Akufo-Addo leaving behind a legacy of corruption, under performance & confusion - MP

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central Alhaji Inusah Fuseini has berated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo describing as a disappointment and a failure towards the fight against corruption.

According to the MP who is a member on Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, incompetence, under-performance and mediocrity has become the benchmark for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

"What is happening in Ghana today and especially Martin Amidu’s office is giving the impression that it is part of the legacy of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the legacy of incompetence, ineptitude, corruption, non-performance and confusion." He noted.

He was reacting to claims by Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu that he does not have the jurisdiction to probe the Power Distribution Services (PDS) saga.

The legislator, who was part of the committee that worked on the bill that set up the office disagreed saying, ”the SP peddled falsehood by making the claims”.

He insisted, “The law did not create a new gamut of offences. It simply specified the area of offences which in the view of the lawmakers are corruption-related offences…so to say that ‘I don’t have the mandate to prosecute economic crimes’ is false,’’ he said.

"We have given the SP police powers, which the AG does not have and the powers are to investigate and arrest…We don’t know the full remits of the PDS facts. Meanwhile, we know the president has tasked a team to probe the matter and so on what basis is he making these claiming? The dynamics are still unfolding," he added.

Meanwhile, the president has indicated that the suspension of the PDS deal was in the interest of the state.

Addressing members of the Ghanaian community in Angola on Thursday, August 8, 2019, the President explained that his government inherited an arrangement in which the United States goverment, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), offered the country half a billion dollars of money for the reform of the energy sector.

“It was decided to incorporate it largely into the reform of the Electricity Corporation of Ghana. One of the conditions of the money was that we should get a private electricity coordinator to partner with the nation to manage our electricity generation and distribution system,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo continued, “After a process of bidding and tendering which left us with one company in the field, an arrangement was made for that company to take over the running of the assets of ECG. Subsequently we discovered that some of the financial instruments the company put in place were not in order, and, as a result of that, we have had to suspend the concession until all the facts are established.”

The President explained that a fundamental part of the agreement required that PDS put up a guarantee to cover some $400 million.

“It turned out that there are problems with this guarantee. Therefore, the protection that we should have in the transaction was not really there. The matter came to our notice, and we decided that the first thing to do was to protect the public assets by suspending the agreement with this private sector operator and returning the assets to the control of the ECG whilst a process of investigation was being carried out,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that he sent a delegation to Qatar on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, the origin of the guarantee, to find out exactly what the situation was.

“They (Ghanaian delegation) met them (Al Koot Insurance and Reinsurance). They are on their way back. By the time I get back to Accra tomorrow (Friday), we will know exactly where we are,” he said.

The decision to suspend the agreement, the President said, was necessary for “to protect the public interest, and to protect the ECG assets in excess of 3 billion cedis. These are not assets that you can take lightly. They were taken to protect the public interest and to make sure that the delinquency, if that is what it turns out to be, was nipped in the bud as soon as possible,” the President added.