… Says it will stand up to scrutiny A former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, has emphasized that the activities of Strategic Oil and Gas resources (StratOil), a company in which he is a shareholder and Chief Executive, will stand up to every scrutiny.

Tsikata, who has been silent on allusions to impropriety in the award of a contract to StratOil by MODEC since July 2010, reveals that an independent due diligence undertaken in respect of the agreement “has categorically established that there was no violation of any laws involved in the entry into the agreement, which I signed on behalf of the company on June 4th 2008.”

He insists that the strategic analysis and advice which StratOil provided to MODEC in relation to the tender for the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, “led to MODEC putting in what was adjudged the best bid both technically and financially.” According to Tsikata, while the MODEC bid was priced much lower than the next bid, it exhibited the highest technical standards, stressing that it was important that quality services are rendered to the Jubilee project at cheap prices so that the partners and the country would maximize benefits from the oil resource.

Mr. Tsikata said “but for the obsessive determination of people like Hon. K. T. Hammond, to ‘get Tsatsu Tsikata’ by hook or by crook,” it would be hard to fathom why a Parliamentary question would be asked about “legitimate contractual relations between two private companies.

The former GNPC boss’s fight-back is in apparent reference to questions posed to the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei last week Wednesday by Mr. K. T. Hammond, Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi West and the Minority in parliament, seeking to know if MODEC had paid StratOil for the said contract. “The brazen attempt even now by Hon. K. T. Hammond, misusing the high office of Parliament, to cast insinuations and poison the atmosphere against me and any company I am involved with, are bound to fail, by the grace of God,” stated Tsikata, adding that the obsessions of people like K. T. Hammond will not hold us to ransom in anyway; they only expose their exponents”

The former GNPC boss stated this in a release issued last Sunday July 17, 2011. In July last year, a series of newspaper publications alluding to impropriety in the award of a service contract to StratOil, was followed by a notice by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, suspending its proposed guarantee for investments in Jubilee MV 21, a MODEC subsidiary company that owns the Jubilee field FPSO, Kwame Nkrumah, MV 21 MODEC commissioned an independent investigation into the service agreement with StratOIl and subsequently announced on January 23, 2011 that, “following a thorough inquiry into this matter, conducted, over the last five months, by a well recognized law firm specializing in such matters, independently retained for this purpose by MODEC Board, this investigation has found no evidence of any violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or any other applicable jurisdiction's anti-bribery laws in relation to its arrangement.”

Meanwhile, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank, has contrary to its postulations of greater transparency, refused to respond to questions from The Business Analyst regarding the outcome of the due diligence it called for.

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