Turf war in govt: NPP MP 'fires' Energy Minister over rotten PDS deal

Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Andrew Agyapa Mercer has launched a desperate defence of the rotten Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement.

According to the MP, Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu ‘misspoke’ when he stated the concession agreement entered into by government with PDS was fraudulent.

The Minister had indicated fraud was suspected in the concession agreement, which compelled government to suspend it with immediate effect as precautionary measure.

Mr. Amewu indicated that this development was uncovered after series of due diligence tests were subjected on security guarantees provided by PDS.

He said, “There was some element of fraud in executing the payment security. The payment was not conclusive.”

According to him, the company PDS claimed it had security from had issues and checks indicated there was a breach in the payment security.

However, speaking on Joy FM’s Saturday current affairs news analysis programme Newsfile, the Sekondi MP suggested the Energy Minister was not speaking to the facts that outline government’s position.

According to him, he had seen an official government release issued by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, that government has discovered issues of misrepresentation in the concession agreement.

He argued the release only referred to material breaches and not fraud that led to the suspension of the agreement pending investigations.

“So what is the basis of the Energy Minister telling me that it is fraud?” he queried?

When the host Samson Ayenini pointed out to him Mr. John Amewu is the sector Minister, Andrew Mercer argued the Minister should be aware government has launched a one-month inquiry into the matter.



“So how do I, a trained mind, impugned fraud on anybody when the inquiry has not been concluded?” he queried.

“From where I am sitting I am working with the official position of government, which is the statement issued by the Information Minister.”

Incidentally, Deputy Energy Minister, William Owureku Aidoo, has also claimed initial investigations suggested there was a grand scheme to deceive the state.

According to him, there appears to be a grand scheme to hoodwink the country and expressed delight the scheme has been exposed.

He said, “We are not talking about just small boys trying to do something. This was a grand scheme that has been perpetrated and I am happy to say that we have found out.”

Mr. Aidoo said although investigations are still ongoing, government is convinced PDS misrepresented some of the requirement for the takeover of ECG.

The MP, Andrew Agyapa Mercer, happens to be one of the Directors and also secretary of TG Energy Solutions, the largest Ghanaian shareholder in the PDS transaction.

PDS was to manage the operations of ECG for 20 years starting from Friday, March 1, 2019 but the contract was suspended prematurely by government citing fraud.