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General News on Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-07-31
K.T Hammond is a member of the Committee on Mines and Energy
Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi-Asokwa of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), called for all those involved in the PDS (Power Distribution Services – PDS) deal to be prosecuted, it is proven that there has been fraud.
This follows the suspension of the contract with PDS by the government on Tuesday.
According to the statement of the Ministry of Information, "the decision follows the detection of fundamental and substantial breaches of the obligation of PDS to provide guarantees of payment …"
In response to the aftermath, KT Hammond, former deputy energy minister under John Agyekum Kufuor's regime, said the officials involved in the deal should be held responsible and prosecuted if further investigations had blamed this "gargantuan fraud".
The legislator of the NPP also joined the appeal of Haruna Iddrisu, leader of the minority, at the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
According to the legislator, who is also a member of the Mining and Energy Committee, the committee lifted red flags on the agreement, but approved it because of badurances given by the government.
What led to the break-up of the transaction?
On February 27, 2019, PDS took over the electricity distribution in the country from the Ghana Electricity Corporation (ECG), to ensure efficiency.
But after only five months of work, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah announced on JoyNews that the contract had been suspended.
John Peter Amewu, Minister of Energy, told JoyNews' AM News Channel on Wednesday that the PDS guarantee for the deal had not been verified.
According to the minister, the PDS guarantee was a Qatar-based company, Al Koot.
However, Al Koot denied having signed such an agreement with PDS, claiming that the signature was falsified.
In response to the reasons why the guarantees had not been agreed before the agreement, Amewu said the time constraints had forced the Ghanaian government to sign the agreement before PDS submitted its guarantees.
On the technical side, the operation went from the condition precedent to the next.
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