Staff of the Volta River Authority (VRA) are calling for the immediate removal of Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko over the revised AMERI deal.
According to them, his claim that the renegotiated AMERI deal will save Ghana some $400 million is “misleading and erroneous”.
Chairman of the VRA staff union, Kaba Adatuu at a news conference in Accra said the deal in its current form, if approved by Parliament will only result in a loss for the country.
READ: Man arrested for attempting to sell 14-year-old
“Ghana rather stands to lose $472 million and we are going to challenge him that he does not know his figures. We are there and we are going to tell him the right figures” he added.
The Energy Minister is hot following his decision to revise the original AMERI deal signed by the Mahama led government in 2015 during a major power paralysis in the country.
The $510million power plant for five years has been extended to 15 years. Under this agreement, a new company- Mytilineous International Trading Company will take over the management of the Ameri power plants for 15 years.
READ: I resigned before Sovereign Bank collapse – Former Board Chair
The new company has offered to pay Ameri an amount of $52,160,560.00, with the government paying the remaining $39 million to the Dubai based company so they can wash their hands off the deal entirely.
In the agreement, the price at which government will now buy power will be reduced from 14.5919 cents to 11.7125 cents per kWh which will lead to a savings of $405.067 million.
“The drop in tariff of US cents 2.8793 per kWh has resulted in a yearly cost savings of about $27.004 million. The total cost of savings over the 15 year period is $405.067m,” the new agreement said in part.
But the Union Chairman said after 15 years – as the contract stipulates – the machines would have worn out and cannot be put to any meaningful use.
READ: MUST-READ: Political parties’ views on state funding
Mr Adatuu said the government lied and that “After 15 years, they [machines] will be more or less crap.”
He stated that, the VRA is already indebted to Ghana Gas as a result of the services it provides to Ameri and so extending the deal to 15 years will just worsen the burden on the Authority.
Mr Adatuu beleives the Energy Minister has been economical with the truth hence must be sacked to serve as a deterent to others.