• Deputy Energy Minister Fingered

• To cover Up For K. K. Sarpong

• As TOR Workers Call For His Removal

Fingers are pointing to the Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, in what appears to be a plot against FRAGA OIL, a leading Oil Marketing Company (OMC) in the country.

Information reaching The Catalyst indicates strongly that the Deputy Energy Minister may be the architect of recent negative publications against FRAGA OIL in a bid to cause disaffection for the company and its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Francis Nyonyo Agboada, otherwise known as Togbe Sri III. Following what appears to be conspiracy against FRAFA OIL, there have been a series of publications regarding the indebtedness of FRAGA OIL which paint a false picture to the effect that FRAGA OIL is the main cause of TOR’s indebtedness and therefore, the refinery’s inability to lift oil to meet the nation’s energy needs, hence the never-ending fuel shortages.

In a publication by The Chronicle yesterday, 22nd October 2009, the paper singled out FRAGA OIL as though it is the only OMC that owes TOR. Reacting to the publication he described as false, the CEO of FRAGA OIL denied on Gold Paper Review that his company owes 100billion Cedis as is being bandied about.

He vehemently challenged the Ministry of Energy to “reconcile its accounts before going to town and misinforming the general public.”

Checks made by The Catalyst however indicate that the OMCs all together owe TOR an amount of 58.3 million Ghana Cedis out the 1.2 billion Ghana Cedis it owes in all. So, without the OMCs’ debts, TOR would still have an outstanding debt of 1.14 billion Ghana Cedis arising from the mismanagement of TOR by the former CEO, Dr K. K. Sarpong.

The publications against FRAGA OIL are seen as a conspiracy by the Energy Ministry and the current management of TOR who are allegedly covering up the alleged fraudulent acts of Dr K. K. Sarpong in a bid to divert the attention of the government from the main cause behind the refinery’s problems.

Some media houses with their personal interest at the centre stage are being used to attack wrong targets, whilst the real culprits go scot-free. It has been established that the architect behind the pile-up of debts owed TOR by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) is Dr. K.K. Sarpong, former Managing Director of TOR. He deliberately allowed many of the OMCs to continue to haul oil from the refinery without paying for it. Even when the debts were strangling the operations of the company, he looked on unconcerned. He is also accused of siphoning $437 million from TOR, claiming it represents money lost because TOR was subsidizing petrol during the last two months of the NPP’s administration. Some workers of the company have even called for his arrest for him to respond to such allegations in court. Instead of that, OMCs, particularly FRAGA OIL, have become the focus, whilst the man behind it all walks away scot-free. Meanwhile some workers of TOR are calling for the removal of Dr Kwabena Donkor as the Deputy Energy Minister, saying his continuous stay in office would yield the country no benefits.