Staff of the Volta River Authority (VRA) have welcomed President Nana Akufo-Addo’s dismissal of Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko.
Robert Kwame Yeboah, Assistant Treasurer of the Senior Staff Association of the VRA, told Chief Jerry Forson on Accra 100.5FM Tuesday, 7 August that: “We thank the president for listening to our calls for the minister to be sacked”.
“The new Ameri deal would have plunged Ghana into several difficulties, and, so, we thank the president for sacking the Minister.”
A letter dated 6 August 2018, signed by Director of Communications at the presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, said Mr Agyarko is to hand over his office to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, who will act temporarily as Minister of Energy, until a substantive appointment is made.
The President wished Mr Agyarko well in his future endeavours.
Mr Agyarko’s dismissal is in connection with the Novation and Amendment Agreement of the controversial $150 million Ameri deal signed by the John Mahama administration.
Mr Agyarko came under heavy criticism when he claimed that Ghana will gain $405 million from the new power deal with Ameri Energy but it was discovered that the country will rather lose up to $472 million.
The Senior Staff Association of the Volta River Authority (VRA) described him as “incompetent” and called on Nana Akufo-Addo to fire him.
“There is no such savings anywhere in the new contract. This nation will be worse off since Ghanaians will rather be paying an additional cost of US $472 million to Mytilineos International Trading Company for absolutely no work done,” Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of VRA, Cephas Duse, stated at a press conference on Monday, 6 August 2018.
He said the amount is “beside the US$255 million we have already paid for the first two-and-a-half years”.
“Is it not ironic that in renegotiating a contract which is supposed to have been overpriced by US $150 million, we end up increasing the cost by US$727 million? Is this the type of review we were promised?” he questioned.
Mr Duse stated: “We think that this misleading comparison and computation was disingenuously done by the Energy Minister to deceive Ghanaians. This shows that the Honourable Minister is incompetent, lacks integrity or absolutely not on top of his job”.
The VRA Senior Staff Association stated emphatically that the Energy Minister’s claim that the Novation and Amendment Agreement will save the country some money, is “misleading, flawed and inaccurate”.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration recently began taking steps to amend portions of the controversial $510 million deal.
The current government believes that there was no value-for-money in the deal signed by the NDC administration, hence the renegotiations.
The renegotiated deal, which has now been cancelled by the president, was expected to be approved by parliament when the House resumes from recess.
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
