Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko has said the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) contract which was signed under the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration was “murky”, hence the government’s decision to terminate the contract.
He explained that before assuming office as the Energy Minister, he found the GPGC agreement signed under the erstwhile Mahama administration in 2015, murky, hence the decision by the incumbent government to terminate it in 2018.
He observed the agreement was terminated based on the cost-benefit analysis which would have resulted in the state paying $18 million to the power provider as costs for cancelling the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
GhanaWeb monitored Boakye Agyarko’s comments on Asempa FM, Tuesday, June 29, that:
“Remember, I am not an engineer. I am a banker in the first order. So, I have to rely on those with the capacity to advise. If you are a Minister, it doesn’t mean you know everything. So, I have talked to Energy Commission, this is their opinion on the matter, I have talked to Attorney General, this is the opinion on the matter, ECG itself under Boakye Appiah was labouring on excess capacity so after talking to a whole host of actors and players and discussing the pertinent details, I was of the opinion that these are the right steps to take, thus, to cancel the contract.
Given the termination cost and benefit analysis as was presented to me, when you are doing these things cost-benefit is the first step. For GPGC, the associated cost was 18 million dollars, which is the cost of cancelling [the] PPA.”
“In Ghana, there is leakage of information. Even before the letter went, somebody from GPGC came to my office. He said he is called Manuel Sowah. He came pleading that ‘Minister please rescind your decision to terminate the contract.’ I then asked him on what basis and he said a lot.
“I told him that Cabinet has given me instructions, if I am to vary the instructions, a similar instruction must come from Cabinet that upon further consideration, we are not terminating their contract, then I oblige.”
Boakye Agyarko further challenged the opposition NDC to mention the names of state officials who assured the Management of Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) of reinstating the terminated contract.
The former Energy Minister questioned the rationale behind NDC’s claims and also without mentioning any name(s) to back their claim.
“I am not a fan of mentioning people’s names on the radio but after listening to the NDC presser, they said certain government officials were giving assurances. Who were those government officials? Name them?
“I have written to a company saying that ‘I’ve given you a termination notice’, then certain government officials, nameless, are assuring the company that they should continue working. Why is it that they did not name the officials? Is it really true? So you conclude that because some senior government officials were giving assurances, therefore, you come to a conclusion without naming those people. I find it very strange,” Boakye Agyarko said.
Sammy Gyamfi, National Communications Officer of NDC had disclosed at a press conference on Monday that the incumbent government knew that terminating the contract with GPGC was wrong, thus, assured the Management of GPGC of taking appropriate steps to reinstate the terminated contract.
“Friends, it will surprise you to know that after the GPGC-EPA was terminated and the company appealed to the government to rescind its decision, the Akufo-Addo government, acting through the Minister of Energy and his Deputy considered that the termination was wrong and gave the company several assurances that the president and cabinet were going to take remedial steps to reinstate the terminated EPA,” he revealed.
