Termination of PDS deal ‘sad day’ for Ghana – Mahama
Former President, John Dramani Mahama is shocked over the Akufo-Addo government’s handling of the PDS debacle. His comment follows the cancellation of the Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement.
John Mahama who was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 2020 NDC manifesto committee said, the entire citizenry is disappointed in the current administration because of the self-serving decision taken by the Akufo-Addo led administration with regards to the PDS fiasco.
“As someone who took over from Prof. Mills of blessed memory, and supervised the Ghana Compact II negotiations with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the US government, I am deeply disappointed in the Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration for its handling of the deal. We are all disappointed by the self-serving decision that were taken and the deliberate acts perpetuated by the Flagstaff House in the ECG concession agreement that have led us to where we are today. This is absolutely needless and could have been avoided,” he argued.
John Mahama further described as sad, the US government’s decision to discontinue the provision of the $190 million in support of ECG’s turnaround.
“For the MCC to withdraw $190 million of the funding amount is a sad day for us. This money was meant to improve the efficiency of our electricity utility corporation. Let me emphasize that, these shady happenings were absolutely avoidable…The right decisions with future of development of Ghana in mind [were not prioritized].”
He lambasted the NPP government accusing it’s officials of seeking their parochial interests and taking “decisions that reflect the sad and worsening situation of state capture that we are increasingly experiencing under the Akufo-Addo administration.”
Claims we terminated PDS deal for our parochial interest unsubstantiated – Govt
But the government had earlier debunked assertions that it made up allegations of fraud to warrant the termination of the PDS agreement.
Some critics had alleged that fraud claims against PDS were made up to form the basis to terminate the deal to allow some individuals in government to benefit from the deal.
But addressing the media to announce formal processes to abrogate the contract, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the motive of government in the concession has rather been to ensure efficiency and not create loot and share.
“No effort to get Ghana a good deal has been spared. The government has not been up to any machinations. The intent has been to ensure efficiency in the ECG turnaround program and the fulfillment of a broader compact all along. Is there anything wrong with switching from 80-20 percent to 51-49 percent? No! The government holds the view that in transactions of this nature, Ghana and Ghanaians should be given an opportunity to get a stake as much as it is possible. Is there something wrong with switching from bank guarantee to as supposed to insurance guarantee? There was nothing wrong with this change. It was the only feasible path at that stage as the tariff methodology had not been made available as at that time”, he said.
Government on Wednesday commenced processes to terminate the concession agreement between it and the PDS.
The move follows the announcement of the cancellation of the contract by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta after a meeting with officials of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.