The Norwegian Journalist who broke the story about the fraudulent background of owner of Ghana's Ameri Power Barge from Dubai has maintained that the deal with Ghana was fraudulent.
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Norwegian journalist Rolf Wideroe reveals more in fishy Ameri deal
In an interview on Joy FM's super morning show, Rolf J. Wideroe said his checks with experts revealed that Ghana had paid more than it had to for the acquisition of the barges.
According to the Norwegian Journalist, the cost of contracting the power barge had been inflated by over $200 million.
In an interview on Joy FM, Rolf J. Wideroe said his checks with experts revealed that Ghana had paid more than it should for the acquisition of the barges.
Read More: > Audio How parliament debated the AMERI deal
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" After we heard that the Ghanaian parliament had agreed for the the power barges to be acquired at a price of $510 million, we quickly did a check with experts in the field to find out how much the 10- turbine barge was going to cost. We were surprised to find out that one turbine has an average market cost of 21,000, which put the 10- turbine plant at GHC210,000."
The report added that the opinion of a world- renowned anti corruption activist, ( name withheld), suggested that there were certain fishy dealings involved in the deal, which is why he decided to do further investigations for the story.
Rolf raises serious questions about a deal entered into by the government of Ghana and the Africa and Middle East Resource Investment (AMERI) to supply a power barge to Ghana.
The ministry of Power has since come out to deny the report, labelling it as false and gross misrepresentation of facts.
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"It must also be explained that the quoted price of $220 million in the Norwegian story for outright purchase of similar turbines is exclusive of all other costs such as auxiliaries, balance of plant, civil works, substation, installation of equipment, cost of financing, operation and maintenance etc. Under the agreement with AMERI Energy, the cost of all these auxiliary works is being borne by AMERI Energy," the minister noted.
"Ministry wishes to state that the agreement with AMERI is a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement and not an outright purchase of generating plants [and] Per the agreement with AMERI, the Government of Ghana through the Volta River Authority (VRA) will only make payments to Ameri for power produced and supplied to the VRA just like any other Independent Power Producer (IPP)." He added.
Rolf contested this rebuttal in his interview on Super Morning Show saying, "I don't agree because if you look at the official report, it says the equipment cost is $510 million. AMERI is taking tariffs ad according to those tariffs, these equipment cost $510 million. In addition to those millions - which is a lot of money - Ghana is going to pay variable charges of $16 million each year so all together for five years, that is $80 million."
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