Pwalugu Dam Project is a rip off-Minority, threatens boycott

The Minority in Parliament says the government has bloated the proposed Pwalugu Dam Project by $150 million.

The National Democratic Congress Members of Parliament want no part of $964 million contract, which cost they described as a rip-off.

Although the Finance Committee of Parliament has approved the project, the minority members of the committee say they were left out of the deliberations that considered the multi-million dollar project.

They accused the Chairman of House’s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeaboah of nicodemusly meeting to consider the deal meant to add about 110 MW of electricity to the national grid.

The House was meant to debate the deal but the NDC Minority threatened a walkout forcing the Speaker of Parliament to reschedule it for Tuesday, February 11, 2020.

And he was not enthused.  Prof Aaron Mike Ocquaye warned that his tolerant level for boycotting the work of the House was running out of gas.

Firing salvos meant to bring the opposition back to the chamber for a debate on the agreement, he says he will not allow the minority to stampede the work of the house.

Probably oblivious to the Minority complaints that they were not at the table for discussions on the contract, he needled the Minority saying “Those who it was referred to have the duty to do their work and report to this house. Those who want to contribute may do so and those who don’t want to contribute in committees may not do so. We all know in this house and on both sides, there have been all manner of boycotts at some time or the other.”

He says the perennial boycotts  MPs use to make cases in the House will halt government business.

“No group no matter what it wants can arrest the business of the nation because they chose not to take part in a particular business at a particular time,” he warned.

But the Minority is unfazed by the Speaker’s tirade.

A member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Mr John Jinapor, says the opposition is not giving its approval unless the project is reviewed and the $150 million shed off.

He accused the Chairman of the Finance Committee of calling bailing out on the Minority members of the committee.

“I am putting it on record that the committee chairman never called a meeting. Parliament is a house of records, let the committee chairman show us evidence of how the meeting was called. Who were the members at the meeting, the attendant sheet and signatures? Those are the most important things.

“You called only the majority side and had a meeting with them over a $ 1 billion- contract… There was no meeting and there was no invitation…If there is a meeting, the Chairman of the Committee calls the clerk to send notices to members about time and venue which was not done.” he said in an interview on Joy News monitored by theghanareport.com.

He challenged the Chairman to provide evidence of a meeting of the committee that approved the deal.

But he offered a truce.

He says part of the Minority’s demand is that the committees of Mines and Energy, Agriculture and the Finance sit on the matter and interrogate it and get stakeholders including the ElectricityCompany of Ghana, the Volta River Authority and the Energy Commission to clarify their concerns.

With the NPP reviving its objections to what it described as a bloated Airbus deal in 2011 as the latest scandal rakes memories, the Minority sees this not just as a time for due diligence but perhaps a payback too.

Mr Jinapor says the Minority has done a comparative analysis of some similar projects including the Bui Dam and Ethiopia’s Grand Rennaisance Dam but “the figures don’t add up that is why we need to do proper scrutiny. “

“What are they hiding? What is the fear? VRA and ECG will not be on the floor. We will not scrutinise them on the floor, it can only be done at the committee level,” he said.

He recalls the AMERI  and  PDS deals as transactions that the Minority had raised red flags on but were ignored but were vindicated.

Three benefits of the project

• Hydro Power Dam that will generate 60mw
• Solar power plant which will generate 50 MW electricity
• 24,000-hectare irrigation scheme

Some dam projects ongoing in Africa

• The Inga III dam—DR CONGO

Cost: $ 14.1 billion

Power to be generated: 11,000-megawatt

• The Grand Renaissance Dam

Cost :  $4.1bn.

Power to be generated: 6,000-megawatt

Mambila Dam (Nigeria)

Cost: $5.8 billion

Power to be generated: 3,050-megawatt