A lawyer with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has justified the emergency power agreement signed between ECG and GPGC under the erstwhile Mahama administration.
He said even though the deal cannot be termed as a fraudulent one, it was criminal negligence and recklessness on the part of the current government to breach the contract agreement that led to the judgment debt.
Mr. Sammy Gyamfi’s comments came after a $170million judgment debt was slapped on the nation by the London Commercial Court of International Arbitration for abridging the energy contract agreement between the state and independent body GPGC.
Expressing his disappointment on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana Thursday, June 24, 2021, the Communications Officer for the NDC noted that it is indeed true that not all debt penalties presided over by the court of law can be termed as fraudulent but this particular one can be described as the highest form of carelessness and irresponsibility on the part of the President Akufo Addo government.
“Mr. Baako says that not every judgment debt is tainted with fraud or corruption. That is true. And I will not say that this judgment debt is tainted with fraud. But I can tell you that this judgment debt is tainted with criminal negligence and criminal recklessness. And that is why I am sad. Sitting here again that is why I am heartbroken,” he added.
The cost of paying interest on the debt which according to Mr. Sammy Gyamfi increases daily is the fear and danger he expressed stressing that “we’ve been slapped with this $170m judgment debt which is accruing interest on a daily basis compounded on a monthly basis because of the criminal negligence and recklessness of the Akuffo-Addo government” he noted.
He said the government must be blamed for accruing a debt that has to be paid by the poor taxpayers; money saying, “They are the ones who have caused this huge financial loss to the state and therefore must be held responsible. So yes, there may not be a fraud but there is criminal negligence and there is criminal recklessness. It is so clear that that is the reason why we are where we are” he indicated.
Mr. Gyamfi explained that the Attorney General has attempted to paint the ECG-GPGC agreement as black emphasizing that “You see, there have been some attempts by the Attorney General that the emergency power agreement which was signed between EGG and GPGC was defective.”
“The Attorney General says it was structured in such a way that it imposed unnecessary financial liabilities on the government and he has even said that the agreement was unnecessary. That is not true. This agreement was very necessary. The tuition of seeing under the Mahama administration was proper and regular,” he stated.
By: Ernest Kabu | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
