Minority demands $34m breakdown cost in AMERI relocation
The Minority in Parliament has demanded that the government provides a breakdown of the $34 million it stated is the cost of relocating the Africa Middle East Resources Investment (AMERI) deal.
They noted that the government indicated the relocation of the deal would cost the state $34 million but the Minority demanded the breakdown of the cost, particularly when the country was facing difficulties paying salaries and servicing debt.
“The energy sector is under serious challenges and such opaque transactions must be halted in the supreme interest of the citizenry but the answers were not forthcoming when the Minority demanded details of the transaction at the meeting,” the Minority stressed.
In March last year, the government disclosed its decision to relocate the AMERI Plant located at Aboadze in the Western Region to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to help stabilise the national grid.
According to Edward Bawa, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bongo Constituency in the Upper East Region and a member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, the amount wasrevealed after meeting with a number of Agencies in the Mines and Energy sector.
He called for the halting of the transaction as the economy was currently facing huge crisis and the company contracted to carry out the relocation of the plant was Mytilineous International Trading Company, the same company that was involved in the novation and amendment of the AMERI contract that almost swindled Ghanaians but for the vigilance of the Minority.
However, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu while presenting the 2021 Budget and Policy Statement in Parliament postulated that although the country experienced adequate power generation capacity in 2020, the decision to relocate the AMERI Plant along with completion of other power projects would help stabilise power supply.
He explained that in 2020, the country had adequate generation capacity to meet the demand for domestic, commercial and industrial customers and in 2021, the Plant would be relocated to Kumasi to help stabilise the national grid.
The $510 million 300 MW AMERI power deal was signed between Ghana and AMERI in 2015 at a time when the country was reeling under heavy power paralysis and the deal was to shore up power supply and to help solve power outages.
