The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has demanded President Akufo-Addo to prosecute characters involved in the Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement scandal before the 2020 elections.
In a clarion call, ASEPA warned that if President Akufo-Addo does not do the needful it will start a campaign to have Ghanaians vote against him in 2020.
“President Akufo Addo must use the PDS scandal to re-energize his failed fight against corruption or forget about election 2020. We shall call on Ghanaians to Vote Massively against President Akufo Addo if he fails to prosecute the PDS gang,” ASEPA warned.
The statement was signed by Mensah Thompson, Executive Director of ASEPA.
Last year, the government abrogated the dubious PDS concession agreement after it became clear that the concessionaire had used dodgy means to take over the Ghc20billion asset of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
PDS was originally to take over the management of ECG for 20 years in a concession agreement that became opportune after Ghana had received a grant from the US Government under the compact 2 of the Millennium Challenge Agreement.
Per the arrangement, the concessionaire was supposed to provide component funding and a bank guarantee to insulate the assets of the ECG from any potential risks. PDS did not provide the bank guarantee and rather forged an insurance guarantee from a Qatari reinsurance company Al Koot.
The scandal ended in Ghana losing US$190million that the MCC was going to give Ghana to implement structural improvements in power distribution.
According to ASEPA, the people directly blameable for the PDS mess include Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
It said it has since last year it has been writing to the Ministry of Energy to prosecute the perpetrators of the fraud but the Ministry has not even bothered to write back.
“It has therefore become important for us to make our two key demands public: that Government of Ghana cause PDS to account for every single penny they collected within the four months they were in charge of ECG,” ASEPA wrote.
“That the people whose action and inaction resulted in this PDS debacle; i.e. Ken Ofori-Attah, Philip Ayensu, Keli Gadzekpo, Ing. Samuel Boakye Appiah, K. Boating Aidoo
Boakye Agyarko, Andrew Agyapa Mercer…and several others be arrested immediately and prosecuted for causing financial loss to the State.”