The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has commissioned a two weeks inquiry into losses incurred by the company through its operations at the Teshie-Nungua desalination facility and other revenue challenges facing the company.
The board chairman, Afenyo Markin who made this known in an interview on an Acra-based radio station said a sub committee has been tasked with the responsibility of looking into the operations of the desalination facility as well as other factors such as the cost component of the project, terms and conditions of the contract agreement…. “we would want to be clear on facts and figures,” he maintained.
The desalination facility commissioned by Former President John Mahama produces about 40,000 cubic metre of water daily to serve the over 500,000 people within the Teshie Nungua catchment areas. The intervention was expected to cure the water problem in the catchment area. However, GWCL loses an estimated 9 million Ghana cedis running the facility.
Mr Afenyo Markin stated that it cannot continue to operate with a consistent deficit that drains the finances of the state water company, hence instituting a subcommittee to find out why the facility keeps running at a loss.
“Basically the contention has been that every month we produce at a cost of 11 million Ghana cedis, we generate a revenue of 2 million….now we would want to understand whether or not there are some internal issues that have caused this high cost of production or the financial engineering was not properly done.”
According to him, the facility takes in excess of 36 million dollars which could be used for other projects without necessarily needing an external financier for support.
“I must assure the public that the members of the board including those we have consulted are individuals who have an in-depth understanding of the sector.. and they are determined to be transparent with us. We have had discussions, we have sorted their opinions.. we have looked at previous records. We have seen documents. We hold the view that a good work must be done. it is not proper to go out to crucify people, he stated
He added that “stakeholders and the world bank which provided the guarantee would know our decision, the producers of the water or the owners of the project and whatever decision would be made public.”
primenewsghana.com/Ghana News
