The Minority in Parliament has accused government officials of trying to use the Power Distribution Services’ (PDS) concession agreement with Ghana to loot the country’s coffers.
After the PDS deal was suspended for breaches in the company’s obligation to Ghana, the Minority insisted that the government was well aware of the gaps in the deal.
A document presented by PDS as a guarantee for the concession, according to government, was forged.
Though the document indicated that a firm in Qatar had guaranteed for PDS, the management of the Qatari company told the government it had no knowledge of the document.
At a press conference addressed by former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, the Minority claimed: “the Ministries of Finance and Energy knew all this while that the Guarantee was fake but decided not to act on the anomaly for reasons best known to them and only them.”
“We hold President Akufo-Addo squarely responsible and liable for this embarrassing spectacle. Government and officialdom are neck deep in this failed Create, Loot and Share plot.”
Fellow Ghanaians, the so-called suspension of the concession is only a smoke screen to cover up Government’s complicity in this whole scandal of gargantuan proportion.”
The Minority also questioned a purported lack of rigour in the government’s monitoring mechanisms because the “Government refused to ensure that the Monitoring Schedule and Protocol Agreement was executed prior to the coming into force of the concession.”
Terminate deal
The Minority thus called for the deal to be terminated “without any further delay” and also reiterated calls for the prosection of persons complicit.
“The concession is highly inimical to the aspirations of Ghana’s power sector goals and can tip our dear country into ‘Dumsor’ because of choking debts not because IPPs lack capacity to produce power.”
It warned that the deal could destabilise the whole energy sector and lead to a “rising cost of power and crippling of power generation companies.”
The Minority outlined a five-point plan to handle the situation saying the government should:
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Terminate the Concession Agreement with immediate effect;
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Identify and prosecute those responsible for the FRAUDULENT Guarantee as confirmed by the Minister of Energy;
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Ensure full refund of all monies appropriated by PDS through this FRAUDULENT scheme;
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Dissolve the current ECG Board and appoint a competent non-partisan board; and
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Restructure the current Management of ECG and ensure they sign performance bonds with management for efficient supply of power to Ghanaians.