Government scheming to handover PDS’ assets to French EDF – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of planning to engage, EDF, a French energy firm to take over the operations of the Power Distribution Service (PDS).

PDS has been under investigations for an alleged fraudulent conduct leading to them taking over the assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

A statement issued by the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, on Tuesday, 30 July 2019, announced the suspension of the concession agreement and explained that the decision followed the “detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which were discovered upon further due diligence”.

“The demand guarantees were key prerequisites for the lease of assets on 1 March 2019 to secure the assets that were transferred to the concessionaire,” it said.

However, FTI Consulting, a United States-based consulting firm commissioned by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to investigate whether or not PDS duly won the contract to manage the assets of the ECG confirmed that insurance guarantees were, indeed, paid to back the PDS’s takeover of the assets and operations of the ECG.

At a media briefing at the NDC party headquarters in Accra on Tuesday, 10 September 2019, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia told the press that a further probe by the largest opposition into the PDS saga reveals a new attempt by the government to contract a new firm EDF of France to take over operations of PDS.

This he said will enable “Nana Akufo-Addo and his relatives to appropriate the 51 per cent Ghanaian shareholding in PDS for themselves with the objective of taking control of Ghana’s Power Distribution sector for the next 20 years.”

“We are also aware of frantic efforts by President Akufo-Addo to bring in EDF of France to take-over the assets of ECG in pursuit of his ongoing state-capture agenda,” Mr Nketia said.

“We hereby serve notice to the Akufo-Addo government, that any attempt to use this scandal as an avenue to appropriate the assets of ECG for cronies and assigns of President Akufo-Addo will be fiercely resisted by the people of Ghana,” the General Secretary added.