PDS saga has damaged Ghana’s international image – Ablakwa

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said Ghana's international image has been damaged with regards to the Power Distribution Services bruhaha and will require a long and hard effort to repair.

His comment comes on the heels of government’s cancellation of the PDS concession agreement.

The concession agreement is part of a deal (Compact II Program) with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) of the United States of America (USA) that would see Ghana benefit from some $500million for allowing private sector partnership in the energy sector.

But according to the government, PDS’ demand guarantee cannot be verified.

Al-Koot, the Qatari company which allegedly issued the said demand guarantee have denied issuing any such guarantee; making the Minority raise concerns of fraud.

The government has announced the terminated the concession agreement with PDS and proposed to resort to restrictive tendering in selecting another private partner for the management of the power sector in the country.

Reacting to these development, Mr Ablakwa in a Facebook post said: “The damage the PDS debacle has done to Ghana's image in international circles will require a long and hard effort to repair.”

Although MCC and MiDA are yet to make statements on the development, Mr Ablakwa believes “As we await the official response of the Americans on the future of the Compact; we must resolve to fix our broken system of governance and recognise that we cannot command the respect we expect from the comity of nations if we cannot acquit ourselves with integrity when they extend a helping hand.”

“Really sad that the year of return has fast become the year of corruption,” he added.