PDS saga weighs on parliament – Edward Bawa

General News of Thursday, August 1, 2019

Source: starrfm.com.gh

2019-08-01

Bongo's member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the government's suspension of the concession agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) was a major impediment to Parliament's ability to diligently review the agreements.

PDS took control of ECG on March 1 after its main shareholder, the Philippine consortium Meralco, won the United States Millennium Challenge Power Compact Two.

However, just over four months after the takeover, the government suspended the contract after "the detection of fundamental and substantive breaches of the PDS obligation to provide payment guarantees (guarantees to the request) for the transaction, which was discovered during subsequent checks, "the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong, said.

Commenting on the development, Bawa said the agreement had been prepared from the start for someone.

"Everything that has been done has been done in a hurry for the sole purpose of cooking it for someone."

"If you look at the government side, one of the subsequent conditions was the fact that the government was going to make sure it had tariffs that reflected the rights of cause. If you talk to PDS privately, they will tell you that they have never had any thoughtful pricing, even with the new major tariff revision, "he told Ibrahim Alhssan of Starr News on Wednesday.

"You remember that when PURC postponed its major tariff revisions from March to July, one of the things he captured was the fact that, since PDS was going to be part of the suit, he was transferring it there, from so that when the contract comes into force can then proceed to the tariff revisions taking into account the provisions that appeared in this concession agreement.

"So, I'm just trying to show that if you look at all this and then get up today, you hear that the insurers or perhaps the guarantee of the guarantors were obtained fraudulently, it's an embarrbadment to the country.

Two, I think it's a serious embarrbadment for Parliament, "he added.

Meanwhile, a former UN adviser on governance, Professor Agyemang Duah, urged President Akufo-Addo to appoint and punish those responsible for his government guilty of unsuccessful dealership agreement between the PDS and the ECG.

According to him, the suspension of the agreement by the government a few months later is an indication of the poor work done.

"We will have to blame the government and others for not doing due diligence. If we do not pay attention, large multi-million dollar contracts will lead to losses. If the government had the courage to suspend the contract, it should have the same courage to mention those behind the contract and let them face the law.

"Those who are guilty should be investigated and the necessary steps should be taken after the investigations," he told Morning Starr's facilitator, Francis Abban, on Thursday.

In addition, the African Center for Energy Policies (ACEP) has called for an immediate ban on the leaders of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), the agency responsible for implementing the Power Compact in Ghana.

Speaking at a press conference on development, CAPE Executive Director Benjamin Boakye blamed the MiDA for failing to badume its responsibilities and therefore had to take measures that they insisted that its leaders do not interfere in the investigations.

Meanwhile, another energy think tank, the Institute of Energy Security, has an opposing view of MiDA's role in buying the PDS.

Mikdad Mohammed, research and policy badyst at the institute, told Starr News, but for the pro-activity of MiDA, Ghanaians would have been completely ripped off.

Ghana has signed the Power Compact with the United States of America acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent US government agency, on the sidelines of the African Leaders' Summit. United States in Washington, August 5, 2014.

As part of the Power Compact, six projects are being implemented to address the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of food in Ghana.

The project includes an ECG Financial and Operational Rehabilitation Project, a NEDCo Financial and Operational Recovery Project, a Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project and an Access Project.

The rest consists of a project to improve the power generation sector and an energy efficiency and demand-side management project.