GGAGG petitions CHRAJ over PDS/ECG deal

In its quest to unravel circumstances leading to the suspension of the Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement, Good Governance Advocacy Group Ghana (GGAGG) has petitioned the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The non-governmental public-cooperate governance institution in its 5-paged petition is asking CHRAJ to “to investigate the deal in its entirety” and “help expose all the perpetrators of this grand scheme against the State and the people of Ghana to help the very suspicious Ghanaians who are becoming alarmed by the whole transaction get understanding to real issues leading to these happenings.”

GGAGG, is among other things, accusing “Government of Ghana for sheer negligence to duty especially the Executive i.e. (Office of the President) and Legislative (Parliament of Ghana) arms of government whose responsibility was to make sure they put proper supervision mechanism in place to oversee the smooth and proper transaction without any blemish.”

The group alleges that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta superintended over “corruption, nepotism, cronyism, favouritism, conflict of interest and also usurpation of power of the Energy Ministry who has sectoral oversight over Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as his (Hon. Ken’s) Ministry played a leading role in the signing of the agreement with him (Hon. Ken’s) as sector minister being the one who appended his signature to finalize the deal.”

Two weeks ago, government suspended its agreement with the Power Distribution Services with immediate effect, reinstating the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as the power distributor.

According to a press release, the decision follows the detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS’ obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which has been discovered upon further due diligence.

Below is the full petition