A deputy Power Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration, John Jinapor, has revealed the identity of the government official who led negotiations on the purchase of a power plant project in 2015.
It has emerged that some government officials were influenced with bribes totalling $2.5million by intermediaries of a Turkish energy company in their bid to land a power deal with the Ghanaian government.
The report appears to have ruffled feathers in the camp of the former government and John Jinapor has moved to distance himself from the allegations.
According to John Jinapor, he played no frontal role in the purchasing of the power plant.
He confirmed that the substantive Power Minister then, Kwabena Donkor was the government’s representative on major discussions on the project.
He however expressed conviction that his former boss did due diligence and acted in the interest of Ghana.
He also appealed to Ghanaians to be circumspect with commentaries on the scandal as trails are yet to start on the matter.
“I was deputy power minister when this bribery issue happened but not directly involved. As a deputy minister, I act on the instructions of a minister so I cannot be directly involved in this AKSA bribery scandal. I wasn’t directly involved or assigned to this AKSA deal so I cannot give details to the said bribery issues”
“I worked with Kwabena Donkor as deputy where this AKSA deal happened. He did his best and left but never assigned me to the AKSA thing. The minister Kwabena Donkor did not assign me to anything involving the AKSA deal. I cannot give details on what happened. One should be careful discussing this whole AKSA bribery scandal because the trial is yet to begin”.
Meanwhile the Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery who has been charged by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for ‘orchestrating a bribery scheme’ has rejected the charges.
Asante Berko described as false, claims of him paying bribes to government officials and members of Parliament.
“My attention has been drawn to reportage in the local and international news media, as well as documents in social media on the morning of 14th April 2020. The essence of the story is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States has issued civil proceedings against me, alleging that I bribed government officials and members of Parliament in Ghana to enable a Turkish IPP secure a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).”
“While it is true that the SEC has just this week issued such proceedings against me, the allegations that government officials and members of Parliament were bribed by me, are completely false. I am therefore compelled to set the record straight,” he said in a statement.
