Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, April 25, 2017
Bright Simons, a social
innovator and researcher, has done another review of the contract signed
between the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and the
Middle East Resources Investment Group LLC, otherwise known as AMERI Group or
AMERI Energy, exposing Engineers and Planners’ (E&P’s) involvement in the whole
contract.
He said the amount quoted in
the contract that was awarded in favour of E&P - a company owned by Ibrahim
Mahama, younger brother of former President John Mahama - to do civil works for
the AMERI plants to be fixed was outrageous and should not have happened.
It is turning out that E&P was allegedly paid around
GH¢25 million by the then NDC government for the civil works and even that, it
could not complete the site preparation
for the installation of 10 General Electric TM 2500 aeroderivative gas
turbines.
The controversial $510 million project is currently located
at the Aboadze Power Enclave, near Takoradi in the Western Region.
Addison
Committee
A special 17-member committee set up by the Ministry of
Energy, with popular lawyer Phillip Addison as Chairman, to restructure the
$510 million Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) Agreement between Ghana
and AMERI Energy, has recommended to the government to call back owners of the
Dubai-based company for renegotiation.
It turned out that AMERI Energy was charging over $150
million commission and therefore, the Addison Committee came to the conclusion
that if AMERI Energy refused to honour the invitation for re-negotiation, the
government had the right to renounce the agreement on the grounds of fraud.
The committee had concluded that although fully paid, “E&P
have demobilized from the site without completion of the works,” and said that
the action of Ibrahim Mahama’s company amounted to “a breach of E&P’s
contract with GoG.”
Interesting
Queries
Mr. Simmons, who is the
founder and president of mPedigree and leading member of IMANI Ghana – a
think-tank - had done value for money analysis and raised thought-provoking
queries about E&P’s involvement in the deal.
“First: Why is Engineers & Planners asking to be paid
the full sum when it hasn't completed the work on the AMERI site and yet
demobilised? Even more pertinent: Why didn't AMERI pay for this work? Which of
the over 40 IPPs that have signed PPAs with ECG or VRA has the Government of
Ghana paid for their civil works?”
Analysis
In an indepth analysis, Mr. Simmons said,“GE, the
manufacturers of the TM2500+, says each unit requires 24m x 6.5m footprint. We
bought 10 units and implemented a standard rectangular grid layout. Let's be
wasteful of space and say we needed 360m x 90m of space. That's about 32400
square meters.”
He added, “Engineers and Planners was hired to do: Earthworks,
Compacting, Grading, Drainage, as part of site preparation for the hosting of
the Ameri plant.
“No concreting, foundation reinforcement or structural works
were done. Remember these plants are trailer-mounted so structural support is
embedded in the system itself.
“Consultancy civil engineering cost estimation manual you
want in the world and use the most liberal fudge factors for labour and
material costs. You would struggle to hit $20 per m2 for these activities.”
Mind-boggling
Charge
Mr Simons cited an example that Accra Mall rents out each
square meter of space at $55 (up from $26 a few years ago) saying, “If they had
paid even $5 per m2 for civil works would they be able to rent out at $55 and
cover all their project costs and still make a profit?
“Yet we go ahead and pay a mind-boggling $185 per square
meter (m2) to clear land and compact it to receive 10 trailers.”
E&P
Denial
In December 2015 - in the heat of the AMERI deal debate -
E&P rejected claims by then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that it was involved
in the controversial AMERI Energy agreement.
A statement the company issued said, E&P “is in no way
involved and has no role in AMERI’s contract with the Government of Ghana and
the purchase or sourcing of power turbines by AMERI for the generation of
power.”
The statement had said that E&P was only “contracted by
the Volta River Authority (VRA) to undertake some civil works at Aboadze to
prepare a platform to receive the power generating units and other ancillary
equipment for the AMERI 250MW Power Project,” and had since “handed over the
completed platform to the VRA” after finishing its work.
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