The Office of former President John Dramani Mahama has been accused of benefiting from the “rot” at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) during the tenure of the National Democratic (NDC) Congress government.
This follows a string of accusations traded by the two sides of parliament over a report that the company deliberately sold contaminated fuel to the industry.
The Minority were the first to enter the fray as they called for the dismissal of the embattled MD, Alfred Obeng Boateng, following reports that he superintended the sale of five million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpiina, who in turn sold it to Zup Oil despite the fact that the product did not meet industry standards.
At a press conference in Accra on Friday 30 June, the acting Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, said President Mahama and then Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, received monthly instalments of GHS2.5million to GHS3.5million from corrupt dealings at BOST and, therefore, called for a probe into activities at BOST since 2009.
He said: “There are several commitments that BOST made in 2016 especially between July 2016 and January 7, 2017. This will be required to be looked into again. Since 2015, BOST, under the guise of security transfer, transferred an unexplained colossal amount of between GHS2.5million to GHS3.5million on monthly basis to the office of the President and the Chief of Staff, the last amount being GHS3million which was transferred on January 3, 2017.
“It, thus, appears that there has been a lot of rot at BOST and for that reason we agree that it requires a high-powered committee to investigate this and other related improprieties to determine the extent to which this affects and has affected the company and the economy and efficiency of BOST and whether their operations are being managed in accordance with sound business principles and prudent commercial practices. In the interest of probity and accountability, we call on government to institute probe into the activities of BOST since 2009.”