General News of Monday, 28 October 2019
Source: mynewsgh.com
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has reiterated his position that the Power Distribution Services (PDS) deal was hurriedly put together by the governing New Patriotic Party led by President Akufo-Addo to defraud the country.
He also alleged that the reported termination of the contract, as announced by government, may not be true given that PDS is not aware of it
“State looting Akufo Addo and his cabal of family thieves are caught. The fraudulent PDS deal is reported cancelled but PDS is not aware,” he tweeted.
He then went on to criticize the government for saying that it intended to use restricted tendering for the next deal so that it can meet the time constraint.
“If international competitive tendering produced a tainted and fraudulent ‘sole sourced PDS, what will be restricted tendering to produce? Scam Part 2” he quizzed.
Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister of Energy William Owuraku Aidoo has suggested that the PDS deal has not been terminated, but that government merely expressed “intent”.
“It’s a letter of intent…you can’t just get up and cancel you need to consult all the stakeholders,” he told the host of Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’ last week.
Finance Minister in a letter dated October 18, 2019, to the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced the termination of the agreement which came into effect on March 1, 2019 and saw PDS take over the assets and operations of ECG.
However, in a letter addressed to Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta dated October 18, 2019, the Millennium Challenge Corporation acting on behalf of the government of the United States of America asked government to “reinstate the concession rights of Power Distribution Services Limited (PDS) as contemplated under the agreements governing the ECG-Private Sector Participation (PSP)”
In effect, the MCC wants Ghana to restore the lease and assignment agreement, bulk supply agreement and government support agreement which form the PDS-ECG PSP transaction agreement.