The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation(GNPC) has justified its huge expenditure on the swathe of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.

General Manager of Sustainability Division at GNPC, Dr Kwame Baah-Nuakoh, told Kasapa 102.5 FM that “I’m[GNPC] a commercial organization and I need to buy my social license to operate.”

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) months ago raised concerns about plans by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to spend far more on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) than on its core mandate in 2019.

ACEP believes the Corporation has become more popular in delivering development projects rather than its core mandate.

“While GNPC, like any corporate entity, has a responsibility towards society, it is unusual for sound corporate organisations to spend more than 10% of its cash flow (not profit) on corporate social responsibility,” ACEP stated in its report.

Meanwhile, concerns about GNPC’s heavy expenditure on non-core activities resurfaced after details of the financial requests by GNPC’s Brand, Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee approved by the board on October 25, emerged.

Amidst the criticisms against GNPC’s CSR Budget for the 2019 financial year, Dr. Baah-Nuakoh argued every penny being spent on the CSR programmes is worth it vis-à-vis its operations in the Voltaian Basin.

“Management and board of GNPC are not dumb. ACEP has a model that feels GNPC has to follow. However, we can always engage but we can’t abandon the approach working for us” he told Anopa Kasapa host, Kweku Owusu Adjei on Tuesday.

He added: “forget about the social needs of the people and see whether you can even drill a barrel of oil.”

GNPC is Ghana’s national oil company established in 1983 to support the government’s objective of providing an adequate and reliable supply of petroleum products and reducing the country’s dependence on crude oil imports, through the development of the country’s own petroleum resources.

GNPC is a partner in all petroleum agreements in Ghana and the national gas sector aggregator in Ghana.