Court dismisses New Juaben South MP over Karpowership
A suit challenging the legality of an agreement that led to the purchase of the Karpowership from Turkey was last Thursday dismissed by the Supreme Court.
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The suit, filed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, claimed that the agreement that led to the purchase of the barge was unconstitutional, as it was not approved by Parliament.
Joined to the suit as defendants were the Electricity Company of Ghana, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Attorney-General.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday, however, the seven-member panel dismissed all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.
“The suit is dismissed in its entirety,’’ the court held.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Jones Dotse, did not give reasons for the dismissal of the suit during the reading of the judgement but indicated that the reasons were included in the full judgement which would be filed at the court registry by the close of work yesterday.
Karpowership
The Turkish power barge, known as Ayselsul Suntan, was brought into the country by the government as part of its efforts to deal with the power crisis that hit the country.
It docked at the Tema Harbour in November last year and currently contributes 235 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
The GNPC provided a $100-million guarantee, explaining that the move was part of its core mandate.
Statement of case
In his writ at the apex court, Dr Assibey-Yeboah claimed that the agreement between the ECG and Karpowership Ghana Limited, which was backed by a $100-million bank guarantee by the GNPC after a directive from the government, required parliamentary approval.
“It was an international agreement between the government of Ghana and Karpowership Ghana Limited and same ought to have been approved by Parliament,’’ he said.
He averred that the Minister of Power informed Parliament that the government had issued a guarantee to support the agreement.
“From the categorical statement of the Power Minister, it appears that the power supplied by Karpower is part of the government’s initiative to solve the power crisis.
“However, the government is bound to put such agreement before Parliament for approval, in accordance with Article 18 (5). It is clear that the government, in circumventing this requirement, rather authorised the first defendant (the ECG) to execute the power purchase agreement and also direct the second defendant (the GNPC) to guarantee same,’’ the writ said.
Reliefs sought
The MP was, therefore, seeking three reliefs:
“Upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 181 and section 5 of Act 815, the issuance of a bank guarantee of $100 million by the second defendant in support of power purchase agreement between the ECG and Karpower without prior parliamentary approval amounted to a breach of the said provision of the 1992 Constitution.
“The issuance of a bank guarantee by the second defendant (the GNPC) WITHOUT PRIOR parliamentary approval amounted to usurpation of the constitutional mandate of Parliament as enshrined in Article 181 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 5 of Act 815.
“The execution of the power purchase agreement between the ECG and Karpower for the supply of 450MW of electricity constituted an international commercial transaction of which the government was a party and failure by the government to seek prior parliamentary approval amounted to a breach of Article 18 (5) of the 1992 Constitution.”