Parliament to debate KT Hammond’s ‘AMERI motion’

The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye has approved an urgent motion filed by the Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, K.T Hammond for the government to reverse its decision on the AMERI power agreement.

The motion has since been tabled for debate by Members of Parliament.

K.T Hammond, who was the ranking member of the Energy Committee of Parliament in 2015 when the deal was approved, filed an urgent motion seeking the reversal of the decision last week.

He suggested that the decision to have it withdrawn was because of his conviction that the deal was suspicious based on some fresh information available to him.

It would be recalled that the K. T Hammond was the NPP MP who supported the motion when it was moved on the floor years ago.

The John Mahama-led administration in 2015 agreed to rent the 300MW of  emergency power  from AMERI at the peak of the country's power crisis.

As part of the deal,  AMERI  was to build the power plants and operate them for 5 years before transferring it to the government.

The cost of the deal was $510m and received parliamentary approval on 20th March, 2015.

The approval of the deal was met with several oppositions but eventually received endorsement by the legislative body.

It later emerged that the government had been shortchanged by AMERI as they presented an overpriced budget.

The reports said the government had paid an excess of $150m but state officials of the Mahama government disagreed.

The New Patriotic Party government which assumed office said it would look into the matter.

The Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko later constituted a  committee  led by lawyer Philip Addison to  investigate  the matter that that ended in controversy as it emerged that the committee had seemingly entangled itself in a   conflict of interest   by accepting sponsorship from AMERI to travel and stay in Dubai during the investigation.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana