West Kordofan power project shambles raised in Sudan parliament

Sudan’s Electricity Minister, Mutaz Musa, came under fire from MPs in the Sudanese Parliament on Tuesday after admitting severe shortcomings related to the Chinese-sponsored El Fula Power Station project designed to supply power to Kordofan and Darfur. The Parliament voted by majority against the Minister's report on the delay in the implementation of El Fula thermal station project.

The Minister admitted to Parliament that 41 truckloads of power plant equipment destined for the project were sold in Um Bedda as scrap through the Sudanese company for transportation; however Musa said that his Ministry managed to recover them.

The head of Parliament's industry committee, Abdallah Masar, accused government figures he did not name of disrupting El Fula gas-fired thermal power station project so as to prevent electricity from reaching Darfur and Kordofan.

Disproportionate

He pointed that the government that claims lack of funding for El Fula project has constructed other projects in other parts of Sudan, while Kordofan and Darfur have received only two per cent of the electricity of the national network; disproportionate with development, and population numbers.

MPs questioned the fate of $366 million paid by the Ministry to the contractor to build the station, and described what happened at the station as a waste of public money that requires the opening of an investigation to hold those involved accountable.

MP Osama Osman called for the dismissal of the Minister of Electricity for failing to resolve the electricity issues in the country and not connecting a number of states with electric supply.