PDS probe completed – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says the thirty days probe into the breaches in the PDS concession deal has been completed.

Speaking to Citi FM, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said final determinations will be made after the president returns from Asia.

“The teams from Qatar and US are back and are completing their report, there is also some ongoing work with MiDA in Ghana that will also be factored into the report and when the president returns from his Asian trip, a final determination will be made and then announced but my understanding is that we are wrapping this up…… and then when a final determination is made a public announcement will be made on the way forward, the inquiry is supposed to be done with a thirty day period the brief I had is that the inquiry has come to an end…”

The government began a thirty-day probe into the PDS concession deal after they detected “fundamental and material breaches of PDS’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction.

PDS concession deal was suspended to protect the public interest – Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo says the decision of the government to suspend the PDS concession agreement is to protect the public interest.

He said the decision was in the interest of the public as it was important to protect the assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana which is worth some $3 billion.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Angola as part of his two-day visit to that country, President Akufo-Addo said the delegation sent to Qatar have held meetings over the matter and are on their way back to Ghana to report the outcome of the deliberation.

“We decided that the first thing to do was protect the public assets by suspending the participation of this private sector operator and returning the control of the assets to ECG while the process of investigation will be carried out. Two days ago, I sent a delegation to Qatar which is the origin of the guarantee to go and find out exactly what the situation is then we know exactly where we are…It was necessary for us to act in that manner to protect public assets. ECG assets are in excess of GHC 3bn. These are not assets that you take lightly.”

Speaking on why the government decided to make the suspension public, Akufo-Addo said it was to ensure transparency.

“It is better that these matters are brought into the public space for the country to know exactly what is going on and therefore be able to hold the government to account for their stewardship,” he added.

ECG, PDS interim operational modalities

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Power Distribution Services (PDS) have both agreed on some modalities to ensure that there are no disruptions in power supply and service delivery to Ghanaians.

In a statement, jointly-signed by Ing. Samuel Boakye-Appiah, MD of ECG and Rev. Ing William Hutton-Mensah, CEO of PDS, Power Distribution Services both companies have agreed to allow PDS to carry on with “all activities related to electricity retail sale.”

According to the statement, PDS will be responsible for meter reading, billing, distribution of bills, bill reconciliation, revenue collection, and new service connections.

PDS will also undertake disconnection exercises, replacement of faulty meters and networks, repair works as well as attend to complaints and fault reporting to the call centers.

Source: primenewsghana.com