'I couldn't achieve even 30% of progressive plans due to vested interests' – Former Energy Minister

Former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, has revealed that even though he had progressive plans for the Energy Ministry during his tenure, they could not be fully achieved due to interferences from people with “vested interest”.

According to Boakye Agyarko, despite his hard work and positive vision for the energy ministry, some forces prevented him from discharging his duties effectively.

He likened the ministry to the “galamsey” problem in Ghana where powerful persons in the country control affairs.

Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM monitored by GhanaWeb, he lamented how tough it is to work in the energy ministry seeing that there is a lot of revenue in that sector.

He said: "It's like the galamsey menace that has been going on. The vested interest will not let go. The vested interest in the energy sector? They will never let go, all actors who feed from it. They will 'submarine' you before you even sit down. It's a tough place. You either go with the flow or you fight."

Explaining further, he noted that whiles he was a minister, he was only able to achieve 30% of the things he had planned to do.

“There were many things we planned to do, during my time, but we were not able to do 30%. If I had the folder with me, I'd have shown you a lot of the technical things. When I came initially, we were about dispatching power, by only GRIDCo.

“And I said 'Ah, that is not how it should be done'. What I had learned, even in the U.S., there is something called economic merit dispatch order. You dispatch the cheapest power first. There's a system that we queue so if I am a power generator, I have to declare availability. Declaring availability means I have fuel and everything so once you say go, I am ready. So, if only one player determines the dispatch, it leads to a lot of happenings. So when I came, luckily, there was something in the law, so we instituted something called EMOP, Electricity Market Oversight Panel,” he said.

The former minister clarified his claim by pointing out that because the industry generates a lot of revenue, interested parties frequently employ schemes for their gain.

"Some things happen there, knowing fully it's not supposed to be so, but it occurs anyway. When you look into it, for instance, a bad contract can be tampered with so much that working on it becomes useless. So, you are stuck in the mess.

"It is a very tough place; it is a place where there's a lot of money floating about. You see, wherever there is money, the devil takes his place so he can push through with his schemes. There are several things you do that will benefit the country but there are forces that stop you," he revealed.

For the NPP presidential hopeful, focusing and giving the best as an energy minister is the only way to survive because "if you want appreciation as a hardworking energy minister, you won't get it."

SSD/FNOQ

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