By Kabs Kanu
There is tremendous bad news for Sierra Leoneans in the country and those in the diaspora planning to go to the country to spend Christmas this year. The Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) government has failed to pay the powership providing electricity at sea off Kingtom , and in response, the ship has cut off the light, plunging the city and environs into pitch darkness .
Investigations by the media proved that the Turkish Karpowership that is providing electricity in the capital City of Freetown shut down operation due to non -payment of accumulated dues .
According to reports received by COCORIOKO , the SLPP government owes the karpowership millions of dollars because the Ministry of Finance has been delinquent in their payments to the ship for over seventeen months . The government failed to respond to repeated requests from owners of the powership to fulfill their financial obligations.
The default by the SLPP government could not have come at the worse possible time when thousands of Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora are planning to storm the country during the festive season to spend Christmas and the New Year holidays with their families and friends.
According to news received by COCORIOKO, many of them are now planning to abandon their trips because the Christmas season in pitch darkness would render their holidays unexciting and unenjoyable and the huge monies spent of airline and other costs a waste.
Those Sierra Leoneans who can afford have started bracing themselves for a relapse to generators , whose annoying sounds through the steaming , hot city and environs will certain create inconveniences. Sierra Leoneans on social media have already started referring to the generators as BIO TIGERS , named after President Maada Bio.
it could be recalled that during the tenure of another SLPP government from 1997 to 2007, Freetown was dubbed the darkest city in the world because of lack of electricity and generators were so common that they were named after the then President, Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah—-KABBAH TIGERS. History is repeating itself.
If the SLPP does not resolve the problem soon, blackouts will hurt businesses and further affect the already tottering economy.
See how the pro – SLPP newspaper, GLOBAL TIMES, covered the story .
MASSIVE BLACKOUT….
Karpowership Shutdown
By Pro SLPP Global Times Newspaper
The Management of Karpowership (the ship that supplies constant and reliable electricity to the Western Area) has decided to switch off their machines following the Ministry of Finance’s failure to pay energy subsidy running into millions of United States dollars to the company. The decision to switch off the machines on 1st December, 2021 was not taken in haste, according to reliable sources.
Several letters written to the Ministry of Finance by the Management of Karpowership reminding them of overdue payments were not even acknowledged, Global Times learnt yesterday.
For the past seventeen months, the Ministry of Finance has not been keeping with payments of energy subsidy to Karpowership for the current contract.
This has led the Management of Karpowership to conclude that the Ministry of Finance is not serious about settling the backlog payments owed to them as energy subsidy. The Karpowership Management is now demanding a 50% down payment before they would switch on their machines.
A Ministry of Finance spokesman informed the Global Times last night that a payment plan offered by the Management of Karpowership to the Ministry of Finance was rejected. “This shows that the Ministry of Finance is not handling this issue seriously…Instead of paying Karpowership for electricity supply, some people in the Ministry of Finance are busy paying other debts incurred by the APC Government since 2008”, a civil society activist observed last night.
On the 11th November, 2021 the Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay praised a delegation from Karpowership in Turkey “For showing patience” in the delay of energy subsidy payment to them by the Government of Sierra Leone.
A senior member of the ruling SLPP warned the Ministry of Finance to treat the issue of electricity supply in the Western Area with utmost seriousness and, as a matter of fact, as a top priority. “One of the reasons that led to the demise of the SLPP Government in 2007 was as a result of rampant blackout in the Western Area”, he observed.
Investigations continue.
Pro SLPP Global Times Newspaper
