Government has been sued for terminating PDS contract – Oppong Nkrumah
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has disclosed that government has been sued for terminating its contract with former electricity provider Power Distribution Services (PDS).
He says PDS has dragged government to court over claims that the government wrongfully terminated its contract with the former provider of electricity to the southern part of the country, among other charges.
“They have proceeded to say that if there was a fraud, find the people and put them before the courts and that is currently a matter of litigation in a court in Ghana,” he told Evans Mensah on PM Express.
The PDS saga
The Power Distribution Services (PDS) was responsible for providing electricity to the southern part of the country, however, government terminated the contract over claims that there were irregularities in the agreement.
In March 2019, the Power Distribution Services, a private entity took over the operations of the Electricity Ghana Company Limited (ECG) a government entity to be the sole power distributor to Ghana’s electricity consumers.
However, the concession agreement was short-lived, when PDS was suspended on July 30, 2019, after the government said it suspected the agreement was tainted with fraud.
The deal was subsequently terminated in October 2019 although the transaction advisor, MiDA, set up an investigative body into the allegations and cleared PDS of fraud in August.
The move was necessitated after a forensic audit conducted by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and Ghana government revealed that Demand Guarantees issued for the Concession Transaction were invalid.
The investigations re-affirmed the earlier report that there was no approval by competent signatories to the Demand Guarantee issued by Al-Koot in Qatar, therefore, the transaction lacked the required authorisation and approval of the Company.
Nonetheless, the Information Minister has revealed that PDS is challenging government to find the people involved and put them before the law courts if indeed there was there was fraud.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah, however, says government stands its ground on its decision.
According to him government will contest the charges “because we have grounds for contesting, and we are confident our case will hold in court,” he said.
