Boakye Agyarko
Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, yesterday told the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament that the government was looking at all the financial and legal implications in the agreement with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment (AMERI) Group in terms of renegotiation and abrogation of contract.
He noted that after thorough examination of all the options, if the option is to abrogate the contract in the best interest of the country, the government would go ahead and do that.
The Energy Minister said government was seriously looking at the AMERI contract, which cost the nation a whopping $510 million after the Addison Committee, which was set up by him (minister) to conduct investigations into the agreement had strongly recommended to the government to re-negotiate the agreement since proper due diligence was ignored in the award of the contract.
Mr Agyarko made these known when he appeared before the committee to brief it on the AMERI for the house to take informed decision on the agreement which was approved by parliament in 2015 under the Mahama administration.
The briefing was occasioned by a motion filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi/Asokwa, K.T. Hammond.
He has charged parliament to rescind its decision on the AMERI deal, saying the deal was a disadvantage to the nation as AMERI reaped a windfall of $150 million at the expense of the nation.
The Energy Minister said that an American energy company by name APR, in collaboration with the Volta River Authority (VRA), was in the frontline to get the deal at a better rate for the nation but strangely, the contract was offered to a Turkish energy company, Power Project Sanayi (PPR) via AMERI.
According to Mr Boakye Agyarko, if the same security and liquidity guarantee which was offered to PPR by the government had been given to VRA, it could have done a better job at a less cost to the nation.
“Of interest also is the question of pricing and the quality of the financial and economic analysis that went into the deal of such gravity. If the nation’s money of over $500 million is being put in an asset, one would have expected that it would have attracted the highest quality of investigation in terms of its financial and economic analysis. It is something that is really missing,” the minister charged.
According to the minister, one area of contention is the way parliament failed to further approve enormous changes made in the agreement after the earlier ratification of the agreement.
“Extension of the conditions precedent by further 60 days commencing from the date of execution of the debtor, early termination charges, application for tax exemptions and changes to the BOOT Agreement, among others, did not go to parliament,” the minister said, stressing that if parliament approves or ratifies a document and there are major changes to the document, it stands to reason that it goes back to parliament for a review, otherwise it (parliament) would approve a document only to find changes without its concurrence .
The chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, later told the media that all officials who had been invited to give evidence in relation to the AMERI deal had cooperated very well with the committee.
The committee’s sittings have been boycotted by the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) members, who are opposed to the attempt by parliament to rescind its decision on the AMERI deal.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr