Parliament will discuss a fresh agreement to amend the controversial $510 million Ameri power deal which was approved in 2015 before the end of this week.
A joint Energy and Finance Committee is expected to deliberate on the new agreement today, Thursday, July 26, 2018, after which it will be laid before Parliament for an approval.
The Ameri Power deal was signed by the Mahama administration in 2015 at the peak of the country’s energy crisis.
As part of the deal, the government agreed to rent 300MW of emergency power and Ameri was to build the power plants and operate them for 5 years before transferring it to the government.
The cost of the deal was $510 million and received parliamentary approval on March 20, 2015, despite opposition from the NPP.
When the New Patriotic party came into power, however, a committee constituted by the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko and led by Lawyer Philip Addison concluded that the sole-sourced deal had been overpriced by $150 million.
K.T Hammond, the NPP MP for Adansi Asokwa filed a private motion in August 2017 seeking a review, claiming that Ameri Group had breached the contract and gone ahead to assign other entities without the written consent of the government.
The speaker admitted the motion and the agreement was subsequently referred to the Joint Energy and Finance Committee to consider and report to the House.
The Committee will present its report to the House after its deliberation today and work on it for approval before Parliament goes on break this weekend.
