The Alliance of CSOs working on Extractives, Anti-Corruption, and Good Governance has called on the Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh to stop the diversionary tactics in an attempt to relocate the Ameri Plant from Takoradi to Kumasi.
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy had earlier raised concerns about the ministries decision to sole source the relocation of the plant.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Thursday( 11 August), a member of the CSOs working on Extractives, Anti-Corruption, and Good Governance, Samuel Bekoe called on the minister to address the substantive issue of sole sourcing in relocation of the plant.
“We demand that the Minister of Energy should constructively engage on the core issues raised rather than divert public attention from them. We understand that the overall aim is to stabilize power in the middle belt and hence discussion should focus on how to efficiently achieve this objective.
“The Ministry of Energy should revisit the concerns on the need for adopting a competitive bidding process to accommodates local contractors to achieve the most optimal contract cost.” “We maintain that the Minister should consider other options which we believe are far optimal option than the attempts to relocate plants and its attendant unnecessary cost additions. For instance, retooling National Interconnected Transmission Systems (NITS),” he said.
The group further called on Cabinet to assume responsibility for the efficient planning of the energy sector.
“Cabinet and Parliament should assume critical responsibility for the efficient planning of the sector as these decisions among others have contributed to the current economic difficulties being faced today.” he said
Below is the full statement
Alliance of CSOs Statement on Ameri (2)
Fred Dzakpata
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