NDC Vows To Prosecute Akufo-Addo Ministers For US$170million

The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has said that a future National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will investigate out and prosecute actors in the Akufo-Addo government whose commissions and omissions led to the incurrence of the US$170million judgment debt in the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) case.

At a press conference in Accra Monday, Mr. Gyamfi first stood in the name of the NDC to demand that President Akufo-Addo investigate out and punish the perpetrators, but hastened to add that it is likely that the Akufo-Addo government will not do the needful.

“ …But if ‘the Mother Serpent of Corruption’, who is himself complicit in this matter fails to act, a future NDC government will investigate this matter and ensure that those responsible for the wrongful termination of the GPGC Agreement and the avoidable judgement debt it has caused the nation, are brought to book,” Sammy Gyamfi vowed.

“The NDC hereby calls for investigations into the circumstances surrounding the unlawful termination of the GPGC EPA…We also demand that all officials of the Akufo-Addo government who were directly or indirectly involved in the processes leading to this huge financial loss to the State are held responsible and punished for same.” 

Mid-June 2021, the Permanent Court of Arbitration of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Tribunal awarded a US$134million judgment against Ghana over the wrongful termination of GPGC’s Emergency Power Agreement with the Mahama government.

In addition to the main judgment amount, Ghana was slapped with costs that add up to about US$170million.

Following the judgment, Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has become a character controversy with many concluding his recklessness and negligence had led to the judgment debt.

At Arbitration, the Republic of Ghana had been represented by lawyers from the AG’s Department which included the Deputy AG at the time and now AG, Godfred Yeboah Dame, and a Ghanaian Law firm, Amofa & Partners. 

The Permanent Court of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Tribunal had first delivered its final award on 26th January 2021 after which Ghana had had a 28-day ultimatum to challenge same in a court of competent jurisdiction in the United Kingdom, the seat of the arbitration. 

The Akufo-Addo government then engaged the services of an English law firm Omnia Strategy, which is owned by Cherry Blair, wife of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer. 

However, GoG and its external solicitors went to sleep only to go to an English court on the 25th day of the 28-day ultimatum to ask for an extension of time. The court magnanimously gave an eight (8)-day extension to allow our external solicitors file the appropriate processes.

“Subsequent to the grant of this extension of time by the Court, our external solicitor, Omnia Strategy, realizing that the Government of Ghana had a very bad case, and mindful of the damage the case could do to their enviable reputation, backed out of the case. The Akufo-Addo government once again engaged the services of another foreign law firm called Volterra Fietta at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer,” explains Sammy Gyamfi.

All the excuses which were cited by the Akufo-Addo government for the delay, mainly COVID-19 and the 2020 elections with its associated handing-over bureaucracies were dismissed as “intrinsically weak” by the Court and the final Arbitral award upheld.

Following this, however, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame has been blaming everybody, including his former boss, Gloria Akuffo, except himself, over the turnout of the case.

He has claimed that the EPA signed by the NDC government was bad, hence the abrogation of the contract

He has also claimed that the decision to terminate the GPGC EPA was based on a recommendation by a Public Procurement Committee Chaired by Dr. Ofosu-PPA Committee.

But Sammy Gyamfi debunked the claims, saying that painstaking investigations by the NDC show the Ahenkorah Committee never made any such recommendation and that besides, Dr. Ahenkorah had himself given evidence during the trial before the London tribunal to the effect that he does not recall his committee making any such recommendation.

Mr. Gyamfi also pointed out that the reasons that the Government, through former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, had terminated the contract were all bogus.

 “It is instructive to note that the reasons which were cited by the Akufo-Addo government as the basis for the termination of the GPGC EPA did not include any issue of excess power or excess capacity charges as the government would have us believe. Rather, the reasons which were contained in Boakye Agyarko’s termination letter of 13th February 2018 and the Advice of the then Attorney General, Gloria Akufo dated 28th August 2017, bordered on alleged non-performance of certain Conditions Precedent and Subsequent by GPGC,” Sammy Gyamfi noted.

The reasons given in Boakye Agyarko’s termination letter included the failure of GPGC to secure a license from the Energy Commission to enable them to engage in the sale of electricity in the country, in accordance with section 11 of the Energy Commission Act.