Exclusive: $ 12.2 million paid by PDS for ECG takeover revealed by untraceable documents

General News on Friday, August 2nd, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-08-02

Exclusive documents secured by Joy News reveal that Power Distribution Services (PDS) has paid the required premium of $ 12.2 million to obtain a guarantee in order to finalize the takeover of Ghana's electricity company (ECG ).

However, the documents again reveal that the money has never been paid to Qatar's reinsurers.

In his letter of February 21, 2019, Cal Bank wrote to the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to advise of receipt of an amount of $ 8 million as a down payment payment. fees related to the issue of demand guarantees for a total value. $ 350 million.

Then, in May, the last payment of $ 4.25 million was also paid into Cal's PDS account.

The government suspended the PDS concession agreement because of the suspicion that the guarantees were false.

Joy News understands that once Cal Bank received the PDS payment, she worked with Donewell Insurance to finance the transaction.

Donewell Insurance has also hired Jordanian broker Jo Australia Reinsurance Brokers, which will ultimately make the necessary payments to guarantee final demand guarantees from Qatar-based insurance company Al Koot.

Al Koot, on July 16, 2019, wrote to ECG, through its Chief Insurance Officer, General Insurance, Osman Hag Musa, warning them of a fraud situation in which the initial warranty would have been forged by an employee of the company lacking the power to issue such a guarantee.

Joy News, however, obtained another letter dated Wednesday, July 31, 2019, in which Al Koot wrote to insurance brokers to inform them of the formal cancellation of the insurance coverage they had guaranteed.

They explained in this letter that they were canceling the cover because the broker had not paid the premium.

So the question is where are the $ 12.2 million PDS paid by Cal Bank to cover insurance? And why does Al Koot now admit that he had already agreed to provide the insurance coverage when he had made ECG 15 days earlier, claiming that he had not issued this guarantee?

In the meantime, the government has opened an in-depth investigation into the breaches found in the concession agreement with the PDS, which is expected to be completed within 30 days.

According to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the investigation team includes experts in insurance investigations, officials of the Ministries of Energy and Finance and officials from the ECG as well as MIDA.