owed it to aid the company in that direction have proved futile,” said The Chronicle on Tuesday.

Managerial plans within the company, according to our sources, were currently geared toward finding ways of getting government to guarantee for the company to access funding from the International Financial Corporation (IFC) to be able to venture into combine cycling method that would enable the company convert waste heat energy into productive energy to increase its productivity.

The idea to solicit government's assistance according to the company, has failed to receive the attention of government based on the argument that the VRA was to do similar expansion works involving some $330 million to enable it generate additional megawatts of energy.

The paper said unlike the VRA which is currently generating about 330 megawatts of energy with the use of combine cycling method, dealing with combine steam turbines which convert the waste heat of 565 degree Celsius into energy, TICO is generating about 220 megawatts of energy in full capacity, with the use of the single cycling method where the heat waste is generated into the air.

TICO General Manager, Mr. Ramanathan Halachanda, two weeks ago, took advantage of the presence at the plant site, of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, when he paid them a visit, to explain the operational difficulties of the company to the government and the support they required from government.

He had told the finance Minister that their expansion works without the support of government would come to naught, expatiating further that they were ready in agreement with the International Financial Corporation (IFC) for funding and that could only be possible if government of Ghana was ready to provide guarantee.

A management member of VRA, Mr. Alfred Sackeyfio who was present during the Finance Minister's visit to the Aboadze Thermal Plant site confirmed VRA's indebtedness to TICO.

This was when the paper said it had heard of the debt situation and asked him about the actual debt VRA was struggling to pay to TICO.

The VRA man stopped short of stating the actual figure but said his company was in what he described as "actual sense debt," which phrase could not be understood but he was not ready to expatiate.

Pressed to confirm the exact figure, he directed the paper to contact the Finance Manager of the VRA who he noted, dealt with figures and could therefore be in a better position to disclose the actual figure of how much was actually owed to TICO.

The finance Manager could however not be reached for his comments.