The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana (COPEC – Ghana) has revealed that some unscrupulous person are stealing some properties belonging to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

The chamber has, therefore, called on the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security to conduct a probe into the matter and bring the perpetrators to book.

A statement signed by Duncan Amoah, Executive Secretary of COPEC-GHANA, said: “The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has been out of production for the entire 2017 year and the reasons are pretty uncertain though it was plagued by an unfortunate fire in the month of January 2017. Management has since then been busy on undertaking maintenance and retooling on the plant for all this while with a promise to resuming production before the end of the year but that remains largely to be seen as of today, with barely two weeks to the end of the year.”

The statement added: “The January fire, which caused some damage to some of the boilers, was expected to be fixed in 3 months but production has still not been achieved only for some crooks at the refinery to steal and sell some of these same equipment which is currently under investigations with a committee put in place to produce a report on the matter. The cost of an air cooler tube bundle which is estimated to be around $400,000.00 or GHS1,840,000.00 together with other valuable parts are believed to have been sold and shared between these crooks with nothing back to the refinery. The 45,000 bpd capacity refinery has been through various challenges with most of it purely man-made, to see the refinery grounded, though Ghanaians continue to pay for these acts of negligence and corruption.

“These actions have oftentimes resulted in huge debts and losses to the refinery which the unsuspecting Ghanaian has had to pay for. The consumer, since the year 2004, has been saddled with a 3p/ litre levy to defray some of these man-made debts at the refinery but the debts strangely continue to rise by the day.”

READ FULL STATEMENT

CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS-GHANA
TEMA

17/12/17

ARREST AND PROSECUTE THE CRIMINALS AT TOR IMMEDIATELY

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has been out of production for the entire 2017 year and the reasons are pretty uncertain though it was plagued by an unfortunate fire in the month of January 2017.

Management has since then been busy on undertaking maintenance and retooling on the plant for all this while with a promise to resume production before the end of the year but that remains largely to be seen as of today, with barely two weeks to the end of the year.

The January fire which caused some damage to some of the boilers was expected to be fixed in 3months but production has still not been achieved only for some crooks at the refinery to steal and sell some of these same equipment which is currently under investigations with a committee put in place to produce a report on the matter.

The cost of an air cooler tube bundle which is estimated to be around $400,000.00 or GHS1,840,000.00 together with other valuable parts are believed to have been sold and shared between these crooks with nothing back to the refinery.

The 45,000 bpd capacity refinery has been through various challenges with most of it purely man made to see the refinery grounded though Ghanaians continue to pay for these acts of negligence and corruption.

These actions have often times resulted in huge debts and losses to the refinery which the unsuspecting Ghanaian has had to pay for, the consumer since the year 2004 has been saddled with a 3p/ litre levy to defray some of these man made debts at the refinery but the debts strangely continue to rise by the day.

Several series of documented and well known acts of corruption has been recorded over the years but these criminals visiting huge financial losses to the refinery have often gotten away with such and continue to perpetuate all manner of corruption on the ailing refinery.

The latest of such acts of fraud and naked stealing happened to have taken place exactly two weeks ago when the General Manager responsible for Maintenance is believed to have stockpiled some scraps together with some other valuable pieces including air cooler tube bundle, has been sold without any recourse to accountability nor a bidding process with the proceeds from the sale on same shared without a penny to the refinery itself.

A committee has subsequently been set up to look into this fraudulent act but is most likely these crooks will escape any real punishment if allowed to be treated as business as usual as has often been the case, members of the committee are as underlisted.

MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY INTO THE ALLEGED SALE OF SCRAPS FROM TOR AND THE SHARING OF THE SALES PROCEEDS.

1.Mr.Prince OFosu-Adjei-Chairman
2.Mrs.Emelia Aba Larbi-Member.
3.Ms.Ekua Hanson-Member/Secretary
4.Mr.Bright Adongo- UNICOF Rep/Member.
5.Mr Eric Nketiah-Nimako-GTPCWU Rep/Member.

Whiles we wait for the committee to produce it's report on the fraud being perpetuated on the good people of the country, we also call on the BNI, EOCO, NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE POLICE CID to also conduct a thorough and further investigations into the matter and ensure a swift sanctioning of the officers involved in this grand theft at the refinery.

Signed.

Duncan Amoah
Executive Secretary
COPEC-GHANA