Gov’t Owes GWC GH2.5M

The government of Ghana is indebted to Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to the tune of GH2,547,677.01

Government should have reimbursed the GWC projects it financed on her behalf ten years ago, but efforts made by management of GWC for the reimbursement yielded no positive results as government has not shown any interest in paying the money.

The audited accounts of the GWC in 2013, confirms that the government indeed owes GWC that colossal amount.At the meeting with the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday to interrogate officials of GWCL on the 2013, 2014 report of the Auditor General, Managing Director of GWC, Fred Lokko, indicated that the government owed the company for ten years now.

According to him, “We are unable to pay for power because of the debt, which has not been paid and it is affecting our operations.”

Explaining the circumstances that led to the government owing the company, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Sampson Ahi said, the government was supposed to finance some projects but could not do so.

GWC, therefore, came in to finance the projects with the hope that the government would reimburse them.

The company pre-financed government projects like; Burma Camp water supply, Crop compensation to farmers at project sites, Land compensation to landlords whose lands were acquired for projects and Counterpart funding on the Urban water project with the expectation that government would pay back the cost but did not.

“We incurred this because government of Ghana was supposed to finance but since it was not coming, the Ghana Water Company had to come in but we are in talks with the Finance Ministry for the reimbursement,” he noted.

According to the officials of the GWC, they had pursued the money for a very long time but government is not making any move to pay, however, “we hope to pursue to retrieve it.”

The development compelled the chairman of the PAC, Kweku Agyemang Manu to make an emotional statement that: “State institutions pamper government and the government turns round to blast the management of poor performance. We have to be bold to go to the government for monies it owes us.”

Meanwhile, the officials of the GWC have said they are unable to operate effectively, as a result of the huge debt.