The AKSA power contract has come under renewed scrutiny after Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Executive Director Ben Boakye accused Parliament of failing to conduct proper due diligence before approving the deal.
Mr Boakye questioned why lawmakers did not carry out the necessary checks to ensure Ghana secured better value from the agreement.
“How come Parliament did not do the necessary checks to ensure Ghana got the best deal out of this agreement? There was clearly no value for money in the approval for these power plants.” - Ben Boakye
His comments come amid fresh attention on the circumstances surrounding the power plant deal and the conviction of former Goldman Sachs banker Kwaku Asante Berko.
‘The maths did not make sense’
Mr Boakye said investigations into the power plants raised questions about the level of investment compared with the financial commitments under the contract.
He said checks showed investments of about $1.2 million and $1.8 million in the plants, figures he argued were significantly lower than the value attached to the agreement.
“We saw significantly lower investment, and yet we had a contract worth 720 million dollars,” he said.
According to Mr Boakye, the disparity raised fundamental questions about how the agreement passed through the approval process.
“The maths about this contract didn't make sense,” he said, adding that “Parliament failed to do due diligence.”
Asante Berko conviction brings deal back into focus
Mr Boakye was speaking after the conviction of Kwaku Asante Berko, 52, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and served as Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery.
Asante Berko was tried in the United States over allegations that he participated in a bribery scheme linked to the development of a power plant in Ghana.
Prosecutors alleged that he and associates outside the bank paid more than $1 million in bribes to high ranking Ghanaian government officials to secure approval for the multimillion dollar project.
“We can hold those who contracted the power accountable for everything that has gone wrong,” he said, insisting that “there was something amiss with the AKSA contract.”
Mr Boakye said those involved in contracting the power project should be held accountable for decisions that contributed to the controversy.
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