PDS brouhaha: Why is the media silent? – Alex Mould asks
Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Alex Mould has wondered why Ghanaians, particularly the media is quiet on issues relating to the PDS despite the release of a report on why the concession deal was put on hold by government.
According to him, the facts that have 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, the former CEO of GNPC argued that “maybe we are in stupor and/or in oblivion on how we have all been played.”
He noted “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 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.
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
Time will tell.