ADVERTISEMENT

Minority to petition CHRAJ over AMERI sponsorship of Addison committee

Speaking in an interview Thursday, Cassiel Ato Forson, a former deputy finance minister under the Mahama administration, said he will petition CHRAJ for it to investigate how AMERI bought a flight ticket, paid hotel bills, and gave per diem and shopping money to members of the Addison committee.

He told Citi FM: “I am going to take this matter to CHRAJ to probe the committee. I am going to petition CHRAJ for them to probe this company.

“For a government that claims it wants to investigate a contractor for wrongdoing, this contractor pays for your ticket, gives you a hotel, goes further to give you per diem and gave the committee members some money for the purposes of shopping.”

ADVERTISEMENT

He hinted that the petition will be filed on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, after the Easter break.

He argued passionately that the Addison Committee failed to disclose the benefits they got from AMERI, a company it was investigating for wrongdoing in a power agreement it signed with Ghana in 2015.

“Clearly, they failed to disclose the matter, and what is the intent behind the failure to disclose the matter? In terms of materiality, the amount given to them and flying them first class is enough justification to make it material. Putting them in a first class hotel is worse, and the fact that they accepted per diem and shopping money from the contractor,” he said.

“What makes the matter worse is that I am hearing that since they came back, they made a phone call to ECG telling ECG to pay every unpaid invoice of AMERI.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The Addison committee  charged to review, restructure and recommend areas of amendment of the AMERI power deal, had recommended that the deal be renegotiated or abrogated on grounds of fraud, after it emerged that Ghana was made to pay 150 million dollars extra in commission to Africa & Middle East Resources Investment Group LLC (AMERI Energy) for the construction of the power plant.

AMERI in its agreement with Government dated February 10th, 2015, charged Ghana significantly higher than what it was charged by the Turkish registered company – PPR, which financed and executed the project, the committee said.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.com.gh

ADVERTISEMENT