AMERI deal was rushed through parliament – MP

A member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Hon. William Owuraku Aidoo says the $510 million power deal with AMERI alleged to have been compromised was rushed through parliament as it had minimal time to subject it to careful scrutiny even at the committee level.

In the heady days of the Power Ministry acquiring some Power barges to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians in the protracted power crisis which has persisted for over three years, one of the country’s power deals-AMERI- signed months ago has been widely reported as a dubious contract that was entered into by government.

It has been widely circulated in Ghanaian media, among other things, that one Umar Farooq Zahoor, a top official at AMERI who witnessed the widely criticised contract on behalf of AMERI Group is a wanted fraudster.

Farooq Zahoor according to VG, a Norwegian newspaper, is on the wanted list of the police and Interpol for his lead roles in various scams in Norway and other countries.

Commenting on the development in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, Mr Owuraku Aidoo said the select committee raised concerns with the cost involved among other pertinent issues when the contract came before it but the committee was constrained to make any meaningful deduction because the contract was hurriedly pulled through parliament.

He feels there was a poor job done on the deal before an agreement was entered into by government because he said:” everything was in a rush, and we [parliament] had less than 24hrs to look into it properly”.

A major power deal it was, which is worth over $500 million, the lawmakers were captured to have spent less than 10 minutes debating the multi-million dollar deal which has triggered questions.

Meanwhile, the Power Ministry has dismissed reports that it has entered into a scandalous $510 million power deal with AMERI.

In a statement, the Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor described the report which was carried in a Norwegian newspaper, VG , and widely circulated in the Ghanaian media over the weekend as misleading and false.