Government has refuted claims that they made up fraud allegations as a basis to terminate the PDS concession deal.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the motive of government in the concession has been to ensure efficiency.
" Is it true that the transaction was .... by some machinations by the government? the government has not been up to any machinations, the intent has been to ensure efficiency in the ECG turnaround programme and the performance of the broader compact all along, is there something wrong with switching from 80/20 to 49/51 absolutely not, the government holds the view that in transactions of this nature Ghana and Ghanaians should be given an opportunity to get a........ of the stake as much as possible...."
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Cooked-up fraud allegations
Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, PIAC Dr. Steve Manteaw said recent developments within the government over the termination of the PDS deal shows government cooked up claims of fraud.
According to him, the allegations of fraud was instituted to form the basis to terminate the concession deal to allow some individuals in government benefit from the concession.
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Speaking after government served notice to terminate the PDS concession deal, Dr Steve said, "If I juxtaposed the recent development with the letter written by the Minister of Finance to a private legal practitioner from Akufo-Addo Chambers, Mr Akoto Ampaw to restructure the shareholding of the Ghanaian partners then it raises eyebrow because if indeed these Ghanaian partners were acting on their own accord to buy into this concession then a government Minister has no basis to write to a private legal practitioner from the President's former chamber to restructure the shareholding of Ghanaian partners in this concession, you could tell, and from further developments and documents I saw suggested that Professor Ayensu was resisting this attempt, he was not happy and resisted and so i suspect that this actually gave rise to government's decision to terminate concession but they needed to have a basis to terminate the concession and they have all these information because they have allowed these things to happen the so-called fraud or irregularities to happen so that at least some individuals in government could benefit from the........ I'm pretty sure things did not work out and so all these allegations of irregularities may have been cooked up to form the basis to terminate.."
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