ACEP launches platform to monitor energy sector manifesto
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has launched a platform to enable citizens to access the manifesto of political parties, analyse it and make informed decisions on the energy sector.
The platform dubbed: “Citizens’ Energy Manifesto Monitor,” serves as an accountability mechanism to monitor the manifesto of elected government.
The document comprises all the promises made by the political parties with respect to the oil, gas and power sectors.
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of ACEP, said the document would help to track the energy manifestoes of the political parties, for transparency and accountability.
He said the document also provided a one-stop shop platform for the electorate to analyse the energy sector promises, programmes and policies of the political parties to ensure informed choices in the December 7 polls.
ACEP, in July launched the citizens’ manifesto to provide platform for citizens to make inputs into the manifestoes of various political parties.
Dr Adam explained that these views were analysed and put together in a book, Citizens Energy Manifesto and presented to the political parties before they launched their manifestoes.
He said analyses done by ACEP on the various manifestoes showed that the three political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) made 28 policy promises in the oil and gas sector.
All the three parties have six common positions on broad policies in the sector. The NDC and NPP have two common policies and programmes, the NDC and CPP have one while the NPP and CPP have three policies and programmes in common.
He said all the parties, for instance, reiterated their commitment to promote transparency in oil and gas resource management, ensuring transparency and reporting in managing public funds, including oil revenues as well as prudent public financial management.
On the issue of local content in the oil and gas sector, Dr Adams said all parties in their manifestoes promised to increase local participation and value addition in the sector, strengthen and transfer technology, skills and capacity development as well as develop petrochemical industries from oil and gas.
The analyses, which were done as part of its Citizens’ Energy Manifesto Campaign, showed that the various parties also made a total of 27 manifesto promises in the power sector.
Reacting to the document of energy sector manifesto, Energy experts expressed concerns about the absence of coherent strategy to create effective sustainable energy sector.
Mr Kweku Awotwi, the former Volta River Authority Chief Executive Officer was of the view that the political parties have not come out with concrete measures to address challenges in the energy sector.
Mr Emmanuel Kuyole, Deputy Director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, observed that the political parties’ manifestoes lacked the framework that link the extractive sector to the country’s long-term development plans.
Mr Ishmael Edjekumhene, the Executive Director of the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment urged political parties to set specific targets in addressing the country’s energy sector.
Source: GNA