The 5 fattest lies of Atta Akyea’s Genser Report

Two renowned think tanks in Ghana, IMANI and ACEP, launched an investigation in September 2022 into why valuable natural gas owned by Ghana was being sold donkomi by GNPC to a company called Genser.

They published several scathing reports in September and October 2022 showing that Ghana stands to lose $1.5 billion on the stinky deal.

Samuel Atta Akyea, the NPP MP for Abuakwa who doubles as Chairman of Parliament’s committee for mines and energy, also then embarked on the committee’s own investigation from September 2022 to November 2022.

It turns out that Atta Akyea only wanted to whitewash the deal. He recently released a report to challenge the findings of IMANI and ACEP, but in an embarrassing twist, it has been disowned by some leading members of the very committee he chairs.

Here are the five fattest lies that have been exposed since Atta Akyea’s report was published on 16th August 2023.

1. Atta Akyea claims that GNPC sells the gas to Genser for $6.08 per MMBtu (a unit of volume for natural gas) but that it also reimburses Genser at $3.29 because of “netbacking”. This means that Genser bears the cost of transportation that GNPC should bear and so the net amount of $2.79 that GNPC receives is net of standard costs of delivering the gas. This has been proven to be untrue because GNPC’s own calculations submitted to PURC, which sets prices for both the raw gas and the other costs like transport, show that for GNPC the cost of the gas alone is more than $6.5. Any transport costs are on top of this. So, if Genser has absorbed the transport costs, then it should be paying at least for the raw gas and processing costs. That will be more than $6.5. Actually, in June 2023, PURC increased the price of raw gas to $6. The full cost of gas, after adding margins for transport and other services, in Ghana is now $7.5 (82.8 Ghana cedis) per MMBtu. Therefore, the price of $2.79 per MMBtu, which is to be reduced to $1.72 for Genser is donkomi pro max! GHANA IS DEFINITELY LOSING $1.5 BILLION!

2. Atta Akyea said the Energy Minister, affectionately called Napo, did not have any knowledge of the deal yet there are letters written by the same Minister in March 2021 which were given to the committee that shows that the Minister instructed GNPC to work with Genser to extend the deal to cover works in Kumasi. He also approved the deal in principle.

3. Atta Akyea claimed that because the GNPC and Genser deal is in the “deregulated market” the government is not involved in pricing and regulation. This is UNTRUE. All natural gas in Ghana is nationalised and by policy can only be distributed by Ghana Gas, a state-owned company. In March 2020, the Economic Management Team (EMT) issued a policy that says that gas prices in the deregulated market should be set by the Ministry of Energy.

4. Atta Akyea claims that John Jinapor agreed with him about the Genser deal not costing Ghana $1.5 billion. John Jinapor says this is a fat lie. He never said this anywhere. Jinapor has also debunked the claim that all the other committee members support the report.

5. Atta Akyea claims that Genser has the right to charge a transmission tariff of $3.29 to cover transportation. This is also a lie. Genser has no gas transmission license, so it can’t.

Emmanuel Agyabeng, is a Financial and economic reporting journalist with the EIB Network (GHOne TV and Starr FM).

All the evidence for the above from here:

Short essay by Bright Simons – https://brightsimons.com/2023/08/17/unpatriotic-parliamentary-report-on-gnpc-genser-gas-deal-riles/

Full response to committee report by ACEP and IMANI - https://acep.africa/acep-imani-response-to-genser-gnpc-gas-deal-committee-report-august-2023/?amp=1

Everyone can cross-check too. How can such a senior politician play loose with the truth like that?