Mahama did not sell GPHA-Fmr Director General clarified

A former Director General of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority(GPHA), Richard A-Y Anamoo, has stressed that John Dramani Mahama did not sell the Tema Port to Merridian Ports Services(MPS).

The former GPHA boss is calling on the general public to treat every report that suggests that soaring prices of imported goods is due to the selling of GPHA to a foreign company by former President John Dramani Mahama.

His explanation comes on the back of a viral video in which the Bono Regional Chairman of the Ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Abronye, is sighted granting a studio interview stating why President Akufo-Addo is unable to reduce taxes and duties paid at the port.

In the video, he avers hat the president's inability is due to fact that Ghana has lost control of the port. But the former GPHA boss detailed what accounts for the increasing cost of products in the country.

According to him, the Tema Port was rather given on a concessional agreement by former President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2001 for a 20-year period, "would we say President Kufuor sold the Tema Port?".

He said the NDC will no longer tolerate what he termed as the usual "propaganda of elements within the NPP who would like to peddle falsehood anytime they get the microphone.

Describing the situation as the "stock in trade of elements in NPP, he indicated that the the NPP will fail as similar lies came up in 2021 but fell flat because Mr Mahama did not sell GPHA to MPS.

He explained that "In early 2000, the then President, Jerry John Rawlings, took a decision to expand the Tema Port facility so they accessed a Dutch credit facility to start the first phase. "We dredged the port constructed by the first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and NDC lost power in the process", he said.

"When President John Agyekum Kufuor took over in 2001, he ignored what the NDC had initiated and proceeded to establish a new company to take over from GPHA. It was just at a management meeting when we were told that a new company was going to be formed called Merridian Port Services (MPS) and GPHA will take only 30% shares.That was the end of the story, there was neither evaluation nor a letter and that the new company will take the investment and everything," he disclosed.

"At the time, GPHA was only going to create a key inside the Tema Port. The brick water was already existing, the dredging has been done, the operating platform has also been done so they proceeded and brought MPS to sign a-20-year agreement with GPHA.That was how MPS came to the Tema Port. Will we then say that President Kufuor sold GPHA to MPS?", he quizzed.

"So, if Abronye says the Tema Port was sold, then it was sold by President Kufuor and not John Dramani Mahama," he further clarified. The narration that when Professor John Evans Atta Mills took over in 2009, the concession was not terminated,"and of course, if it were the NPP, they would have terminated it like they try to do with at the Takoradi Port".

But in principle, the NDC allowed the contract to continue, he said. Documents available, according to Mr Anamoo, talk about the concession and not a sale of the whole port adding that "No body including John Dramani Mahama sold the Tema Port".

"MPS was existing before Professor Mills came in and also before John Mahama also came in. The only thing John Mahama did was to amend the existing concession. As at 2015, the first concession was left with 9 years to expiration and as at that time, MPS only constructed the terminal", he said.

"Under the expanded agreement, the new terminals that were going to be constructed were going to be like a new port where almost about 4 kilometres of brick water in open sea, reclaim over 100 hectors, create facilities that could take about 17 beds meaning at full capacity, dredge the harbour to minus 16 or 17 which MPS agreed to construct coupled with the motorway but MPS only created 4 beds for their own operations and were to operate that for 35 years", He said the remaining 13 beds were available for other interested private investors.

MPS is not controlling the Tema Port". Duties and taxes are charged by custom services and GPHA has nothing to do with Custom Services so if imported goods are expensive, it is because the duties are too high. And if the duties are too high, it will impact prices of goods in the market ", he noted.

He described the current custom regime as punitive and a disincentive for cargoes to be brought to the Tema Port.

"Now, I am told that MPS wants to construct the fifth bed and have applied to GPHA for permission, if it is true that John Mahama sold the Tema Port to MPS, why then did they write to seek permission from GPHA? This means their limitation is with the four beds"?, the former D-G questioned.

"Also, if it is true that John Mahama sold the Tema Port to MPS, how come MPS is paying huge dividends to GPHA? As at 2021, GPHA got a dividend of $70 million from MPS while in 2022, GPHA got over $60 million and over from MPS", he stated.

He asked, "Why the monies got from MPS is not used to procure equipment to replace damaged ones at the Tema Port? Why has the dividend from the Tema Port been diverted into the Boankra Inland Project, a private project, who owns that project"?, he again asked.

"If John Dramani Mahama really sold the Tema Port to MPS, how come MPS is paying huge dividends to GPHA which the government of Akufo Addo has as at that time diverted $33 million into the Boankra project which the government is not a share holder. There is no railway line as we speak even with the $33 million", he quizzed.

So with all these information, does it mean former President John Dramani Mahama sold the Tema Port to MPS"?, he asked.