Amewu: New AMERI deal will be transparent

• Posted on August 20, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, will hold further engagements with AMERI before a concrete decision on the controversial review is taken.

Mr. Amewu said this would be done to ensure better value for money and better transparency.

“AMERI as a company is an ongoing institution. They are rational like any other person. What will be best for this country is what we will do. The engagement processes will be more in an open and consultative process,” he said in an interview.

The new agreement was to extend the current five-year deal with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) Energy, which is currently operating a 300MW emergency power plant in Ghana to 15 years.

The government was expected to pay a total of $1.375 billion for the AMERI power plant over approximately 15 years instead of the original $510 million.

But red flags were raised by Parliament’s Energy Committee over the cost and value for money, which led to the deal being eventually held back.

The then Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, was subsequently sacked over the matter.

Illegal connections

Mr. Amewu also spoke on the illegal tapping of power from the national grid.

“Illegal connection is a problem to the sector in terms of waste. So I think that this is going to be a strong warning out there to the people who are involved in terms of electricity usage. They better get prepared. If you are able to flush out those illegalities, you would see that the energy sector debt will gradually reduce.”

Source: CNR