Executive Director of the Good Governance Advocacy Group, Listowell Nana Poku has predicted more judgement debts for Ghana in the coming months.
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He noted that the ruling government has cancelled numerous contracts signed by the John Mahama-led administration out of spite “and this is going to cost the country.”
“The GPGC judgement debt is just the begining. It is one of the thousands we will suffer as a country. GCNET is also in court for over $600 million contract terminated by Osafo Maafo. We have a lot of other impending judgement debts and the country is going to suffer this because of the egos of a few people,” he told Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
He blamed the current GPGC judgement debt on President Akufo-Addo. “Boakye Agyarko said the license was terminated by cabinet and it means the President oversaw everything.”
According to him, a government is supposed to provide an enabling environment for private firms to operate and attract foreign investments. “We don’t need them to give flimsy excuses and destroy their work.”
He believes the issues surrounding the judgement debt could have been avoided “but we are suffering because we left governance to mediocrity.”
The International Court of Arbitration in January 2021 awarded a cost of $134 million and an interest of $30 million against the Government of Ghana over the cancellation of an Emergency Power Agreement with GCGP limited.
The Contract was cancelled under the former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko as part of several other energy contracts cancelled by the NPP on the basis that the country did not need those power agreements.
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The ruling by the International Court of Arbitration ordered the government to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full value of the Early Termination Payment, together with Mobilization, Demobilization and preservation and maintenance costs in the amount of US$ 134,348,661, together also with interest thereon from 12 November 2018 until the date of payment, accruing daily and compounded monthly, at the rate of LIBOR for six-month US dollar deposits plus six percent (6%).”
The Government of Ghana was also to pay GPGC an amount of “US$ 309,877.74 in respect of the Costs of the Arbitration, together with US$ 3,000,000 in respect of GPGC’s legal representation and the fees and expenses of its expert witness, together with interest on the aggregate amount of US$ 3,309,877.74 at the rate of LIBOR for three-month US dollar deposits, compounded quarterly”.
