‘Shady’ moves caused Ghana compact cash withdrawal – Mahama

Former President John Mahama has berated the Akufo-Addo government over the cancelation of the $190 million second tranche of the power compact by the Unites States government.

According to Mr. Mahama, the government’s incompetence led to the current situation.

“Soon, I will be sharing my position on the state of our struggling nation with the good people of Ghana. But allow me to say that as someone who took over from President JEA Mills of blessed memory and the Ghana Compact 2 negotiations with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the US Government, I am deeply disappointed in Nana Akufo-Addo for his handling of the Compact.

“Fellow Ghanaians, we are all deeply disappointed because of the self-serving decisions that were taken, the deliberate acts perpetuated with the crude support of the Flagstaff House in the ECG Concessionaire Agreement that has led us to where we are today. These was absolutely needless and could have been avoided,” Mr. Mahama said while commenting on the matter at the NDC headquarters Wednesday.

He added: “The MCC to withdraw $190m of the funding amount is a sad day for us, this amount was meant to improve the efficiency of our electricity utility corporation. Let me emphasize that these shady happenings were absolutely avoidable with the right decisions and the future development of Ghana in mind and not parochial decision which reflects the sad and worsening situation of state capture that we’re increasingly experiencing under the Akufo Addo administration.”

The government of Ghana has canceled its concession agreement with the private investor for the management of ECG despite opposition by the American government.

The Ghana government argues PDS failed to satisfy some key condition precedents under the contract.

Consequently, the US government has withdrawn the second tranche of $190million earmarked for improvement in Ghana’s energy sector under the millennium challenge compact.



Background

On March 1, 2019, Ghana Power Distribution Services, Ltd. (PDS) assumed operation and management of the staff and assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under a 20-year concession agreement.

According to the Millenium Challenge Compact, Private sector participation is a central reform under MCC’s Ghana Power Compact. This was critical to the long-term sustainability of related infrastructure investments and the financial recovery of the energy sector in Ghana.

The Compact comprised two tranches of funding: $308 million available upon the official start of the current Compact, and a second tranche of $190 million, which was available upon a successfully executed concession agreement, which the United States maintains occurred on March 1, 2019.