The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has raised concerns over government’s decision to enter into a sole-sourced agreement with Mytilineos Holdings to transport and operate the Ameri-powered plant.
ACEP’s Policy Lead, Petroleum and Conventional Energy, Kojo Yaotse according to PakMediaGh insisted that the agreement has been bloated by several millions of cedis.
He said it has been increased by about 40%. According to him the energy minister quoted 35.6 million dollars as the cost of the relocation, however the original proposal from Mytilineos sighted by ACEP quoted 25.48 million dollars for the same.
According to the Energy think tank, the deal is not financially sound and doesn’t favour the country. He wondered why the ministry of energy, instead of negotiating the proposal downwards, rather increased the contract cost.
“We note that the transfer of titles did not contain any liabilities for delivering on the commitment. The decision to absorb Ameri of its responsibilities, to put the plant as its original equipment manufactory recommended state before the transfer, is erroneous and sins against the terms of the BOT agreement and by extension the interest of Ghana,” Mr Yaotse said on Tuesday.
To prevent the country from losing money, the Policy lead recommended that government allow the Volta River Authority (VRA) take over the operation of the Ameri plant.
“Under no circumstance should the maintenance and operations of the plant be outsourced to any contractor. VRA must own and operate the plant per the deed of assignment dated August 17, 2016, for which they were trained by Ameri,” he noted.
Source: PakMediaGh
