Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, March 27 , 2017
The New
Patriotic Party (NPP) government is on the heels of Middle East Resources
Investment Group LLC - otherwise known as AMERI Group or AMERI Energy - which had
signed an agreement with Ghana to produce power during the previous Mahama
administration.
This is
because a committee set up by the Ministry of Energy to restructure the $510 million
Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) Agreement between Ghana and AMERI
Energy has recommended to the government that it should call back owners of the
Dubai–based company for renegotiation.
It turned
out that AMERI Energy was charging over $150 million commission and the
committee therefore recommended that if the company refused to honour the
invitation for re-negotiation, the government should renounce the agreement on
grounds of fraud.
The BOOT
Agreement signed on February 10, 2015 with the Ministry of Power representing
the Ghana government set tongues wagging when the real amount involved was
revealed.
Third Party Deal
DAILY GUIDE stumbled on the committee’s report which indicated that in
the course of the investigations, the committee took notice of the fact that the
whole of the project was executed and financed by a company called PPR, which was
registered in Turkey at a charge that was considerably lower than that agreed
between the Government of Ghana and Ameri Energy (under the BOOT Agreement).
“The
Committee recommends that Ameri Energy should be invited back to the
negotiation table to address and remedy the issues enumerated in this report
and for GoG to aim to claw back a substantial portion of the over $150 million
commission. In the event that Ameri Energy refuses to come to the negotiation
table, GoG should repudiate the Agreement on the grounds of fraud,” the report
said.
According
to the Committee, the BOOT Agreement was signed as an emergency power agreement
to help reduce the power supply deficit at the time, and the project was
expected to be delivered within 90 days after the fulfillment of conditions
precedent.
It said the
delay in implementing the BOOT Agreement “defeated its classification as an
emergency project.”
Grossly Unfair
“Even
though the plant is operational, several omissions and concessions were made in
the BOOT Agreement which require re-negotiation, amendments and restructuring
of the Agreement. The Agreement simply is grossly unfair and is not as it
presently stands, in the best interest of Ghana.
“The
Committee has enumerated technical, financial and legal observations and recommendations
in the report that are aimed at rectifying the anomalies in the BOOT Agreement
for effective and efficient implementation of the project,” it added.
It said
that the recommendations were also to serve “as a guide for future negotiations
of power projects,” and advised that the government “should take all necessary
measures to avoid power supply deficits which result in the execution of
emergency power agreements.”
Minister’s Directive
Minister of
Energy Boakye Agyarko inaugurated the 17-member Committee on February 1, 2017
to review, restructure and recommend areas for amendment of the BOOT Agreement and
the committee had reviewed the agreement “based on its technical, financial and
legal merits/demerits and identified issues that should form the basis for
re-negotiation of them BOOT Agreement with Ameri Energy.”
Heated Debate
The AMERI
deal, which involved the installation of 10 General Electric TM 2500 aero-derivative
gas turbines at the cost of over $510 million at the Aboadze Power enclave, near
Takoradi in the Western Region, later turned out to be exorbitant for the
taxpayer, thereby sparking heated political debate.
The lid was
blown in December 2015 by award-winning Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) which published that
the power generating gas turbines were estimated to cost $220 on the
international market, but the NDC government contracted them for $510 million
for Ghana, excluding service charges.
The
newspaper's investigative journalist tracked a Pakistani-born Norwegian, Umar
Farooq Zahoor, a fugitive who is said to have played a lead role as a director
in the deal between Ameri Group and the government.
According
to the Norwegians, Umar Farooq was said to be the middleman between the Ghana
government and the Dubai-based single-purpose company.
Umar Farooq,
the newspaper said, was being pursued by the authorities in Norway as well as
Interpol for organised crime, including money laundering.
Legal Action
AMERI
Energy later said it was suing the Norwegian newspaper for $150 million over
reports of alleged fraud that the company engaged in relating to the supply of
the 10 gas turbines to the Government of Ghana.
The charge
of defamation, according to AMERI’s lawyers, was over “incessant and relentless
defamatory campaign against a fair and transparent business deal between our client
and the Government of Ghana for the procurement, installation and operation of 10
gas turbines on Build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.”
It is
unclear whether AMERI Energy was able to pursue the defamation suit.
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