Former Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, has expressed regret over what he describes as Ghana’s missed opportunity to transform the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) through the Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession agreement.

According to him, even though the PDS concession agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was “criminal from the outset, it would have been an opportunity to turn the state power distributor around, especially in the area of revenue collection.

His comments follow the dismissal of all claims brought against ECG by PDS at a London-based arbitration tribunal. The tribunal threw out PDS’s case after years of legal proceedings, ruling in favour of ECG and the Government of Ghana.

While welcoming the outcome of the judgement, Dr. Donkor said: “I wasn’t surprised PDS lost, because the way it went about things was criminal from the beginning. The way the concession was handed over to PDS was contrary to the structured process.

“Even what was needed to have been made before taking over was not made. ECG’s own cash was used to make some payments.”

However, he lamented that beyond the legal victory, Ghana had lost a crucial opportunity to modernise and strengthen ECG through an effective and transparent private sector partnership.

“The painful thing to me is that Ghana lost a huge opportunity to turn around ECG. Therefore, this is a good example of how not to strike a deal, especially one that is meant to bring technical and performance improvements into a state utility,” he added.