Ghana: Energy Minister Replies Opposition Party; Says Gov’t Can’t Control PDS Concessionaires

Ghana’s Minister for Energy, John-Peter Amewu says although the government of Ghana has a contract with the Power Distribution Services (PDS), which is managing the distribution business of Electricity Company of Ghana, it cannot control deals among members of the consortium that make up PDS.

Mr Amewu stated that “MCC [Millennium Challenge Corporation], through the Ghana government, has no direct agreement with Meralco or Meridian Power Ventures. The agreement we have was with Power Distributing Service Company Limited, a consortium of companies and members of that company can change at any particular point in time.”

His comments were in reaction to allegations by Ghana’s main opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it has intercepted a document that allegedly exposes a clandestine plan by the government to loot the assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

At a news conference in Accra, Thursday, a former Deputy Minister for Energy and petroleum, Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, said checks by the opposition political party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) revealed that Meridian was incorporated in Hong Kong six days after Cabinet’s approval of Meralco Limited as a 30 percent foreign shareholder, but it had since been blacklisted by the Hong Kong authorities.

“We challenge the Minister for Finance, who has been spearheading the concession and trying to restructure the agreement and shareholding and have given the Minister a 24-hr ultimatum to come out and address the issues, or we shall use all legitimate means available to seek redress,” Mr Jinapor stated.

But Mr Amewu rejected that claim and offered some explanations.

“If there is the need for shareholding agreement in the governing structure in companies, those shareholders do not directly have an agreement with the Ghana government. So, we don’t need consent to that. This is not a joint operating agreement where they will need the government’s consent. This is a shareholding agreement which is basically sharing of profit so there is no need for consent from the government,” he pointed out.

Speaking on an Accra-based Joy FM, Mr Amewu also reacted to recent allegation that Meralco wanted to pull out of the PDS deal because of unhealthy political environment in the West African nation.

He said should that happen, it would be worrisome.

He said the government would be much interested to know the reasons the company wanted to exit.

“Don’t forget, Meralco is the main technical partner in this whole arrangement. The backbone of this ECG-PDS arrangement relies largely on Meralco to drive the processes in terms of the reformation forward. So, if they want to pull out, it will be very worrying and the government will have to investigate,” he said.

Source: www.energynewsafrica.com