The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority, will remain resolute in its resistance to the Adansi Asokwa MP, K.T. Hammond’s attempts to get Parliament to cancel the 2015 AMERI power agreement.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the MP for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor, insisted that the Minority’s argument was anchored on principle, and said “we are right and think that we ought to be commended” for resisting the motion to rescind the deal.
The Minority has already accused the New Patriotic Party of using Parliament as a back door to rescind the deal which is said to be plagued with irregularities.
K.T. Hammond, who filed the motion for the withdrawal of the deal, contends that there were “misrepresentations” by AMERI in the deal that saw Ghana doll out $510 dollars for a 300-megawatt power plant, leaving AMERI with a commission with $150 million.
Following a government review , AMERI in its agreement with Government dated February 10th, 2015, is said to have charged Ghana significantly higher than what it was charged by the Turkish registered company, PPR, which financed and executed the project.
The Turkish firm pegged the total cost of the project at a maximum of $360 million.
Mr. Jinapor, however reiterated the Minority’s stance that challenges to the validity of the AMERI deal, must be done in the court of law.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the MP said: “It is not within our ambit to sit and adjudicate and give a ruling as to whether something is fraudulent or not. The right place to go to is the court of law… we hold the view that the right place to go to seek redress is the court of law.”
Their continued resistance is also evidence of consistency from the Minority, he added, after the Minority staged a walk out of Parliament in August, over the Speaker's decision to forward the motion to the Energy Committee without input from them.
The Minority subsequently went ahead with a planned boycott of Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament's deliberations on the motion.
“…If we go, after boycotting on the Floor, to go and sit in the [Mines and Energy] committee to go and agree with them, then there is an element of double standards so we are maintaining consistency,” Mr. Jinapor opined.
His advise to Parliament on the matter of the AMERI deal is that, it “considers all the options and if we really determine that there is an element of fraud, let the party to the agreement, which is the government of Ghana, go and say that we have an agreement with AMERI and AMERI has breached the agreement… that is neater, that is tidier and that is fairer.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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