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The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is demanding accountability from Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over alleged forged documents pushed through the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) concession deal.

NDC is asking the government to disclose the sum of money collected in the PDS concession deal.

NDC National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi speaking on behalf of the party at a weekly press briefing asked “can the Akufo-Addo government tell Ghanaians the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills, from 1st March 2019 to 18th October 2019, when the concession agreement was still in force? Have those monies been accounted for, and if yes, have the same been audited? 

“Since the Minister for Energy, honorable Peter John Amewu told Ghanaians that the insurance guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over 20 billion worth of assets of ECG, which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud, and what actions has president Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud?”, 

Read the full statement below:

PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL 

Today’s Corruption Tracker will focus on one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by any government in Ghana’s history. I am talking about the gargantuan and stinking PDS corruption scandal that most of you are very familiar with. 

Given the possibility that some of you may have forgotten the facts of this matter, I wish to start by way of a brief recap of the sordid facts and events that led to the PDS scam. 

Distinguished friends from the media, you may recall that the Akufo-Addo government sometime in July 2019, informed the Ghanaian public that it has suspended the ECG Concession Agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana, over what they described as, “material and fundamental breaches” relative to the Demand Guarantee provided by PDS to ECG. You may also recall, that the Energy Minister, Hon. John Peter Amewu, and his Deputies subsequently followed-up and described the entire ECG/PDS Concession Agreement as “fraudulent.” 

The key facts and events that led to this situation are as follows; 

1. The PDS concession agreement was the product of the American government’s “Compact 2”, also known as the Power Compact with the government of Ghana, which required that Ghana introduces private sector participation (PSP) into ECG’s retail business, with the aim of improving the power distribution sector of the country. The Power Compact is the result of Ghana’s successful implementation of “Compact 1”, a US$547m deal, which the Kufuor and Mills administrations between 2007-2012 used to undertake agri-cultural reforms and major infrastructural projects such as the N1 Highway project in Accra. 

2. The PSP Concession Agreement approved by the Parliament of Ghana, contained 45 Conditions Precedent which had to be fulfilled by PDS before they take over the GHS20 billion assets of ECG.

3. Under Conditions precedent 24 and 31, PDS was required to provide ECG a payment security, in the form of a Letter of Credit or Demand Guarantee with a value of US$350 million from a Bank. The purpose of this payment security was to safeguard the assets of ECG so that, in case of default by PDS, Ghana through ECG could fall on same to recover our losses. This precondition of a demand guarantee from a Bank was therefore critical to the protection of the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghana under the ECG-PDS Concession Agreement. 

4. Contrary to the effort of Ghana’s Parliament to protect the public purse in order to safeguard our interest in the concession, the Akufo-Addo government shamefully conspired to bend the rules for PDS by changing the key requirement of a BANK GUARANTEE to a less liquid instrument, an INSURANCE GUARANTEE, thereby jeopardizing the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghanaians. This infamous and nation-wrecking decision was taken by high-ranking Government officials, including the Vice President of the Republic, representing President Akufo-Addo at a meeting at the Jubilee House on 19th February, 2019.

5. Pursuant to these scandalous amendments by the Vice President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the Eson Benjamin-led MIDA, PDS subsequently provided an Insurance Guarantee with dubious validity to ECG, as same was described as fraudulent by Alkoot, the Qatar-based Reinsurance company which purportedly issued the said Insurance guarantee. 

6. According to the FTI investigative report on this matter which was commissioned by MIDA at the instance of the US government, crucial advice from Ghana’s own Financial Advisors on this transaction for the necessary due diligence to be done before the said Insurance Guarantee was accepted by the Finance Ministry and ECG, and the assets of ECG handed over to PDS, was ignored. In short, the over GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG were handed over to PDS by the Akufo-Addo government on the 1st of March, 2019 on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee. 

7. It is worthy of note, that under the guise of promoting local content, 51% of the shares of PDS were allotted to companies belonging to friends and cronies of President Akufo Addo under very shady circumstances, in furtherance of the President’s state-capture agenda. As was found by the FTI investigative report, these local companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset such as the GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG. 

Indeed the FTI report found that PDS could not even raise the needed funds from equity contributions of shareholders to pay for the so-called Insurance Guarantee it claims to have secured from Alkoot such that, out of the $12.25 million that was charged by Cal Bank to PDS as fees for raising the “fraudulent” Guarantee, only $1 million (8%) was funded by an equity contribution by a PDS shareholder, Philip Ayensu of TG Energy Solutions; $7 million (57%) was funded by a loan that was advanced by Cal Bank to another PDS shareholder, Santa Baron. However, this loan was repaid from operating cash flows, i.e electricity bills collected by PDS after the transfer date. The balance of $4.25 million (35%) was also paid directly from operating cash flows generated by PDS after the transfer date.

8. Subsequent attempts by the Finance Minister and cousin to the President, Ken Ofori-Atta to restructure the shareholding of PDS after the deal was sealed, with the aim of diluting and appropriating the shares of the original shareholders for other cronies of President Akufo-Addo, is what lit the spark for the whole PDS inferno. As some of you may be aware, the original Ghanaian shareholders rebelled and refused to participate in this charade. It is this defiance that outraged the Akufo-Addo faction and occasioned the suspension and subsequent cancelation of the PDS Concession. 

9. It is instructive to note that this “fraudulent” entity called PDS collected over GHS1.5 billion from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019 when the concession agreement was in force. As a matter of fact, it was part of these monies, that is about US$11.25 million that PDS used to finance the Insurance Guarantee from the Qatar-based Reinsurance company, Alkoot which was later found to be fraudulent and invalid. 

10. More importantly, the cancelation of the PDS concession, occasioned the abrupt termination of the whole MCC Ghana Power Compact by the US government. Consequently, the US government withdrew the second tranche amount of US$190 million (equivalent to GH10 billion) it had allotted to Ghana for the improvement of the power sector of the country under the Power Compact. Overall, Ghana has lost about US$1.8 billion as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal, who sought to appropriate the GHS20 billion assets of ECG for themselves.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, these are the sad events that occasioned the PDS corruption scandal. However, the real tragedy of this scandal is summed up by these nagging questions which are begging for answers:

1. Since the Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu told Ghanaians that the Insurance Guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over GHS20 billion assets of ECG was fraudulent - a fact corroborated by Alkoot, the Quatar based Company which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud against Ghanaians and what actions has President Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud?

2. Who are the state actors who neglected to perform their fiduciary responsibility to the state by failing to conduct the necessary due diligence on the Insurance Guarantee presented by PDS, and what action has President Akufo-Addo taken against them?

3. Can the Akufo-Addo government tell Ghanaians the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills, from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019, when the concession agreement was still in force?

4. Have those monies been accounted for, and if yes, have same been audited? 

5. If PDS has accounted for those funds collected, and same has been audited, can President Akufo-Addo publish those accounts for the benefit of you the media who are the fourth estate of the realm, and the entire Ghanaian people? 

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what we know is that as we speak, the perpetrators of the PDS scam are still walking  the streets of Ghana as free men. Despite the fact that government itself described the transaction as fraudulent, no arrest or prosecutions have taken place till date. 

The likes of Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Eson-Benjamin-led MiDA who aided and facilitated this scam which has occasioned the nation huge financial losses, have not been held to account for the roles they individually and jointly played in the scam.