Government begins renegotiation of MCA Compact II – Dr. Bawumia

The government has reached an agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to review the second compact that involves giving out the Electricity Company of Ghana on concession.

The new arrangement, thebftonline.com understands, would now see more local companies participating in the concession arrangement, while there will be no staff retrenchment of workers of ECG under the Compact II arrangement.

This comes after several petitions by the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) of the Trades Union Congress to the government, to as a matter of urgency, expedite the proposed dialogue with key stakeholders and review the privatisation of ECG.

The PUWU had indicated that such engagements were to sufficiently arm government to take a positive decision regarding the proposed concession arrangement of the ECG as part of the programme under the US Millennium Challenge Compact II.

But the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia speaking to the media at the sidelines of the IMF spring meetings said, the renegotiation of the terms of the Compact II arrangement has become important for the government as there is the need to protect ECG workers.

“We have been able to get the Millennium Challenge Corporation to renegotiate the concession agreed on. We have been talking to the Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC) since we got here on the matter of laying off staff of ECG under the arrangement and we are also renegotiating the agreement in the sense to make sure that it has majority Ghanaian ownership.”

“And we have gotten an understanding of these elements of having Ghanaian businesses participating in the concession, an assurance that there will be no lay-offs at ECG as a result of the concession and also it will be managed by Ghanaians. And I think it is good news for Ghana,” the Vice President said.

Compact II

Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the US, in October 2016, signed the second compact agreement worth $498 million.

As part of the agreement, the government is required to enter into a contract with a private sector partner who will have exclusive rights to operate, maintain and invest in the ECG for a stated number of years, beginning January 2017.

However, stakeholders such as the PUWU and the ECG have called for a renegotiation of some provisions in that compact that they believe are not economically favourable.