The Minority Spokesperson on Energy and Mines, K.T. Hammond, says recipients of the ex gratia payments by the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC), should be languishing in prison, calling the payment to Tsatsu Tsikata and three others, “criminal.”
The other recipients are Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye (Ag. Chief Executive); Benjamin Dagadu (Field Evaluation and Development Manager); and Esther Cobbah (Public Affairs Manager).
[contextly_sidebar id=”acsipn5bLY9Chnd583HlSenq4qbxG2Sl”]According to a statement from the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC), the four served the corporation for periods ranging between 12 and 21 years, adding they were all removed from office in 2001 under circumstances that did not allow for the payment of their respective accumulated separation entitlements.
Speaking on Eye Witness News however, KT Hammond said, “what we need to know, investigate, and indeed the probe is the basis for the payment for these individuals.”
He called on President Mahama and organizations like the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), to look seriously into this “criminal” payment.
“The place had collapsed. If it was a company, the company had collapsed. There was no money to be paid to anybody. Indeed, for running the company the way he did, Mr. Tsikata would have had to account in the criminal court for what he had done.”
He added that; “You don’t turn round 15 years down the line to pay these kind of money to these people and Tsikata in particular doesn’t deserve it” he noted.
Mr. Hammond however softened his stance at a point saying, “I don’t dispute the fact that he may have been entitled to some ex gratia” but “if it wasn’t paid [then], it would not be paid in 15 years.”
He went on to call the payment a breach of morals and legalities referring to the limitations Act saying “indeed if they even had rights which have been accrued, six years thereafter, those rights would have lapses. Any claims that arise within a contractual relationship lapses in six years” he noted.
He also questioned the number of years they were being paid.
“Why 15 years? Why wait? Were they afraid that now we are getting close to next year?”
The MP for Adansi Asokwa hinted he may raise the matter on the floor of Parliament and reiterated his call for a presidential probe into the matter.
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana