Ameri deal: NDC 'chopped' too much - Prof Adei

A former Rector of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has argued that the erstwhile Mahama administration wasted too much money for the Ameri power deal when they were other cheaper options available.

According to Prof Adei, IMANI Ghana noted that the deal was inflated by over 150 million and demanded that the government of the time abrogate it.

Vice President of IMANI Kofi Bentil said the then government officials paid a whopping $150 million to a middleman for little or no job done.

But officials of the Mahama-led government were adamant in the face of criticism.

“NDC people chopped too much. According to IMANI, the thing could have been bought for 50% in the open market…and then you get somebody to advice you for 150 million to buy it for about 350 million, only Ghana,” he said.

According to Prof Adei, the NPP government didn’t help matters with its attempt to renegotiate the original 5-year deal with another company for over 10-years, describing it as a ‘bad deal’.

Speaking to Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng on '21 Minutes with KKB', the economist noted that “we have paid half, we have half left and you say you are renegotiating it for what, 10 to 15 years so that we pay the other half over a longer period, I couldn’t understand it”.

“I thought that it was not true, so I was just making a statement that if it is true it’s a bad deal for Ghana, it happens to be true,” he added.

Prof Adei stated that the ordinary Ghanaian without an economics background could easily understand that the renegotiation was not good.

For Prof Adei, no political party has a monopoly of corruption.

Background

The NPP government was on the verge of renegotiating the controversial Ameri power deal claiming the new deal will save the country a whopping amount of $400 million over a 15-year period.

Under the new agreement, a new company named Mytilineous International Trading Company will take over the management of the Ameri power plants for 15 years.

The new company offered to pay Ameri an amount of $52,160,560.00, with the government paying the remaining $39 million to the Dubai based company so they can wash their hands off the deal entirely.

The $510 million Ameri deal was signed between the Mahama led government in 2015 at a time when the country was reeling under a heavy power paralysis.

The deal was to shore up Ghana’s power supply and to help solve what became known as the return of “dumsor”.