The AKSA power deal should be subjected to a thorough review following the United States bribery conviction of former Tema Oil Refinery Managing Director Asante Kwaku Berko, Africa Centre for Energy Policy Executive Director Benjamin Boakye has said.
Boakye wants the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Attorney General to examine how the agreement was procured, priced and approved.
For him, the conviction has turned years of concern about Ghana’s emergency power contracts into a question the state cannot ignore.
Conviction Reopens 2015 Agreement
A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Berko on August 6 on all counts of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, violating the Act and money laundering conspiracy.
The United States Department of Justice said Berko conspired to pay more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian officials while working to secure and manage a power plant transaction between Ghana and Turkish producer AKSA Enerji. Parliament ratified the agreement in July 2015 during Ghana’s electricity crisis.
Goldman Sachs later withdrew from the financing transaction because of corruption concerns, prosecutors said. Berko is awaiting sentencing. His conviction does not by itself amount to a conviction of any Ghanaian official or invalidate the power agreement.
“Any sensible approach requires that you pause and investigate and look into it,” Boakye said, calling for scrutiny from investigators and the Energy Ministry itself.
ACEP Says Concerns Are Not New
Boakye said ACEP had questioned the structure of the AKSA agreement and other Independent Power Producer contracts since 2015, long before the United States case reached a jury.
“We have always been worried about how these contracts were signed, and we knew something was wrong,” he said.
Ghana’s power shortage required faster procurement, he acknowledged. It did not justify excessive pricing or weak technical scrutiny.
Emergency plants are often sourced from available equipment because there is little time to wait for newly manufactured units. Boakye argued that older plants with higher fuel and maintenance needs should have attracted lower rates.
He claimed some equipment mobilised for the AKSA project had known market prices and that the combined plant cost should have prompted regulators to question the eventual tariff. That claim must be tested against procurement records, installation expenses, financing costs and the full agreement.
Opening for IPP Renegotiation
The timing is uncomfortable for Ghana’s power sector. Government has been seeking concessions from Independent Power Producers to reduce pressure created by capacity payments, fuel costs and poor revenue collection.
Boakye sees the Berko verdict as an opportunity to examine whether the AKSA tariff and other contractual terms can be improved.
“We have recently been struggling to engage these IPPs to give us a significant haircut that keeps the sector afloat,” he said in an interview.
He also wants investigators to examine the technical appraisal conducted before approval. Evidence from the United States proceedings, he argued, raises questions about whether Ghanaian institutions properly tested the plant’s cost, age, efficiency and value for money.
Review Must Follow Evidence
Reopening the AKSA power deal would not automatically require cancellation. A credible review would compare equipment costs, financing assumptions, tariffs, capacity charges, fuel efficiency, maintenance exposure and later amendments.
It should also establish whether bribery influenced any approval and whether Ghana has contractual or legal grounds to renegotiate.
That work requires investigators, lawyers, engineers and energy economists. It cannot be settled by the political argument already growing around the verdict.
ACEP raised concerns years ago. Berko’s conviction has now supplied a harder reason to retrieve the documents, follow the money and determine whether Ghana paid more for emergency power because public duty was compromised.
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