National Coordinator for the District Roads and Improvement Programme (DRIP), Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has squarely blamed former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for the collapse of the controversial Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), describing his actions as the “trigger” that doomed the entire power sector reform.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Thursday, November 6, Mr Vanderpuye alleged that Dr Bawumia used his executive powers to alter the terms of the concession agreement, a move he said undermined the integrity of the deal and paved the way for fraudulent practices.
“All this PDS thing, I put the blame strictly on the doorstep of Dr Bawumia. If he had not varied the conditionalities underpinning this arrangement, we wouldn’t have arrived at this situation. He used the delegated powers given him to handle the PDS and, at his own discretion, changed the bank guarantee to an insurance guarantee,” he stated.
Mr Vanderpuye argued that this variation from a bank guarantee to an insurance guarantee weakened the credibility of the transaction and created loopholes that facilitated the submission of fake payment guarantees by PDS.
Background of the PDS Debacle
In 2019, PDS took over ECG’s operations under a 20-year concession agreement, a key component of the Millennium Challenge Compact II between the Government of Ghana and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The deal was meant to inject private-sector efficiency into power distribution and improve service reliability across Ghana. However, within months, the government suspended and later terminated the agreement after discovering that the payment guarantees purportedly issued by Al Koot Insurance and Reinsurance Company of Qatar were fraudulent.
Subsequent investigations and rulings by Qatari courts confirmed that the documents had indeed been forged, leading to international arbitration in London, where PDS sought over US$390 million in compensation for alleged wrongful termination.
The London tribunal, after nearly three years of proceedings, dismissed all claims by PDS, upholding ECG’s position that the fraudulent guarantees invalidated the entire concession and justified the government’s termination of the deal.
Mr Vanderpuye also referenced remarks by John Peter Amewu, Member of Parliament for Hohoe and former Energy Minister, who once labelled the PDS arrangement “a scam created for people to steal money.”
He contended that Dr Bawumia failed to ensure proper oversight and consultation before making such a significant variation to the agreement.
“He didn’t consult his team before varying the bank guarantee to an insurance guarantee. That decision alone destroyed the credibility of the entire process,” Vanderpuye emphasised.
The PDS controversy remains one of the most contentious episodes in Ghana’s recent energy sector history — a failed reform that cost the country hundreds of millions in lost investment opportunities and strained relations with its international partners.
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