PDS Fiasco: I detected no anomalies when I took over from Boakye Agyarko – Amewu

Energy Minister John Peter Amewu has said he did not detect any fault with the agreement signed between the Power Distribution Services (PDS) Limited and the government of Ghana, in relation to the national power supply takeover by the private firm from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), when he took over affairs of at the ministry.

Mr Amewu was the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources when the deal commenced under the then-Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko.

He explained at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 1 August 2019 that he did not detect any fault in the handing over notes that were presented to him upon assumption of office at the Energy Ministry.

He further explained that the faults in the agreement were detected through a continuous due diligence exercise done by ECG.

The government of Ghana recently suspended its concession agreement with PDS.

The decision was communicated via a press release by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Tuesday, 30 July 2019.

The statement said the action to put the agreement on hold was necessitated by “the detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS’ obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which have been discovered upon further due diligence”.

The government said a full probe has been initiated into the agreement and steps have been taken to ensure that “distribution, billing and payment services continue uninterrupted”.



Asked at the press conference by Class 91.3FM’s Blessed Sogah whether or not he detected the fault in the handing over notes, he said: “I didn’t detect any fault. There was nothing like that when I took over.”

He added: “The principle of due diligence is an ongoing process; it is not an event and, so, through the work with the ECG’s continuous due diligence, the fault was detected as the operations continued.

“Even as the process continues and after the handing over process, they (ECG) continued with the due diligence. So, at the time I received my handing over notes, there was nothing like that.”