Former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor feels vindicated by the struggles of the Akufo-Addo administration in handling the power sector.
According to him, the suspension of the concession agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) is due to the politicisation of the power sector.
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Government on Tuesday July 30, 2019 said it is bringing back the Electricity Company of Ghana to be in full control of power distribution.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, explained that the decision was taken after the government detected “fundamental and material breaches of PDS’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which have been discovered upon further due diligence.”
But, Dr Donkor on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem programme, Wednesday blamed the government for not doing due diligence.
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“How would you give such a huge State asset to a company without condition precedence? This is very surprising,” he bemoaned.
The former Power Minister revealed that the decision to give 51% of shares to Ghana and 49% to a foreign company was a recipe for disaster.
“Our agreement was 20% local content and 80% foreign but the New Patriotic Party came to change it and cooked the contract for PDS; now see,” he said.
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Dr Donkor said if the Akufo-Addo government had continued their agreement, it would have saved itself from the embarrassment.
“No Ghanaian Company has experience in power distribution. If foreigners, who have the experience, had been given the contract, the local people would have understudied them to take over later,” he added.
Source: Ghana | Adomonline.com | Adwoa Gyasiwaa Agyeman