PDS fiasco: We won’t accept restrictive tendering – Minority

The Minority in Parliament has rejected government’s proposal to resort to restrictive tendering in selecting a private partner for the management of the power sector in the country .

“Whilst recognising the prerogative of the MCC in the determination of a particular procurement method in the selection of a PSP, in view of the limited time (approximately two years) until the expiration of the Compact II Program, Ghana hereby recommends the adoption by the MCC/MiDA of a restricted tender process to replace PDS.

“This restricted tender process shall be undertaken timeously by fast-tracking some of the processes without compromising the integrity and transparency of the procurement processes,” a government statement announcing the cancelation of the PDS deal said.

Reacting to the government position, former deputy power minister said:”even when we had enough time to do the right thing, look at the mess this government created by themselves? We don’t think restricted tender is the way to go, the interest of Ghana must be considered first at all time.

“This government decided to circumvent a good process with this illegality, inappropriate, and fraud by themselves”.

Government announced the cancellation of the PDS deal on Saturday evening.

“On the strength of all the information gathered about the purported Demand Guarantees provided by PDS as security for the transfer, the Government of Ghana is of the firm opinion that there is no valid Payment Security. Al Koot has clearly denounced and repudiated the instruments and expressed a clear intention not to be bound by any present or future obligation arising out of same. It is quite apparent that the alleged signatory of the purported Demand Guarantees, Yahaya Al Nouri, was not duly authorised by Al Koot to execute same according to the company’s Delegation of Authority instrument. The product was also not one of the company’s product lines.

“It would be illusory for Ghana or any of the parties to the LAA and BSA to consider that a valid and enforceable Payment Security was furnished by PDS in fulfilment of an essential Condition Precedent for the Transfer to PDS. In direct response to an observation in the FTI Final Report about the possibility of Ghana prevailing in a law suit against Al Koot, we say that the people of Ghana would consider it highly irresponsible on the part of government to act on the remote possibility that a Qatari court may find that there was a valid guarantee in place when Al Koot has unequivocally repudiated same as not its act. In any event, the Demand Guarantees are governed by the laws of Ghana, and not Qatar. Further, Qatar does not subscribe to Common Law for the doctrine of judicial precedent to be applicable,” the statement further said.