The Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, has refuted claims by the minority group in parliament that the BNI and National Security are covering up rot at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST).
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, at a press conference accused the BNI of covering up malfeasance in the sale of contaminated fuel to Movinpiina and Zup oil, as well as exonerating the embattled Managing Director, Alfred Obeng Boateng of any wrongdoing.
BOST had been in the news for selling 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to two unlicensed companies, Movepiina and Zup Oil, which were allegedly set up few days before the sale making Ghana lose about GHc 7 million in revenue.
The Energy Ministry subsequently set a an investigative committee to look into the mater.
But speaking at a press conference at the ministry today [Tuesday] after a similar one by the minority, Mr. Agyarko maintained that, the state institutions did a good job in their investigations into the matter.
“Where is the cover up? The investigations so far carried out by the state security agencies and the NPA show that on the basis of previous practice, there was no wrongdoing at BOST on the sale of the 5 million liters of contaminated products. We wish to advise that social commentators will in future cross check their facts before making allegations that have the tendency of causing unnecessary panic among consumers of petroleum products,” he cautioned.
Mr. Agyarko stated that, the various state institutions would have orchestrated a response if the government had wanted to cover up.
“When the matter came up, if there was going to be a cover up, then there would have been an orchestrated response and all the agencies would have been singing the same tune, but in the immediate aftermath of the event you could see that NPA was saying something, this one was also saying something not coherent. Which suggest to you that, each independent agency was doing its own independent work, “he insisted.
He assured that, the contaminated fuel has not yet been put on the market as been alleged by some people.
“The contaminated fuel has been fully accounted for and therefore have not been delivered to retail stations on the market,” he said.
BOST had been in the news for selling 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to two unlicensed companies, Movepiina and Zup Oil, which were allegedly set up few days before the sale, making Ghana lose about GHc 7 million in revenue.
The NPA after complaining that it had not licensed the two firms, threatened to take legal action against the companies while investigations continue into the matter.
Some documents sighted by Citi News revealed that such cases had occurred at BOST in the past since about 38 unlicensed companies benefited from such deal between 2015 and 2016.
The Ministry of Energy subsequently set up an eight-member committee to investigate the issue. The Minority and Majority Members of Parliament also waded into the controversy taking divergent positions.
Whereas the Minority called for the appointment termination of the current Managing Director of BOST, Alfred Obeng Boateng, the Majority demanded a full scale investigation into the matter beginning from the era of the former BOST boss, Kingsley Kwame Awuah-Darko.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
