Senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has purportedly responded to claims levelled against him over the ‘controversial’ Ameri Plant deal.
New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful and former Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, during an interview on Kumasi-based Asanteman FM, claimed that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a prominent figure in the NPP, renegotiated the Ameri deal without obtaining consent from the government committee assigned to work on the deal.
Upon confronting Gabby about the matter, Agyarko asserted that he was told to keep quiet because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was already informed about the actions taken by Gabby.
Agyarko recounted that he received a call from Gabby while he was on a flight to the United States, during which Gabby expressed frustration at not being able to reach him.
In a recent post on Facebook, some hours after Mr Agyarko’s comments, Mr Otchere-Darko made a statement accusing an individual of being a liar.
“What aaaa can one say to an energised liar, struggling with constipation?” he wrote.
Due to the ongoing controversy and the lack of official statement on the matter, it is believed that this is Mr Otchere-Darko’s way of responding to Mr Agyarko’s accusations.
According to the former energy minister, when he discussed the matter with President Akufo-Addo, the president inquired whether there was anything inappropriate about Gabby’s actions.
Boakye Agyarko said that he told the president that, “the authority to renegotiate the terms of the Ameri Power Plant doesn’t lie in the hands of Gabby and that the proposal the firm he contracted made had violated all the Cabinet instructions and extended the contract to 20 years.”
Agyarko added that Akufo-Addo agreed with his reasoning but went ahead and asked him to forward the deal Gabby had negotiated to the committee that was set up to renegotiate the deal.
Ameri Plant deal
The Ameri Power Plant project was initiated in response to Ghana’s power generation challenges and the need to increase the country’s electricity supply to meet the growing demand for energy.
The project was awarded to Ameri Group, a Dubai-based energy company. Ameri was tasked with supplying and operating the power plant.
The Ameri deal was signed in 2015 under an emergency power agreement to quickly address the power crisis in Ghana. The agreement was signed during the tenure of former President John Dramani Mahama.
After the initial agreement was signed, the Ameri deal became a subject of controversy in Ghana due to concerns over its cost and terms. There were allegations of overpricing and lack of transparency in the agreement.
Following the change of government in 2017, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, initiated a renegotiation of the Ameri deal. The government sought to amend the terms of the agreement to reduce costs and make it more favorable to Ghana.
The renegotiation process led to the signing of a novation agreement with a new company called Mytilineos International Trading Company in 2018. Under this agreement, Mytilineos took over the management and operation of the Ameri Power Plant from Ameri Group.
The novation agreement was brought before the Ghanaian Parliament for approval, and after heated debates, it was eventually ratified by Parliament in March 2018.