PDS Contract Termination: Government must come Clear – Governance Watch Ghana

Government may have forgotten it still has obligations towards the Ghanaian public on the matter of Power Distribution Services (PDS) on the state of the loss that has accrued to Ghana following the withdrawal of the USD190 million outstanding obligation on the US Government under Compact II of the Millennium Challenge Corporation that was aimed at putting the power distribution sector in shape and to improve on its efficiency.

PDS had operated from the 1st of March, 2019 until July 30, 2019 when government officially announced its suspension following what government said were “material breaches”. Before the release of this statement, the Minister of Energy, Mr. John Peter Amewu described the PDS documentations leading to their takeover of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as fraudulent, and proceeded to state that fraud vitiates contract.

At about the 9th of August 2019, following the few days of suspension, PDS was handed back ECG to operate. This operation was enforced until about the 23rd day of October that ECG was finally directed by the government to take over the operations of PDS with the PDS deal finally terminated.

For about 73 days, after government found reasons to reinstate PDS, the operations of ECG were in their hands. Government appears to have gone to bed finally after the 23rd October 2019 termination of the PDS deal.

However, Governance Watch would want to ask these questions of government:

Between the reinstatement in August of 2019 and final termination of the deal on 23rd October, 2019:

1. What was the total revenue collected by the company under the operations of PDS?
2. What total expenditure was made out of the revenue collected on the operations of PDS?

On the total operations of ECG for the period 1st March 2019 and 23rd October 2019:

1. What is/was the total revenue or debt handed over to ECG upon the termination of the PDS deal?
2. What is the value of the total assets handed over back to ECG by PDS?
3. What is the total investment made in assets between the date of acquisition and final termination of the deal?

Government, having found grounds to terminate the contract with PDS:

1. What remedies are government pursuing?
2. What charges (Criminal or Civil) are being pursued by government on behalf of the people of Ghana?
3. What obligations, legal or financial are there from any of the parties to the people of Ghana?

We at Governance Watch, believe that government’s responses to these 8 questions would help the Ghanaian have a total closure on the operations of PDS. The matters relating to the entire deal, in the manner it emerged and was handled between 30th July and 23rd October, did not bring a total resolve to the matter.

That the country had lost a whooping USD190 million through no fault of the ordinary Ghanaian who was to benefit from the intervention from the Compact II, we demand that government takes steps to ensure that individuals whose actions led to this unfortunate and substantial loss are made to take responsibility for their actions.

Signed:
Stephen Kwabena Attuh – Executive Director
Fred Adomako Williams – Deputy Director
Mitchell Adotey – Executive Secretary
Contact: 0547349026