Kumasi, April 18, GNA - The NDC has expressed grave concern about the escalating indebtedness of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Volta River Authority (VRA).

Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Vice Presidential candidate of the NDC, who raised the alarm, said if immediate steps were not taken, the indebtedness of the two premier institutions in the energy sector, would have serious repercussions including the possible collapse of some banks in the country.

Speaking at the energy seminar series organized by the Energy Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on behalf of Professor Evans Atta-Mills, the flagbearer of the NDC on Friday, Mr Mahama said there was a lurking danger in the government's so-called micro-economic stability, as a result of the huge debts of the two institutions.

According to him, TOR was currently indebted to the Ghana Commercial Bank alone in the excess of 500 million dollars despite the TOR Debt Recovery Levy initiated by the government in March 2003, which had grossed in excess of 500 million dollars.

Volta River Authority is also indebted to its suppliers and banks in excess of 750 million dollars and even had problems paying its staff. Mr. Mahama said the indebtedness of the two institutions to the tune of 1.25 billion dollars was unacceptable as Ghanaians continue to pay more and more for electricity and petroleum products.

He said the NDC government would unravel the mystery of the rising TOR debt and immediately embark on streamlining the cost incurred by TOR in the crude oil supply process, including transportation and related charges in the process.

Mr. Mahama said the new NDC government would implement the Power Sector Reform Strategy intended to increase private sector investment and participation in the generation and distribution of power to increase energy generating capacities and access in the country. He said much as the rising prices of crude oil on the international market was a factor in the current high cost in petroleum products, there were added costs to the consumer, arising from the inefficiency and lack of transparency in many aspects of the operations of entities in the sector as well as outright corruption.

According to Mr. Mahama, the new NDC government's vision for the petroleum sub-sector would ensure the availability of petroleum products to the nation in a cost effective and environmentally sustainable manner.

He said fundamental to Ghana deriving maximum value from the oil and gas resources was to ensuring a framework for management of the sector that was free from corruption and was transparent, adding that, transparency in the sector was the best assurance of creating widespread public confidence so as to avoid the dangers of dispute and conflict that oil production had engendered in certain countries. The Vice Presidential candidate said the NDC' s priorities for utilizing revenue from oil and gas would include the use of significant portion of revenue to address the challenges of poverty in Ghana through expenditures in the priority areas of education, health, rural development, infrastructure, water and sanitation.

It would also ensure investment in infrastructure, physical and social in communities close to the oil and gas production activities, invest in future generation fund that could ensure sustained well-being into the long-term and investment in technical training, scientific research and development that would enable Ghanaians to be active participants in all aspects of the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Mahama said the NDC government would leverage the availability of cost effective cutting edge technology to bear on the huge national potential in the renewable sources in the areas of hydro-electric power, solar energy, wind energy, biomass and biogas as well as tidal wave energy.

He said the development of the energy sector would be in the manner that would provide a variety of job opportunities for Ghanaians, adding that the NDC would avoid the trap of refusing to utilize the Ghanaian expertise in the field simply for reasons of political affiliation. He said the party would use the skills that had been developed in the citizens by institutions such as KNUST as the basis for the energy future of the country.