PDS forged document; Official suspended – Energy Minister

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Officials of Power Distribution Service (PDS) forged documents to take over Ghana’s Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Energy Minister has revealed.

Peter Amewu disclosed that even though a document indicated that a company in Qatar has guaranteed for PDS, the management of the company told the government it had no knowledge of the document.

“The investigations that was conducted through due diligence processes had established that the payment guarantee that was submitted by PDS to ECG was for some reasons the word fraudulent has been used in it. The executing authority denied ownership of such document and therefore had written to ECG to announce that we’ve got nothing to do with this document,” the minister told Accra-based Citi FM.

The Ghanaian government on Tuesday announced that PDS’ concession agreement was suspended after the government discovered some breaches in the company’s obligation in the provision of payment securities.

Meanwhile, an official has also been suspended in connection with the detected breaches.

“Let’s say that the letter which is coming from Al Koot claiming that the payment security is fraudulently done and that they have nothing to do with it, and the officer responsible for that has already been suspended and therefore they are taking the issue seriously,” Amewu told 3News.com

As a result of the revelation, he said, government felt it was important to hold on with the country’s assets transferred to PDS.

“With the detection it is proper government took that action,” he explained rationale behind the suspension.

He credited government for its “due diligence” which established the supposed fraudulent act, rejecting criticism that government did a poor job prior to the award of the contract to PDS.

PDS responded to the government’s statement saying it had always acted in good faith and “will continue to act in good faith at all times.”

The Genesis

On August 5, 2014, the government of Ghana executed the second Millennium Challenge Compact with the US government with the objective of, inter alia, increasing private sector investment and the productivity and profitability of micro, small, medium and large scale businesses.

Among the six projects within the second compact is the ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project (EFOT), which seeks to introduce a orivate sector oarticipant in the management and operations of ECG.

According to the statement, consequently, the GoG, under the auspices of the Millennium Development Authority, embarked upon a competitive procurement process which resulted in the selection of an acceptable partner to manage, operate and invest in ECG’s operations for 20 years.

The Meralco-led Consortium was declared the winning bidder on April 20, 2018.

Meralco has partnered AEnergia SA, an Angolan company, and three Ghanaian companies–TG Energy Solutions Ghana Limited, Santa Power Limited and GTS Power Limited to form Power Distribution Services Ghana Limited, the statement indicated.

PDS is 51 percent Ghanaian-owned as required by the government of Ghana.

The concessionaire, PDS, is expected to strengthen the governance, management and operations of ECG and improve the delivery of power to end users to support socio-economic growth in Ghana, according to the statement.

It added that “the general public and customers of ECG are, hereby, informed that effective 1st March, 2019, PDS will be the electricity service provider in all of ECG’s operational areas in the southern distribution zone of Ghana.

The ECG will continue to operate as a bulk energy trader and the asset owners.”

Source: Daily Mail GH