Government considers abrogating AMERI deal

Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, believes the country did not do enough due diligence before signing the controversial $510million Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group’s (AMERI) power deal.

He told the Mines and Energy Committee investigating the motion for rescission of the deal on Tuesday, October 31 that the Ministry will conduct financial analysis and decide on the decision which could include abrogation.

“Both parties can consent to set aside the agreement for renegotiation, that’s an option. We could push the case for annulment based on the establishment of fraud, malfeasance or any such untoward behaviour for an agreement, or we could push for an abrogation that would incur some liabilities; we are examining all these in terms of the financial implications. It may well be that given the situation as we find it, we may be better off abrogating than letting it run. We will run the numbers and make a financial decision based on that,” he said at the meeting.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, KT Hammond, had filed a motion of rescission asking Parliament to withdraw its approval of the power agreement in 2015.

Mr Hammond wants it cancelled, even though he seconded its passage to rent the 300MW emergency power plant at the height of the power crisis in 2015 in his capacity as the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament.

The Speaker referred the motion to the Mines and Energy Committee for deliberation, but the Minority claims the move is alien to their standing orders leading to a boycott of the committee's work.

With the principal witness, KT Hammond, already given his testimony last Wednesday, it was the turn for the current Energy Minister.

Mr Hammond presented the following evidence to back his call for the rescission of the deal.

(1) AMERI did not provide fast-track equipment contrary to the agreement. They assigned their interest to a subsidiary known as AMERI Equipment which was registered 13 days after the agreement had been signed with Ghana.

(2) AMERI Equipment (the subsidiary) did not undertake the construction but assigned this to a Turkish Company called PPR without the consent of the government of Ghana as required.

(3) A Turkish company, PPR, bore all financial risk, raised all capital and was paid with money government of Ghana paid AMERI.