Dr. Yaw Baah
Leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Government of Ghana to institute a probe into the Meridian Port Service (MPS) deal at the Tema Port.
TUC has also encouraged Government to extend investigations into other Concessionaire Agreements as it has done with the Power Distribution Services (PDS) power concession agreement.
It made the call in a nine-pages document it submitted to the Minister of Finance on the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
TUC expressed the belief that “the MPS Terminal 3 agreement is not in the interest of Ghana and government must have the courage to review it.”
According to TUC, the agreement has the potential to collapse viable public companies such as Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority, terminal operators, Inland Container Depots, Ghana Dock Labour Company, stevedore companies and others.
“Ghana cannot afford to mortgage the most lucrative areas of the maritime industry in the hands of foreign companies,” TUC warned.
It added that “we, therefore call on Government to continue to act in the best interest of Ghana.”
Government, it would be recalled, 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.
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 Talue