OccupyGhana holds meeting with Power Minister over AMERI (AUDIO of entire meeting)

Enoch Darfah Frimpong Politics Dec - 20 - 2015 , 22:11

The Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has responded to issues raised by pressure group OccupyGhana on Ghana’s agreement with AMERI Energy but deferred giving certain specific responses.

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 them.

He said information on some of the requests made by the group was 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 based on what was readily available.

At a meeting with members of the group, it emerged that the contract awarded to Engineers & Planners (E&P) 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.

This was because according to Dr Donkor, with the exception of E&P, no other contractor was prepared to accept to do the work without the payment of mobilisation.

Asked who those other contractors were, the minister said he could not readily recall and mention them at the meeting and that he would have to cross-check and get back to the group.

“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 were asking for mobilisation, which is the norm in the construction industry. We didn’t have money to pay for mobilisation as quickly as they would have wanted. And they said they [VRA] had been able to speak to Engineers & Planners who reluctantly had accepted that in view of the national situation, they would do {the work} on condition that we promise to pay when their certificates are raised expeditiously.”

Listen to what transpired at the meeting here {mp3}occupyghana_meeting_with_donkor{/mp3}

Unanswered questions
OccupyGhana had raised issues 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.

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. When OccupyGhana made a request for copies, they were denied.

They did not get answers to the financial details of the contract, the number and which contractors were considered before settling on E&P and the part of the contract that states that the ownership of the plant would be transferred to Ghana after five years.

Dr Donkor provided answers to some of the issues raised but deferred answers for specific queries to a later date.

The minister rather referred the group to Parliament, explaining that 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 with the ministry’s legal counsel, who was present at the meeting, for her to point to them which part of the contract talked about the ownership transfer.

War of words over dumsor{mp3}occupyghana_war_of_words_with_donkor_on_dumsor{/mp3}

‘AMERI is best deal’
Dr Donkor insisted the AMERI deal was the best Ghana could get in thermal energy production and that when ownership was eventually transferred to Ghana after five years, the system would produce the cheapest power in the thermal area.

He maintained that the government had not made any payments to the AMERI Group. “I stand by the assertion that no payments have been made to the AMERI contract. We are obliged to place a standby 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 the 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.

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 in mystery.

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.

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Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh