Former Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor is accusing government of witch-hunt following the exposé on the Ameri Power deal.
According to him, the claims that they overpriced the deal by $150 million is a calculated attempt by the Akufo-Addo led government to damage his hard-won reputation.
Dr. Donkor was reacting to report on the Ameri deal by a 17-member committee chaired by private legal practitioner, Philip Addison.
The committee among other things found technical and financial lapses in the Ameri deal signed as an emergency power agreement in February 2015, between Government of Ghana represented by the Minister of Power and Ameri Energy, to ameliorate the country’s power challenges at the time.
The Addison recommended government renegotiate the deal also advised that ”in the event that Ameri Energy refuses to come to the negotiation table, government should repudiate the Agreement on the grounds of fraud”.
But Dr. Kwabena Donkor on Ekosii Sen stressed the deal cannot be said to be fraudulent because it went through the right processes.
“The agreement went through Cabinet, the Committee on Mines and Energy, recommended by consensus and was passed by parliament. “If there was fraud, why wouldn’t the committee recommend straight away the termination of the contract and take criminal action,” he queried.
The former Power Minister bemoaned why the Committee did not invite him or any member of the team that negotiated the contract for their side of the story before putting out the report.
This conduct by the Addison Committee, Dr. Donkor is convinced is part of a grand scheme to paint the erstwhile Mahama-led government black.
He warned government risk paying huge judgement debt should they abrogate the Ameri deal.
The only way out, Dr. Kwabena Donkor said is an outright purchase of the power plants from Ameri to avoid causing financial loss to the state.
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