I want to break the PDS scandal down for you from an Accounting point of view. I will tackle the statement from the NPP which suggests that John Mahama and NDC started the Millennium Development Authority so part of this fraud should be attributed to them.
Do you remember in 2016, the NPP told Ghanaians that John Mahama was going to sell ECG, and that when they win power, they were going to cancel the contract? Not know, it was an agreement between the US government and the Ghana government to help Ghana with some $500 million to fix the energy sector. The Ghana side formed the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) with the CEO as Ing. Owura Sarfo and the Board Chairman as Prof. Sefa Dede.
When the NPP took over, they immediately sacked the CEO, the Board Chairman, the lawyers and everybody involved. The new Board Chairman became Martin Eson Benjamin.
They went to the drawing table and changed the concession rate from 20% Ghanaian investors and 80% foreign investors to 51% Ghanaian investors and 49% foreign investors, under the guise of promoting local content. At this point in Accounting, Law and Auditing, we say the original agreement or contract has either been altered or amended. Once the original contract is altered or amended, the original owner, if it has changed, ceases to have any control whatsoever on the new document. The new owner takes full responsibility of the altered or amended documents. Remember, the agreement is between the governments of US and Ghana and not government of US and NDC.
The NPP representing the Government of Ghana in this agreement took full responsibility of it once they changed the Board Chair and CEO of MIDA, and also the lawyers and concession rate.
So for anybody to go on radio and say the agreement was started by John Mahama and the NDC and so they should share part of the fraud knows what he/she is saying, just that the person is being silly. When you listen to such people, you see that the person spoke with a lot of noise.
So if is scandal was not detected by a “foreign entity,” Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP were going to get away with this mother-of-all scandals? So what other scandals are there that the people of Ghana are not aware of? Nana Akufo-Addo said in 2016 that he will not preside over a corrupt government? Is he still in the country? In a civilized country, it doesn’t take such sophisticated scandal for a President to resign.
The writer is the Founder of the Diaspora Progressive Movement based in USA.
