A former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Alex Mould has questioned why Ghanaians and the media are quiet after the PDS investigation.
According to him, the facts that had emerged from the FTI report and the Government’s delegation to Qatar “have exposed the gargantuan state capture going on, and everyone is quiet.”
In a statement, Mr. Mould, who is also a former Executive Director of the Standard Chartered Bank, said “maybe we are in stupor and/or in oblivion on how we have all been played.”
“If this is not a case of ‘good’ governance gone bad in a well thought out state capture scheme by the forces that be in the bid to engage a private sector company as a concessionaire for its operational and financial turnaround, then I do not know what it is,” he quizzed.
“The findings as indicated on this report, are that despite ECG’s insistence on getting approvals from the right authorities on every stage of the process, and on the need for thorough due diligence on the financial guarantee, there was clear and ample negligence by Millennium Challenge Corporation advisors, the International Finance Corporation, and Ghana’s own MiDA, Ministry of Finance, and the Vice President of not applying good governance principles needed and the lack of due diligence, especially in the approval of the local partners and the Angolan company Anergia SA.”
Government suspended the PDS concession agreement on July 30, 2019 over alleged fundamental breaches in the company’s obligation in the provision of Payment Securities.
Subsequently, a report by FTI Consulting, a United States-based consulting firm which was commissioned by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to probe the deal indicated that insurance guarantees were paid to back PDS’s takeover of the assets and operations of the ECG.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament is gathering signatures to get Parliament recalled over recent developments in the PDS fiasco.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Ranking Member on the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee and Tamale Central MP, Inusah Fuseini, said that the PDS deal raises important national issues, thus the need to recall Parliament to deliberate on the issue as well as other cases surrounding it.
“What we are doing is collecting signatures which the constitution allows. Whilst we will be on recess for some time we believe it is important to recall the House over PDS saga since the revelations coming out require national attention. We are therefore collecting signatures to get the required number of Members of Parliament to sign up and get the speaker to recall Parliament,” he said.
Read below Alex Mould’s full Statement:
It’s surprising how we all are quiet knowing all the facts that have emerged from the FTI report and the Government to Qatar delegation report that has exposed the gargantuan state capture going on, and everyone is quiet.
Maybe we are in stupor and/or in oblivion on how we have all been played.
If this is not a case of “good” governance gone bad in a well thought out state capture scheme by the forces that be in the bid to engage a private sector company as a concessionaire for its operational and financial turnaround, then I do not know what it is.
The findings as indicated in this report are that, despite ECG’s insistence on getting approvals from the right authorities on every stage of the process and on the need for thorough due diligence on the financial guarantee, there was clear and ample negligence by Millennium Challenge Corporation advisors, the International Finance Corporation and Ghana’s own MiDA, Ministry of Finance, and the Vice President of not applying good governance practices needed in many instances, and the lack of due diligence especially in the approvals of the PDS local partners and the other foreign partner, the Angolan company ANergia SA ”
I guess the discussions going on are focused on how the 51% local content will eventually be split between the current known shareholder, and the real beneficial owners who can’t show their faces, yet;
I actually don’t know why Ghana Infrastructure Fund and SSNIT did not invest into this turnaround privatization and then maybe 2-3 years down the line offload this on the Stock Exchange like MTN where every Ghanaian can own a piece of the private sector Concessionaire and then eventually own ECG