The Vice President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Bright Simmons has explained that about five companies were involved in the procurement and installation and operation of the emergency power plant, Ameri Power.
According to him, bringing on-board these companies which included General Electric (GE), PPL, APR AND Metcar was unnecessary.
Ameri Power secured a contract from the erstwhile National Democratic Congress’ government to provide about 250 Megawatts of power for Ghana because of erratic power cuts in the country.
However, the New Patriotic Party government upon assuming office tasked a 17-member committee to investigate the contract, which they believe was not in the best interest of Ghanaians.
The lawyer Philip Addison led committee after its investigation disclosed that the contract was bloated by about $150 million.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Bright Simmons explained that government currently pays Ameri power $10 million every month for its services adding that the amount is too high.
According to him, the company should be paid $2.5 million instead.
” Our argument is very simple, in so far as every month government has to go and find nearly $10 million and hand it over to Ameri, there is room for negotiation to bring that amount down. That is all that we are asking for. Definitely they must re-negotiate. Government has already committed itself to try and bring down that cost. We need clarity from government for the timeline and strategy on how to get that done,” he added.
He further lambasted the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) for not doing due diligence to deal during its initial stages.
“In terms of order of anger, I’m most incensed by the regulators in the space—Energy Commission, PURC and the rest, I think it is completely useless that we pay regulators that absolutely have no understanding of the remit of their mandate. PURC should be involved because they are the regulators,” he added.
The IMANI Ghana Vice President also said he was disappointed at the NPP government for not giving a clear road map on how the deal with be re-negotiated.
Click below to the listen to the full interview:
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
