ECG Concession: We Were Excluded from Approval Meeting – PUWU

The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), has accused the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), and the government of excluding them from the Evaluation Panel during the last round of negotiations that led to the selection of the concessionaire, Meralco Consortium, a Philippines firm, to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of PUWU, Michael Adumattah Nyantakyi, said they find this very strange.

“This whole process, we learnt that ECG which is the subject of the whole concession was not even represented on the evaluation panel. So we think something is very wrong because the people who are the asset owners, those whose assets you are going to give out to a concessionaire do not have a say or even appraising who is going to take over the asset.”

“We thought that by now, we should know that, yes, Meralco Consortium is made up of Meralco of Philippines and A, B and C company of Ghana, and then we know that we are talking of local Ghanaian interest, but today nobody knows,” he added.

MiDA on Thursday announced that it has selected Meralco Consortium, to manage the state power company ECG, under the Power Compact Two Agreement.

Meralco Consortium is led by the Manila Electricity Company from the Philippines.

Per the compact, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is expected to inject about $418 million into ECG, whilst Meralco will invest about $500 million as part of efforts to boost the capacity of ECG.

Supervise the concessionaire – ACEP

In sharing their view on the matter, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), urged government to adopt a monitoring system to supervise the concessionaire after it finalizes the negotiations.

The ‎Executive Director of ACEP, Ben Boakye, stated that this will ensure value for money and efficiency.

“If you bring the best of the best into the country and you don’t have a monitoring system that ensures that you are able to track the performance of the company, as a private company and a profit-oriented company, that could become their focus at the expense of ensuring that the value that we seek to gain by handing it over to the private sector is actually realized.”

“So we have to have a monitoring system that is tight and simple enough, and has a clear-cut means of tracking their performance over the period… And if they are not performing, we can sanction immediately rather than waiting for so long before we can act.”

A former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, is also demanding full disclosure of the identity of the indigenous Ghanaians who own 51 percent of the Meralco Consortium in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) concession arrangement.

Speaking to Citi News, John Jinapor indicated that, even though local content is important, the public must know the Ghanaians behind the consortium.

“When the new policy was announced, you will realize that all the top and big companies pulled out. About four or six companies pulled out because of the restructuring they [government] brought. So I’m saying that let us confirm that this new company indeed has 51 percent indigenous Ghanaian shareholding structure.”