Government signed the AMERI power deal without due diligence on the project.
In September 2015, former Energy Minister, Kwabena Donkor signed a deal with the Africa and Middle East Resources Investment (AMERI) Group to end the crippling energy crisis in Ghana.
Government signed the AMERI power deal without due diligence on the project.
The deal raised questions about the propriety of the contract.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will continue to debate the controversial power plant, AMERI deal.
READ MORE: Re-negotiated AMERI deal stinks - Kofi Bentil
The NPP in 2015 alleged that former President John Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama, have a hand in the murky $510 million dollar AMERI Power deal believed to have been inflated.
The party cited ten reasons why there must be an "immediate, open, public, bipartisan and parliamentary enquiry into the $593 million agreement."
Despite the protest against the re-negotiation of the AMERI deal by the government, the NPP government has approved the new deal pending parliamentary approval but it has made a U-turn with the renegotiated deal.
AMERI, since the contract was signed in 2015, has fulfilled its obligations and operated strictly within the terms of the contract, however, it is rather the government of Ghana that has violated the terms of the contract by denying full payment to Ameri for the past months.
Here are things to know about the AMERI power deal:
1. The agreement is in the form of Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) valid for 5 years.
2. Ghana will provide gas to run the turbines and the Volta River Authority will pay for the cost.
3. The AMERI deal, which involved the installation of 10 General Electric TM 2500 aero-derivative 10 gas turbines at the cost of over $510 million at the Aboadze Power enclave, near Takoradi in the Western Region.
READ ALSO: Nana Addo must sack appointees who misled him on AMERI deal - Ben Ephson
4. The levelised tariff for AMERI is the lowest (USc11.46kWh) compared to the tariffs for seven (7) comparable plants.
Levelised tariff is the approved tariff adjusted over the concession/contract period.