A STATEMENT BY MR. JOHNSON ASIEDU NKETIAH, GENERAL SECRETARY OF NDC AT A PRESS CONFERENCE IN ACCRA

Good morning Ladies and gentlemen and, welcome to this press conference which has been called to lay bare the facts about the Bui Dam and to correct misrepresentations that have been carried by a section of the Ghanaian media either out of ignorance or mischief.

Before I proceed to respond to the specific allegations of wrong doing leveled against my person by Mr. Fred Oware the immediate past Chief Executive of the Bui Power Authority, let me crave your indulgence to revisit the main issues which I raised about the project which elicited his response.

Fact number 1.

That no Board minutes covering the period the B.P.A. operated with Former President Kuffuor as chairman of the Board and Fred Oware as the Chief Executive were handed over to the current Board.

Fact number 2.

Due to the absence of minutes covering Board decisions which should form the basis of decisions of BPA and the justification for same, the current Board is saddled with issues which require the invitation of at least the two gentlemen to clarify. One such issue is the rationale behind the acquisition of land to include major settlements like BamboiTasilima and Carpenter which do not fall within the catchment area of the project. This is against the backdrop that the project did not make provision for compensation for land acquisition. It must not be lost on us that when lands are compulsorily acquired by the state under Act 125, it is required that immediate and adequate compensations for all lands and properties affected must paid to the affected owners.

Fact number 3.

At the inception of the project the NPP administration created the impression to all Ghanaians that the project had three components;

a. The Bui Hydroelectric Project b. The Bui Irrigation Project. c. The Bui City Project

Upon taking over, the current Board realized with shock that whereas the first two components were covered in the planning and funding arrangements there were no feasibility studies, no architectural designs and neither was any financial provisions made for any preparatory work or implementation of the Bui City Project. It could only be described as a castle that existed only on the Campaign Bill Boards of the NPP.

Fact number 4.

Whereas as per the project agreement the Bui Power Authority has no say in the mode of acquisition or sourcing of materials for the construction works, the BPA has an obligation to certify that the quality of materials agree with the specifications and standards contained in the project agreement. It is also a fact that Granite aggregate (stone chippings and quarry dust) whose quality had not been querried by the President Kuffuor Board has been rejected by the current Board because the quality does not meet the project specifications. (Find attached queries from the Project Consultant; Conyne Et Bellier of France)

Fact number 5.

The project agreement made a contingency provision of between two and three percent, a deviation from the standard practice of 15% for projects of similar nature.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are the issues which in my opinion need to engage the attention of all Ghanaians including the 4th Estate of the realm hence my raising them in my earlier address to you last month.

However, contrary to the expectations of Ghanaians that a press conference called by the previous chief executive would adequately concentrate on and address these issues to clear any wrong perception, Mr. Fred Oware the NPP First Vice Chairman, decided to divert the attention from these issues by spewing half truths and downright lies calculated to tarnish my hard won reputation. If Fred Oware thinks that I am going to swallow his bait by helping him divert attention to the defence of my person and my reputation leaving the main issues unattended to or unexplained, then he will be disappointed. I have decided that a legal redress offers the best solution to the unfounded allegations of ‘conflict of interest’ and ‘insider trading’ leveled against my person . The only thing I will say at this stage is that I have not and will not engage in any wrong – doing as far as my duties and obligation as a member of the BPA Board are concerned.

Permit me, however, to deal with some of the issues raised in Fred Oware’s ill-fated press conference.

Funding for the Bui City

Mr. Fred Oware, in other to justify his claim that funding existed for the Bui City Project submitted a schedule of payment for the whole Bui Dam Project for verification by members of the media. Unfortunately for him, there was nowhere in the 17 items listed was mention made of the Bui City.

Under schedule number 17, Mr. Fred Oware fraudulently sought to misrepresent item 17.06 as Bui City and Irrigation Project when in fact, the document he tended mentioned irrigation structures with the sum of $12 million. Additionally, an amount of $19 million, which has been earmarked for road and bridge construction to link the Bui area to the main roads is being mischievously misrepresented by Fred Oware as intended to construct town roads within the proposed Bui City.

Fred Oware also, when asked about feasibility study and architectural drawings and layouts of the Bui City, tended in responses to letters he had written to various state institutions requesting them to set up offices in the proposed Bui City.

In Mr. Oware’s response to the issue of additional funding of $167 million for the Bui Dam Project, Mr. Oware alleged that the additional funding was needed because my company had supplied blocks with inflated prices to the resettlement component of the project whose total value comes up to $11 million.

Rejection of Sub -Standard Aggregates

On the issue of the rejection of the aggregate/ chippings, Mr. Fred Oware displayed his worse ignorance about the project agreement he claimed to have implemented for over a year. First and foremost, Mr. Oware should know that as per the project agreement the BPA Board has no say as far as the sourcing of materials by the contractor, Sino Hydro is concerned.

Furthermore, when BPA exercises its right to reject sub standard materials, all the related cost is borne by the contractor. So from where was Mr. Oware coming when he suggested that the current Board insists on a particular supplier of chippings which is going to increase the project cost by additional $50 million? Mr. Fred Oware made the biggest fool of himself before the Ghanaian media when he tended in minutes of a so called First General Meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Bui City when asked to produce the minutes of Bui Board meetings held under his stewardship.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like at this stage to turn my attention to the representatives of the media houses that attended Mr. Oware’s ill-fated press conference. 1. Is it not strange that no one amongst you raised any question when minutes of a totally different body were distributed to you as evidence of meetings of the Bui Board?

2. Can you please explain your loud silence when payment schedules representing Bui Irrigation structures are presented to you as evidence of funding arrangement for Bui City?

3. Were you satisfied as members of the fourth estate of the realm, when responses to letters written to the Ghana Fire Service, Ghana Meteorological Services, Ghana Armed Forces and the Judicial Service requesting for their expression of interest in the Bui City Project were presented to you as the feasibility reports or architectural designs of the Bui City?

4. If these are the documents some of you claim to have in your armpits with which you are jumping from one radio station to other pretending to be working in the national interest whilst in fact the effect of your work is to cow down people who have mustered courage to expose wrong doing in society, then God save Ghana.

In conclusion, I want to call on all media houses who are interested in the truth to pursue the case of the Bui Dam Project vigorously, by examining all the documentation that is available on the matters of the absence of Board Minutes, quality of Aggregates, Land Acquisition and funding for both the Bui City and the Bui Hydro Project to help Ghanaians form informed opinions about whatever has happened or has not happened at Bui.

Thank you very much and may God Bless our homeland Ghana.

Signed

Johnson Asiedu Nketiah General Secretary, NDC 03/03/2011