Benjamin Boakye, executive director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) says the government must desist from politicising the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) judgement debt saga.
The call comes on the back of the rejection by the commercial court in London of a late appeal from Ghana against a judgment debt award of US$170million in favour of the power contractor, Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC).
Speaking on Candid Voice with Benjamin Offei Addo, Boakye called on the Attorney General to explore ways of avoiding the payment of the debt or reducing the cost to the barest minimum.
“What is important at this time is can the energy of the country be channelled into, to ensure that we don’t dish out US$170 million to a company,” he said.
“… I think he [AG] should channel his energies rightly, prioritise his energies. We have US$170 million liabilities, he is the Attorney General; how do you save money belonging to the people of Ghana? [This] is where we want him to focus his energies.”
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He urged the government to set up a commission to probe the circumstances leading to the award of the judgement debt to help bring finality to the matter.
“…Subsequently if you want to do any other thing, set up a commission that will look at it. I think there is the need for us to interrogate how these transactions happened,” Boakye added.
Background
In January 2021, the International Court of Arbitration awarded costs of US$134 million and interest of US$30 million against the Government of Ghana over its cancellation of an emergency power agreement with GPGC Ltd.
The contract was cancelled during the tenure of the former energy minister Boakye Agyarko, one of several arrangements scrapped by the NPP on the basis that Ghana did not need the power agreements.
The ruling by the International Court of Arbitration ordered the Government to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full value of the early termination payment, together with mobilisation, demobilisation and preservation and maintenance costs in the amount of US$134,348,661, together also with interest thereon from 12 November 2018 until the date of payment, accruing daily and compounded monthly, at the rate of LIBOR for six-month US dollar deposits plus 6%”.
The Government of Ghana was also to pay GPGC an amount of “US$ 309,877.74 in respect of the costs of the arbitration, together with US$3,000,000 in respect of GPGC’s legal representation and the fees and expenses of its expert witness, together with interest on the aggregate amount of US$3,309,877.74 at the rate of LIBOR for three-month US dollar deposits, compounded quarterly”.
Fred Dzakpata
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