Former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko has said he is not personally responsible for the cancellation of Ghana’s Emergency Power Agreement with GCGP Limited, which has occasioned a $134-million judgment debt.
Mr Boakye told Accra-based Oman FM on Tuesday, 16 February 2021 that the termination of the contract was a Cabinet decision.
“I just realised that they had filed for arbitration on 11 August 2018. This was after I had left the ministry. I never knew they had gone for arbitration. I am told that the government presented itself at the arbitration. How would someone accuse me of cancelling the contract?
“I have not cancelled any contract. I don’t have the power nor the need or desire to cancel it. I am for what will help Ghana,” he said
He said event though the decision to cancel the contract was taken during his tenure of office, “don’t say I cancelled the contract”.
“Let me say emphatically that I, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, did not use my will or power to cancel anyone’s contract”, he stressed.
“The decision was that we should negotiate them out. We sent the report to Cabinet and I presented to Cabinet. Cabinet accepted the report with all recommendations. I was asked as sector minister to implement the report,” he said.
Apart from the $134 million cost awarded by the International Court of Arbitration against Ghana, the country is also to pay an accrued interest of $3 million since 2018
The contracts were cancelled because the NPP said those power agreements were not needed.
The International Court of Arbitration, in its ruling, ordered the government to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full value of the Early Termination Payment, together with Mobilisation, Demobilisation and preservation and maintenance costs in the amount of US$ 134,348,661, together also with interest thereon from 12 November 2018 until the date of payment, accruing daily and compounded monthly, at the rate of LIBOR for six-month US dollar deposits plus six per cent (6%).”
The Government of Ghana will also pay an amount of “US$ 309,877.74 in respect of the costs of the arbitration, together with US$3,000,000 in respect of GPGC’s legal representation and the fees and expenses of its expert witness, together with interest on the aggregate amount of US$ 3,309,877.74 at the rate of LIBOR for three-month US dollar deposits, compounded quarterly” to GPGC.
Attached is the full ruling:
Source: ClassFMonline.com
