Ablakwa Rebukes Gov’t Officials Over $170m Judgement Debt Payment

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, says he will initiate processes to summon three government officials including Finance Minister, Ken ofori-Atta, Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the Attorney General, Godfred Dame before Parliament over the release of some GH¢230 million to clear a judgment debt owed to Trafigura.

Trafigura, the majority owner of the power company Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC), secured the award in January 2021 after an arbitral tribunal in London found that Ghana had unlawfully terminated a contract for the installation and operation of two power plants.

The government was ordered to pay $170 million to the company or risk losing its property through auctioning.

The government has thus released $20 million to initiate the payment process.

In an interview with Citi News, the North Tongu legislator said the sector ministers must answer questions.

“Our oversight role in terms of summoning these ministers and finding out why they created this, and seeing if there can even be a vote of censure, failed the last time we tried that because we did not have the two-thirds majority.”

“But we will not give up, and we have already served notice that we are going to pursue this matter because this is such a colossal amount of money wasted, and people must answer questions. You can’t waste all of these resources which could have been used to build roads, hospitals, solve our water problems, and address our housing challenges for displaced persons. So, I can assure you that we are not going to be derelict on this matter.”

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