Private legal practitioner, Yaw Oppong is not convinced by the reasons given for the termination of the Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement and insisted that the grounds on which the deal was terminated is still unclear.
“I am not very sure of the grounds on which the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has terminated the PDS contract, we should know the contract was not just between the ECG and PDS since other people, related parties and stakeholders also had a role to play.
“In going ahead to do that, I would have thought the generality of information from US, Ghana, ECG and others should have been factored into it, we get convincing ground to terminate it if we had to because I do not know the grounds on which it was terminated,” Mr Oppong stressed.
The government has terminated the concession agreement between it and the PDS, the move followed announcement of cancellation of contract by Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta after meeting with officials of Millennium Challenge Corporation and ECG subsequently announced it had assumed full control of electricity distribution business in the country.
In a statement it said the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Limited has on October 23, 2019 terminated Private Sector Participation Transaction Agreements with Power Distribution Services Ghana (PDS) Limited, ECG has assumed full operational and financial control of electricity distribution business in the country with immediate effect, consequently, all activities which were hitherto undertaken by PDS have reverted to ECG.
But the US had described termination of concession agreement with PDS as unwarranted despite the government’s claims of fraud in the deal and in a statement maintained the agreement was valid based upon conclusions of independent forensic investigation.
The U.S. position was that the transfer of operations, maintenance and management of Southern Distribution Network to private concessionaire on March 1, 2019, was valid and termination unwarranted.
The termination of the deal also meant the nation will lose out on $190 million following termination of deal. Millennium Challenge Corporation confirmed the $190 million funds granted the country March 1, 2019 transfer to 20-year concession from ECG to PDS was no longer available but will continue to implement the Tranche I funds of $308 million with Millennium Development Authority. -citinewsroom.com
The post ‘Reasons for terminating PDS agreement not convincing’ appeared first on Ghanaian Times.
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