The judgement debt of $170 million that the London-based United Nations Commission on International Trade Law tribunal has asked the Government of Ghana to pay to Ghana Power Generation Company(GPGC) for failing to meet set deadlines in contesting alleged unlawful termination of the contract between the two parties has become a banter between the players of the current government and the former government.
The Attorney General of Ghana Godfred Dame has descended heavily on the Former Deputy Minister of Power, Mr John Jinapor for being the cause of the judgement debt.
The Attorney General claimed that a report by a committee constituted in September 2016 revealed that the contract was not made properly.
According to the Attorney General, the decision by the signatories to sign such an agreement was uninformed and the country would not have incurred such cost if the then Deputy Power Minister, Mr John Jinapor did due diligence in the course of signing the power agreement.
“The fundamental question that we asked is why the agreement entered into in the first place? Why did John Jinapor and his former boss execute the signatory of this agreement and afterwards set up a committee to review those agreements” he quizzed
The Attorney General clearly stated that the government of Mr Mahama knew that those power agreements they signed could lead to excess energy capacity but they deliberately did it because of their parochial interest.
He lamented that per the report of the PPA Committee, the nation was going to be exposed to payment of $586 million per year if all the agreements signed by Mr John Jinapor and his former boss, Mr Dramani Mahama had been allowed to take effect.
“Cumulatively, between 2013 and 2018 the nation was going to pay as much as $1.76 billion,” he said
On his side, Mr Jinapor, a former Deputy Minister of Power who is currently the Ranking Member on the Energy Committee of Parliament has criticized the government for the unlawful and unnecessary abrogation of the power agreement the former government signed.
Mr John Jinapor stated that the minority in parliament knew from day one that the decision by the government to abrogate the contract of GPGC would lead to a judgement debt as a result, they warned the government not to abrogate the contract but it gave a deaf ear to their call.
The Former Deputy Power Minister emphasized it was wrong for any government to terminate a contract of this nature so, after the government has done that, he was expecting the Attorney General to mount a serious defence against the suit when the case went to the tribunal in London but he did not see any seriousness on the part of the government.
Concerning the judgement debt saga, the Former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor has called the bluff of Attorney General Godfred Dame, to investigate him for his role in a Power Purchase Agreement with energy company GPGC.
Speaking to the media, Dr Donkor said he is ever ready to face the investigative bodies over the contract he entered into with GPGC because he is a law-abiding citizen