This is the Zakhem power station site at Kpone. The particularly distincitive feature is the lack of any power station.
I am grateful to CitiFM in Accra. Having been misled into publishing photos of a completely different power station, they have had the grace to apologise and publish a corrected story.
http://www.citifmonline.com/site/news/news/view/3556/1
Unfortunately their original photos of a completely different site, nothing to do with Zakhem, were seized on and re-used by almost the entire Ghanaian media as evidence that I was talking nonsense.
My favourite recent news headline was “Craig Murray is Not In His Right State of Mind”.
http://elections.peacefmonline.com/politics/201002/38966.php
Zakhem are loudly threatening to sue me. They make the following key points:
– Zakhem Construction Ghana is a separate company from Zakhem International Construction Ltd of London
– They have received only 39.5 million dollars to date towards the turbine installation
– They have carried out a good deal of work including engineering design, land clearance, construction of perimeter wall, and 40% of the procurement of balance of plant
– Work was delayed by a change of site
My information on some of these points differs. But none of that alters the fundamentals. The Government of Ghana bought the turbines direct from Alsthom. Zakhem were to install them and provide the balance of plant. They have been paid tens of millions of dollars upfront, starting over three years ago, but have never even started digging the foundations, nor supplied the key components they were paid to procure, including transformers and fuel tanks.
Ordinary people, some of them struggling below the poverty line, pay taxes in Ghana, particularly through VAT. Over a hundred million dollars of their tax has already gone forever into the power station pictured above. There is no sign of them getting any benefit for their money. Meanwhile Zakhem and former government functionary Paul Afoko have pocketed millions.