Officials of the erstwhile John Mahama administration who negotiated the deal between the Government of Ghana and AMERI Energy should be blamed for the poor job done, Kwadwo Poku, an energy expert and Chief Executive of Gasop Oil, has said.
According to him, just like any other business firm, AMERI operates to make profit, hence it was the responsibility of the Government of Ghana to have negotiated well to arrive at a good deal for the country.
His comments come in the wake of revelations by a 17-member Philip Addison committee, tasked by Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to look into the agreement, that the deal was inflated by $150million by the Mahama administration.
The deal was for the supply of gas turbines to Ghana, which were to provide additional power to the national grid to ease the biting load shedding exercise that plagued the country at the time.
The committee has recommended to the government to recall owners of the Dubai-based company for renegotiation and that if the company refused to honour the invitation for re-negotiation, the government should renounce the agreement on grounds of fraud.
But speaking in an interview with Accra News on Tuesday March 28, Mr Poku said: “I don’t think the AMERI Company will have issues to answer, regarding the report. On what basis can we say that the company defrauded the state of $150 million? Everybody does business to make profit, and, so, if they have made extraordinary profit, what wrong have they done?”
“The AMERI Company brought their own cost but there were some government officials who did poor negotiations and so if you have any concerns, direct it at the government officials who negotiated the deal, not the company.”
Meanwhile, former Communication Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah has said the deal was “clean” and also helped to solve the prevailing power crisis (dumsor) at the time.
In Dr Omane Boamah’s view, the overpricing allegation, which was “concocted” by the 17-member Philip Addison Committee set up by Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to review the deal “cannot hold because plants are not sold at ex-factory prices. Moreover, in Ghana, thermal plants are normally not procured directly from the manufacturers, eg. KTPP, TT1PP, Tico, etc.”
In a statement, he said the Government of Ghana “made no payments” to the Dubai-based energy company “prior to the procurement, installations and delivery of power”.
Apart from the overpricing allegation, the Addison report also said some aspects of the deal either did not get parliamentary approval or were injurious to the state, thus, needing renegotiating.
According to Dr Omane Boamah, however, “Per the agreement with AMERI, the Government of Ghana, through the Volta River Authority (VRA), will only make payments to AMERI for power produced and supplied to the VRA just like any other Independent Power Producer (IPP).”
According to him, the VRA will pay through tariffs charged on the end consumer.
“Also, per the agreement, Government was required to provide a standby Letter of Credit (LC) for an amount of US$51 million, which LC has been raised,” Dr Omane Boamah pointed out.
In his view, the findings of the committee, “chaired by a known NPP fanatic” were not surprising since “it is well-known the NPP made it clear before the elections that they were determined to find faults with the AMERI deal at all cost”, adding: “Hence, one is not surprised by their conduct.”
In his judgment, the failure by the committee to contact or speak to any former Minister in the Mahama administration for “clarification” renders the report “one-sided”, stating: “At least natural justice demands that!”
He has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to “reject” the “cooked” report which, in his view, is a “hatchet job initiated by Mr Boakye Agyarko”.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
