The Minority in Parliament has offered some advice to the World Bank country director, Pierre Frank Laporte, urging him to refrain from involving himself in local politics and instead focus on fulfilling his duties as a skilled technocrat.
This follows from the remarks passed by the country director in an interview, attributing Ghana’s unsustainable debt level to the energy sector as being one of the factors driving the country’s debt situation.
He said the deficiencies in the sector characterized by the tariff systems and management issues coupled with expensive power purchases by the state in addition to the transmission losses, were the major problems in the energy sector driving Ghana’s debts.
“In the case of Ghana, those contracts that have been signed as PPAs are just expensive and the kind of PPAs signed are take or pay. You pay although you do not use it. The fact is that in the past few years, Ghana entered into an agreement at the wrong rate and the wrong price, and it has impacted the debt situation.”
Reacting to this claim at a press briefing in Parliament on Tuesday, 6 June, 2023, the Minority spokesperson on Energy and Mines, John Abu Jinapor, challenged Laporte to provide evidence to substantiate his claim.
“President Mahama’s record in the energy sector is unmatched, before leaving office, Mahama ensured that we had a comprehensive foothold on generation, fuel and the financial sector,” he said.
“We will finally wish to advise the World Bank country director to continue to work as a technocrat and not meddle himself in the field of politics. Laporte, you are not a politician and when you are making unsubstantiated comment, you must bear in mind that it has far reaching ramification on this country,” he added.
