Managing Director of the Energy Venture (Ghana) Limited has expressed his deep frustration over the delay on the part of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to pay his company over half a million United States Dollars for materials supplied and progress of work on the ECOWAS funded Emergency Electric Power Supply Programme. The Company is threatening legal action against EDSA.
After winning an international competitive bidding in 2014 for the supply and installation of transmission and distribution of materials within communities across Freetown, Energy Venture the successful bidder started operations on May 17, 2015, and the said project was supposed to have lasted for eight months.
“EDSA has virtually mismanaged the project and today they owe us over half a million dollars, and they are saying nothing about it. They don’t want to tell us whether the money has been syphoned. Nobody wants to talk about it .They have refused to respond to several letters sent by my lawyers, and the only option at hand now is to go through the legal means by going to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice,” said Krishnan Nagarajan, Managing Director, Energy Ventures(Ghana) Limited.
While certain communities within the Western Area were going without electricity, ECOWAS provided grant to the Government of Sierra Leone to implement the Emergency Electric Power Supply Programme. The contracting company has executed a larger portion of its part of the bargain, but EDSA is still reneging on disbursing the needed funds to complete the project.
According to correspondences from Energy Venture, ECOWAS had from the inception of the project, released the complete grant amount to the Government of Sierra Leone which was public knowledge too, but EDSA allegedly diverted the said money into other use.
Our investigation revealed that the money was diverted into other use by EDSA-to purchase some lubricant. The diversion and misappropriation of public funds is by law a criminal offense under the Anti-Corruption Act of Sierra Leone.
The project, which was supposed to have lasted for eight months, had been delayed for over five years due to negligence on the side EDSA to release the needed funds for the company to complete the work.
The project has been halted for two years now, and the contracting company is now constrained to pay workers, pay rent for the house they have hired for their staff and, most of their materials have been stolen, according to the management of Energy Venture.
“Our rent has run out and our insurance regarding the project implementation has expired,” said one of the workers who begged for anonymity.
In a letter written by lawyers on behalf of the Company in September 25, 2020 to the Project Manager at EDSA, Ing. James Rogers, it was expressed that, “Despite the best efforts of our client to execute the contract, which was scheduled to be completed in eight months, it has been largely unable to fulfil its mandate due to the failure of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA), which was made responsible for the disbursement of funds in relation to the project, to fulfil its contractual obligations. It will be recalled that full funding for the completion of the project was made available by ECOWAS at the beginning of the project.
The letter reiterated that lack of support, lack of communication and failure to provide funds on the part of EDSA constitute issues faced by the contractual company in the execution of its mandate under the project.
However, Director General of EDSA, Dr. Joe-Lahai Sormana, admitted that ECOWAS had released the funds for the project, but noted that it was not to his knowledge as to whether the money was diverted to other use or not because he was not in office then.
He said as an institution they are very much disturbed that the project is yet to be completed because they would have been receiving revenue from the project communities, where people are currently going without electricity.
He said EDSA is not a signatory to the project’s account, and has never been one, but stated that they are doing all to ensure that the funds are provided for the completion of the project.
He informed that the Ministry of Finance has strongly promised to provide the funds to the company, and added that EDSA is pushing hard to see that that happens.
13/11/2020. ISSUE NO: 7951