The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has called on the Chief Executive Officer of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Alfred Obeng, to step aside for a full-scale investigation into the alleged sale of contaminated fuel.
ACEP in a statement said the government must ask Mr. Obeng to stay away from the company to allow for an unimpeded independent enquiry to establish the validity or otherwise of the sale of contaminated fuel.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2h6Ojn0AV5cxM1YivgvN9OOmIKBZpVC0″]”The government should conduct a full-scale investigation into the sale of the off-spec product to establish the validity or otherwise of the transaction and provide sanctions to those found to have misconducted themselves. The Head of BOST should step aside immediately to allow the independent enquiry to occur unimpeded” ACEP said in a statement.
The country is said to have lost about GHc 7 million in revenue following attempts by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) to sell contaminated fuel to some oil marketing companies.
Documents sighted by Citi News indicate that BOST agreed to sell about GHc 5 million litres of the contaminated fuel to Movenpiina Energy.
The documents indicated that as at Wednesday, June 21st, 2017, BOST had agreed to sell off an estimated 186,000 litres of contaminated fuel to the oil company.
BOST, however, defended its decision to sell off the contaminated or off-spec products to Movenpiina saying the move was the most prudent considering the potential loss in revenue.
In response to this, ACEP said the management of BOST exhibited unwarranted discretion in the award of the contract to Movenpiina.
“Whiles the management affirms its right to decide who to do business with, it shouldn’t have done so without a simple due diligence about the capacity of the companies. If they conducted due diligence, it would have been clear that the companies did not qualify to participate in the industry.”
“BOST is a public company financed with taxpayers’ money and therefore has the responsibility to ensure that it does not engage in suspicious deals that lead to avoidable revenue losses, both to itself, government and consumers,” ACEP added.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana