A member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Member of Parliament for Buem, Kofi Adams, says the committee was oblivious to the government’s $12 million expenditure on the suspended Agyapa royalties deal.
The CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, disclosed that the government had spent the amount on the suspended deal at a PAC sitting on Tuesday, February 13.
The government proposed the deal to raise funds through mineral royalties for key infrastructure projects but was eventually suspended after the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some civil society organizations opposed it.
The MIIF CEO said the $12 million was expended on the processes to issue the initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange before the suspension.
Mr. Adams told Umaru Sanda Amadu in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Tuesday that the committee was ignorant of the expenditure and that a public interest question had led to that revelation made by the MIIF CEO.
He noted that the Auditor General’s report had also not captured that expenditure.
“This is the very first time that we all are being provided with this information that the country actually wasted $12 million of its money at the time we have been told that the country was faced with a number of challenges in chasing after a ghost. And that the president and all those who considered this whole deal never informed all of us that $12 million of our money had already been funded into a project that didn’t have the permission of appropriate bodies,” he stated.
He further said that “According to the CEO of MIIF, the Ministry of Finance gave them the go-ahead to go into such an investment and that in taking a decision to stop, they were not involved. And that he could not even provide us with the reasons why the decision to stop was taken. And according to him, the letter to stop was sent to the Attorney General, who looked at it and advised. They as MIIF were not involved in any way in terms of stoppage. And truly speaking this was the first time. And this was not even in the Auditor General’s report but this was out of a public interest question…A member wanted to know about the Agyapa deal and the recent investment in the lithium found in the central region.”
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In another development, the Eastern Regional General Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ing. Mrs. Sariel Adobea Etwire, has appealed to the public to help protect their installations by reporting suspicious characters loitering around their transformers and fidgeting with them to the police or ECG District offices.
Ing. Mrs. Etwire made the appeal in a release following a rise in transformer vandalization in the region, which is causing power outages in the region. She noted that so far, thieves have managed to steal essential parts of six transformers, mounted to serve customers in the Region.
Ing. Mrs. Etwire revealed that the company last year spent an amount of eight point four million Ghana cedis on transformer projects to help improve power supply in the Region. She added that a total of 95 projects have been undertaken, comprising the installation of 17 new transformers and replacement of 78 old transformers.
The Eastern Regional General Manager mentioned that in spite of efforts being made to invest huge capital into system improvement of the company, some thieves have managed to vandalise a 50 kilovolts-amps transformer situated around Oyoko Roundabout, two of their one hundred kilovolts-amps transformers located in Asesewa District, a 100 kilovolts-amps transformer at Suhum, a 200 kilovolts-amps transformer at Asafo in Tafo District serving a hospital, and a 200 kilovolts-amps transformer at Lartey Gas area in Koforidua.
Ing. Mrs. Etwire noted that in all cases, the thieves managed to bring down the live transformers, open their covers and take away the copper wires, plunging the affected areas into hours of power outages and darkness. She said the transformers, which were serving various customers, have been replaced and customers are enjoying power supply now, while the cases have been reported to the police for investigations.
The Eastern Regional General Manager of ECG has therefore urged the public, especially their cherished customers, to report all power outages to the company on time. She added that this will help prevent thieves from vandalising transformers in case they intentionally curtail power with the aim of stealing transformer parts.
She urged the public that if power goes off in their area, they should kindly take a step further to check whether it is the entire area or a local fault. If one confirms that it is localised, one must inform the ECG for prompt resolution. Ing. Mrs. Etwire said this can help minimise the incidence of transformer thefts, which can also help prevent thieves from carrying out their negative activities.
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