Energy Ministry – Akufo-Addo Was Not Misled In New Ameri Deal

• Posted on August 6, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Energy Ministry has said President Akufo-Addo was not misled into approving the controversial Novation and Amendment Ameri deal as being claimed by some people.

The novation and amendment agreement, seeking to buy out the $510million deal Ameri Energy has with the government and be handed over to a third party Mytilineos for 15 years, received an executive approval from President Akufo-Addo   on July 31 after parliament refused to ratify it.

The joint committee on Finance and Energy of Parliament rejected the new deal because it had no signatures from the Attorney General and Finance minister.

Under the new agreement, the new company, Mytilineos International Trading Company, will take over the management of the AMERI power plant for 15 years.

The new company has offered to pay AMERI an amount of $52,160,560, with the government paying the remaining $39 million to the Dubai-based AMERI Energy to wash its hands off the deal entirely.

It has however emerged that President Akufo-Addo was allegedly misled by his Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko into approving the new agreement, which has been described by the Minority in Parliament and other energy think tanks including African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) as “stinky” and “rip-off.”

According to sources, the President was misled into granting the executive approval for the deal.

However, in an interview with Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan, the Communications Director for the Energy Ministry Nana Damoah pushed back claims that the President was misled.

According to him, the President granted the approval after fully appreciating the details of the new agreement.

“I think that what happened was that there were deliberate attempts from certain quarters to misinform the public and to cause disaffection for the Ministry and the Minister,” he told Alhassan.

“We are aware of it. I mean this whole thing of the president having been misled by the Energy Minister is another issue that we have to deal with. But it’s not true,” he added.

The push back comes in the wake of rumours that Mr Agyarko is on his out of government.

Meanwhile, AMERI Energy has rejected the controversial novation amendment agreement aimed at handing over the $510million power contract it signed with the government in 2015 to a new entity.

In a letter dated July 31 to the Energy Minister, Ameri Energy stated unequivocally that it will not abdicate the deal it signed with the Mahama administration and that it is fully committed to seeing it through.

According to Ameri, it had never been involved with the Energy Ministry in any kind of negotiations or discussions related to the novation and amendment agreement neither had it any insight of any commercial discussion between the Ministry and the new party, “therefore could not have verified that the above permissions were not obtained at the time of presentation before parliament.”

“In view of the ongoing circumstances, the management of Ameri energy has taken notice of this and would like to inform you that we shall not be deemed associated with the novation and amendment agreement and will only remain committed to our original BOOT agreement signed on 20th of February 2015,” it said.

Source: Starrfmonline.com