By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
August 22, 2018
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is
bent on sabotaging the $2 billion Chinese Loan that the New Patriotic Party
(NPP) government is securing to undertake many priority infrastructure projects
across the country.
The $2 billion barter deal signed between the
Government of Ghana and Sinohydro of China is expected to bring massive
transformation, especially in the road sector.
Many world-class roads, including dual carriages and
overpasses, would be constructed throughout Ghana but the NDC is against such
development.
Afraid that the deal would see to the unprecedented
infrastructural development of the country, the NDC is desperately trying to ‘pour
sand into the gari' to damage the deal which has been described as ‘game-changer.’
Protest Letter
The Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) have
written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a copy to the World Bank
to stop the deal because they claim it’s ‘illegal’ even though the same
political grouping helped to pass the agreement in Parliament before the house
went on recess late last month.
The Minority members
on the Finance Committee had deliberated on the Master Project Support
Agreement (MPSA) between the Government of Ghana and Sinohydro Corporation
Limited for the $2 billion for the construction of priority infrastructure
projects before the committee’s report was laid in the house for approval.
Bawumia’s View
The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who has been
leading the negotiations, said the NPP government wants to prove to Ghanaians
what $2 billion can do for a nation like Ghana and assured that it’s going to
be the game-changer in the infrastructural development of the country.
The barter transaction is basically tied to some
bauxite deposits under which the
government is expected to repay with relined bauxite (alumina/aluminum).
The NDC’s letter jointly signed by Minority Leader,
Haruna Iddrisu and Cassiel Ato Forson, who is a Ranking Member of the Finance
Committee dated August 10, 2018, was sent to the IMF Resident representative in
Ghana, Natalia A. Koliadina and copied to the Country Director of the World
Bank.
It notified the Bretton Woods institutions “on the
illegality and technical concerns on the Sinohydro transaction between the
Government of Ghana and Sinohydro of Ghana and Sinohydro of China.”
“We write to notify and inform you of some legal and
technical issues, as well as some inconsistencies contained in the supposed
barter transaction between the Government of Ghana and Sinohydro of Ghana and
to seek IMF’s clarification on them,” the NDC letter said.
ECF Agreement
It said, “These concerns are raised in the context
of the ongoing ECF Agreement negotiated by the immediate-past Government of
Ghana and the methods used by the IMF and World Bank to evaluate loans and
carry out Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).”
According to the NDC, the Finance Minister, in his
presentation of the Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament on July 19, 2018,
“categorically stated that the Sinohydro financial transaction will not add to
the public debt stock because it’s merely a barter transaction and not a loan.”
“We, the Minority, have carefully studied the
provisions and terms of the so-called barter transaction, as officially tabled
and passed by Parliament, and have identified a number of legal and technical
issues that explicitly make the transaction a loan. Thus, as was argued during
the Parliamentary debate on the transaction, it is the Minority’s opinion that
the value of the transaction be added to the debt stock. The Minority in
Parliament would, therefore, like to seek clarification on this from the IMF.”
Debt & Arrears
The NDC said “the determination and the decision to
write to you for clarification is based on perceived changes in the computation
of debt and arrears, the reversal of tax policies and other conditions that
were prior actions under the ECF Programme and accepted fiscal practice.”
The NDC Minority attached what it calls “Issues of
concern emanating from the transaction between the Government of Ghana and
Sinohydro of China, as presented by them in Parliament for the attention of the
IMF.
Projects
The priority
projects of the government of Ghana to be funded under the MPSA comprise: rural
electrification, construction of hospitals and clinics, bridges, interchanges,
roads, affordable housing, fishing landing sites and such other projects as may
be identified by the government of Ghana.
Tamale, the home-town
of Haruna Iddrisu, will see its first interchange in history under the Chinese
deal.
As explained by Chairman
of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah, under the MPSA,
Sinohydro is responsible for arranging the project financing for all the
priority projects subject to the mutual agreement of the parties.
“Sinohydro shall be
solely responsible to enter into the financing agreement(s) with any financial
institution that agrees to provide the Project Financing,” he said when the
agreement was being approved.
He also said the
Committee was further informed that the MPSA is essentially a “barter” facility
by which Sinohydro will implement various EPC contracts for Ghana and the
government repays with relined bauxite (alumina/aluminum).
Already the Integrated
Alumina Development Authority Bill has been passed by Parliament awaiting
presidential assent to kick-start Ghana’s industrialization process.
“To enhance and
maximise the value to Ghana of its bauxite resources, the Committee was
informed that government, through the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Alumina
Development Authority (GIBADA), will establish a bauxite processing plant to
process the raw bauxite into alumina before shipping same to service the
obligations under the MPSA,” he said, adding “presently, raw bauxite is said to
be trading at about $24 per tonne on the international market whilst processed
alumina trades at more than $300 per tone.”
No comments:
Post a Comment