..as she contradicts indians in airteltigo acquisition deal; speaker angry
The Speaker of Parliament, has lamented the refusal of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Communications and Digitalization to furnish the House with various contractual agreements signed by government agencies, including the one on the acquisition of AirtelTigo, which was brokered since April last year.
The Indian owners of the telecommunication company; Bharti Airtel, had said that the Akufo-Addo government in November 2021, completed the takeover of the ownership of their network.
This was disclosed during a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, but Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is announcing in February 2022, that the deal is not yet concluded.
“This is in further to our announcement dated October 27, 2020, and April 16, 2021, regarding Government of Ghana’s takeover of ownership of Airtel/Tigo Joint Venture. We wish to update that the transaction has been completed and 100% shares of Airtel Tigo have been transferred to the Government of Ghana,” Bharti Airtel said last year.
Alban Bagbin, who is angry at what looks like a naked snub, warned that his administration as the Speaker of Parliament,will not be a party to the numerous judgment debts that have saddled the country, adding Parliament will not approve agreements signed by agencies under any ministry.
He is particularly unhappy with various judgment debts against the country.
AirtelTigo deal is turning out to be another Kelni GVG transaction under the same Communications Ministry headed by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful. The company is heavily laden with secrecy.
The ownership of Kelni GVG,said to be registered in the faraway Caribbean country, Haiti is a mystery, although it does business with the Ministry, including revenue assurance.
The nature of these deals, run sometimes into millions of United States Dollars, yet many things about the company are unknown.
Recently,it was revealed that Kelni GVG is playing a role in the ongoing SIM CARD re-registration exercise with some percentage allotted it by the National Communications Authority (NCA).
A statement from the Communications Minister, was later to disclose that Kelni GVG,has been under the ministry operating as technical advisors.
In Parliament yesterday, Mr. Bagbin, said that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has for over a year disregarded the directive for the Ministry to provide details on some agreements with other agencies to the House.
He said, the House cannot rely on documents from private partners who enter into an agreement with the government as authentic documents for the House to work with.
After Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful’s answers to questions on the deal in Parliament yesterday,Mr. Bagbin said “Entities that enter into agreement with government, we deal with government and so when you enter into those agreements with private sector or whatever we will depend on your communication and the document that you will attach to the communication as the authentic documents for our attention, I know why I am saying this.
Mr. Bagbin, urged the Finance Ministry to take notice of the demands of the House and provide the necessary documents as the country has experienced too many judgment debts.
“I will not work on any document that is not presented from government source. I know the legal implications and I will not risk that. I do not want to leave this seat and after that to be called by any agency to be investigated because of something,” he added.
This came up when the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, was answering questions on the AiterlTigo deal which saw the government acquire 100 per cent stake in the company last year.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, told the House “We are still in the closing obligation stage of this transaction and so all the legal, constitutional processes will be completed on the advice of the Attorney General by the end of this meeting.”
In April last year, the government of Ghana, signed an agreement for the transfer of ownership of telecommunications company AirtelTigo, a joint venture between Bharti Airtel and telecom operator Millicom International Cellular SA (Tigo), which jointly operates in the country.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, signed on behalf of the government of Ghana, while Ms. Jatina Catharina Uneken-van de Vreede, Mr Martin P Frechette, Mr Timothy Pennington, Mr Eric Nana Nipah and Mr. Vish Ashiagbor, signed on behalf of the seller entities.
The questions were from the Ningo-Prampram lawmaker Sam George, who said the agreement is waiting for the input of the Attorney General before finalization.
The speaker said “And so Ministry of Finance, kindly take note we have given you a number if pointers to write officially to us attaching agreements that the Minister has entered into with various agencies for us to work on”, adding “as at today, after one year it as not been done. We cannot depend on documents from those agencies as authentic documents to work with.
Mr. Bagbin warned “this is a notice to Ministry of Finance, personally I have called the Ministry a number of times and we are not getting the necessary responses from them. Please take this thing seriously the judgement judgements are becoming too many for the country, I will not want to be part of it. I will not work on any document that is not originating from government source.”
The government of Ghana in November 2021, completed the takeover of the ownership of AirtelTigo, operators of the network, Bharti Airtel disclosed in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
But the Communications Minister insists “We are still in the closing obligation stage of this transaction and so all the legal, constitutional processes will be completed on the advice of the Attorney General by the end of this meeting.”
