PDS termination: I am deeply disappointed in Akufo-Addo - Mahama

A former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has expressed his disappointment in the Akufo-Addo led administration over the termination of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Concessionaire Agreement with the Power Distribution Company (PDS).

In a post on his Facebook timeline, Mr Mahama indicated that the PDS termination was needless and could have been avoided by government.

He stated, “... a decision by the MCC [Millennium Challenge Corporation] to withdraw $190 million from the Compact funding. It’s a sad day for us all. This money was meant to improve the efficiency of our electricity utility corporation.”

“Let me emphasise that, all these shady happenings were avoidable if the right decisions, with the future development of Ghana in mind, were taken, and not parochial decisions that reflect the sad and worsening situation of state capture that we are experiencing under Akufo-Addo,” the post read further.

Background

Government late last week announced its intention to terminate the PDS Contract, months after it claimed that it had detected breeches in the PDS deal.

The termination decision follows a meeting between Nana Bediatuo Asante, Secretary to President Akufo-Addo, and Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister on one hand, and Kyeh Kim, Principal Deputy Vice President of MCC, and Kenneth Miller, the Resident Country Director-Ghana of the MCC, on the other hand, held in Washington DC on Friday, October 18, 2019.

Critics have chastised Government for not acting in the best interest of Ghana in the negotiation, and signing of the power concession.

There has also been reports that some ‘elements’ within Government were scheming to take over the management of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) after the termination of the PDS deal.

But Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, briefing journalists in Accra on Wednesday, October 23, said the Government of Ghana has never been negligent.

According to him, the Government of Ghana has at all times worked with Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in structuring this transaction in the best interest of Ghanaians.

Read below Mahama's full post.