Government did the best of due diligence - Edward Bawa

Betty

December 14, 2015 10:10 AM

Government has been on the defensive after publication by a Norwegian newspaper on the Ameri deal indicated government may have signed a deal with a criminal

The ministry of power has insisted that due diligence was done in the Ameri gas turbines deal to provide 250 megawatts of power.

Speaking on Citi Fm the communication consultant for the Energy ministry Edward Bawa said The central bank and JP Morgan did all the necessary due diligence before signing the deal.

It has been revealed that one Umar Farooq who signed the deal with the power minister and the deputy attorney general Dominic Ayene is a criminal who is wanted by Swiss and Norwegian authorities.

The Power Ministry in a statement has denied all the issues raised by VG a Norwegian newspaper on the deal with government.

Edward Bawa says the entire deal cost 510 million dollars excluding the gas to run the turbines for a period of 5 years.

“It includes the civil work, it includes the substation it includes the installation of the equipment it includes the cost of financing, it includes the operation and maintenance, it includes the auxiliary”

He said the gas component is a variable cost and so it was not incorporated into the 510 million dollars.

“The gas component that’s what I am saying, it is a variable cost. If today if the cost of gas is x per unit produced and tomorrow it is x plus one you can’t incorporated that into it.”

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He said government couldn’t have done better in the due diligence analysis before dealing with the company

“As part of the BOOT agreement, VRA which is supposed to do the off taker of this particular arrangement… the bank of Ghana conducted due diligence on Ameri. Internationally we got GP Morgan to do same, the ministry of Power and Attorney General's department did same and parliament which also scrutinized the agreement before it was signed.”

Betty