ECG Concession: BXC Sues MiDA Over ‘Unfair’ Disqualification

One of the concessionaires that bid to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), under the Power Compact II agreement, BXC Consortium, has sued the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), over what it describes as an unfair disqualification in the bidding process.

MiDA last week disqualified BXC Consortium and selected Meralco Consortium, a company led by Manila Electricity Company from the Philippines to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG], under the power compact Two agreement.

In a letter dated April 12, 2018, the Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, Martin Eson-Benjamin, explained that BXC Consortium was disqualified because the company has “one or more conflicts of interest”, and therefore cannot continue with the bidding process.

The Coordinator of the BXC consortium in the ECG takeover, Daniel Azu, however insisted MiDA’s reasons for disqualification were completely flawed and baseless as evidence emerging suggests that it was done to favour Meralco Consortium.

“We are in court because we think MiDA has not been fair to BXC and we need them to explain to us the reasons why they have disqualified BXC. MiDA was aware BXC had other projects with ECG, and we made that clear to them from the beginning. We do not know why they are bringing this up now. We can provide documents to show that in all the presentations that we did, we included this knowledge. We want the court to look at the merit of the decision,” Mr. Azu said.

BXC in a letter dated April 13, 2018, and addressed to MiDA said : “it had not misled MiDA and/or have not engaged, and/or are not aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest in anyway whatsoever and or howsoever. We state that we have always informed MiDA about our distribution contracts together with our previous pending contracts with ECG.”

“We add that by a letter dated 1st March, 2018, prior to the submission of the bid, we informed you of all past and present contracts between BXC Consortium and ECG dating as far back as 2005. We add further that contrary to your statement in your letter under reference, in the bid submitted to MIDA, and specifically on pages 17, 76,87,88 and 95 of the technical proposal, we make specific mention of the contracts entered into between BXC and ECG. We would therefore urge you to reconsider your decision to disqualify our bid and request that you send us a response by the close of Friday, April 13, 2018,” the letter further indicated.

BXC’s contract with ECG 

BXC Ghana Limited (BXC) a Chinese company registered in Ghana, is a subsidiary of Xiaocheng Electronic Technology Stock Co. Ltd.

The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and deploying highly efficient pre-payment metering systems and management of power supply across the world.

BXC Consortium was established in Ghana in 2010.  It has over the years trained and used Ghanaians to implement major projects in Ghana.

In September 2011, BXC Consortium and the ECG signed an agreement for 10 years, where BXC was expected to engage in System Loss Reduction in the Teshie and Bortianor areas; the commercial aim of which was to share proportional losses recovered by the project, while technically improving the infrastructure and deploying more modern systems of power distribution management.

Source: Citinewsroom