Power supply to gov’t top earner ministry DISCONNECTED for ‘old age’ bills up to $688k

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The country’s top earning ministry, the Ministry of Forestry and Research, remains without electricity for nearly a week now after Solomon Power disconnected its power supply on Monday—for what the ministry described as “old age” bills.

The disconnection has already caused anger amongst those in the logging sector who for days now have gone to do business with the Ministry but were unable to do so because of no electricity. The lack of business in the sector is estimated to cost the government millions of dollars.

SBMOnline visited the ministry this afternoon and confirmed that the power supply was disconnected since Monday.

A senior official from the ministry confirmed that Solomon Power was disconnecting their supply for old age bills from 2015 to 2017, amounting to $688,000.

“Yes, our power had been disconnected since Monday but not for our current bills. But it was for 2015, 2016, and 2017,” the senior official, said.

“Our current bills are up to date. We have no outstandings with Solomon Power,” he told SBMOnline.

He said the ministry was surprised to see the old age bills and they were not given sufficient timing to deal with it before cutting power supply.

“Right now, we don’t have enough funds in our budget to pay for the bills. All we have is sufficient money for our current bills or two months before the new year,” he said.

Severe consequence on economy

With no business done, the ministry is unable to deal with exports of logs with shipments for this week. This is because all paper works are impossible due of lack of power supply.

One licensee told SBMOnline today that they have already lost a lot of money because of lack of paper exports this week.

The senior official said all businesses in the ministry for this week is severely affected as a result of the disconnection.

“It goes into millions,” the senior official said.

He said the ministry has already written to Solomon Power and the responsible ministries with the submission of a repayment plan – to immediately reconnect the power to their office.

He said they had put forward a repayment plan to Solomon Power but the reality is they don’t have the funds to pay off the entire old age bill before the end of the year.

“The reality is we don’t have the funds to pay-off the old age bills. But we have money to pay for our bills before the end of the year. I want to reiterate that we don’t have any current outstanding bills but those were the ones for 2015 to 2017,” he said.

It is believed that responsible ministries are working towards the reconnection of power to the government’s biggest earner ministry.

When contacted this morning, Solomon Power promised to revert to our queries but they had not since 2pm this afternoon.

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