PUWU raises transparency issues over Meralco selection

The Public Utility Workers’ Union (PUWU) has called to question the processes that led to the selection of the Meralco Consortium as the concessionaire to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), describing the process as “a little not very transparent”. The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) announced Thursday, April 20 that it has selected Meralco Consortium to manage ECG under the Power Compact II agreement. But speaking on TV3’s News 360, the General Secretary of PUWU, Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi, said they expect further clarification from MiDA on the processes that led to the selection of the Filipino firm. “With this announcement about the selection of Meralco as the preferred bidder, the only thing that we will expect that MiDA should come out clearly and let the Ghanaian populace be really aware about the whole process. So far, they have been a little not very transparent,” he told Alfred Ocansey on Thursday. Mr. Nyantakyi observed that PUWU had no representation on the board that did the selection, so it is the responsibility of MiDA to provide Ghanaians with information on the selection process. He also stated PUWU has gathered with surprise that ECG did not also have any representation of the evaluation panel that decided on the suitable bidder and they expect MiDa to come out and clarify that too. Why Meralco and not BXC? He added that as public utility workers, they would also like MiDA to clarify why Meralco Consortium was chosen over BXC Consortium. “They came out and said it was left with only two bidders, that is BXC Consortium and the Meralco. “As to whether BXC was evaluated and they were found not to be the best in terms of the competitive nature of the process or was BXC disqualified and it was left with only Meralco as the preferred bidder? “These are matters that for us as workers we are a little unclear as to what really is going on and that is the angle we are talking about the transparency, so MiDa should clarify these things.” He also noted how President Nana Akufo-Addo had announced that 51 per cent of the concession was going to be Ghanaian-owned and therefore they ought to know the Ghanaian companies that are in partnership with Meralco Consortium. Who are Meralco? The selected consortium is led by the Manila Electricity Company from the Philippines and it is said to have had the highest combined technical and financial score to have been chosen as the preferred bidder. The company is said to have a distribution network which covers a third of the Philippines and serves a customer population in excess of six million. It will be recalled that CH Group recently pulled out of the list of bidders leaving BXC Company Limited and Meralco Consortium. Negotiations will soon commence to finalize all the agreements related to the implementation of the ECG PSP Transaction. Per the compact, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is expected to inject about $418 million into ECG while Meralco will invest about $500 million. By P.D Wedam|3news.com|Ghana Follow @3Newsgh]]>