Government has set up a committee to review the operations of BOST aimed at ending the recurring oil contamination saga.
Announcing the establishment of the committee last Tuesday in Accra at a news conference, Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, said the committee will be led by a chemical engineering expert and it is expected to deliver its recommendations in two weeks.
The move by government was necessitated by reports of contamination of large volumes of fuel through preventable accidents – the latest being the sale of 5 million liters of contaminated fuel by BOST to two unlicensed companies—Movenpiina and ZupOil—which has created controversy in the country.
According to Minister Agyarko, his ministry was “extremely concerned about the contamination of large volumes of products [fuel] through preventable accidents. Our focus now must be on taking all the necessary steps and actions to ensure that an immediate end is brought to this issue.”
“The ministry is therefore, asking Dr. Lawrence Darkwa, Head of the Chemical Engineering Department of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and acknowledged experts in the field to lead the committee to consult all relevant stakeholders to review the entire operations of BOST,” he added.
Although a ministerial committee is investigating the matter, details of a BNI probe put out on Tuesday, July 4, 2017, exonerated the MD of BOST, Alfred Obeng Boateng, of any wrongdoing, with the transaction declared valid.
On the question as to whether there would be new codified processes for dealing with contaminated products, Mr. Agyarko said the ministry will start reviewing and introducing new regulations on the sale and discharge of contaminated products.
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