The Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST, Kingsly Kwame Awuah-Darko, has denied allegations of fraud against the Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs).<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”GaAZWZx58h39VdZbTJ8CA5ShAUfTig4g”]Recent media reports alleged that some top officials at BOST connived with some BDCs to rob the state-owned enterprise (BOST) of petroleum products at the depots, leading to losses that affected the national strategic reserve of petroleum products.<\/p>\n
The publication in the state-owned Daily Graphic quoting an audit report said that the criminal activities were used to create a negative balance of BOST indebtedness to the BDCs.<\/p>\n
However, both BOST and the BDCs have denied those allegations, with Awuah-Darko absolving his company from the media publication.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors has called on President John Mahama to institute a probe into the matter to ascertain the truth.<\/p>\n
Even though the National Security has stepped in to conduct investigation into the matter, the BOST MD has called for a truce between his entity and the BDCs.<\/p>\n
Mr Awuah-Darko told Joy Fm that BOST had never gone out anywhere to make the claim of fraud against the BDCs.<\/p>\n
Ernst & Young Report<\/strong><\/p>\n Touching on the Ernst & Young audit report, he said the audit process was still ongoing, adding that there is no final report.<\/p>\n According to the draft report, our of 16 BDCs being audited, Ernst & Young were unable to obtain enough evidence to conclusively recompile the stock positions of eight BDCs.<\/p>\n The other set of eight were verified with higher balances assigned in their favour.<\/p>\n Mr Awuah-Darko said, \u201cAll that we are saying is that in the stock balances audit process, there are some points that various BDCs have to provide further and better particulars.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Senyo Hosi, CEO, Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, rebutted the BOST MD\u2019s position, arguing that there are multiple independent sources that they could have contacted for data in the audit process.<\/p>\n These sources, he said, include the independent inspectors like SGS International, CEPS and the Mooring Company.<\/p>\n Mr Hosi also stated that the ongoing audit was not an audit of sudden claims being made by BDCs, explaining that they (BDCs) on a monthly basis, undertook reconciliations with BOST over the past six years.<\/p>\n He further explained that the ongoing audit is a revalidation of the reconciled monthly positions between 2009 and July 2014 for each of the BDCs.<\/p>\n Claims of Liability<\/strong><\/p>\n Contrary to the draft report which was inconclusive, involving eight BDCs, BOST in letters to the BDCs claimed that they (BDCs) owed 2.13 billion litres of fuel worth GH\u00a27 billion.<\/p>\n However, the BDCs chief executive rejected those claims, describing them as mischievous, arguing that BOST had no stocks of its own over the period and as such, could not claim that BDCs overdrew on its stocks.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply put, I cannot take what you don\u2019t have. Even if BDCs overdrew on each other\u2019s stocks, it will mathematically be impossible for an overdrawn position by a given set of BDCs to be higher than the amount of stocks due to the under-drawn BDCs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore out of place for BOST to claim to be owed 2.13bn litres when the BDCs\u2019 stock balance stood at 74 million litres,\u201d Mr Hosi said.<\/p>\n He explained that BOST products losses had arisen from in-transport losses through pipeline siphoning, depot pilfering and possible malfunctioning of in-depot measurement equipment.<\/p>\n Mr Hosi\u00a0 said BDCs do not in anyway physically interfere with the discharge or operation of the BOST in-depot and inter-depot activities.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore not possible to be a party to any of the causes of the product losses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Hosi claimed that BOST had not been able to account for about 60 million litres of petroleum products worth $50 million belonging to the BDCs.<\/p>\n Mr Awuah-Darko, in reaction to the claim, admitted that BOST owes the BDCs some balances, but he was quick to state that other accounts showed a negative balance.<\/p>\n Going forward, the MD of BOST said, \u201cThere is the need for BDCs to sit down with BOST and figure out what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n BDCs ready to cooperate<\/strong><\/p>\n Senyo Hosi expressed happiness that the major players in the industry had come out to dispute the allegation of fraud against the BDCs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is now nowhere in the report that there is connivance. I am very happy that the Ministry of Petroleum, BOST MD and the Chairman of\u00a0 BOST have all come out to clear the air. I think we should rather move on,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n He disclosed that members of the BDCs wanted to take legal action but with the reconciliation tone of the BOST MD, \u201cWe realized that the spirit was right for us to sit down and jaw jaw.\u201d<\/p>\n Apology<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Hosi is asking Daily Graphic to retract and apoligise for making false claims of fraud against the BDCs.<\/p>\n According to him, the story was quite diabolic because the paper was quoting things that were not in the Ernst & Young report, stating \u201cIt is only Graphic that claims there is fraud. So it is only Graphic that can tell the world who did the fraud and with who. But now that all the major players in the industry have denied making claims of fraud, there is the need for Graphic to apologise and retract the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Hosi continued, \u201cYou cannot go and establish fraud with a reconciliation audit\u2026you can only establish fraud with a forensic audit, so there was no soundness in their reportage. I think they really owe the BDCs and the entire industry an apology and retraction of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Daily Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST, Kingsly Kwame Awuah-Darko, has denied allegations of fraud against the Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs). [contextly_sidebar id=”GaAZWZx58h39VdZbTJ8CA5ShAUfTig4g”]Recent media reports alleged that some top officials at BOST connived with some BDCs to rob the state-owned enterprise (BOST) of petroleum products at the depots, leading to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":112735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[22,4],"yoast_head":"\n