A Member of the Mines and Energy committee of Parliament and Bongo MP, Edward Bawa has charged the government to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the renegotiated amendment of the AMERI deal.
Mr. Bawa’s comments were in reaction to Boakye Agyarko’s dismissal as the Energy Minister over his handling of the deal.
Speaking to Citi News, he echoed the earlier sentiment of the Minority in Parliament that President Nana Akufo-Addo was complicit in the deal. This was after some reports suggested that the President had given executive approval to the novation agreement.
“Boakye Agyarko may be on the lower end of the food chain. I think we have people who are on the higher side,” Mr. Bawa remarked.
“As a minister, you bring out a document, you give it to the President for approval or Cabinet for approval. The moment you hand it over to either or Cabinet or the Presidency for approval, the document ceases to be your document because you would have made a case as to why that document must be approved or rejected.”
“On the strength of that, anything that then comes out of Cabinet or comes out of the Presidency by way of executive approval is the work of the President or is the work of Cabinet,” Mr. Bawa explained further.
The government took the revised deal to Parliament last week under a certificate of urgency.
But the House deferred its deliberation on the contract due to concerns over the cost and value for money being voiced by civil society and the Minority.
The new agreement was to extend the current five-year deal with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) Energy which is currently operating a 300MW emergency power plant in Ghana to 15 years and bring onboard a new company from Greece, Mytilineous International Trading Company, to manage the plant for the period.
Analysis from observers indicated that the proposed amendment to the AMERI agreement would see a cash flow of $1,125,007,380.
But it is expected that the government would be paying a total of $1.375 billion for the AMERI power plant over approximately 18 years instead of the original $510 million.
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