The Executive Director of the Centre for Extractives and Development Africa, Samuel Bekoe, has accused Parliament of failing in its oversight role in the procurement of the Kpong power plant during Ghana’s power crisis.

He said the circumstances surrounding the project, including allegations of payments made to facilitate its approval and selection, exposed weaknesses in Ghana’s governance and procurement systems.

Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, August 10, 2026, Mr Bekoe said the use of emergency procedures during the power crisis allowed critical checks and balances to be overlooked.

According to him, the severe power shortages at the time created an environment in which normal governance measures were relaxed in the name of urgency.

“The key issue has exposed the fact that most times we base ourselves on an emergency to undertake certain procurement that is really sometimes dangerous.

“You ask about Parliament, which is supposed to be the gatekeeper, did not play a very good gatekeeping role. And the conviction in the US has exposed it about some of the payments made to facilitate approval and selection of the AKSA’s power plant, which is the Kpong power plant we have,” he said.

Mr Bekoe said the conviction of former Goldman Sachs banker and former Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Managing Director Asante Kwaku Berko in the United States had brought renewed attention to payments allegedly made to facilitate the approval and selection of the AKSA power plant, also known as the Kpong power plant.

He said Parliament and other state institutions needed to strengthen their oversight mechanisms to prevent emergency situations from being used to bypass established safeguards.

Mr Bekoe also questioned the continued reliance on emergency procurement in the power sector, arguing that Ghana had sufficient data to anticipate future electricity demand and plan accordingly.

“Should we always wait for an emergency? We definitely know the projections of our power sector. We know the growth of our power sector. Energy Commission does this job all the time. And we have all that particular data,” he said.

He said Ghana often waited until it faced shortages in generation, distribution or equipment before entering into urgent procurement arrangements.

“We almost always wait till we tell ourselves that, oh, we are not generating enough, we are not distributing enough, we don’t have enough transformers, and then we enter into some of these pressure deals,” he said.

Mr Bekoe said such arrangements were frequently pursued under certificates of urgency, limiting the opportunity for stakeholders to scrutinise and review the procurement process.

“We do not allow the process to play out. We do not allow stakeholders to review the process. We do not allow transparency into the process because we say we really need these power plants in an emergency,” he said.

His comments follow a denial by former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor of any involvement in the bribery allegations linked to the US case involving Mr Berko.

Dr Donkor, through his lawyers, has denied requesting or receiving money from Mr Berko or authorising anyone to demand money on his behalf.

Meanwhile, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has begun tracing funds and assets that may be linked to the bribery case.

EOCO said the asset tracing and recovery exercise formed part of its investigation into the Ghanaian dimension of the case following Mr Berko’s conviction in the United States.