The Minority is fuming over what it says is the “corrupt” and scandalous attempt by the government to review the controversial AMERI deal.
Addressing a press conference, Wednesday, former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor said Ghanaians must hold president Akufo-Addo personally liable for giving an executive approval to a corrupt deal.
The statement comes a day after a Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah held a similar press conference saying the deal is still going through a process of review and that a deal which will be in the best interest of the country will be settled on.
But the Minority is not the least impressed with the assurances.
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In a counter press conference, John Jinapor called for a complete withdrawal of the deal.
He was surprised the president would give an executive approval to a deal he claimed would wreck the country.
“The president couldn’t have given approval if he did not look into this. It, therefore, sums up that the president is very comfortable with the deal. The president is certainly neck and arms deep into this deal and you cannot but hold the president responsible,” he said.
He added the president cannot extricate himself from this “stinking, scandalous and disastrous deal that is about to wreck the whole nation.
John Jinapor
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John Jinapor does not understand why the president would “hastily” support a project like this especially when there is no legal opinion from the Attorney General.
He said no wonder Ghanaians are fast losing faith in the Akufo-Addo government.
Background
The $510 million Ameri deal was signed between the Mahama led government in 2015 at a time when the country was reeling under a heavy power paralysis.
The deal was to shore up Ghana’s power supply and to help solve what became known as the return of “dumsor”- power outages.
However, the deal triggered a well of controversy with civil society groups including IMANI, ACEP raising issues about the cost of the power plant.
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But officials of the Mahama led government were adamant in the face of criticism.
Deputy Power Minister at the time John Jinapor justified the agreement saying, the $510 million was for a period of five years which is not the same as paying for a product on a shelf.
The then opposition New Patriotic Party was not left out of the controversy, accusing the Mahama led the administration of price inflation.
It promised to review the agreement if it won power and shortly after it did, the Akufo-Addo led government quickly set up a 17-member committee led by Philip Addison, a lawyer, to investigate the details of the agreement.
The committee among other issues advised the government to review the agreement with Ameri company.
The review has been done and a new agreement has been brought to Parliament for approval.
In the new agreement, the government claims the new deal will save the country a whopping amount of $400 million over a 15-year period.
Under this agreement, a new company- Mytilineous International Trading Company will take over the management of the Ameri power plants for 15 years.
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 new deal has been questioned not just by ACEP but by the NDC minority.
John Jinapor said the new deal is “dubious.”
He also added that the Karpower agreement which government attempted to review is stinking as well.