Ghana Politics News-Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper, Ben Ephson has urged President Akufo Addo to immediately name and sack his appointees involved in the controversial renegotiated AMERI deal.
It has emerged that President Akufo-Addo was misled by his Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko into granting executive approval for the deal under the guise of there being an urgent need to have a bill laid in Parliament before the House rose.
The agreement has been described by the Minority in Parliament and other energy think tanks including African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) as “stinky” and “rip-off.”
Under the new proposal, the Greece-based Mytilineos International Trading Company was to assume management responsibility for the AMERI emergency power-generation arrangement negotiated by the past NDC government, in effect extending the original outsourcing agreement by ten more years.
Furthermore, Ghana is to make annual payments of $75m for 15 years: under the existing arrangement, the nation is contracted to pay $102m for five years.
In the run-up to the 2016 elections, the NPP campaigned on a promise to revise the $510 million AMERI deal, championed by former President John Mahama in 2015, because the cost was unreasonably high and the arrangement riddled with corruption.
As such, it was thought that, barring outright cancellation, any revision of the existing agreement would necessarily lead to a reduction in the contract sum and the cost of power within the five-year tenure.
President Akufo-Addo’s executive order came amid the growing number of groups and individuals who had slammed the government over the re-negotiated AMERI deal.
Commenting on the matter on News File on Joy FM, Mr Ephson joined a large section of the public who believe President Akufo Addo must crack the whip on his appointees for embarrassing him.
“He must let heads roll, the appointees who misled him he must sack them, the influence peddlers who went around lying he didn’t appoint them. He must name and shame them. Anybody who saw the President in chambers the shame is on him to admit, he’s admitted he’s done well. If he decides not to sack anybody, name and shame all those who misled him then he himself is part of it.”
What do you think about this piece? Share your comment in the comment thread and share the story using the social media buttons above. Thank you.
