Reports reaching us indicate that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo has ordered for the termination of government’s concession agreement with Power Distribution Services with an announcement of the decision is expected in the coming days.
It could be recalled that the company was contracted in March and later got its contracts suspended on July 30, which has seen PDS embroiled in a corporate governance tussle among the shareholders.
We gathered that their Ghanaian local consortium holds the 51% of the shares while the remaining 49% shares are for two foreign companies, Manila Electric Company Limited (Meralco), a Filipino company with 30% shares and Aenergia, an Angolan company with 19%.
Foreign player, Meralco offloaded its shares to Meridian Power Ventures Ltd, a letter to a key transaction advisor, the US-backed Millenium Development Authority (MiDA) confirmed.
Meanwhile, the largest opposition party, the NDC, says the offloading of Meralco’s shares as evidence of clandestine are attempts by the government to loot the assets of Electricity Company of Ghana taken over by PDS.
PDS got suspended after the government said it suspected some fraudulent breaches in the contract.
The transaction advisor, MiDA, set up an investigative body into the allegations and later cleared PDS of fraud.
Even after the clearance, PDS was still suspended until now that the government has taken a decision to cancel the agreement.
However, the Energy Ministry when contacted said no such decision has been made.
Credit: myjoyonline.com