Former Energy Minister opens up about controversial Ameri Power Plant deal

Mr Boakye Agyarko, whose tenure as the Energy Minister came to a halt in 2018 as a result of the controversial Ameri Power Plant deal, has finally opened up on what happened.

Touching on the controversial issue that sparked several conversations in mainstream media and social media about 5 years ago, the former energy minister, disclosed that, his dismissal was orchestrated by people who were not pleased with the work of the Addison-led Committee.

Speaking in an interview with Omanhene Kwabena Asante on Asempa FM, monitored by GhanaWeb, Agyarko said one of the core mandates entrusted to him when he was appointed energy minister was to look into the Ameri Deal.

But he added that President Akufo-Addo had also formed a committee, headed by attorneys Addison and Vicky Bright, to look into the same Ameri Contract and offer recommendations.

"Cabinet dictates certain decisions. A committee was formed to handle this matter, I was not part of this committee. It was chaired by lawyer Addison and lawyer Vicky Bright. It was institutional representation, energy commission, attorney general, and others. They formed the committee to do the negotiations. I was not part," he explained to the host.

Mr Agyarko added that, though he was not part of this committee, once in a while, he received briefings from the committee.

"Addison and Vicky, once in a while will report to me on what's happening or if they had issues. They were also reporting to the president (Akufo-Addo). Sometimes, I will go and fill the president in on what was happening," he said.

He, however, noted that his problems began when some people within the party and government had issues with the committee, hence they (such people) started spreading ill information about him.

"Some people were not happy with the outcome of Addison-led committee work. Suddenly, this brouhaha began. They started saying that what Agyarko had done was worse than the original contract.

"The story was that I had put something on it for myself. Committee that, I was not part of the negotiations, how could I put something on for myself?

"Here are the numbers, the original contract was 14.25 cents a kWh. When I became the minister, I called all the key power generators and told them we couldn't pay their prices. So I suggested we standardised our KW at 4 cents a kWh because Ivory Coast is using the same gas, etc that we are also using. But they purchase their power at 10 cents a kWh.

"So I requested we put ourselves at 12 cents a kWh, alot of them agreed. Finally, the Addison Committee in their report, gave 11.719cents a kWh.

"Maybe the school that I went to was different. But how do 11 cents become more expensive than 12 cents or 14 cents?

"How can anybody say that what the committee presented was more expensive?" he asked rhetorically.

Background to AMERI deal

The John Mahama administration in 2015 signed a contract with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) Energy, to rent the 300MW of emergency power from AMERI.

This was at the peak of the country’s power crisis.

The power agreement with UAE-based AMERI Energy cost $510 million.

But according to the Akufo-Addo administration, it found out that the government had been shortchanged by AMERI as they presented an overpriced budget, and were overpaid by $150 million.

Under the new agreement, a new company, Mytilineous International Trading Company, will take over the management of the AMERI power plant for 15 years.

The new company has offered to pay AMERI an amount of $52,160,560, with the government paying the remaining $39 million to the Dubai-based AMERI Energy to wash its hands off the deal entirely.

Listen to the audio below:



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