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-U.S. Ambassador McCarthy explains
United States Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy strongly indicts the Authorities of Liberia, unscrupulous companies, and cartels of extremely positioned officers of strangulating the Liberia Electrical energy Company (LEC) via irregular cost of payments, unlawful connections, and use of providers with out cost, thus robbing the company of income.
Amb. McCarthy notes that the Authorities of Liberia is the most important buyer of LEC electrical energy however is usually behind on funds, whereas unscrupulous companies illegally hook up their energy onto the company’s grid, and a well-organized electrical energy theft cartel advantages well-connected companies and authorities officers on the detriment of the entity.
Addressing a information convention in Monrovia on Thursday, 26 August following a tour of LEC services on Bushrod Island, the U.S. Envoy regretted there have been no convictions of companies and people for energy theft, regardless of the widespread nature of the difficulty, noting “It is not sufficient to say that the facility theft scenario is difficult, or that it is laborious to repair.”
“I simply returned from a tour of the Liberia Electrical Company’s services on Bushrod Island. I will be sincere, I used to be each impressed and discouraged by what I noticed and heard”, says the Ambassador.
He requires prosecutions, convictions, and substantial sentences plus fines for fixed energy theft within the nation with a view to shield the investments and set Liberia on the trail to alternative, stressing “This must be a systemic focus – nothing will enhance and not using a sturdy response throughout the judicial system, supported on the highest ranges of the Liberian Authorities.”
He additional notes that america has spent over a billion on Liberia’s power sector within the final decade, cash that got here from American taxpayers, questioning how can the U.S. Authorities continues to justify such generosity from its residents when greater than half of the facility being generated by the system is permitted to be stolen with no penalties.
The Ambassador remembers that via the Millennium Problem Compact, the individuals of america supplied greater than $150million via a grant to rehabilitate the Mount Espresso Hydropower Dam, the most important supply of energy in Liberia. “That was a grant; it was not a mortgage. It was a present that Liberia by no means has to pay again.”
Exhibiting a chart of the company’s efficiency since 2015, which places paid and unpaid payments at 38 %, and technical and business unpaid payments at 68 %, respectively, Amb. McCarthy explains that about two-thirds of the electrical energy the LEC generates doesn’t lead to income, asking, “With out that income, how can the company repair technical points, reply to energy interruptions and proceed to attach extra of Liberia to the facility grid?
He additionally notes the LEC is a public, government-owned utility that produces an everyday report on its working standing and that in its newest report, the company reveals that it has not been present in its payments for years, not as a result of it has been losing cash, however that the fact is that no utility wherever on this planet can survive the place lower than half of its electrical energy is paid for, LEC being no exception.
“If LEC cannot remedy this energy theft problem, it’ll proceed to weaken financially, turn into much more depending on authorities funding, and scale back reliability in operations”, he cautions.
He says this might in flip have a critical impression on the economic system of Liberia, which relies on dependable electrical energy, similar to another nation, to draw new investments and develop its economic system. “That’s the stage of seriousness we face.” He emphasizes.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Envoy notes that electrical energy tariff in Liberia is pricey, with Liberians paying 49 cents per kilowatt-hour, in comparison with 13 cents in America and France, 6 cents in Ghana, 10 cents in Guinea, and 12 cents in Ivory Coast, respectively, and asks why are Liberians paying 4 or 5 occasions extra for much less dependable electrical energy?”
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