Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, the chairman of the Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia Manifesto Committee, expressed surprise at the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) assertion that “the government is deceiving Ghanaians by renaming the AMERI plants K1TPP (Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant)” remarks.
Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku said in a social media post that the NDC, led by John Mahama, defrauded the nation of $160 million by overpaying $290 million to AMERI for the acquisition of 250 General Electric (GE) plants in order to bolster the nation’s energy industry.
He said that the government’s decision to eventually drop the name “AMERI” should make the NDC happy. “I would like to remind the people of Ghana what AMERI stands for: Africa and Middle East Resource Investment,” he revealed.
He claims that in 2015, AMERI negotiated a deal to sell Ghana ten (10) 25 Mega Watt GE TM2500 gas-fired turbines for $510 million, when the same turbines could have been purchased directly from General Electric (GE) for $220 million.
He said, “They signed an agreement to sell ten (10) 25 MW GE TM2500 gas-fired turbines to Ghana for USD$510 million. These 10 GE TM2500 turbines could have been bought directly from the company General Electric (GE) for USD$220 million at the time (2015). By going through a middleman and paying over five years, Ghana overpaid USD$290 million. Anyone can verify from all records that it was indeed METKA who operated the gas plants at Takoradi for five years. The company AMERI did nothing in Ghana except rip us off.”
“The AMERI company only played a middleman role in the acquisition of the 250 MW GE plants. The company that owned the 10 GE TM2500 turbines was a Greek EPC company called METKA, which is owned by Mytilineos Group,” he pointed out.
The energy expert further asserted that at the time, Deputy Attorney General Dominic Ayine signed an agreement with one Umar Farooq Zahoor, an international fraudster with arrest warrants from both Interpol and the Oslo police. This information was reportedly published in the Norwegian publication Verdens Gang (VG).
Thus, he requested that the NDC instead commend the government for all of its efforts to support the energy industry.
He said that on September 17, 2015, 10 new GE gas turbines would be supplied to the nation in a press statement issued in Athens by METKA, a company controlled by the Mytilineos Group.
He stated, “The ten gas turbines are owned by Ghana and operated by Volta River Authority (VRA), so why should they be called AMERI? AMERI in Ghana stands for fraud, rent-seeking, and corruption. The NDC can keep that name. I believe they should instead express gratitude to VRA for the rebranding. We are still waiting for innovative ideas on why the NDC wants to come back to power.”
