GPGC saga: AG’s department was lackadaisical, says Gyampo
The attorney general Dame has said those who signed the GPGC emergency power purchase agreement will be prosecuted if found culpable
Professor Ransford Gyampo, an associate professor at the University of Ghana has faulted the attorney generals department for being lackadaisical in appealing against the US$170 million judgement debt against the government in the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) agreement.
The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame has said those who signed the GPGC emergency power purchase agreement will be prosecuted if found culpable.
However, speaking in an interview with Kojo Mensah on Friday 25 June, Gyampo said the AG’s department has done a great disservice to Ghanaians by failing to address the problem.
“… But the point is that before talking about prosecution, the AG’ department or the AG should be humble enough in admitting that they were lackadaisical, and what they did by way of their lackadaisical attitude to fighting this US $170 million judgement debt is a great disservice to mother Ghana,” he said.
Gyampo added, “They should themselves acknowledge this, and let see what Ghanaians can do to them before we think about what we can do to deal with those through whose fault some of these debts came about.”
“Unpatriotic”
He also blamed the AG’s department for being unpatriotic in dealing with the judgement debt issue thereby burdening the ordinary taxpayer.
“… And you tell me that well I didn’t cause it, let deal with the one who caused it, it means you have no sense of what it takes to be a patriotic person.”
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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