Gov’t explains Kufuor's Bui Dam snub

Head of Communications at the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawa, has said former President Kufuor will be invited to the “formal commissioning” of the Bui Hydro-electric Power Project which has been slated for latter part of the year.

He said what happened today at the project site was only a “switching on ceremony” which did not need the presence of the former president.

He was reacting to former President John Kufuor who was disappointed for not being invited to the commissioning ceremony held in the Brong Ahafo Region on Friday.

The Kufuor government signed the contract with the Chinese engineering and procurement organization, Sinohydro in April 2007, to construct the dam that would add 400 megawatts of power to the national grid.

The construction of the Dam cost the government of Ghana $60million out of the total project cost of $622m which was largely funded by the Chinese government.

Former President Kufuor in an exclusive interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday expressed grave displeasure that he was not invited for the commissioning ceremony.

However, the head of Communications at the Energy Ministry has said in an interview on Joy FM that today’s ceremony was not a formal commissioning but “just a way of telling people” – we are getting some power.

He downplayed the significance of today’s event as one organised “just to kick start one unit of 400 megawatts” expected to be generated from the Dam.

He said inviting a person of President Kufuor’s stature was going to be “very difficult” to imagine because the event was “just a working visit” for President John Mahama.

Kufuor was however given a “strong tribute” in President Mahama’s speech, he reported.

This, he believed, was “strong indications” that the former President will be invited for the formal commissioning slated for the end of the year.

But he was quick to add this was not an official promise. “I don’t speak for state protocol,” he noted.