Dr Donkor meets OccupyGhana over AMERI deal
The Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor has responded to queries raised by pressure group OccupyGhana on Ghana’s agreement with AMERI Energy but deferred giving certain specific responses to a later date.
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He said at the appropriate time he would make those responses available to the people of Ghana either through a press statement or any other means and OccupyGhana could glean from it.
He said information on some of the requests made by the group were not readily available to him and since the group “was not the sole representatives of the people of Ghana,” he would only give them answers to what was readily available.
At a meeting with members of the group, it emerged that the contract awarded to Engineers & Planners to undertake some civil works at Aboadze to prepare a platform to receive the AMERI power generating units and other ancillary equipment was not done through competitive bidding. It was rather awarded on sole sourcing basis.
Unanswered questions
OccupyGhana had raised queries with the AMERI deal and insisted that despite the responses in a press statement by the Power Ministry, there appeared to be more questions that begged for answers.
Acting as the one who executed the Agreement and obtained parliamentary approval for it, Dr Donkor upon receipt of a letter from the pressure group called for the meeting with them on Thursday evening,
Present at the meeting was the Minister and his deputy, Mr John Jinapor, directors from the Ministry and engineers from GRIDCo and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
However at the end of the meeting, OccupyGhana said they were disappointed since they did not get the full details as had been requested.
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The OccupyGhana team led by Messrs Sydney Casely Hayford, George Andah and Egbert Faibille accused Dr Donkor of not being open enough.
For instance, at the meeting, Dr Donkor had some documents from which he was reading and quoting figures from, when OccupyGhana made a request for copies, it was denied.
Answered questions
He provided answers for a number of the issues raised but deferred answers for specific queries to a later date and said he would provide those details to the people of Ghana at the appropriate time and OccupyGhana could glean from it.
They did not get answers on the financial details of the contract, the number and which contractors were considered before settling on Engineers & Planners and where in the contract that states that ownership of the plant would transfer to Ghana after five years.
The Minister rather referred the group to Parliament, explaining they could obtain the Annexure, particularly Annex G, which reportedly contained the financial details of the transaction from the Clerk of Parliament.
He also asked the group to arrange a meeting later on with the Ministry’s legal counsel, who was present at the meeting for her to point to them where exactly in the contract that talked about the ownership transfer.
AMERI is best deal
Dr Donkor insisted the AMERI deal was the best Ghana could get in thermal energy production and that when ownership eventually transfer to Ghana after five years, it would produce the cheapest power in the thermal area.
He maintained that government has not made any payments to the AMERI Group. “I stand by the assertion that no payments has been made to the AMERI contract. We are obliged to place a stand by letter of credit as a condition precedent. It was issued against our Ministry’s budget by the Bank of Ghana as a security instrument.”
He said government was moving towards tax waivers instead of exemptions so as to check abuse of the system and that is what had been done for AMERI.
Engineers & Planners
Under clause four of the Agreement, Ghana was to provide an acceptable site for the installation and operation of the equipment.
According to Dr Donkor with the exception of Engineers & Planners, no other contractor was prepared to accept to do the work without the payment of mobilization.
Asked who those other contractors were, the Minister said he could not readily recall and give answers at the meeting and that he would have to cross-check and get back to the group.
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“VRA at the appropriate time can tell, because we assigned that to them, that they should get contractors. It came up that a number of them [contractors] were asking for mobilization which is the norm in the construction industry, we didn’t have money to pay for mobilization as quickly as they would wanted. And they said they [VRA] have been able to speak to Engineers & Planners who reluctantly have accepted that in lieu of the national situation, they would do on condition that we promise to pay when their certificates are raised expeditiously.”
According to Dr Donkor the site at Aboadze was a very swampy place and hence VRA had to contract somebody to prepare the site, a contractor who would have access to rocks.
Asked whether it went through tender, Dr Donkor said it went through the public procurement process.
“We looked for contractors already working in the Western region and they wouldn’t touch it until we paid for mobilization… We approached three, four contractors… E& P was the only one who reluctantly was ready to start work without mobilization…We still owe them for the work.”
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Asked further how much it cost to prepare the grounds, the Power Minister said at the appropriate time, he would get back to the people of Ghana with that information.
The Power Minister explained the preparation of the grounds was different from the other civil works which AMERI themselves were to undertake, and that the grounds preparation involved removing the swampy material and filling it with rocks to harden the surface before putting concrete on it.
Engineers & Planners in a press statement early on had explained that it was contracted because it had the capacity to do the kind of work the VRA required at the site to be able to receive the power generating units and other ancillary equipment for the AMERI 250MW Power Project.
E&P has since finished its work as specified and has handed over the completed platform to VRA.
Background
Last week a Norwegian newspaper, Verdens Gang (VG) published an article that suggested that Ghana’s $510 million deal with the AMERI Group LLC for the supply of gas plants towards solving the protracted energy crisis was shrouded with mystery.
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The newspaper’s publication suggested that Ghana could have purchased the gas plants at about $220 million with an outright purchase and wondered why the country offered to pay $290 million more than the standard price on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) agreement.
Government in a response explained that the thrust of the newspaper’s publication that the Ministry of Power, entered into an arrangement with a company with dubious background with an inflated contract sum was false and described the publication as misleading and gross misrepresentation of facts.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) raised issues that Engineers & Planners were awarded the contract for the ground preparation because of Mr Ibrahim Mahama,their Chief Executive’s relationship with President John Mahama as a brother and called for a probe.
{mp3}occupyghana_meeting_with_donkor{/mp3}
Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh