Ex-Energy minister paints World Bank country boss as grossly ignorant on PPAs

Former Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, described as unfortunate, comments by the World Bank Country Director, which suggest that the erstwhile Mahama administration wasted money by signing burdensome Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) signed almost seven years ago.

“This is a politician who needs friends in the neighbourhood for his political edges ambitions,” said Dr. Donkor, who had hit back at Pierre Frank Laporte for claiming the Mahama government equally contributed to Ghana’s economic woes due to the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) signed under a take-or-pay agreement committing the country to pay for excess energy it did not need.

“In the case of Ghana, those contracts that have been signed as PPAs are just expensive and the kind of PPAs signed are take or pay. You pay although you do not use it. The fact is that in the past few years, Ghana entered into an agreement at the wrong rate and the wrong price, and it has impacted the debt situation,” Mr. Laporte said.

Dr Donkor initially fired a response saying “I signed the AKSA PPA. It’s a 5 Year Emergency Power Agreement. It has expired. If Nana Addo’s Government negotiates a new PPA (and not under Emergency, how do you blame Mahama? AMERI was a BOOT and the plant is fully owned by Ghana. Sunon Asogli Phases 2 & 3 were just extensions of existing Agreements at a lower price. NPP negotiated and extended the KARPOWER agreement from 10 years to a regular PPA of 20-25 years. How is Mahama to be blamed?

Mr Laporte, who also spoke said funds his outfit gave out to the government of Ghana for the COVID-19 fight essentially rubbished the content of the reports done by the Audit General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, which identified several infractions in how the Akufo-Addo government spent the fund, saying the bank does not feel that the over US$430 million it gave was misused.

According to him, the fund his outfit gave to Ghana was managed by a project team made up of officials of the bank and the government of Ghana and was not included in the budget of Ghana.

Speaking in a TV3 interview, Laporte added that the team managing the funds ensured they were used for their intended purposes and paid directly to contractors.

“We have given $430 million to Ghana for COVID. Our project funds have not gone to the budget of the Ministry of Finance, and because of this, we’ve mechanisms in place that ensure we know each and every dollar that is spent and accounted for and we’ve done audits.

“Of course, there are always a few things here and, procedure-wise, maybe some documentation that needs to be followed.

“But largely speaking, we are very satisfied that all of our resources were spent in line with the procurement requirements that existed. You know, COVID-19 was implemented under emergency procurement measures by the bank,” he said.

The director said that the money given to the government of Ghana is still being used, adding that the bank was working to make more funds available.