The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has begun a series of meetings with some government officials in the US.
These engagements are supposed to help the Corporation appreciation the issues on the ground and what influenced the government’s decision to suspend the current ECG concessionaire deal with the Public Distribution Services PDS.
The government on July 30, 2019, announced the suspension of the 20-year concession, citing alleged “material breaches” of its agreement with PDS.
It later announced the setting up of a committee to try and investigate the issues.
The Board of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) Ghana is also working to hire an independent investigator to conduct a forensic audit of the claimed material breaches in order to fully establish the facts of the matter.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Ghana Power Compact was signed in 2014.
This would result in some $498 million advanced to Ghana to help the transformation of the country’s energy sector through private sector participation and key policy and institutional reforms that will provide more reliable and affordable power to the Ghanaian people.
The MCC Ghana Power Compact is expected to benefit an estimated 9.7 million Ghanaians over the next 20 year, according to the US government.
Who is in the US for this meeting?
Sources say the meeting brings together some government officials drawn from the Energy ministry, including one of the ministers, Energy Commission and the Millennium Development Authority, including its boss.
What’s next?
The US government in an email through its embassy in Ghana had maintained that “Government of Ghana agree, that private sector participation is essential to restoring the financial health of Ghana’s energy sector”.
Government sources have told JoyBusiness that ongoing investigation would go ahead, and at the end government, MiDA would decide on the way forward in dealing with the issues.
This follows the decision of the US government to back plans by the MiDA to hire an independent investigator to carry out a forensic audit on the documents.
Myjoyonline