The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the President and his Government of being insincere to Ghanaians about the energy crisis.

At a press conference Tuesday January 3, 2015, the party said: “We want to share with you our deepest disappointment with the mismanagement of our power sector and its unbearable.”

“Over the last 6 years, the ruling NDC government has consistently demonstrated their inability to address the challenges facing the energy sector,” General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong said.

In the party’s view, the Mahama administration “is being insincere and misleading the Ghanaian people.”

“The actions and inactions of government have weakened the financial capacity of the Volta River Authority (VRA). As we speak, Government, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies and other institutions owe VRA up to the tune of over Ghc2billion and we strongly believe it is the major contributor to what we are experiencing today in Ghana,” the party said.

Ghana is currently shedding between 450 and 650 Megawatts of power during off-peak and peak periods, respectively, as against the planned 250 and 350 Megawatts. The production deficit, which has led to the lead shedding, has come about, according to the President and Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor, as a result of low level of water in the Akosombo, Bui and Kpong dams, as well as the lack of gas supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline in Nigeria (WAGPco) to power thermal plants in the country.

At a press conference Monday, Dr Donkor said the Government was doing everything possible to reverse the situation. One of those measures is to increase the generating capacity by 1000 megawatts.

The NPP, however, said the Minister “fell short of providing financial details and timeline for the aforementioned power projects.”

“How is government going to fund such projects, especially so when it was not captured in the 2015 budget which was read on the floor of Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Seth Tekper?” Mr Agyepong wondered.

Below is the rest of the press statement:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we want to request the government to provide us with the project details of the short-term measures and also clear timelines for the completion of the aforementioned power projects.

The energy crisis is taking a heavy toll on the socio economic lives of Ghana. The load shedding is destroying small and medium enterprises. Big companies are downsizing therefore increasing job loses and unemployment.

Barbers, hairdressers, carpenters, tailors, students and everybody have been negatively affected. Now we are being told to wait until the election year of 2016 to see an end to the crises. A few weeks ago, the fate of patients was left in the balance when the lights went off at the LEKMA hospital. Doctors were then in the operating theater performing a procedure on patients. Blood in blood banks are at risk due to frequent outages. Bodies of loved ones are decomposing in our morgues.

What plans does the government have for our hospitals, clinics and health institutions?

What we demand now are pragmatic plans in fixing this unending power crisis in the shortest possible time.