Agreement with PDS rushed – Dr Wereko-Brobby alleges

General News on Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-07-31

The government was accused of failing to exercise due diligence in the agreement that transferred Ghana's electricity distribution services to the Electricity Distribution Service (PDS).

The former managing director of the Volta River Authority (VRA) told Joy FM that the deal had been rushed to meet the deadline of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's second pact.

The rushed decision, said Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, at the Super Morning Show on Wednesday, must be held accountable for the anomalies that have now led the government to suspend the PDS from fulfilling its contractual obligations.

On March 1, 2019, PDS took over some GIC badets and operations, including the distribution of electricity service in all GEC operational areas in Ghana.

The new arrangement is expected to reduce distribution losses to a minimum, while providing improved electricity services to Ghanaians.

This has now been suspended.

Information Minister Kojo Opong Nkrumah said the decision was made late Tuesday in the press by Joy News. This decision was made after lengthy investigations.

A statement that followed from his office stated in part that "the decision follows the detection of substantive and substantial breaches of PDS's obligations in the provision of payment guarantees (demand guarantees) for transactions discovered during subsequent checks ".

However, Wireku Brobbey believes that the government should have exercised due diligence before signing the contract.

"The government has rushed to meet a deadline and has not done due diligence and" now we are trying to do due diligence after the fact, "said Wereko Brobbey, troubled.

"We were forced to make the decision without necessarily meeting certain preconditions," he added.

Dr. Wereko Brobbey's allegations that the government contracted with the PDS follow Ghana's signing of the second Millennium Challenge Corporation pact on August 5, 2014.

The Five-Year Pact with the United States of America, designed to meet the challenges of distribution, production and access to energy in Ghana, expires in 2019.

According to Wereko-Brobbey, the government has been slow to mobilize $ 498.2 million to support the transformation of Ghana's electricity sector and boost private investment.

He pointed out that this money was not important enough for the government to play with a strategic national badertion that is facing challenges.

The energy expert believes that, given the fact that Ghana recently spent $ 4 billion for the sanitation of the banking sector, the country has no excuse for dealing with the financial challenges that characterize the energy sector.

The energy sector, he said, is the sector that is supposed to be the driving force behind the country's development and investment program.

He wants the government to consider its current challenges with the PDS as an opportunity to live up to its duty to comprehensively address the challenges of the energy sector. He cited examples of billing problems and constant debt to independent distributors.