President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has expressed the need for the outright disregard of the report churned out by the parliamentary select committee for mines regarding the GNPC/Genser deal.
According to him, the report is a one-sided committee report, as the minority has disowned it. Also, he indicated that the Ghana Gas Company has equally disregarded its content and posturing.
Describing the committee’s report which insisted that Ghana stands to make profit from the deal as mere assumptions, Mr Cudjoe equally stated that such claims are “farcical if they are not outright nonsensical”. This, he noted, is born out of the claim that the potential transmission losses will be addressed because Ghana is going to pay an “overpriced $3 million”.
“What they fail to grasp, as we’ve argued, quite competently is that by investing $70 million in transmission infrastructure, we could have avoided these so-called losses of $480 million they claimed they saved the country and also, would have avoided the open payment of $1.5 billion in price subsidy to a private company… So, this report should be shredded and not given any serious attention. It should go back to the committee for the committee on the whole to deal with it properly. This is a rip-off.”
Franklin Cudjoe
Furthermore, Mr Cudjoe described as “really annoying and obscene”, situations whereby institutions such as VRA and other state entities are obliged to purchase gas at prices that are higher than the approved prices. Conversely, he stated that Genser, without any proper clarification on the “so-called net calculation, are using some part of their pipeline, and is getting almost 50% subsidy, and they are later selling to mines and making huge cuts”.
Subsequently, the IMANI President called out the chairman for the mines committee Atta Akyea for publishing the report.
“My only worry is that even though Atta Akyea seems to be someone I totally respect, I’m only looking at the decisions he’s made as a committee chairman and perhaps the one-sided committee for a number of years now.
“For the past three years, his committee was the same one that approved almost the $1.1 billion payment to Aker, when in actual fact it turned out that the Aker deal was sold for just $1. Otherwise, it’s the same assumptions that Mr Atta Akyea and his one-sided committee, if we are to go by that same logic, we would have paid $1.1 billion for something we could have paid just a dollar for. So, I’m not too sure we should be taking lessons of cost-savings from this one-sided committee.”
Frankin Cudjoe
Ghana Gas Senior Staff Association rejects report from committee
Meanwhile Chairman of the Ghana Gas Senior Staff Association, Richmond Alamu, has rejected the report by parliament committee on mines and energy on gas supply agreement between GNPC and Genser Energy Ghana Limited. He revealed that the association is concerned that the deal’s conditions could negatively impact consumers and potentially lead to some losses for Ghana.
“The Ghana Gas Senior Staff Association, we don’t do politics – our comments are devoid of NPP, NDC, or any other political party. We are there for the ordinary Ghanaian and Ghanaians as a whole. So, any statement of ours should be devoid of political sentiments and emotions; we want the best for Ghanaians that’s why we sent out this press release. We’ve seen the parliamentary select committee’s report and we are very disappointed in that report and want to express our sadness on the report that was sent out.
“Although they are saying it’s confidential, it’s in the public domain… If you look at our press release which says that Energy Commission was supposed to be interviewed and was interviewed but when you look at that report, the witness statement of Energy Commission on this Genser issue was absent. Whether Genser is mandated legally, or by law, to operate under the conditions that the parliamentary select committee is referring to.”
Richmond Alamu
Mr Alamu stated that the Ghana Gas Senior Staff Association is not against private partnership or investment. He explained that as a Ghanaian and concerned citizen, members of the association equally like foreign investments to bolster the economy, however, the “bottom line of our issue is that your main transmission pipeline cannot be owned by a private entity”.
“Genser is owned 70% by foreigners and you can imagine entrusting our main and primary asset into the hands of foreign agencies. There are a lot of dire consequences and few disadvantages for Ghanaians.”
Richmond Alamu
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