A former Minister of Power has justified why government should abrogate its concession agreement with the Power Distribution Services (PDS).
According to Dr. Kwabena Donkor, the government must not hesitate to terminate its agreement with PDS concession deal for proper distribution of power to parts of the country because it has already failed to honour parts of the conditions for the agreement.
The government of Ghana on July 30, 2019 announced the suspension of the contract with PDS, barely six months after the company took over from ECG.
A statement from the Ministry of Information months ago said the decision was taken after government discovered some breaches in the company’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities.
According to Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the decision was taken after government detected “fundamental and material breaches of PDS’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which have been discovered upon further due diligence.”
Nonetheless, a leaked report from a probe by FTI Consulting, a United States-based consulting firm, commissioned by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) into the allegations, said there was no evidence to suggest any of the entities involved in the deal conspired to defraud the state.
However, speaking on Accra based Citi FM, the former Power Minister said; “You don’t go into a bid, set up condition precedents and consciously violate the principles underlying the tender and think it is closure.
The basis of the contract has been destabilized. I sincerely believe that we should give the concession agreement to the original owner to manage.” “What should be happening is that we should have the courage of conviction to terminate the contract which should not even exist in law. This is because we have breached the conditions precedent. It is a condition for termination.
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They should cease to be PDS and the contract taken away from them and then we decide whether we still want the concession option or private sector participation” He stated .
