The Energy Ministry has explained that the government is following due process to ultimately renounce the concession agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS).
Its Head of Communications, Nana Damoah while speaking on Eyewitness News said the government has conveyed its intention to cancel the deal to the stakeholders involved.
“The government has conveyed a decision it has taken as a government of Ghana to terminate the PDS concession through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The concession is a form of a contract that has due processes laid down within it for addressing all matters that come up. So far, the government has conducted [itself] in line with the due processes as laid down in the agreement. I do not see that the government may want to do anything to deviate from that strict adherence to that due process. The government has taken the decision to terminate and it has effectively communicated to the MCC.”
The Ministry has also distanced itself from any of the lapses that have culminated in the termination of the PDS concession agreement.
Nana Damoah insisted that the government was not negligent in its handling of the failed deal.
He essentially said the job of performing due diligence was in the hands of the two key advisors to the managers of the Compact; International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Hunton and Williams, an international law firm based in New York.
The Energy Ministry spokesperson noted that the Government was concerned with whether the due diligence IFC and Hunton and Williams were enforcing on the PDS deal was compliant with relevant laws.
“You are in a transaction where you have appointed a transaction advisor. The transaction advisor’s job is to carry out all of these necessary due diligence tests.”
A Finance Ministry letter addressed to the Millennium Challenge Corporation said the government had no choice but to terminate the deal considering all the problems it’s been fraught with.
The agreement for a 20-year concession cleared the way for private-sector participation in Ghana’s power distribution as part of the Millennium Challenge Compact signed on August 4, 2014, between the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Ghana’s government.
Following the cancellation of the PDS deal, there have already been calls for sanctions.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), for example, has demanded that the government cause the arrest and prosecution of persons who represented Ghana in signing the now cancelled concession deal.
By: citinewsroom.com
