K.T. Hammond accuses Ameri Energy of short-changing Ghana
A former Deputy Minister of Energy and sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, Mr K.T. Hammond, has accused the Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (Ameri Energy) of gross misrepresentation and unjustifiably 'pocketing' $150 million from the power deal with the government.
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He said Ameri Energy misrepresented itself as the entity which was to raise a $510 million loan and execute the installation of 10 GE TM2,500+ aero derivative gas turbines, operate, maintain and transfer, which Parliament approved on March 20, 2015.
Making a presentation on the rescission of the Ameri Energy deal before the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Hammond said Ameri Energy did not raise the loan as agreed in the deal and also went ahead to sublet the contracts without informing the government as contained in the agreement.
He said the developer that built and financed the plant charged $360 million, yet Ameri Energy forwarded a bill of $510 million in the agreement.
That, he said, meant that Ameri Energy had got $150 million for no work done.
Background
The Ameri deal was signed as an emergency power agreement in February 2015, between the government represented by the Minister of Power and Ameri Energy, to ameliorate the country’s power challenges at the time.
But media reports indicated the cost of the project was outrageously high. The Nana Akufo-Addo government, therefore, set up a committee to look into the deal.
A report of the committee set up by the current government and led by a private legal practitioner, Mr Phillip Addison, to investigate the deal, disclosed that it found technical and financial lapses in the contract.
Thereafter, Mr Hammond moved an urgent motion for Parliament to rescind its decision to approve the Ameri power deal for gross misrepresentation.
A notice of the urgent motion indicated that Mr Hammond wanted Parliament to rescind its decision to approve the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement between the government and the Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (Ameri Energy) for the installation of 10 GE TM2,500+ aero derivative gas turbines, operate, maintain, transfer and provision of support services that the House took on March 20, 2015, for reasons of gross misrepresentation.
Consequently, the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, referred the issue to the Committee on Mines and Energy for consideration and report.
He asked the committee to speak all relevant authorities, including MPs and Ameri officials, and indicated that when the report was presented to Parliament, "then Parliament at its plenary can consider the matter."
Following the referral, the Minority staged a walk out of Parliament over what it described as a flawed admission of an urgent motion.
It said the admission of the urgent motion by the Speaker and referring it to the Committee on Mines and Energy for consideration without allowing a debate on it was against the Standing Orders and procedures in the House.
Mr Hammond was before the committee to make a presentation on why he wanted the agreement to be rescinded.
The Minority members on the committee did not participate in yesterday's committee meeting as they had indicated that they had some reservations with the procedure. They had participated in three earlier meetings of the committee on the issue.
'Misrepresentations'
Mr Hammond told the committee that the Committee on Mines and Energy of which he was the then ranking member, was made to believe that the Ameri Energy had the muscle to raise the loan and execute the project.
He said it was the misrepresentation that made the committee recommend to Parliament to approve the deal and he, in his capacity as a ranking member, supported the motion for the adoption of the committee's report.
However, he said, information he had gathered now convinced him that Ameri had grossly misrepresented itself as it had not been involved in the financing or execution of the project.
For instance, Mr Hammond said, Ameri Energy did not provide the fast track power generating equipment by itself.
"After this House (Parliament) had approved the agreement, Ameri Energy promptly assigned its rights, interests and obligations under the agreement to an affiliate called Ameri Energy Power Equipment Trading LLC (Ameri Equipment) on May 6, 2015.
"The documentation available to me shows clearly that Ameri Equipment had just been set up by the Ameri Group for the sole purpose of implementing the BOOT project," he said.
Mr Hammond said in the deferred payment agreement dated July 17, 2015, it was stated clearly that Ameri Equipment was a sole purpose vehicle set up for the BOOT agreement.
He said Ameri Equipment was registered by the Department of Economic Development of the government of Dubai on February 23, 2015, barely 13 days after Ameri had entered into the BOOT agreement with the government of Ghana.
He said Ameri Equipment was not in the business of providing fast track power generating equipment and related services.
No loan
Mr Hammond said Ameri Energy did not raise any loans from any bank, saying "neither Ameri nor its affiliate Ameri Equipment bore any financial risks whatsoever."
Rather, he said, per Ameri Energy's agreement with the Power Project SANAYI (PPR) of Turkey, PPR was supposed to provide the required financing for the implementation of the project.