PDS saga: 51% of shares were allotted to friends of Akufo-Addo – NDC

By:brightwebtv.com nana Asare barimah

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has alleged that 51 percent of shares of the defunct Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession were allotted to companies belonging to ‘friends and cronies’ of President Akufo-Addo.

According to the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, the companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset worth GH¢20 billion.

Addressing journalists at the party’s weekly press briefing series on Monday, August 10, Mr Gyamfi said; “As was found by the FTI investigative report, these local companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset such as the GH¢20 billion worth of assets of ECG.”

“Even more bizarre and scandalous is the fact that till date, PDS, the Company made up of friends and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, who were gifted the GH¢20 billion assets of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee, and operated same for more than seven months, have not been made to account for the over GH¢1.5 billion they collected from electricity consumers during the period,” he added.

He further stated that “Also, cronies of the President such as Mr. Philip Ayensu, an appointee of President Akufo-Addo on the NCA Board, who was the Chairman of PDS and the Directors of the local partners in the company, who perpetrated what government itself alleges to be fraud on the people of Ghana, have all been left off the hook”

Sammy Gyamfi however noted the ‘imminent return’ of the NDC will see the party probe into the matter and prosecute the perpetrators of the PDS-ECG deal.

The government in October 2019 commenced processes to terminate the concession agreement between it and the PDS.

The move followed the announcement of the cancellation of the contract by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta after a meeting with officials of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. (MCC).

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) subsequently announced that it had assumed full control of electricity distribution business in the southern part of Ghana.