President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated that the suspension of Power Distribution Services (PDS’) power concession agreement with the Government of Ghana is in public interest.
Mr. Akufo-Addo said this on the last day of his two-day official visit to Angola.
Speaking in the Angolan capital, Luanda on Friday, August 9, 2019, the President noted that “it was necessary for us to act in this manner to protect public interest, to protect the ECG assets in excess of GH¢ 3 billion.
According to him, ” these are not assets that you can take lightly. “
He added that they were taken this protect the public interest, and to make sure that the delinquency, if that is what it turns out to be, was nipped in the bud as soon as possible.
He stressed that it was better to let the public know what was going on.
Suspension
Government had on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, announced the suspension of the power concession agreement in a statement signed by Mr. Oppong Nkrumah.
An investigation was launched into the scandal and later Government announced that it will complete its full scale inquiry into detected breaches of the power concession agreement with the PDS within 30-days.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah made the announcement on Thursday, August 1, 2019, in Accra, two days after the deal was suspended.
The statement had indicated that the suspension followed the detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS’ obligation in the provision of the Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which have been discovered upon further due diligence.
“The Demand Guarantees were key prerequisites for the lease of assets on 1st March, 2019 to secure the assets that were transferred to the concessionaire,” the statement said.
BY Melvin Tarlue